Rain, frogs and terrapins

     On Friday we drove out to Tshompani to find out some specifications for the borehole. It isn’t a particularly long way from Sinamatella – no more than about 30km in a straight line and 60km by road but the early rain has been very patchy and there are some strong contrasts along the way. The bush around Sinamatella is only just starting to show green and the elephants left us a few weeks ago but Shumba and beyond has had rain and there are many fully-green trees, even some green grass, and there are plenty of elephants enjoying the fresh food.

   At Shumba we met a nice group of elephants drinking at the pan. A couple of them were right in the water and it was interesting to see how deep it still is…..

When there’s good food and plenty of water, the elephants are usually pretty relaxed but for some reason this one didn’t seem to be too keen on us so we moved on…

 

    After measuring the depth of the borehole at Tshompani Dam, we continued on to Tshompani Pan to have lunch. When we arrived we found the pan more or less dry….

   But soon it started to rain and within minutes it was pouring down so that we could hardly see anything out of the windscreen …..

     It poured for about fifteen minutes then, as the view cleared and the storm moved away, we found ourselves looking at a very different pan, now holding a wide, shallow pool of muddy grey water……..

   It didn’t take long for the local wildlife to respond and along with swarms of dragonflies and other insects, a small Marsh Terrapin Pelomedusa subrufa, that had  presumably been hidden underground back in the Mopane scrub, came sliding down to the water in a stream of run-off.

     I picked it up to check its species and can certainly confirm Bill Branch’s comment in his Field Guide to Snakes and Other Reptiles of Southern Africa  “ …they have an unpleasant musky smell” but this one must have been in a good mood or he hadn’t realised he’s supposed to be “…belligerent….and ever-willing to bite” because he behaved impeccably and posed nicely for the camera. We left him alone and he quickly scuttled off and vanished into the muddy water.

   On the way home we stopped off at Gusu Pan where we again found plenty of water and some elephants…..

    And nearby Sue photographed some Scadoxus multiflorus

   Back at Sinamatella we were delighted to find that 14mm of rain had fallen at last.

   Next day we woke early to go to Baobab Pan. As the sun rose it looked as if we could expect more rain….

  We found a Single-striped mouse Lemniscomys rosalia, out and about foraging for seeds. It will be a while before the good times arrive for a seed-eater such as this so it can’t afford to waste feeding time just because of a threat of rain. …

In fact the clouds cleared and by the time we got to Baobab it was very hot and humid.  There was plenty of water in the pan and there were many dragonflies mating and laying eggs. They are very active and not easy to photograph…..

Though this Damselfly perched on a twig for a while and made things easier…..

  The air was full of the sound of Cicadas and while we were searching for some to photograph we came across a beautifully camouflaged Foam-nest frog Chiromantis xerampelina…

The Cicadas were even better camouflaged and it was a long time before we tracked down one perched on a small enough twig to stand out against the background…….

    I was excited to find a pair of Foam-nest frogs actually making their nest and laying their eggs. The nest is made from a protein, secreted by the female and beaten to a foam with her hind legs. The eggs are deposited inside and when the tadpoles hatch they drop out into the water below. We see many of the nests each year but have never before seen one being made. In the photo the frogs are just visible at the top of the huge ball of foam they are making….

   There was plenty to keep us occupied and Sue took a lot of photos – once again, thank goodness for digital cameras! On the way home we saw a flash of yellow in a small pan. Sue waited patiently and was rewarded with a mating pair of Edible Bullfrogs Pyxicephalus edulis coming to the surface and giving her a long, lazy stare…

    We also found some beautiful Ammocharis tinneana in flower…

    All that and the rainy season has hardly begun! It is not a time of year that is popular with visitors because the game viewing is often very poor but if you keep your eyes open there’s plenty of interest to be seen and the birding is great too – but that’s a subject for another day.

Baboons - there's no escapimg them

In October we spent a few days collecting data (and enjoying the views) at Zambezi National Park. We stayed at the part-completed camp by the Chomunzi Rapids. The views over the river are marvellous all the time but Sue got up early one day to capture some lovely photos of dawn over the river ……

There are always plenty of birds to be seen along the Zambezi. A Fish Eagle caught something just above the rapids and landed on a small island to eat…..

 

But there were bigger animals at the camp as well. Leaving our tent one morning I heard something climbing down a nearby Sausage Tree and looked up in time to watch a beautiful Leopard leap to the ground. He gave me a brief, disdainful glance then trotted away down river. When Sue joined me with the camera she spotted the reason he had been in the tree – a dead baboon draped across some branches …

  I’ve mentioned before that I’m no great fan of baboons and after two recent raids on our house at Sinamatella I’m even less keen but when this one was brought down from the tree it was hard not to feel some compassion for it with its sad face…..

And all too human hands….

  In a recent blog I wondered why animals don’t eat Sausage Tree leaves and seeing as the tree the baboon had been in was that species I was reminded to pick a leaf and taste it. I now know why nothing eats them. Taste – nasty, texture – awful, over-all verdict – terrible! 

 One of the highlights of our visit to Zambezi was a twenty-four hour mammal count at Chamabondo Vlei. Trevor has worked hard on behalf of Bhejane Trust to get the viewing platform and a nice sleeping-shelter built at number three pumped pan. From the platform there are great views up and down the vlei…..

 

 And we had animals at the water almost throughout the time we were there. Elephants and Eland came at night but Zebra…

Warthogs…..

And Sable were around most of the time….

Oh yes…. And baboons…

   We were reluctant to leave Chamabondo at the end of the count but of course, we could hardly complain with the Zambezi waiting for us for one more night……

We’re back at Sinamatella now and it’s a huge contrast with the Zambezi – still dusty and dry in most places. The views are not as pretty as they are along the river and I’m looking forward to the time when the harsh yellows and browns of the dry season view from the hill are replaced by a bit of green. Every day there are clouds, the elephants have already left for greener places elsewhere. The rain can’t be far away. Maybe when there's some natural food available out in the Park the baboons will leave our kitchen alone - but I doubt it!



Bumboosie South

We are almost at the end of the dry season (we hope). Some parts of the Sinamatella area have had good rain already but others (including Sinamatella itself) are still more or less dry. After last year’s terrible dry season, with many animals dying around the water points, this has been a really good year, in spite of the fact that some of the artificial water points were never pumped at all.

    The solar pump at Bumboosie South developed a problem as early as February and we have been unable to get it working until now. Claude Hillion, a member of our most recent group of volunteers, generously agreed to bring a new inverter which Michel Buenerd had worked hard to source from the manufacturer, Tenesol, in France. We’ll never know if the large box containing the inverter was to blame but Claude’s luggage went missing for almost a week and seems to have had an exciting time on its own, touring the world before finally reaching Victoria Falls from France via Dubai and Amsterdam!

    It wasn’t quite as straightforward as I would have hoped but we eventually got the new inverter installed and working and when we left, the Bumboosie South trough had water for the first time in months……

   

When we checked on it again nine days later there was a nice deep pool in the pan as well……

With a kudu warily watching us from a distance as it waited a chance to come and drink……

  Many thanks to all the volunteers who have worked so hard at Bumboosie South at various times this year. Success at last.



Bumboosie South

We are almost at the end of the dry season (we hope). Some parts of the Sinamatella area have had good rain already but others (including Sinamatella itself) are still more or less dry. After last year’s terrible dry season, with many animals dying around the water points, this has been a really good year, in spite of the fact that some of the artificial water points were never pumped at all.

    The solar pump at Bumboosie South developed a problem as early as February and we have been unable to get it working until now. Claude Hillion, a member of our most recent group of volunteers, generously agreed to bring a new inverter which Michel Buenerd had worked hard to source from the manufacturer, Tenesol, in France. We’ll never know if the large box containing the inverter was to blame but Claude’s luggage went missing for almost a week and seems to have had an exciting time on its own, touring the world before finally reaching Victoria Falls from France via Dubai and Amsterdam!

    It wasn’t quite as straightforward as I would have hoped but we eventually got the new inverter installed and working and when we left, the Bumboosie South trough had water for the first time in months……

   

When we checked on it again nine days later there was a nice deep pool in the pan as well……

With a kudu warily watching us from a distance as it waited a chance to come and drink……

  Many thanks to all the volunteers who have worked so hard at Bumboosie South at various times this year. Success at last.



Poisonous trees

Sometimes it can be hard to like October! With the temperature in the house up in the mid thirties and much higher out in the sun, heat becomes the defining feature of every day. Out around the Park, the scenery is starting to look very bleak indeed…..

On the Kashawe loop

Near Lukosi crossing

 

     Mandavu

These are some of the worst places. In others there is still plenty of grass but it doesn’t look very palatable and surely doesn’t have  much protein left as it bakes in the sun day after day…

 

Near the Gubombiri River

   Most of the barest places are due to the effects of man and his livestock on the very fragile soils and grasses of the area. Before it was incorporated into the Park in the 1950s, much of the Sinamatella sector was inhabited and we can still find the remains of villages and farms in places - but the most obvious signs of man are the huge areas of bare soil or erosion, still not recovered from overgrazing almost sixty years ago. Even in the bleakest places the Mopane trees, toughest of the tough, survive but grass just can’t get a root-hold in the hard, bare soil.

    Mopanes seem to be the Bruce Willises of trees. No matter what is done to them they come staggering back for more, a little wounded, some pieces missing perhaps but they definitely die harder. A few other trees have more subtle strategies and they can become startlingly obvious at this time of year. On some recent trips, when we were making mammal counts, Sue photographed a few of the trees that are starting to show green leaves but don’t seem to attract the attention of the elephants…

 

  This one is a candelabra tree, Euphorbia ingens. Its green parts are not strictly leaves and they are green throughout the year but there is no mistaking the tree’s survival strategy. All parts of it are poisonous and even honey made from the flowers is said to be inedible.  There are even worse members of the genus. I well remember collecting parts of a Euphorbia cooperi  in the Zambezi valley and only later, when the damage was done, reading in Coates Palgrave’s “Trees of Southern Africa”  the warning…….‘The latex has a pungent, acrid smell and is said to be one of the most poisonous of the Euphorbia species, causing intense skin irritation and even producing a burning sensation in the throat if one stands too close to a bleeding plant. If material is being collected, care should be taken to wrap the branches in some protective covering’. I can vouch for the fact that this is good advice!

   Much tastier in appearance than the Candelabra tree is the Ordeal tree, Erythrophleum africanum…..

   We don’t have a lot of this species around Sinamatella because it prefers deep Kalahari sand, more typical of the Main Camp sector, but where it grows it really stands out with its soft green leaves amidst the dry Combretum that usually grows with it. Like the Candelabra tree, Ordeal trees are poisonous and parts of the closely related Forest ordeal tree were formerly used in a sort of trial by ordeal to test people accused of serious crimes such as witchcraft. It clearly works just as well on elephants because they leave it well alone.

   Another real stand-out tree at the moment is the Sausage tree, Kigelia Africana.

   This one is a well-known land mark at the Lukosi river crossing on the Tshakabika road and in spite of a high density of elephants in the immediate area (where they dig for water in the river bed), it shows green leaves when everything else is dry but it never gets eaten. Coates Palgrave says the fruits are said to be poisonous but there is no mention of other poisonous properties and I know squirrels enjoy eating the green fruits while they are still on the tree and porcupines eat them when they fall. The flowers are also eaten by many animals so perhaps the leaves are simply unpalatable. Maybe I’ll taste one next time I get the chance – though my sense of taste is not much like an elephant’s so that may not prove a lot.

   A similar puzzle is the Tree wisteria Bolusanthus speciosus.

  

   This one, growing near Shumba, looks tasty enough and the books make no mention of any poisonous properties but there must be some reason why the browsers leave it well alone and eat dry twigs instead.

   Most of the trees though, like us, are just waiting patiently for the heat to go away and the rains to come. We’ve had a little cloud in recent days so rain might not be far away.

   Clouds at sunset, Sinamatella.

Don't eat the photographer

     Thanks to Wildlife and Environment Zimbabwe (WEZ) a borehole drilling rig has just been in the Park cleaning out some of the collapsed or silted boreholes. We have thought for some time that Masuma borehole was collapsing as the pump kept jamming up with silt and breaking the rods. When the team reached Masuma however, we were delighted to find that the borehole is clear down to about 80 meters - but along with that good news was the bad news that the casing is broken about 25 meters down and that is where the silt is coming from. The drilling crew hadn’t the necessary materials with them to repair broken casing so they went away for a few days, leaving the rig at Masuma, and they returned yesterday.

    Sue and I drove out with helpers from Sinamatella. The drilling rig is pulled by a wonderful old M.A.N truck which we found parked behind the picnic site……

 

   The crew hadn’t yet arrived so we continued through to Shumba to drop off a camp attendant. The rain trees at the Shumba picnic site were in full flower……

   At this hot, dry time of year the flowering of the rain trees, and the masses of insects attracted to them, remind us of the rainy season to come in just a few weeks time (we hope!)

 

   Back at Masuma, work was under way, getting the drilling rig into position…..

    It isn’t exactly modern technology but Sue found it quite photogenic……

   Sooner or later though, even the best machinery gets a bit noisy and dull so Sue went off to see what else she could photograph. She found some Combretum mossambicense in flower…….

  And an amazingly well-camouflaged grasshopper, almost invisible to me, even at this magnification…..

     No more than fifty meters from all the noise and disturbance at the borehole, Sue thought she heard a lion grunt. The pictures she took showed that it was in fact at least three lionesses and four cubs, almost as well camouflaged as the grasshopper as they rested in the shade of a ‘blue bush’.

    Sensibly, Sue returned to the borehole and left the lions to their sleep.

    Later we had another brief moment of excitement when we thought we had spotted an extremely rare bird. Surely an Egyptian Vulture flying over our heads? But no, when it came close enough it was only an immature Martial Eagle ….

The usual unexpected hold-ups with pipe joints that wouldn’t come undone and others that wouldn’t screw together straight kept us at the borehole for the whole afternoon but at the end of it we had a new pump unit working strongly at about 40m down, pumping a lot of water into the trough at Masuma. Many thanks to WEZ for bringing in the rig and to Pete Abbot and his team who operated it. Thanks also to the lions for not eating the photographer. What would this blog be like without her?