Winter on the koppies
MELVILLE – Although it is getting colder, let your sense of adventure warm you as you hike the Melville Koppies.
While humans continue to grapple with all the uncertainty that Covid-19 throws at them, the natural life on Melville Koppies just knows that winter is here and adapts accordingly.
According to Jenny Grice, a volunteer at the koppies, the grasses have seeded, put on their winter colours and are settling into the long rest that winter induces; the hedgehogs, tortoises and snakes are lying low, slowing down their metabolisms to survive the winter chill and the migratory birds like the European bee-eater have long left our koppies where they are now basking in the warmth of the north-African summer where they will breed and return next spring.
“All except for one migrant bird, the fairy flycatcher. It has just arrived for its annual winter visit to the koppies. Its summer home is Lesotho so it’s hardly surprising that it finds a Joburg winter on the koppies warm by comparison.”
If you visit you may just be lucky and spot it. If you don’t, there are many others like the Cape longclaw, the white-bellied sunbird and helmeted guinea fowl that are just waiting for your visit.
Details: Wendy Carstens wendavid@mweb.co.za
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