Little Makalolo newsletter – July 2023

It is now the end of winter, with spring slowly approaching. In areas where we had veld fires, new grass shoots are emerging, but for now everywhere you look, it is still mellow yellow. It’s also as if all the trees are in competition to shed leaves and avoid evapotranspiration, though this provides a great window for game-viewing in between the trees.

 

 

Natural waterholes are drying up in some places, putting more pressure on water pumps and boreholes. At the moment the pumps are operating 24/7, at almost 100%, making sure that water levels do not drop at all, and jumbos have already started gathering in large numbers at the pumped waterholes.

 

Temperatures for the month of July continued dropping, and ranged from a minimum of 7° Celsius to a maximum of 27° C. Even staff were wearing fleeces as the wind picked up.

 

Wildlife

 

Huge herds of elephants are flocking to drink water from our waterhole and swimming pool. We also had herds of beautiful roan and sables antelopes visiting our waterhole at least twice, even thrice, in a week. A big herd of buffaloes numbering 150+ came to drink water from our waterhole and stayed for about three days. This triggered an attack by a pride of 17 lions, which managed to kill one buffalo just a few metres from the waterhole.

 

 

Birds & birding

 

Bird sightings are gradually declining with the intra-African and Eurasian migrants having left for the season. These include the beautiful carmine bee-eaters and Eurasian golden orioles.

 

 

Probability sightings for the month

 

Lion                                           90%

Cheetah                                    60%

Giraffe                                      90%

Elephant                                   100%

Zebra                                        100%

Wildebeest                               100%

Baboons                                   100%

Cape Buffalo                             80%

Painted dogs                             5%