Butterflies | Mostly Birding

Sometimes less is more – less planning, less time away, definitely means less stress – our recent, unplanned visit to an eco-estate near Calitzdorp in the arid Klein Karoo falls into that category. Our daughter and son-in-law have a delightful cottage set on the slopes of the kloof that runs through the estate, which they use for getaway weekends and we were more than happy to join them on a weekend in September.

We were up at 5 am on the Saturday morning and left Mossel Bay before 7 am, reaching our roadside coffee spot on the Volmoed road about an hour later. No ordinary stop this – even along the road the Karoo invites you to relax, and relax we did with plunger coffee, boiled eggs and muffins while enjoying the Karoo landscape around us, watched over by Greater Striped Swallows perched nearby and with cool sunny weather adding to the pleasure of the moment.

Saartjie, the family pet, gets a chance to explore the roadside bush

Greater Striped Swallow (Cecropis cucullata / Grootstreepswael)

Ostrich egg spotted by Geraldine in the veld

After a brief stop at Bella di Karoo padstal for some provisions, we carried on to Calitzdorp, which was hosting a succulent festival – a few side streets were closed off and filled with stalls selling all manner of succulents and filled with people meandering about enjoying the atmosphere.

It was lunchtime when we eventually got to the estate, just in time for a fine lunch of country bread, cheese and jam enjoyed on the covered stoep, after which we all relaxed for most of the afternoon in our various ways.

Andre and Geraldine have done wonders with the garden around their cottage, filling it with hardy plants that can survive the hot summers and cold winters in this arid part of the country and I noticed that one particular succulent ground cover was covered in small white flowers and was attracting a multitude of butterflies.

This was too good an opportunity to miss, so I promptly took my camera and positioned myself on the ground near the action and spent a happy half hour or so just watching the comings and goings of the butterflies, bees and other insects, capturing them on the camera where I could. I was very pleased with the results and with the help of my butterfly books was able to identify three species of butterfly.

Butterfly: King Copper (Tylopaedia sardonyx / Koningkopervlerkie)

Bees were also in on the action….

Not to mention the dragonflies that were active…

Dragonfly: Common Thorntail (Ceratogomphus pictus)

All of this action set me up nicely for a lengthy nap, followed by a walk along the river, which for a long time had been bone dry but now had a trickle of water after recent rains. I enjoyed the bird calls emanating from the riverine bush as I walked – a boost to my rather meagre list of birds for the visit.

Supper was wildswors (venison sausage) braai-ed over coals – simply delicious! Sunday morning was equally lazy and relaxed with light rain falling on and off – what a pleasure in these dry parts!

Come Sunday afternoon it was time to return home – the journey was marked by two highlights…..

A spectacular, perfect rainbow framing the road ahead as we drove.

A Southern Black Korhaan alongside the road, causing me to brake sharply as I knew I had never been in a position to photograph this species. Before turning back, I retrieved my camera from its bag on the back seat and made sure the settings were correct, then turned the car and drove carefully and slowly to where I had seen the Korhaan, staying on the opposite side of the road so as not to spook it.

The Korhaan moved away quite quickly as I approached, using a roadside ditch and small bushes to keep itself concealed. I followed on the other side of the road, camera at the ready as I watched for approaching vehicles at the same time as keeping an eye on the bird, which showed briefly between bushes. This carried on for a while until the distance between bushes allowed some clear shots, with the Korhaan eyeing me with extreme suspicion.

Southern Black Korhaan (Afrotis afra / Swartvlerkkorhaan), playing hide and seek

Mission accomplished and with a feeling of satisfaction at having “captured” this rather elusive species on camera, we continued to Mossel Bay.

Many years ago I read a report on a destination in the Free State that the writer described along the lines of – “a weekend in so-and-so is like a week in the country”. This description came back to me after our one-night weekend in the Klein Karoo – we all felt as if we had enjoyed a week in the country.

We were changing camps during our winter visit to Kruger – this time from Lower Sabie where we had spent just one night, to Pretoriuskop, where we were booked for 2 nights. Being around 100 kms apart, at Kruger speeds with stops at sightings, we were counting on around 3 to 4 hours of easy travelling.

The Lower Sabie – Skukuza “highway” was as busy as always with large knots of vehicles at sightings, including a lion spotted moving through the bush on the river side, providing brief glimpses as it passed openings between the trees.

We decided to take a break at Skukuza, the largest and busiest of Kruger’s camps and a favourite of overseas tourists. We bought take away coffees and muffins, then found a nice sunny spot with a view – of the tourists passing by in their many shapes, sizes and degrees of dress sense. It’s a form of entertainment, guessing the origin of the tourists based on their choice of “safari gear” – some in designer khaki, others in strange combinations of camouflage clothing paired with dark apparel, many looking totally out of place.

Once we tired of that game, I started looking around the gardens and noticed a bright yellow sunbird at one of the flowering aloes, an irresistible subject for a bird photographer, so I leapt up (well that’s what it felt like, others may say I stood up quickly) and rushed over to get myself positioned near the aloe with the light from behind and shoot a few photos until I had some reasonable ones of the Collared Sunbird.

Collared Sunbird (Hedydipna collaris / Kortbeksuikerbekkie) Skukuza, Kruger Park

The adjoining aloes had attracted yellow butterflies and I set about capturing a few images of these colourful creatures as they fed on the aloe nectar.

It was only when I reviewed the photos, zooming in to check the sharpness of the detail, that I noticed I had captured a tiny flying insect “passenger”, clinging to its butterfly host then flying off to find another.

Butterfly : African Migrant (Catopsilia florella), Skukuza, Kruger Park

Zooming in to see what that dot on the wing edge is, revealed a tiny flying insect, not more than 1 mm long, clinging to the butterfly

The insect takes off :

Modern digital cameras are quite amazing in the detail they can capture!

Excited with this butterfly I looked around for others and amongst the leaf litter I found …………… well you can decide if there is anything to see in this next photo

The photo below compared with the one above, demonstrates how well camouflaged a butterfly can be when its wings are closed and in the right surrounds, despite its bright colouring when fully open