The wake of the month came with hot open skies in the morning and mid-afternoon thunderstorms that passed through. The new moon brought about an interesting but expected change in rainfall pattern. We have had a good month of rain and in total, we received 222 mm of rain for January, not bad at all.

All this rain has been caught on the floodplains and on the roads where it lies in pools, which just goes to show the sensitivity of our ecosystem and how high the water table is. As rainwater fills the floodplains, many birds have congregated, enhancing the panoramic views of the plains.

After spending some time around the boundaries of their territory, early this month, the Jao Pride moved over to the Kwetsani floodplains. With one of the young females showing signs of readiness to mate in late December, the dominant male followed at their heels. An intruder male that was first seen in September and still shy at that time has resurfaced and this time with slightly more confidence and we were able to photograph this handsome young male. He followed the Jao Pride to northern Kwetsani probably behind the young female's strong trail of pheromones, but no encounter seems to have taken place yet with the dominant male.

Other swift predator tracks have been seen on Jao Island: a young male leopard, it seems, moves with the shadows, leaving only tracks to see or the alarm call of vervet monkeys as he vanishes. We were able to get a good visual of the cat, but as in most cases a camera was not handy! The young female on Hunda Island on the other hand was not shy to show her spots, and on one occasion she was seen with a warthog kill that was a bit too much for her to move up a tree to safety, so she enjoyed her meal at the foot of an acacia.

We have had quite a bit of snake activity this month and seen a lot more than we are used to. A snouted cobra was given away by pestering starlings as it slithered along the walkways to safety! A Cape wolf snake, rhombic night-adder and quite a few variegated bush snakes were seen, as well as a few who were a bit too quick for us to identify!

The 'Jao Mafia', our banded mongoose troop, is getting its numbers up; we have seen some heavily pregnant females forage around mid-month.

The rains this month have resulted in birds flocking on the floodplains as they wade, skim and search for small fish that the swollen main tributaries have washed away onto the flat open plains - what a spectacle at sunset! A flock of about 40 wattled cranes, marabou storks, yellow-billed storks, African fish-eagles, hamerkop, pied kingfishers, saddle-billed storks, egrets and pratincoles, just to mention a few, have been gracing the floodplains. 

In camp we have seen a few visitors chirping or doing acrobatics above our heads: broad-billed rollers above the main area, black-headed orioles hidden in the mangosteen canopy and blue-cheeked bee-eaters diving for insects in the evening light. On one spectacular sunset over the Jao floodplain, we had a scoop of pelicans stop over, perhaps to enjoy the view and just say 'Howzit!'

We have also had a heated debate among managers about an osprey that was mistaken for an immature martial eagle! With a blurry image to argue over, please check our picture and help Angie out.

Managers: Neuman Vasco, William and Angie Whiteman and Phillistus Ngisi.

Guides: Bee Makgetho, Alberto Mundu, Solomon Kanyeto, Johnny Mowanji and Cruise Mollowakgotla.

We welcomed new members to the team this month - Pierre Joubert, Charl Bergh and Nadia Fourie.