Finally the rain has come to Umkhumbi Lodge. The Nyala, Impala and Duiker have (like us) been standing out enjoying the rain. As much as we love the sun, there are few people who can resist the kiss of the rain on their cheeks.
With it we have also had some amazing lightning storms on the mountains opposite our lappa;
Already everything is looking even more green and luscious than it was.
The sad day has come, it is time to say goodbye to Fredrik and Mikael.
After inspecting the Puff Adder caught last night. We tubed one so we could feel its scales (nothing feels quite like a Puff Adder – the closest is the File snake) it was time to load all the bags in the car and wave them goodbye as they journey north up to Swaziland and Mozambique.
Fredrik is happy to tick Puff Adder off his wishlist
Inspecting last nights Puff Adder
See you soon guys!
The roads we were on last night produced such unique species that we decided to go back again!
This time we found – although again DOR;
East African shovel snout
Tiger snake
House snake
Stilleto snake
Mfezi / spitting cobra
Snouted Cobra
Mole snake
But we did find a live Puff Adder, and she is a nice big female, very beautiful dusky brown with yellow/orange.
Off we go to find some flat lizards! We found some, but boy the rocks were hot hot hot!!
We also found a Black Kite after talking about them in the car on the way.
After hearing us in the car two black kites thought they would give us the privilege of watching them swoop in the geothermals
What else to do but road cruise back to Hluhluwe?!
We saw different species, even ones that we had only heard of – unfortunately however due to the high level of traffic on the roads a lot of these were DOR (dead on road) 
DOR:
3 x snouted cobra
marble tree snake
molesnake
eastern purple glossed snake
Vine snake
The eastern purple glossed snake
Live:
cape wolf snake
transvaal quill snouted
house snake
The Wolf Snake
The Transvaal guill snouted snake
What a hectic day!
The morning brought us the following;
Birds:
African Spoonbill
Crowned eagle
Bush shrike
Black backed puff
Violet back starling
Long crowned eagle
Lesser striped swallow
Red backed shrike
Broad-billed Roller
European bird eater
Fish eagle
Sunbird
Yellow Billed Kite
Black kite
Kingfisher
Goliath heron
Stork
Pelican
Ibis / Hadeda
Mammals:
Giraffe
Warthog (and baby)
Nyala
Impala
Hippo
Reptile:
Crocodiles
Striped skink
Tropical gecko
Molesnake – pancake phase
Other:
Giant land snail
Countless butterflies and moths
Wasp (as found by Fredriks hand)
Then it was off to our afternoon stop to look for flat lizards, with a road cruise home!
11/01/2012 – Day 18
9:30am
We have been checking the position of FC01 everyday, but there has been little if any change in position.
When we observed this behaviour during our last project, it was due to either a large feed, the weather or (unhappily) the snake having been eaten.
The weather recently has been extremely hot and accompanied by high levels of humidity which could be responsible for FC01 not wanting to move much – we certainly don’t want to move much!
Climbing into the bush as far as possible (it is extremely thick vegetation) has provided us with no further clues as to the reason for his behaviour. The bush has formed an almost cave like shelf, we cannot see in partly due to the darkness (even a bright torch did not assist in this) but mostly due to the sheer compactness of the bush. We are therefore still hoping that FC01 has decided to position itself in the bush due to the security it feels in this impenetrable fort.
The snake looked to be in perfect condition at the last sighting, which further makes us believe the snake to be ok and instead being influenced by other factors.
The bush fort
The 'open' bit of bush before the Forest Cobras hiding place
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Check out the wildlife factsheet below! This week is the Lion, and it is on two pages!
Fredrik and Mikael had set the morning aside for a game drive and some serious birdwatching. Leaving Umkhumbi Lodge in the wee hours of the morning they set out for the reserve.
Lots of birds meant they rapidly worked their way down the bird list and even saw lots of other animals including the Wild Dogs who were playing in front of the vehicle at the side of the road – many people can go through their lives never seeing these animals in the wild, and certainly never that close.
While they were gone, we had two more snake call outs – both for the “Snake of the Week” the Snouted Cobra. It is the curse of Fredrik, as soon as he is around, there are no snake sightings. So the boys didn’t miss out on all the Forest Cobra fun we had a handling demonstration from Anton. It was only when he was in the sunshine that we realised quite how beautiful this particular snouted cobra was.
Road cruise after dinner, Beef Lasagne – one of Meva’s specialities – with a side order of a beautiful sunset.
This evening has been dubbed the Night of the Chameleons. We saw no snakes, very few frogs but hundreds of baby flap-neck chameleons. Where ever we looked, there swaying in the grasses was a very small and sleepy chameleon.
So we thought, where are the parents of this multitude of babies (flap necked chameleons can lay 25-60 eggs so we were looking at the least two females)? Ignoring the baby chameleons (mostly anyway, the lure for more photos is always strong) we searched for the adult chameleons. Then on two nearby roads, we found them, sleeping in the branches hiding behind clumps of leaves.
But still no snakes, maybe on tomorrows drive!
Time to go hunting for scorpions! And snakes obviously! Anything classed as a reptile or creepy-crawly is our prize this afternoon.
No rock left unturned, no logs unmoved, no tree left still rooted… okay, maybe I am exaggerating on the tree bit – we are environmentalists after all!
Our afternoon started off promising, at a nearby property we could see building rubble and farm debris that looked very “snakeable”.
After breakfast it was time for a quick photo shoot with Antons little snake collection. The big problem though is deciding which ones to choose!
As it was just a quick shoot we decided on a Puff Adder from the Eastern Cape, an East African Gaboon Adder and the Black File snake.
Fredrik plays with the Black file snake on his extreme nature tour
Limelight time for one of our little Gaboon Adders.
Puff Adder close ups
Then it was off to find a crocodile with a fish hook stuck in his mouth!
UPDATE: The Crocodile is missing in action! Someone tried to catch him two days ago and lost, and it would appear that he isn’t keen on this happening again and has moved. We have our spies in the area keeping their eyes open for the Crocodile so as soon as he is spotted we’ll be straight after him.
