Weekly Report 28th May - 1st June

28/05/2007
Weather : Sunny
Temp max: 20 *C Temp min : 08 *C

08:00 08:30 Pond near house
2 x African Blackducks, 1 x Hammerkop, 1 x Brownhooded Kingfisher

09:00 Ryefield 66 x Blue Cranes - Saw the broken legged crane again
Today, 2 x Grey (Southern) Crowned Crane /
Balearica regulorum, 2 x Egyptian geese, 1 x Hadeda Ibis, 3 x Impala females,1 x Warthog, Loads of Greater Cane Rats / Thryonomys swiderianus in the grass next to ryefield

Drove to Geluk farm to walk around there and see what I can find.

09:50 Geluk farm 1 x Grey Duiker female

10:00 Geluk farm 2 x Impala males

10.30 Geluk farm 1 x Green ( Emerald ), spotted Wood Dove

10:40 Geluk farm 1 x Grey Duiker male, 1 x Hammerkop

10:45 Geluk farm 1 x Mocking Cliff-Chat female

10:50 Geluk farm Saw some nice fresh monitor tracks and I followed
them for a while to find 2 x big Monitor lizards, on the banks of a dried out stream.

11:45 Geluk farm 5 x Kudus - 3 adults and 2 juv.

12:00 Geluk farm Walked in a dry stream when I saw a swarm of
bees moving over head.

12:25 Geluk farm Walked to the end of the stream to a pond next to
the mountain saw: 2 x Egyptian geese, 2 x African Blackducks,1 x Warthog wallowing in the mud.

13:00 Got back to the Gameviewer to go back, when a big Hammerkop
flew about 2 meters over head. Stopped at ryefield to check on things.

13:30 Ryefield 67 x Blue cranes, 58 x Impala, 10 x Hadeda Ibis
2 x Black Crows

Stopped at monitor valley to walk to Tugela river, saw the usual birds and the monitors at their den at the Tugela.

15:30 Road to pond at 3 x Kudus - 1 male and 2 females
ft. of mountain

16:00 Near pond at 3 x Giraffes
ft. of mountain

16:10 Pond at ft of mountain 8 x Warthogs - 4 adults and 4 juv
8 x Impala females

29/05/2007
Weather : Sunny
Temp max: 21 *C Temp min : 04 *C

07:30 - 10:00 Writing report and identifying birds and insects from photo's
taken the day before.

10:00 10:10 Monitor valley 3 x Giraffes, 2 males 1 female

10:20 Ryefield 30 x Impala, 65 x Blue Cranes ,1x Lanner Falcon
1 x Peregrine Falcon, The Lanner Falcon was harassing
the Peregrine Falcon in the air, beautiful arial skills was
displayed by both falcons.

11:00 Ryefield 1 x Forktailed Drongo, 2 x Longcrested Eagles, they
were very vocal flying from tree to tree, maybe breeding
pair, 2 x Black Crows, 1 x Brownhooded Kingfisher

11:30 Fence near main gate 1 x Cape Robin, 1 x Natal Francolin,
1 x Forkedtail Drongo

12:00 - Took lots of pictures of birds for the website and identification at home.

12:20 - Arrived home

12:30 - 16:00 Spent rest of the day identifying the photo's of the birds
and insects and writing the report.

Birds photographed: Cardinal Woodpecker
Blackeyed Bulbul
Kurrichane Thrush / Turdus libonyanus
Cape Turtle-Dove
Black-Collared Barbet
Blue Waxbill
Southern Boubou
Pin-tailed Whydah female
Crested Barbet
Forktailed Drongo
Longcrested Eagles - Nice photo of both sitting on the top branches of a tree.
Blue Cranes

Insects photographed: Snouted Harvested Termites / Trinervitermes
Cockroach / Deropeltis erythrocephala
Whipscorpion from the Order Amblypygi



30/05/2007
Weather : Sunny
Temp max: 21 *C Temp min : 05 *C
07:30 Got everything ready for the burning of the firebreak on mountain next to fence

08:00 Depart for mountain

08:40 Started burning - Burned about 800m along the fence on top of mountain, where the Blesbok are -
- 14x Blesbuck
- 1x Kudu at corner post

10:45 Finished burning

11:30 Got back to house - went to main gate for the arrival of the 5
female waterbuck that is going to be released on the reserve.
- 3x adults
- 2x sub-adults

12:00 Truck arrived - animals conditions checked by vet before release –
Released successfully.

12:20 Ryefield: - 47x Blue Cranes
- 5x Blesbuck
- 50x Impala

12:50 Monitor Valley - 5x Giraffe (drinking water)

13:00 At House - Bachelor group Impala

13:35 Got call that 14 Zebra arriving to be released on reserve:
- 10 females ( 4 young)
- 4 males

15:00 Zebras arrived, checked by vet, all in good condition

15:25 Successfully released.

15:40 Saw 1x female Zebra near release sight, could hear released Zebra
group calling each other for regrouping.

Am very happy with the success in the release of the 2 antelope species, and will continue in monitoring on a daily basis (if possible).

31/05/2007
Weather : Sunny
Temp max: 21 *C Temp min : 07 *C

07:30 Got everything ready to finish the next stage of the firebreak up at
the mountain

08:00 Left for the mountain, saw 5 x Zebra on the way near the show
lodge at the bottom, it was 5 of the Zebra we released yesterday, they look calm and settled in and you can hear their plaintive two-phase barking brays as they call to each other.

08:40 Got to the top, but it was too windy to burn a firebreak, had to turn
back.

09:20 Went to Geluk farm to test burn down there, too see if the wind was
going to allow us to burn down there, burned a little patch, but it got
too dangerous to carry on, the wind was swirling too much, so we
stopped. Decided to change plans, went to check the game fence for damage, saw 2 places that needed fixing. ( Kudu messed up the fence at Cloustens Farm on the road )

11:00 Fixed the Fence

12:30 Returned to main gate for arrival of 5 x Waterbuck females that is
set to be released on Elworthy Farm.

13:30 Waterbuck arrived, we checked their condition, looked good,
successful release.

14:30 Went to Cloustens with Ed and Mike, to look for a good place to make
the main road for the reserve. Got a photo of a Strangular Fig tree
strangling a Paperbark Acacia on Cloustens.

15:30 Cloustens farm 5 x Kudus, 2 Females, 3 Males

16:45 Cloustens farm 1 x Grey Duiker

17:15 Cloustens farm 1 x Common Reedbuck

17:30 Returned home.

01/06/2007
Weather : Sunny
Temp max: 23 *C Temp min : 08 *C
07:30 Wrote Report of previous day and went over yesterdays work.

09:00 Left for Cloustens farm.

09:30 Walked 7km at back of mountain on Cloustens where they are
going to build the lodges and hotel. Mike, Ed and I were walking around to look for the best place to build a road to get around to all the building sites. Saw 1 x Grey Duiker while walking around up there, the terrain is very rocky and to build a road up there will be
difficult but possible. In the 2 days we were their we walked 13km
around the area.

12:30 Got back to Gameviewer

13:00 Road back to house 4 x Kudus, 3 Sub-adults, 1 Juvenile
near ryefield

13:10 Ryefield 45 x Impala
25 x Blue Cranes
10 x Hadeda Ibis
1 x Warthog

14:45 Arrived home, went over the places we thought will be a good place to build the roads, got GPS locations for them. Going to go back Monday and see if we can find better terrain or places we missed. But so far it looks good.

16:00 Finished report.

FACT OF THE WEEK : The Hammerkop is the only member of its family and is confined to Africa and Madagascar.