Hello everybody, 

At last, it’s that time of the year again when we all start looking avidly for the Toads to arrive for the annual breeding season. However due to the low water level and lack of rain we are wondering what this year will be like, last year we only had two days of the Toads roaring. The drought is very apparent when you see the current level of Die Oog. Hopefully, we will still get a lot of late rain. 

signing asking visitors to stay out of Die Oog fynbos

No walking through the dam area

Rather concerning is the number of people that are now walking right around the dam, through the sanctuary area and even onto the island. We are having signs made that will be placed in strategic areas informing people that this is a no-go area but in the interim, if you do see anybody walking in these areas please point out to them that they are disturbing both the breeding fauna and the sensitive flora. 

Grass-eating carp

On the positive side, this has helped us to see and watch the grass-eating carp doing their job and eating the weed. Amazingly all 7 have survived so far although the growth rate is quite varied between them.

Fish monitoring

We mentioned in the last newsletter that we were trying to get the fish monitoring programme going with a 3rd year UWC Bio-Diversity student coming on board but this has not materialised yet. 

Fencing upgrade

Farms Edge have had a number of break-ins and we have found the fence has been cut very neatly in the form of a flap that can be folded back into place and so escape casual observation in both Lake View road and the fence bordering the open field just below the last house in Midwood Ave. 

Please take note of the fence when walking past and if you do see anything amiss, let one of us know as soon as possible so that we can repair it. We have been trying to get CCC to upgrade the whole perimeter fence to a palisade type fence the same as the large double gate on Midwood Ave but have not yet been successful. We have placed sandbags in front of the bench closest to the gate to help prevent further erosion and this seems to be working quite well. 

bench overlooking Die Oog

Fundraising

Funding continues to be a huge challenge, we eventually got our accreditation sorted with the CCC changing over to the Central Supplier Database and received funding from February but were not able to be back paid for the months that we had carried costs and now the whole structure that we were dealing with has changed again so it is back to square one with no guarantee that we will be successful. 

To save on costs we have moved our bank account to Capitec Bank, please note the new banking details at the bottom of this page. With this in mind, we urgently appeal to everyone to renew their subs now and if possible to also make any donations that they are able and willing to do. 

If we don’t have sufficient funds, we will not be able to maintain Die Oog let alone make the small improvements that we do from time to time. 

2017 AGM

Our AGM will be held at 5:30 pm on the 16th October 2017 in the Meadowridge Library Our guest speaker this year will be Dr. Dieter Oschadieus who is the bird ringing coordinator at SAFRING and has a Ph.D. on The Moult Patterns in Southern African Weavers. His topic will be: Studying Cape Weavers at Die Oog. 

Regards, Mark & Anne