KILLER BEES
By the Drone Ranger

Back in the 1950's, a South American agricultural scientist in Brazil wanted to improve honey production and his research favoured the introduction of queens of the species Apis mellifera scutellata (our other South African honey bee), so he imported 48 from the (old) Transvaal.

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CHILDREN OF THE WIND

Banna ba Pifhu, or Children of the Wind, is the name of the wind farm proposed for Broadlands Farm, on the road to Humansdorp from St Francis Bay (between the Grasmere Ostrich boutique road and the Seekoei River dip).

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What happens when we meddle with nature

Information from Australia is that their ecosystems have been seriously weakened and now have low ecological immunity due to the absence of the native apex predators, the Dingo and Tasmanian Devil.

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LONG LIVE THE QUEEN BEE
By the Drone Ranger

n earlier article alerted readers to a particular characteristic involving hive life of our Cape honey bee and what follows, reveals all.

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BEAUTIFUL BRUNSVIGIA

By Yvonne Bosman and Valda Barratt

Beautiful heads of pink flowers, Brunsvigias, are currently decorating pavements, verges, and lawns, from the Gamtoos River on the N2 to the Greater St Francis area

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ORCA
By Bridget Elton

Orca are by far the most intelligent creatures of the sea. They are the largest members of the dolphin family. It is possible to encounter orcas in all of the world's oceans although their presence is more common in cold, coastal waters of the continental shelves of both hemispheres.

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SPINNING GOLDEN THREAD

The Golden Orb spider, found in tropical and sub-tropical areas around the world, has the widest distribution of any spider in South Africa. It also spins the largest and strongest web of all our spiders, with webs up to 6 metres high and 2 metres wide having been recorded.

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Packaging causes problems for seabirds

According to an article in BirdLife South Africa's e magazine, more and more birds, especially waterbirds, are being found entangled in some sort of packaging material, especially the safety rings found at the bottom of bottle lids

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DESIGNER NEST

In September 2001 a pair of Greater Striped Swallows (Hirundo cucullata) built a nest in an upper corner of a steel roll-up door of my workplace. Strong local winds caused the fragile structure to crack, but further damage was prevented by shoring up the rattling door with rubber tubing.

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Semeru Gets a Brother
By Tracey Bridges

Perth Zoo has welcomed two new members to its breeding colony of Sumatran Orangutans in 2012, as baby male Sungai and female Lestari were born.

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Worker Bees and Field Activities
By The Drone Ranger

The final division of bee labour concerns the great outdoors – the field activities of the working honey bee. First there are the scouts and then the collectors. The latter hold back and confine their activities to being drawers of water and gatherers of propolis.

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OZZIE SUCCESS IN BREEDING RARE COCKATOOS

Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoos have put Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, on the ornithologists’ map for world firsts.   A pair of these magnificent birds successfully reared and fledged a chick, Little Red, in a nest box on campus

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THE HERITAGE ECO CENTRE is a Museum with an active educational program for all ages.

Weekly the sounds coming out of the Heritage Centre change, from the laughter and giggles of the Tiny Tots as they discover the wonders of the world.  When more paint goes on them than on the page, the pritt glue is covered in feathers or the carpet resembles a beach.

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LYNX AT THE LINKS

Caracal, rooikat, lynx – whatever name you want to give it, it is alive and well and breeding on St Francis Links. Three juveniles have been seen, playing like kittens, right out in the open on one of the paths. An adult stalks down the Links roads like the lord of the manor, checking right and left to see what the tenants are up to.

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ACTION BEACH MORNING

Last Saturday the Woodridge Surf Lifesavers teamed up with the St Francis Kromme Trust Heritage Kids for an "ACTION BEACH MORNING" .One of the aims of the morning was to make the children aware of RIP CURRENTS.

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Busy, busy bees– hive activities
By The Drone Ranger

The next stage of bee development involves hive activities. The working roster, in the normal 9 to 5, starts off with.

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FIRST MALE ZOO-BORN ORANGUTAN RELEASED INTO THE WILD

A Sumatran orang-utan, born in Perth Zoo in Australia, has been introduced into the forests of Bukit Tigapuluh, Indonesia, in order to re-establish the population and increase the gene pool.

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Worker Bees and Brood Activities
By The Drone Ranger

If you really want to see an effective skills, education and training programme at work, consider the life of a Worker honey bee.   It would put any of our current schemes – Government or privately sponsored – to complete shame.

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BARN OWLS

On a visit to Addo some years back, I visited the waterhole at the main camp one night and nearly jumped out of my skin when a piercing, prolonged screech erupted just behind me. It was made by a Barn Owl (Tyto alba) and was one of the weirdest sounds that I had heard.

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RECOGNISING TERNS

When you see flocks of terns on the sandbacks in the Kromme estuary, can you identify which they are? It is a bit intimidating, especially as different species all flock together, but here are some pointers from Yvonne Bosman, chairman of the St Francis Bird Club.

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The Spotted Eagle Owl

This is a not only a beautiful bird but useful one as it plays an important role in keeping down the rodent population. Rodents destroy crops and food, and can carry disease.

Standing about 43 to 47 cm high, Spotted Eagle Owls raise distinctive "ear tufts", which have nothing to do with hearing.

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Bees – The Phenomenon of the Pheromones
By The Drone Ranger

The glue that keeps a bee colony together is the pheromones produced in the hive by queen and workers. Without them, colony structures would collapse and it would become vulnerable to all manner of threats, such as disease or raids by robber bees.

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Wildside Walk

Carolyn Greathead has captured the scene, the mood and the feel of the Wildside Walk in Cape St Francis.

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The Birds and the Bees
By The Drone Ranger

"Son, sit down and let's talk about the birds and the bees."
Many of us drones approached our rites of passage through these words so let's go to source and talk about the bees. As everyone knows, the queen is the dominant player in the hive, but her life starts on a knife edge of timing.

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OUR FYNBOS AROUND US

Some of the older St Francis residents remember traveling along the Oyster Bay road before the bridge was built over the Kromme and how they knew that they were approaching St. Francis because of the Fynbos aroma which suddenly became evident. The term Fynbos is used to describe plants that have adapted their leaves so that they can "live" with the wind.

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A Hive for the Honey-Bee
By The Drone Ranger

It became clear to early man that bees' exceptionally effective and stable social structure could be harnessed to the benefit of man and his own survival. By building artificial "homes" for them man could keep bees and their highly attractive products close at hand.

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PENGUINS AT RISK

The African Penguin (formerly known as the Jackass Penguin) is the only resident penguin species in South African, although vagrants of other species are found from time to time. There are four Rockhopper Penguins at the rehabilitation centre in Cape St Francis currently, for example.

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Bees and Homo sapiens
by the Drone Ranger

Contact between honeybees, stingless bees and man has been recorded throughout history, in biblical sources, rock paintings and any number of mythological and ritualistic practices. This is probably because honey was man's only real source of sweetness for centuries - sugar beet and cane came much later in time

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Tortoise Rescue – Not!

With thanks to Cape Nature…..

Here's why you should never 'rescue' a tortoise and take it home …
Driving on one of the thousands of roads criss-crossing South Africa, you might spot a lonely tortoise crossing the road and think it must be 'lost'. You might want to pick it up and take it home to look after it, even if your home is hundreds of kilometers away in Gauteng or Port Elizabeth or Cape Town.

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360˚ SPECTACULAR VIEW

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JELLYFISH – A NO-BRAINER

By Bev Howard

Jellies have been around for over 650 million years – making them older than dinosaurs.
They are very simple yet effective creatures, made up of 95% water. They have no bones or cartilage, no blood, no heart and no brain. Their nerve impulses react on food and danger and they either float along with tidal currents or propel themselves in the water.

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THE COMMUNITY GARDEN - ONE OF ST FRANCIS BAYS TREASURES

Children often call the Community Garden "The secret garden" and today I am going to share with you some of the creatures you might find when next you visit .

Down the bottom of the garden late in the afternoon you may be able to spot the CAPE CLAWLESS OTTER as he and his siblings walk down the path and over the rocks on their way to find their supper in the sea.

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FOSSIL FUELS: EXPANDING PRODUCTION AND INCREASED ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS

Concerns about global weather change, pollution and dwindling oil reserves have motivated a search for alternative and sustainable sources of energy. Usable power derived from wind, wave and solar energy are expected to supply up to 20% of requirements.

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HUMPBACK WHALES

"OUR" Southern Right whales have left the bay but now you can look out for the Humpback whales. They can be spotted further out to sea and one often gets a sighting of them in the waters off the coast between the Lighthouse and Rocky Coast Farm.

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NO WIND FARM ON THE KROMME

On sale now - the third edition of Our Coastal Treasure

THE SOUTHERN ROCK PYTHON - SNAKE OIL SOURCE?

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St Francis Kromme Trust celebrates its 30th Anniversary

The St Francis Kromme Trust Committee extends a warm invitation to all interested people to join them on Wednesday the 9th November 2011 to celebrate the Trust's 30th Anniversary and the launch of the 3rd edition of the book "OUR COASTAL TREASURE".

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PUFF ADDERS: SNAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL

With the arrival of spring all and sundry are outdoors to enjoy the warmer weather. No less so the snakes. Puff adders are especially abundant in our area at present. We see them as sadly flattened casualties on the roads, or they appear startlingly and unexpectedly in gardens and other open spaces.

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DID YOU THINK THE WINDFARMS HAD GONE AWAY?

One windfarm might have gone away but the other nine are still with us. The first bidding window opens next Friday, 4th November, when developers who are ready will bid to be appointed independent power producers.
To be ready, the developers have to put down a deposit of R100 000 per megawatt of capacity and to have environmental authorisation

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ANTARCTIC KRILL: A THREATENED RESOURCE

Many Antarctic species of birds, fishes and mammals depend on krill as a food source. Krill predators include baleen whales, penguins, squid and fish, who remove millions of tons of krill from the sea to support the balance of the Southern Atlantic ecosystem.
Krill are shrimp-like marine crustaceans that inhabit all oceans

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DOLPHINS

When you are scanning the sea for a glimpse of the whales, check for dolphins as well. Bottlenose dolphins are coming in really close and putting on a great show. Somehow dolphins always seem to be having fun, reveling in the pleasure of surfing the waves.

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Passengers on Right Whales: "Whale Lice"

The most conspicuous external characteristics of right whales are the unique shapes and patterns of callosities on the heads of individual whales (Eubalaena australis, for the southern species) Similar to fingerprints of humans, photographic records of callosities allow easy recognition of individual whales.

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Beautiful Spring

Here in St Francis Bay we have a wonderful wealth of indigenous flowers of a great variety of colours. They are all part of the St Francis Fynbos/Thicket Mosaic which occurs only between Huisklip in the west and Cape Recife in the east and nowhere else in the world. It is part of the Cape Floral Kingdom which is recognized as a biodiversity hotspot of global importance.

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Funky Penguin

Click here to view the funky penguin series - by Joan Barnes who stood in for the Mad Scientist whilst he was away

WHALE TIME!

The bay is busy with whales again and this is a good time to visit your friends with a sea view – take your binoculars. Who knows what the whales might call themselves, but humans have named these mighty creatures Southern Right Whales as they were the 'right' whales to hunt because they float when they die. The name doesn't say much about how immense and imposing these great animals are, but it says a lot about humankind, don't you think?

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