Telephone: +27 498421520 Mount Melsetter

Fax: +27 498424125 P.O. Box 512

e.mail: gksmelsetter@intekom.co.za Middelburg

Web site: www.greatkaroo.co.za Eastern Cape

5900

South Africa

March/April 2009

Melsetter Autumn Tidings

Equinox.

The Vernal Equinox has crept up upon us, unexpected and unannounced, and the sun continues its journey north from the Celestial Equator. Melsetter’s had an extraordinary summer. Desperately dry through most of it, the rains having cut off last April, by the end of January, the veld was a Martian landscape – barren red earth, and black Karoo bossies. Springbok numbers in the flats to the west of the hills in Quarry fell off dramatically. We had nowhere to go with our sheep crop of September lambs, and they were living out of Co-op bags and milled Lucerne. The Spring winds of September and October arrived last June, and seemed to moan about Melsetter’s house incessantly until the end of January, sucking up every remaining drop of moisture, and any loose particle of earth, until all life support seemed swept away. It was a desperate time. The grey- beards of the district said it was the worst drought in more than 20 years. Yet, learned Professors – including one who must remain nameless, but who would seem to be a fellow of the Land – from the South African Weather Office in Pretoria made prognostications based on water temperatures in the Pacific and the North Atlantic, concluding that El Nino conditions were absent, and were confident of good summer rains. Even an exchange of querulous emails recording the lack of rain in the first half of the summer, between the desperate farmers and the fellow of the Land failed to shake the learned conviction that there would be above average summer rainfall. But by the end of January, none of it had materialized. Come February, however, one sensed a change in the weather patterns, and on the 7^th, 12 millimetres fell, and the winds seemed to stop. On the afternoon of the 10^th, Melsetter Mountain closed in and a huge storm burst, depositing 53 millimetres in a few hours. There was jubilation, which continued as the next 18 days brought the total to 176 millimetres for the month. Yet, just as abruptly the rains had come, so they left again, and March has proved to be dry, as the sun journeyed north. As I write, apprehension is building, as April progresses, and no rain falls.

Verdant Veld.

One of the most remarkable facets of the Karoo Veld is its almost miraculous ability to bounce back. We’ve seen its response many times before, but this year it was particularly marked. Perhaps because the severity of the drought was such that not even a blade of dry yellow grass remained to camouflage the new growth? Even the Irish would have been amazed at the emerald green that so quickly emerged, as the veld was transformed. Then followed an almost Spring-like flowering of the many Karoo flowers. Bulbous bloutulp covered large areas of the plains. The road in from the Tar skirts Quarry Camp, with the Camp rising up from the level of the road. From a car, the bloutulp is almost at eye level, and seemed to create a purple haze hanging low over the veld. Candy filled the Lounge with a magnificent arrangement of flowering bloutulp, and rich magenta Cosmos from the garden. The Horse Paddock outside Top Secret’s Box, and beyond towards the dam, became a sea of yellow, and that was a puzzle, as no-one seemed to recall that flower before. Candy thought it might be a lachenalia, and sent a picture to her good friends, Sally and Theo Herselman, at Exbury Gardens in Hampshire where Theo tends a large collection of Lachenalia and Nerines. Not a lachenalia, was the response. So Mike sent the picture to Botanist Deirdre Snijman at the Kirstenbosch Herbarium, and back came the answer – “Your 'mystery' plant is Bulbine abyssinica. It is one of the most widespread species of Bulbine being found throughout the semiarid areas of southern Africa and northwards to tropical Africa. It differs from B. frutescens by its large fruits which spread out horizontally. Your picture shows them just beginning to develop. “

The scents that rise up as one walks through the veld are wonderful too. No wonder Karoo Lamb is as flavoursome as it is!

Locusts.

In January, in the depths of the drought, the locusts came, swarming dark against the skyline. Unlike the last time they came, few farmers in the district got particularly excited. Perhaps because the Department of Agriculture seemed to be totally unprepared, and no officials had been appointed to provide the usual spraying equipment or chemical sprays – and that seemed to me not to be a bad thing for us extensive veld farmers. For crop farmers and those with extensive irrigated lands the position is different. On Melsetter, they came through our Brak Camp, and settled there in numbers. But with them came flocks of migrant White Storks, feeding on the locusts through the veld. Gives a new meaning to the term Bird of Prey! I counted more than 50 birds on a morning walk, carefully moving through the grass and scrub, pecking the locusts up as they went. I marveled at Nature’s way of dealing with the pests. About a week later, the storks were gone, leaving one standing forlornly alone, just next to the road in to the Karoo House. I watched him for about 4 days, and noticed that if he had to move, he would move with a severe limp, and seemed unable to fly. Then it dawned on me that he could get no water where he was, so I had him caught and brought in to the Garden. When he was brought in, he looked even more forlorn, just hanging from the stockman’s hand. We put him into a caged area, where he sank to the ground in a heap of black and white feathers. Bradley Gibbons, of the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Blue Crane Project was called in. He could find no injury to the bird, nor anything that could explain the limp. Perhaps it was the result of internal injuries sustained in a power line collision, he speculated. Bradley coached Mike on watering Solly – or Sally (they didn’t know if he was he or she!), using a large syringe, and instructed him to feed him with as many locusts as we could find, even those caught in the motor car’s grill! After a week, Solly was standing again, and we put him out in the Garden, so that he could catch his own locusts. He became a familiar sight, moving all over the Garden, but still not using his wings. Interestingly, neither Moodie, nor Georgie bothered him, and they gave him a wide berth. Maybe they had seen the vice like grip his beak took on Mike’s finger when feeding him another locust! Then we noticed a few wing beats, as he skipped down a terrace, and not long after, he was gone, hopefully to catch up with his flock which had left some weeks earlier.

Twitchers’ corner.

For our Bird Watchers, it has been an interesting quarter, and I have a number of stories to tell. First is Guest Malcolm Lobban’s Lexus story. He and Yvette had arrived latish in the afternoon and had gone for a walk before dinner. On coming back, he called me over to come and have a look at something in his car, a Lexus. Walking past the car, he’d noticed some movement behind a honeycomb grill below the front bumper. It turned out to be a bird, trapped in the compartment formed by the grill in front, and the radiator behind. Together we puzzled how it had come to be there, and how to get it out. Malcolm recalled almost hitting a hawk like bird sitting in the road on some carrion, not far from Melsetter, which had seemed to go under the car and disappear. On closer examination, the grill, made of some sort of nylon material, was found to have a break in it, which under pressure allowed a slit to open up, and which sprang back into place when the pressure was released. I managed to force my hand through, only to receive a good few scratches from some sharp talons and a curved beak, but was able to grab the bird as one would a racing pigeon, with the wings folded tight against the

bird’s body, and draw him out without further damage to the bird, my hand, or the grill! He was beautiful. Other than some traces of blood visible in his open beak, and on his tongue he seemed unharmed. I opened my hand flat, and held it away from my body, and in a flash, the bird took off, flying easily across the Garden and disappearing. So Malcolm had hit him, at over 120kmh, and he’d survived, unharmed. Remarkable! We recovered some feathers, and consulted the books, and the conclusion is that he was a Greater Kestrel.

Second is a lifer for me, and a new addition to the Melsetter Bird List. Guest Clive Johnstone was awaiting breakfast on the north Lawn, long lens camera in hand, watching a bird flying in to settle on the reservoir wall. No sooner had it settled than it dived into the water and disappeared, to emerge with a tiny carp glistening in it’s beak. Clive was able to get a picture. The bird returned again for another viewing. Again the books were consulted, and he was determined to be a Reed Cormorant. The reservoir is stocked with carp, and there’s nowhere for the fingerlings to hide if near the surface, so the Cormorant must have known there would be easy pickings available.

Finally, and on a rather sad note, the Paradise Flycatchers returned, and again built a nest in the big Ash on the North Lawn. The tree was alive with their pretty little song, rather like a ripple of tiny laughter – ‘whee-weeoo-whit-whit’. The nest is a little cup covered outside with lichens and spiderwebs, and moulded onto a surprisingly flimsy little fork which would wave around alarmingly in the slightest breeze. Soon the pair could be seen taking it in turns sitting on eggs, the cock’s long tail always a give-away. The eggs might have hatched, we don’t know. But one evening whilst having a beer on the East Porch, we saw the Gabar Goshawk flying low across the Garden towards the big Ash. Last year the Gabar Goshawk had raided the nest. That was the last we saw of the Flycatchers, and the nest was abandoned. We heard their familiar ‘zwee-zwer’ coming from the Gums outside the Garden, but fear the worst for their offspring, if they had hatched.

Book End.

Melsetter’s Library has had quite a few interesting additions since I last wrote. With the General Election approaching, and Zuma poised to take centre stage, Paul Holden’s “The Arms Deal in your pocket” has been a fascinating read. Clearly and factually set out, it is a startling exposé on Zuma, his fitness or otherwise for our highest political office, and the Machiavellian machinations in and around the purchase of armaments for the SANDF. “AFRICA - Altered States, Ordinary Miracles” by Richard Dowden is an excellent, and sometimes disturbing perspective on Africa, south of the Sahara. Thought provoking is Dowden’s thesis on the symbiotic relationship between the Media, and the Aid Agencies, and their interest in maintaining the image of Africans as hopeless victims of endless wars and persistent famines. Interesting too, is his comparison of the former Asian Colonies with the former African Colonies, where they each stood economically as their Colonial Masters withdrew, and where they stand economically today. On a much lighter, but no less interesting note, is Richard Attenborough’s Autobiography, together with long time friend and colleague Diana Hawkins, “Entirely up to you, Darling.” Much of the book deals with Attenborough’s magnum opus, Oscar winning film “Gandhi”, which fortuitously has recently been flighted on DSTV, and which made for excellent viewing, all the better for having read the book. More has been added to the Library – too much to continue writing about here!

Winter approaches.

The equinoxes have slipped by, and there is an autumnal nip in the air in the mornings. The Ashes in the garden have turned, and are dropping their leaves. The fallow deer are rutting, and the bush along the river echoes to the stags’ throaty bark. Last Spring’s young have been weaned, autumn lambs are dropping, and life’s timeless cycles continue. The Karoo is a special place – visit us soon!