For a variety of reasons (not all my fault!) there have been no posts to this blog since last year so for this first one of 2014 there’s no particular theme, just s few photos from the rainy season so far.
In December, Sinamatella received 123mm of rain and in January we had 142mm. The December figure might be a little inaccurate because a Hyena ate the rain gauge on the night of the 7th and we had to guess how much rain fell. Away from the Camp there was heavy rain in some areas, especially from Shumba towards Danga and Nehimba Camp was apparently flooded at one stage. I spent a few days at Shumba in early January and there was certainly plenty of water around then – so much that we could not get through to Tshompani by car and wherever we went on foot sooner or later involved wading through flooded grass. There were an enormous number of water birds in the area and I was particularly struck by the number of Dwarf Bitterns I could hear calling. Sue photographed this one a week or so earlier…..
And I watched one building a nest in a Combretum tree at the edge of Dwarf Goose Pan but, in spite of numerous attempts, the best I could do as a photo of it carrying nesting material was…..
I blame the poor, late afternoon light!
With the good rains the pans and dams are now well-filled. Mandavu has not started spilling yet but Masuma is spilling for the first time in many years. A comparison of the situation now with the end of the terrible 2012 dry season shows just how much it has improved
As usual in the rainy season, mammals are hard to see and many have left the area altogether. Impala are the only large mammals that are easy to find and on our way out into the Park recently we met this herd and particularly noticed how well-grown the young ones are.
The 2012/2013 ‘crop’ were still noticeably smaller than their mothers after a full year but these are already, after just two or three months, losing their baby proportions and starting to look like young adults.
Of course it is the vegetation that has responded most obviously to the good rains and Sue has taken many photos of flowers over the past few months. We are not, by any means, wild-flower experts so some of our identifications are a bit suspect but here is a selection of some of the better-looking flowers……
At the beginning of the season a lot of bulbs are in flower. We can’t name this one, it might even be a garden flower as it popped up unexpectedly near our house at Sinamatella……..
But this is a Crinum, perhaps Crinum moorei…….
Another early-flowerer, which we saw and identified for the first time this year, is the Yellow pomegranate, Rhigozum brevispinosum
The Rose Ginger (Kaempferia rosea according to one reference book but Siphonochilus kirkii according to another) is an old favourite of mine – one of the few flowers we used to find in the harsh environment of the woodlands around Mlibizi.
And of course, we can’t miss out the National Flower, the Flame Lily Gloriosa superba though the flowers of the variety around Sinamatella are not as spectacular as the bright red specimens that grow on the Kalahari sands around Main Camp and the Gwayi.
Finally, back to mammals. A small pack of Dwarf Mongoose regularly forages around (and sometimes in) our house. They are rainy season breeders and our pack has been out and about recently with this year’s young. They are very active and extremely difficult to count so I’m not yet sure how many babies they have – three at least but probably more. They are always alert and difficult to approach but even so we have twice seen birds of prey taking them so perhaps the open ground along the top of Sinamatella hill is not ideal habitat. In spite of the losses the pack seems to do well and we often see them moving along the edge of the hill, digging for prey, playing or drinking at the bird-bath. Here they are enjoying the early sun on a recent morning.
We will be in Victoria Falls for the next couple of days. Now that this blog is back in action I’ll post another miscellaneous selection of photos when we get back.
