Following on the subject of the earlier post, here you have another cryptic creature for you to find:
It is hard but possible… Below I show it to you.
The fact that its wings were in tatters adds to its camouflage. For obvious reasons it did not open its wings very often so it was tricky to get a good shot. However, this is what I could do:
I believe it to be a Clouded mother-of-pearl (Protogoniomorpha anacardi nebulosa).
After a few attempts and with patience I caught it and, after having it inside the house for a while, eventually it landed on a towel and it settled down. With the patience I do not have and moving very slowly, I managed to get a better picture with a ruler! Wingspan about 7 cm.
I was not planning to blog today, Sunday. However, there are no rest days for Nature so I found this creature in the garden and took a picture for you to find it. This time it is not very difficult…
I am sure that you spotted it but, just in case I give you a close-up.
It is (I believe) a Red Tail moth (Hypopyra capensis), a common moth of Southern Africa that has a cryptic upperside that blends very well with dead leaves this time of the year.
Its under-wings and abdomen, however, are bright orange-red hence its common name.
As I try not to handle them, I thought I would not able to show you its underside as it flew away. Luckily it decided to land on the floor of the patio for a while where I could photograph it under direct sunshine and the underside colour can be seen, even from above!
The larvae of this beautiful large moth of about 70mm wingspan feed on false-thorn (Albizia) and its range goes up to equatorial Africa.[1]
[1] Picker, M., Griffiths, C., and Weaving, A. (2004). Field Guide to Insects of South Africa. Struik Nature. pp366.
We allowed plants to take over our water reservoir (former swimming pool) hoping that they would slow down the evaporation. Whether water plants do this is probably debatable but they did enable the African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis) to multiply really well.
As the frogs are happy to stay in this small “wetland”, the population reached large numbers and, although they devoured all the guppies placed there for mosquito control, the population has not yet crashed. They are also tolerated as they are rather quiet, unlike other visitors we have had in past years.
Luckily, attracted by the “fast food” on offer at least one (I am not good in identifying individual birds yet…) hammerkop[1] became a frequent customer. It walks around the pool stalking the frogs that it catches them often. It is nice to have these birds in the garden and we hope that some of them will eventually come and nest here as there are a few trees that would be able to hold one of their humongous nests.
On a Sunday in January last, before we went for lunch to a nearby place, a hammerkop arrived. It was late morning and it perched by the pool’s edge with its sights fixed on the water plants, undoubtedly waiting for its prey. We watched it for a while but it did not move so we left it to find its food while we found ours.
Being patient pays.
About to take off after abandoning the toad!
Moving to a better stalking spot!
Itchy while waiting.
After a nice lunch we returned home (for a siesta…) and found the hammerkop still there. It had caught a frog larger than anything I had seen before. It was already dead and the bird was busy “hammering” it against the floor. It seemed that the technique was to break its bones to be able to swallow it and it was really going for it!
Wetting the toad to help swallowing it.
The last attempt at swallowing it, before abandoning it.
We watched the bird “tenderizing” the frog for about one hour until it was totally limp. At that stage the hammerkop attempted to swallow it a couple of times and failed so it decided to wet it and try again but it was still a “mouth full” and it was not able to gobble it up completely so, after swallowing about half, it was forced to expel it out or it would have choked!
Eventually, after wetting it again, the bird had another swallowing attempt that nearly succeed but clearly the frog was larger than its throat so it came back out again. This time the bird, probably fed-up (my interpretation!), just dropped it in the water and left!
I thought that this was a real waste of a meal and, to avoid the toad rotting inside the pool, I fished it out to dispose of it. While getting it I noticed that despite all the hammering the carcass received, the skin was not broken anywhere, an indication that the rather large beak of the hammerkop is not used for piercing and also that it was “all or nothing”!
Luckily it is raining well in Harare. More than we expected so our pool -turned into a water reservoir for a few years now- spilled over and the area became a true wetland! Water was also running from the top of the garden in large rivulets that avoided our dikes and continued unstoppably to the bottom of the garden washing our scarce topsoil. The consequence was that we needed to perform some emergency repairs to our contention dikes.
While digging from the sand the pile that we keep for this kind of work we found a cluster of twelve small eggs! Their shells were flexible so they clearly belonged to a reptile, probably a chameleon.
Stephen (our caretaker) and I were very excited to find them and went to communicate the good news to my wife as we were sure she would also be happy as I was quite sure them to be chameleon eggs. The news was received only with lukewarm enthusiasm and I was both disappointed and surprised!
It was after a few minutes of thinking that the penny finally dropped so I declared: “I am sure that they are not snake eggs”, trying to convince myself that there were not! “Why not?” was her immediate and rather expected reply. I could not argue so I decided to find out what they were!
I performed a rather thorough check in the Internet and could almost confirm that they were in fact what I thought. However, to keep the peace I agreed to leave them where they were found so that they will continue with their normal development.
Further reading educated me that it takes up to 300 days for chameleon eggs to hatch and the breeders of these animals in captivity start checking for hatching from day 220! So, if you had any hope of learning what came out of the eggs, you will need to wait until next year, if we are lucky to see the newly born emerging from the sand!
As I mentioned earlier (see: https://bushsnobinafrica.wordpress.com/2015/06/19/drones-in-the-bush/), we did get an improved drone as soon as prices dropped. Although my son immediately managed to fly it, I am still building my confidence after the earlier mishaps! However, as this contraption almost flies by itself, I believe that with a bit of practice I will soon manage. I will report on “droning” in a future post.
In addition to the drone, I have improved on my camera and bought a Nikon Coolpix P600 with a 60X optical zoom. I chose this (in fact my daughter did…) because it is powerful while being quite light. We are already loaded with binoculars to add more weight! Not being a pro, it is good enough to capture what I see although I have always believed that there is no substitute for your eyes! To this I added a tripod and downloaded an App that enables you to take pictures wirelessly using my smartphone.
Going almost beyond my mental capability I also got a camera trap! Its increasing use worldwide has made these affordable so I decided to get one as well to top up my gadget bag that already contains a number of goodies such as UV torch, normal torches, battery boosters for phones, video camera, night vision googles and binoculars.
They both have been a great success so far.
The very day I got the camera trap -brought from the USA by my son- I set it up in the garden and I have done so for a few nights over the last couple of weeks. Although It is not meant to take high resolution images, its pictures are good enough to identify animals, provided that you point it in the right direction!
Through the pictures and videos it took during the day I managed to confirm some of the birds visiting our bird bath and feeding table as well as to detect some new ones. So far we had mourning dove, forked-tailed drongo, dark-capped bulbul, kurrichane thrush, white-browed robin chat, yet unidentified weavers and fire finches, blue waxbill, variable sunbird and purple crested lourie. In addition, leaving the camera overnight confirmed the crepuscular habits of both robin chats and drongos.
A laughing dove.
A robin chat and bulbul.
A pair of variable sunbirds.
A close-up of a purple-crested lourie.
I also did some detective work in connection with the unravelling of a garden mystery: the nocturnal disappearance of the bird seed from the feeding table! I managed to expose the culprits that were no others than the suspected African Giant Pouched Rats (Cricetomys sp. Ansorgei). They were already high on the possible culprit list as we had evidence of their presence through large fresh burrows and macadamia nut shells found in the adjacent areas. If you have tried to crack one of these nuts, it will give you an idea of the gnawing power of these animals!
Macadamia nut husks (top) and whole nuts (bottom) to show the way the rats eat them.
In addition to finding the somehow expected rats, we came across another animal that came as a surprise as Nature will not disappoint you if you look for new things! One of the nights we were after the bird seed-eating culprits an African civet (Civettictis civetta) came by for a drink! Consulting the Internet I learnt that they do move into urban environment and that they also climb on house roofs!
The African civet drinking.
Having detected the birds and animals present in the garden, it was time to use the tripod and remote control on the Nikon camera and attempt to document some of the visitors with a better resolution. This I am doing at the moment and learning.
Better pictures of the lourie bathing taken with the Nikon camera and remote control device.
The louries have always been in the garden but always high on the trees. It is only recently that they have decided to come for a dip in the birdbath. The hamerkop comes often to decimate the toad population in our water storage tank (read swimming pool).
The hamerkop taking up position by the pool.
Stalking toads.
Gotcha!
I need to take advantage of the present dry conditions prevalent in Harare so when the rains come later in the year the animals will disperse.
Note: this post has not been checked by my Editor.
Added on 5 September 2015: Although I identified the night cat-like visitor as an African civet, subsequent Internet search makes me think that it could in fact have been a genet. I am trying to get another picture to clarify the situation.
It was a simultaneous thought shared with my son to the point that our respective e-mails must have crossed somewhere over Africa: “Dad, I think a drone would be great for your blogging activities ” and “Jul, have u heard of photography drones? I think one would be good for safaris”. We were very pleased with ourselves as, at the time, drones were only starting to be used in the bush for animal photography and filming.
A couple of months later when he came to Zimbabwe he brought an economical camera drone with him “Dad, this one is for testing purposes” he said. We immediately got to using it; well he used it and I interfered! Following its fast assembly my son started flying it and mastered it quite quickly (no doubt as a result of having spent long hours playing PlayStation and Xbox instead of doing his homework!). I conveniently refrained from voicing my praise with respect to his mastery, as I had been stern in establishing time limits on computer games, and instead proceeded to watch.
Eventually my turn with the drone came and I received the necessary instructions and began my attempts. At first my flying consisted of starting the rotors and hopping about trying to get the machine to go where I wanted. A couple of batteries later (they last a very short time!) I was awarded my beginner’s brevet. My take off was perfect and I started flying it; which also went well. During one such flight, I was so fascinated with watching the machine that the “Dad, watch where you are flying!” shout from my son took me by surprise, causing me to lose concentration and to remove the crucial finger from the joystick. Needless to say things started to go awry very quickly…
First, the drone turned violently to the right causing me to over-correct in the other direction. Luckily, after the maneuver, the drone still had sufficient altitude but, to my dismay, was hovering directly over a water hazard (read old swimming pool). In the same way that looking down from a balcony causes you to feel a fear-induced (and often paralytic) rush of adrenaline, my fingers stopped obeying my commands and: splash!
The positive outcome from this experience is that I can now confirm that drones float (or at least this plastic one did)! After its recovery my programme for the day was secured: drone disassembly, drying, reassembly and testing. Fortunately it flew again, although with my son once again reinstated as pilot and myself as manager!
Following this experience I have decided to wait for the prices to go down so that I can acquire a more sophisticated one that I can navigate from my phone. It is also my desire for such a drone to possess a “Boomerang/Home” button to bring it back to me (safely) after taking pictures of game. Unfortunately, however, drones are becoming increasingly common now so our “surprise factor” has vanished but, who knows, maybe something interesting can still take place, just be patient…
This Mantis is a member of the “Flower Mantids” group as most of them mimic flowers.
This one however mimics dead leaves. It is about 4.4 cm long and it is a male of the species.
It is defined as a “Superb mimic of dead leaves, remaining motionless while waiting for prey to come within grasp. May make swaying movements to mimic wind blown vegetation” The latter it did!
My wife found a “leaf” stuck on the fluorescent tube in the kitchen that flew off, flashing its orange-red under parts, when she tried to remove it.
I collected dry leaves from the garden and put the moth on them for the picture. I think it is a Red Tail moth (Hypopyra capensis). It is a rather common moth. Its larvae feed on Albizia spp. trees.
I am sure you all spotted it! In fact I realized, after I released it, that I had put it in the centre of the picture (not very clever!).
Although overcast and rather cold for Harare at this time of the year (19°C), I am sitting outside writing this short note that briefly interrupts my series of reports on Gonarezhou and Kruger.
I am pleased to be in the open-air so that I can hear the water filling the ex swimming pool (now our water reservoir). The Municipality water started flowing this morning! This may not impress you in other parts of the world used to the water just “being there” but I can assure you that here it feels like Christmas!
So, after having long showers we are now busy filling all possible water deposits!
The last time we had public water was July 2013 and it lasted for 24 hours! We hope this time it will last longer and, who knows, it may be a sign of better things to come!
The weather in Harare is clearly getting warmer now. Although this complicates the water situation as the dry season advances, the conditions are great to renew our daily walks to keep our physical wellbeing. We are gradually increasing the distance and we hope to reach about 10 km, our daily average. Today we did six km and it was an interesting mid morning walk. We met the family of vervet monkeys that dwell in the hilly area our walking path traverses, where some large plots covered with msasa trees are present. The monkeys are now used to the increased urbanization and are seen walking over the walls and houses, apparently having found a new harmony with their man-made surroundings.
Further on, we came across another find in the form of a chameleon road kill. It was clearly a young one and, although sad, it indicated that these creatures are getting active again, probably with the warmer weather.
This find brought to mind an event that took place in Kenya in the eighties, while we lived in Tigoni. Chameleons were quite common in the forest that surrounded our house. Of particular interest was Jackson’s chameleon Trioceros jacksoniiwith its three horns and bright colours. The shrieks from a couple of hornbills called our attention and we realized that they were trying to catch a chameleon that was puffed up and putting up a gallant but hopeless battle. It was duly rescued and brought into the house “for protection”. It was seen inside for a couple of days and then it disappeared. Our belief that it had left the house was wrong as, regrettably, it was found mummified under the mattress of our bed a few days later! How he got there will remain a mystery.
Being a veterinarian, used to strong professional smells, I did not notice anything. However, I am sure that my wife did and she probably attributed it to me but she was, as usual, too polite to mention it.
I am sure that you spotted it but, just in case I give you a close-up.
It is (I believe) a Red Tail moth (Hypopyra capensis), a common moth of Southern Africa that has a cryptic upperside that blends very well with dead leaves this time of the year.
A Bushsnob out of Africa 