Frost in the mornings glistening in the sun
Aloe flowers like tongues of flame lighting up the bush
Sunbirds dashing from one flower to the next like iridescent jewels
Woodsmoke in the evenings from bonfires
And spectacular sunrises that slowly banish the mist from the water

What a fantastic time of year along the Garden Route

Each year there has been an increase in diversity that includes plants and insects and I was reminded of this while on a walk a few days ago when I encountered a Garden Orb spider. These beautifully marked spiders should be common but this is the first one we have seen at Reflections. These spiders have always been a favourite of mine and is always a great subject for conversation on my walks.

Garden Orb female

The web they spin can be in excess of 6 feet across and has a beautiful golden sheen to it. It is one of the thickest and strongest of all spider webs. One of the more noticeable features is the zig-zagging white stabilimentum in the centre. This adds elasticity as well as possibly acting as a visual cue for birds so that they can avoid flying into it.

The female spider would have arrived first and the much smaller male would have arrived later after following a scent trail of pheromones. He avoids her by staying in corner out of here way and will only mate with her while she is occupied with feeding.

Garden Orb male

Mercury spider

The large Orb spiders often catch small flying insects that they don’t bother with but these are used by a smaller, parasitic spider that ” borrows” the web. It is called a Mercury spider because it looks just like a small silver dot of Mercury.

White Dune Freesia

For many people travelling up the South East coast of South Africa the name  Garden Route” is a misnomer as there is no garden and the floral diversity does not compete with other parts of the country. In part this is correct as large areas of floral extravagance have been swallowed up in a wave of out competing alien vegetation, Hakea, Pine and Wattle.

Our property has been clear of Pine now for almost 2 years and the natural rehabilitation is ongoing and marvelous. Each season new highlights emerge and slowly we are seeing a recovering ecosystem.

There are at the moment 2 flowers that I find remarkable . One in particular has always been a favourite of mine as they seem to typify Spring and this is the Freesias. The one that occurs here is Freesia leichtlinii and is a white form. It is a beautiful, delicate low growing plant with a very strong sweet scent and is one of the Freesias used to create the popular hybrid that is now found world wide.

Water Holly

Ixia orientalis

Riversdale Bluebell

The other plant that is flowering is a shrub or bushy tree called the Blue kuni-bush or Rhus glauca. It has flowers that are completely different but no less noticeable, also because of their scent. The flower is  a tiny yellow-green flower that is bunched en-masse on the end of the branchlets.

What strikes me with both these flowers is not what they look like, but what they smell like. All plants, being inanimate, must find ways to pollinate each other and have developed a number of fascinating strategies  to do this. The most common technique though, is to recruit insects or birds to do the work for you. Birds, like mammals, have a poorly developed sense of smell but well developed eyesight, so that bird pollinated plants tend to be large, bright,often red and they don’t waste energy producing a scent. On the other extreme, insects have a phenomenal sense of small and are less interested in colour or in the colour spectrum that is visible to us.

The two different plants mentioned, the Rhus and the Freesia are both pollinated by insects and so both have a strong scent, but the similarity stops here.The Freesia has a sweetly scented flower that attracts insects lured by the promise of sweet nectar and in the process pick up pollen and the Rhus has a very strong smell of yeast and fermentation and it uses this to attract flies for its pollination

On the Southern Cape’s coast we have spectacular diversity: long sweeping sandy beaches, rocky headlands with intriguing rock pools, boulder strewn cliffs and gorges where rivers and forest meet the sea.

If you were walking along a rocky path on a warm day this scene will repeat itself often. It has all the ingredients of a typical  coastal scene; a False Saffron tree (Cassine species) that can withstand salt spray, sun and wind, a Lichen encrusted boulder and a Rock Agamma . The males have a striking breeding display of a magnificent, iridescent blue head which they bob up and down energetically to attract the females.

Another aspect that is typical of our Winter days is be the beautiful clear blue skies.

Bitou

We have had an on going land rehabilitation project for close on two years and we are starting to see so much more diversity in the plant life because of this. Almost every time we go for a walk we find something”new”. Probably our most successful plants are those that naturally pioneer new  areas. The two most populous ones at Reflections are the Keurboom(Virgilia Species) and the Bitou(Chrysanthemoides species).

The Keurboom is a member of the pea family and has the characteristic pods and flower shape as well as a beautiful delicate scent. Being a member of the pea family it has the ability to replace Nitrogen in the soil, this is an element much needed by plants and normally in short supply. Decomposition of living organism’s would normally provide Nitrogen but that wouldn’t have happened here for many years. Therefor the Keurbooms play a vital role in fixing the damage from poor land use in the past.

Keurboom in flower

The other advantage of the Keurboom is that it is a prolific seeder,  so all round, for us, it is a wonderful tree.

The other one that has been wonderfully successful is the Bitou or Tick berry, so called because the small glossy fruits look  just like bunches of engorged Tick’s. The fruits are, however, far more pleasant and taste just like Sugar Cane. This has been appreciated for thousands of years as shown by the seeds being present in many of the stone age middens in this area. It is also thought that the decorated Bitou seeds found in this area might be the oldest jewellery known to man. These particular ones are thought to be from around 70 000 years ago.

They are most highly regarded these days for their ability to bind dune sand and thereby stabilizing loose soil.

Raptor nests’ are fascinating to watch and because of the bird’s being long lived the nest’s can be immense. I have not measured these nests but examples from other study sites include nest’s that were taller than 6m.

The Garden Route is fortunately provided with areas of spectacular diversity and beauty. It includes lakes, forests, mountains and within a short drive’s distance a dry country side dominated by succulents. We try and encourage people to get off the main tourist routes and experience the area as we know it. One my favourite areas is Kranshoek.

It is within the Garden Route National Park and provides the spectacular meeting point of Forest and Ocean with the remnant of Gondwanaland’s spectacular break-up. The walk is relatively easy, although sections are steep. Immediately you are struck by the scenery which is dominated by a forested gorge that has been carved out of a cliff face by a small stream.

Except while in the dense Forest, the sound of the ocean is everywhere. It is interspersed with the trilling of the Sunbirds that are attracted to the many flowering Erica species. The plant life is prolific and includes wet forest, fynbos and succulents that grow along the ocean. Another unmissable “plant” is the spectacular orange Lichen on the rocks along the coastal section.

Rondevlei, where I live, is an estuarine lake on the Garden Route. It is part of a series of lakes that are connected to each other and enter the sea at Wilderness.It is a beautiful area and contribute in a large way to the Garden Routes scenery. Two of the lakes are designated Ramsar sites, which identifies them as areas of international importance to migratory birds. It therefore goes without saying that there is amazing bird-life here, and I try to take advantage of this whenever I can. The Rondevlei has a fantastic hide that is very productive, it doesn’t produce rarities very often but does provide  regular, rewarding birding in a beautiful environment. Common birds seen are African Rail, African Marsh Harrier, African Fish Eagle, Hottentot Teal, Cape Teal, White Backed Duck and depending on the level of the lake, good waders attracted to the mud flats.

One bird that we see quite often has, of late, been prolific. The African(Ethiopian) Snipe. It is a beautiful bird that is not common in many areas and with the Rondevlei being low at the moment, we can see between 5 and 9 different birds feeding together. I recent highlight was for me a maximum count of 15 birds.

At one stage Snipe were popular Game birds(this is where we get words like “sniper”) and so it is wonderful to see aggregations like this, they have a very distinct breeding display that involves Drumming of the wings. There has been no sign of this as yet  so it is possible that they are en route to another breeding site.