Weekly Report 5th - 9th November 2007

05/11/2007

Weather: Sunny
Min temp: 18*C
Max temp: 30*C
Rainfall: 2mm over weekend

07:30 Did reports and e-mails

10:00 Meeting with Mike concerning the alien plant species on UmPhafa.

10:45 On the way to the Ryefield and saw a water monitor near the 2 dams close to the house.

11:15 Went to the Ryefield for a check. Did not see anything on the Ryefield, bit close to the road near the Ryefield we saw a group of Impalas and bachelor group of Impalas.

12:30 Headed to the mountain - Gevonden.

12:45 Half way up to the mountain we saw 6 x Zebras and a couple of Impala bachelors.

12:50 Near the zebras on the way up to the mountain we saw the new Giraffe calf. All the Giraffe calves were there (5) and there was also 5 adult Giraffes. We do not however know the sex of the little calf. We stayed with them until they moved out of sight.

13:15 Headed up the mountain again.

13:30 2 x Red Hartebeest on top of the mountain, in the middle area.

13:50 Took some more photos of the flowers. There were a lone Blesbok and a Mountain Reedbuck male on the top right hand side of the mountain.

14:05 Top left hand side of the mountain we saw a group of Zebras, Blesbok and Red Hartebeest. We were unable to count them as they were quite close to each other.

14:30 3 x Kudu cows near the 4th dam at the back of the mountain. There was also a Kudu Bull nearby.

15:30 Zebra group (6) on the plateau near the show lodge.

15:45 Headed back home and sorted some photos of the day.

16:00 done


06/11/2007

Weather: Rain
Min temp: 17*C
Max temp: 19*C
Rainfall: 16mm

07:30 Did reports.

08:00 Headed towards mountain. We wanted to go do some road clearing. On the way there we saw some bachelor Impalas and a group of Zebras.

08:15 Further on we saw the new Giraffe again. It looks to be a little female as well but we are not sure yet. There were 14 Giraffe all together here. It started dripping slightly. There were also a group of zebras near the giraffes

08:35 There were some Impala and a female duiker as well.

09:00 We headed up towards the mountain again, but it started raining too hard and we had to turn back, because of the roads

09:35 We headed towards the main gate to pick up some guys doing spraying under the fence line. There was an Impala group near the Ryefield.

10:00 We got back home and the power was out.

11:30 Power came back on and we worked some more on the fact file.

12:30 Stopped raining for a while and we headed out again in search of some more photos.

13:30 Light rain and we headed back to sort and name photos

14:10 Stopped raining again and we moved some furniture out to be transported.

15:00 Went to Colenso for some things

16:00 Back home.


07/11/2007

Weather: Overcast
Min temp: 15*C
Max temp: 19*C

07:30 Did yesterday's report and some e-mails

08:00 We went looking for a jackal on the Ryefield.

09:00 There were some Red Hartebeest and a group of Impalas near the Ryefield.

09:55 We headed back to get some of the Game guards to help us look for the jackal. On our way to the house we saw 8 x Giraffes near the road.

10:20 We dropped of some of the workers to spray under the fence line.

10:30 Headed back to the Ryefield to search again.

11:00 We still could not fine the jackal. Picked some old fencing near the tugela and took it back to the workshop.

12:00 Near the dam at the base of the mountain we counted 11 Giraffes. They moved away from the Ryefield area towards the mountain and were now near the dam.

12:15 2 x Warthogs (young male and female) near the Ryefield, mountain side of the road.

12:20 Group of Impalas near the 2 ponds near the house.

12:30 We headed out looking for the Blesbok that usually spends it's time with the group of Impalas near the Ryefield. We just wanted to get some good clear photos of it.

13:00 We could not find the Blesbok, but did get some more nice different pictures of wildflowers.

14:30 We headed back home to sort out the pictures and identify some insects.

16:00 Worked on the fact file a little.


08/11/2007

Weather: Sunny
Min temp: 15*C
Max temp: 20*C

07:30 Did yesterday's report

08:15 Dropped the guys off for spraying under fence line. (Part of alien plant control)

08:20 Small group of Impalas near the Ryefield

08:30 We headed up towards the mountain.

08:45 On our way up we saw a Warthog with a porcupine quill in its hind quarter. Warthogs make use of Porcupine holes at night. They enter the hole backwards so that they face forwards. The quill might have got stuck in the warthog as it reversed into the hole and could not get it out again.

08:50 We could not go up the mountain all the way. The road was still too wet from the previous rain.

09:15 We headed to the dam at the base of the mountain

09:25 There were 2 x Yellowbilled ducks, some redknobbed coots and a water monitor sunbathing at the dam.

10:00 We loaded some photos from the camera on the PC and sorted them. We took photo of some wildflowers.

10:20 We headed to Geluk. Some of the Giraffes were near the base of the mountain. There was also a group of Impalas at the dam near the house.

10:30 Another group of Impalas near the main gate. Looks to be the one that was near the Ryefield earlier.

11:00 Went to the lodge at Geluk. On the way there we saw a Steppe Buzzard and a meter long Water Monitor as well as some Egyptian Geese and a Duiker.

11:50 At the lodge near the dam on Geluk there were some more Egyptian Geese and 2 Dabchicks. Also some Hadeda ibis.

12:05 Headed up the mountain on Geluk. Saw a young Kudu bull and a cow on the way.

12:30 We went to the back of Geluk to do a check up. No woodcutting is allowed and the people next door sometimes come over to cut some trees. They keep doing it even if we have warned them so we do check ups to make sure the do not trespass.

13:25 On the way out we saw another 4 x nice Kudu bulls

14:00 Headed back home and worked on the fact file and sorted out some more photos. Also tried to id some insects.

16:15 Went to pick up the guys doing the spraying.



09/11/2007
Weather: Sunny
Min temp: 17*C
Max temp: 25*C

07:30 Did yesterday's report.

08:30 Headed to the top of the mountain to check on the Belsbok.

08:35 6 x Zebras and a group of Impalas near the donga on the way up to the mountain.

08:40 5 x Zebra stallions a bit further along the donga.

09:00 At the top left hand side of the mountain we saw the Blesbok. There were 3 lambs and 17 adults. There was also a Kudu bull nearby. 2 x Mountain reedbuck in the middle of top.

09:20 Small bachelor group of Impala near the house. We searched for the other Impala groups just to check up on them.

09:25 At the dams near the house we saw the same water monitor from Monday in the water.

09:30 The group of Impalas near the Ryefield looks good. No lambs.

09:50 Headed for the lodge in search of some more Impala groups. There were none up there.

10:00 We headed towards the back of the mountain and followed the Tugela back. There were some Zebras on the way.

10:10 We saw a small group of Impalas near the Tuglela but also no lambs.

11:15 Worked on the fact file and some photos

14:00 Hannes went with Mike.

15:00 Took a bicycle ride towards the main gate in search of some more photos. Saw 9 x Giraffes close to the dams near the main gate

15:45 Headed back home.

16:00 Picked up the workers doing the spraying under the fence line.