Meadowridge Common

Cape Golden Moles on Meadowridge Common

Meadowridge Common is home to a variety of plants and fungi, mammals, birds, insects and other invertebrates, as well as a whole ecosystem underground that we know very little about. This is why our patch of Cape Flats Sand Fynbos is so important as it conserves a piece of un-transformed fynbos which holds the magic ingredients for being able to withstand a changing climate. Meet some of the creatures that live on the Common.

Cape Golden Moles (Chrysochloris asiatica) are small blind, burrowing, insectivorous mammals, closely related to elephant shrews (or sengis).

They have lots of very small pointy teeth, typical of mammals that eat insects. Despite similarities in looks, they are not related to the moles of Europe and America. Cape Golden Moles occur only in the southwestern and southern Cape, and thrive in the dry sandy soils of the fynbos.

They measure up to 8 cm in body length, with dense, sleek coats that are iridescent in the light. Males and females are the same size. Unlike most mammals, they have a cloaca, a common opening for both reproductive and urinary systems, and therefore have no external copulatory organs.

Cape Golden Moles are infamous among gardeners for their extensive subsurface runs which they excavate with their specialized forelimbs and conical nose shield (rhinarium) in search of earthworms, insects and other soil invertebrates; relying on their acute hearing to locate them. They also dig deeper permanent burrows for sleeping, defecating and breeding. They are solitary, breeding throughout the year, and giving birth to one to three young. Their main predators are owls, cats and dogs.

These moles prey on insects, many of which are harmful to plants and animals. They also enrich and aerate the soil.

Four-striped Fieldmouse on Meadowridge Common

The Four-strped Fieldmouse (Rhabdomys pumilio), or Cape Fieldmouse, is found throughout southern Africa. The four stripes running down its back, and red-brown ears, are its distinctive characteristics. It is active in the day, unlike most mice, and is the mouse you are most likely to see here. It mostly eats seeds and grass and some flowers like vygies and proteas. These fieldmice are important seed dispersers in the fynbos, as they bury more seeds than they can eat. The uneaten seeds are thus stored safely underground, away from fire and other predators, until it is time for them to germinate. This is known as “scatter hoarding”.

Fieldmice and other rodents are also key pollinators of many fynbos plants as they feed on the flowers, and inadvertently carry pollen on their heads, to be rubbed off on other flowers, thereby effecting fertilization.

The fieldmice nest in underground burrows, lined with soft vegetable debris, with entrances at the base of clumps of grass. They also construct round nests above ground, hidden in clumps of grass with a single entrance. In the fynbos, one to three young are born in summer.

They are also prey for key fynbos animals such as diurnal raptors, snakes, mongooses, foxes and caracals.

Cape Mole-rats of Meadowridge Common

Cape Mole-rats (Georychus capensis) are rodents. Look at the shape of the teeth: four huge incisors typical of the rodent family. Like most rodents, they are plant eaters, burrowing through the sand in search of bulbs, corms and tubers. They excavate nesting, food storage and latrine chambers, creating the mounds of sand you can see on the Common. They use their teeth to dig, unlike the golden moles who use their feet. Their lips close sideways behind their incisors to prevent them swallowing sand.

Cape Mole-rats (at 16 cm in body length) are smaller than the Cape Dune Mole-rat (Bathyergus suillus) which can measure up to 35 cm in length and also occurs near the Common. The Cape Mole-rat has characteristic white markings on its head.

Cape Mole-rats are are solitary and territorial. They give birth to three to ten young in spring. They are preyed on by snakes and, if they venture above ground, by owls, herons, dogs and cats. Although their eyesight is poor, they turn on their attackers baring their teeth aggressively.

Their digging activities enrich the soil by adding nitrogen and magnesium, provide refuges for other species, for example to escape fire, and limit surface runoff of water by loosening the soil and increasing drainage and moisture holding capacity.

Our Cape Flats Sand Fynbos circle

Civic Honours for Roger Graham, Chairperson of the Friends of Meadowridge Common

Thinking in the box

The AGM of the Friends of Meadowridge Common is coming up next week and we have an interesting speaker, Mike Amira, who will talk about Spotted Eagle Owls and the benefits to owl conservation of placing owl boxes in areas where they occur. Anyone is welcome to attend on Thursday 6 March at 18.30 in the Meadowridge Library. Secure parking is available.

The Birds of the Pharaohs

The Friends of Meadowridge Common present a talk on

The Birds of the Pharaohs

by John Lombard: an illustrated talk that combines Egyptology and bird migration, both great interests of John’s. Egyptian tombs display 72 different birds, many of which we are familiar with in South Africa.

Join us at 6.30 pm on Thursday 28 November at the Meadowridge Library, Howard Drive to find out more about why the Egyptians were so aware of birds.

The talk will last an hour and secure parking is provided. Everyone is welcome and there is no entrance fee. Refreshments will follow the talk.

Summer on the Common

Spring is definitely turning into summer on Meadowridge Common – heralded by the ‘meitjie’ call of Klaas’s Cuckoo announcing his return from equatorial Africa. This cuckoo breeds during its summer sojourn in South Africa, then departs in March or early April. Thus Meadowridge Common plays a part in providing habitat and plenty of insects to feed visiting, and local, birds. The 12th October is World Migratory Bird Day, with a focus this year on the insects that migratory birds depend on for their intriguing journeys across the world. The Friends of Meadowridge Common will be hosting a talk on Pharaoh’s Migratory Birds by Egyptologist John Lombard (more details to follow) during November. In the meantime, join the webinar ‘Migration and Migratory Birds’ by Jessica Wilmot on 15 October, or listen to the recording on You Tube that will be up a day or two after the webinar. There is also a good article on Daily Maverick, click here, to read.

So bring your kids or dogs (and poo bags) - and have a walk on the common. Don't forget to visit our fantastic new Cape Flats Sand Fynbos Circle. Take note of the birds, plants and goggas, and if you feel inspired, photograph some and upload them on iNaturalist to make a contribution to the study and monitoring of our amazing biodiversity.

WESSA award for our Chairperson!

Congratulations to Roger Graham who was awarded a runner-up WESSA (Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa) award for individual excellence in environmental conservation and education. Roger's outstanding contribution to local citizen conservation through his leadership of the Friends of Meadowridge Common was recognized and a short video was shown highlighting his achievements. The Friends group under Roger's leadership has protected the Common's unique and critically threatened Cape Flats Sand Fynbos since its inception in 1997, and continues to champion its biodiversity to this day. Our group is also affiliated to WESSA through their friends programme.

The award was made at a WESSA function hosted by Beaumont Primary School in Somerset West on Saturday 16 March. Despite the keynote speaker from the Western Cape Dept. of Education not putting in an appearance, it was a most enjoyable and well attended ceremony and the guests and recipients of the awards (mostly eco-school awards) were treated to a tour of Beaumont Primary which has the most fantastic eco-programme which permeates everything the pupils do.

Fire, fynbos, fauna and flora

Fire, fynbos, fauna and flora - its all in the latest newsletter compiled by the Chairperson of the Friends. Click on the link below to read all about what it happening on the Common.

And save the date for our AGM on Tuesday 5 March in the the Meadowridge Library Hall at 18h00. There will be a talk on the recent wildfires in the Cape: the causes, how to fight them and how training is conducted, by Rob Erasmus.

Read our newsletter

Join us for a Leap Year Weeding Session on the Common

On Thursday 29 Feb, the Friends will be hosting a weeding session on our new Cape Flats Sand Fynbos Circle on Meadowridge Common. This FynbosLIFE restoration circle was planted last year and has survived floods and burning heat since then. Bulbs came up and flowered (and hopefully set some seed), and many of the seedlings are hanging in there, waiting for the cooler, wetter days of Autumn in order to start growing. Some are already flowering, like the rough blue sage (Salvia chamelaeagnea) and twocolour brightfig (Lampranthus bicolor). We need to keep the area free of invasive kikuyu grass and other weeds, and urgently require help from local residents and Friends. Anyone is welcome to join us, just bring a trowel and a hat; and some water as it is hot work. We welcome moral support too! Tea and biscuits will be provided.

For more information, please email Caroline or Roger at MeadowridgeFriends@gmail.com.

We have lots in Common

Join the Friends of Meadowridge Common to hear Dr Caitlin von Witt of FynbosLIFE talk about the new Sand Fynbos Circle on Meadowridge Common. Caitlin propagated fynbos plants from the Common and grew them on in the FynbosLIFE nursery until they were ready to be planted out on a specially prepared area of the Common which had become badly degraded. Now the Circle is ready to be introduced to the world - and you are invited to come and hear all about our precious Sand Fynbos and how this creative project will uplift not only the Common and the local community, but biodiversity in general.

The Friends are responsible for the upkeep of the Circle and will be needing all the help they can get from the community, especially the weeding out of invasive kikuyu grass. There are also workshops and environmental educational activities planned for the new year, so bring the family and come and hear more about the Cape Flats Sand Fynbos Circle on Monday 11 December.

Date: Monday 11 December
Time: 18h00
Venue: The parking area off Faraday Road, near the Football Club buildings.
Free entry.

For more information, contact Roger at 021 715 9206, email the Friends on Meadowridgefriend@gmail.com, visit our website at MeadowridgeCommon.blogspot.com, or search for The Friends of Meadowridge Common on Instagram or Facebook.

We need your help!

Our new Cape Flats Sand Fynbos rehabilitation circle, designed and planted by FynbosLIFE with funding from the Rowland and Leta Hill Fund, is the first phase of a project to restore the natural fynbos on Meadowridge Common by removing invasive grass and weeds and allowing the indigenous flora and fauna to return. It is hoped that this will help conserve this critically endangered fynbos type, and also promote the use of the Common as a safe place for educational and recreational activities. The Friends of Meadowridge Common, who are overseeing the project, urgently need assistance with the maintenance of the rehabilitation circle, especially with weeding invasive kikuyu grass. The Friends will be hosting weeding sessions on selected days, and will be there to supervise weeders who would like to volunteer an hour of their time to assist. Any level of fitness is enough – even if you turn up just to see what is happening on the Common.

If you would like to participate, please send your email address and/or telephone number to The Friends of Meadowridge Common at Meadowridgefriend@gmail.com and they will let you know dates and times. We will also put notices on our social media pages and on the Friends website, http://MeadowridgeCommon.blogspot.com. Or just turn up on the next weeding day with a trowel.

The next weeding sessions is on Thursday 23 November from 9h00–10h00.

What’s happening on Meadowridge Common?

Last week saw the beginnings of a rehabilitation project which aims to restore elements of Cape Flats Sand Fynbos (CFSF), the type of vegetation which once covered more than two-thirds of the Cape Flats but of which less than one percent is conserved. Meadowridge Common, being originally part of Bergvliet Farm, contains a small remnant of this type.

In January 2022, the Friends of the Meadowridge Common applied to the Rowland and Leta Hill Trust for the funding of a project which sought to rehabilitate part of the Common by planting Cape Flats Sand Fynbos which would demonstrate this particular type of biodiversity to the public.

A study of the Common, undertaken by the City’s Biodiversity Management Branch a few years before had assessed the whole area with respect to its conservation status. Some parts of the Common were less degraded than others and suited the intervention of a controlled burn in order for the seedbanks to be stimulated as well as seed being spread from the fire itself. Other areas were graded as being in a poor condition and an active restoration programme would be the best way to rehabilitate the CFSF.

Fortunately the Hill Trust granted the Friends their request and Dr Caitlin von Witt of FynbosLIFE was approached to manage a restoration project in one of the areas which is badly degraded. In the year since May 2022, cuttings and seed from plants from the Common have been propagated for the purpose of planting them on the Common in an area where for some decades alien grasses had taken over.

Now, the alien grasses have been cleared in a roughly circular area (the shape of a Protea scolymocephala flowerhead) and hundreds of plants have been planted, which, though small, will over time grow to fill the planted areas. Paths have been laid between these beds, and signage identifying the plants and their properties will be erected before the grand opening which is planned for the end of September.

Through this initiative of active restoration, The Friends hope that the value of the Common as a conservation area will be enhanced. Dr Von Witt’s aim is to involve the local residents in the planting, and maintenance of the area will be managed by the Friends. We appreciate how much the City has provided us with assistance in the undertaking of this project.

Roger Graham, Chairperson of the Friends of Meadowridge Common

Roger Graham (Chairperson of the Friends of Meadowridge Common), Caitlin von Witt (Managing Director of FynbosLIFE), Sihle Jonas and Luyanda Mjuleni (both from the City of Cape Town Parks and Recreation Department.)

AGM and the Sand Fynbos FundaFynbos project

Dr Caitlin von Witt. Photo: FynbosLife.

The AGM of the Friends of Meadowridge Common will be held on Thursday 9 March at 6.30 pm in the Meadowridge Library Hall, Howard Drive, Meadowridge. After the short business part of the evening, we will be introducing an exciting new project for the Common which will be the subject of the guest speaker, Dr Caitlin von Witt's presentation. Caitlin, who has a PhD in Botany, is the Managing Director of FynbosLIFE, a wildlife charity and non-profit organisation, run by botanists, ecologists and horticulturists. They protect and promote the City’s exceptional yet highly threatened local lowland fynbos biodiversity, through educational horticulture, habitat restoration projects, and their conservation nursery. The Friends of Meadowridge Common (with the approval of the City of Cape Town and generous funding from the Roland & Leta Hill Trust) approached Caitlin and her company with the idea of rehabilitating an extremely degraded part of Meadowridge Common by re-introducing fynbos plants from other parts of the Common and from surrounding Sand Fynbos sites, and we were thrilled when she agreed to take on the task. Caitlin is renowned for her fynbos habitat rehabilitation and we really could not have anyone better to do this. The exciting part of the project will be the accompanying information on the importance of the Common's Sand Fynbos - presented in the inimitable style of the FundaFynbos conservation education team - with community involvement and all the fun of getting to know our incredibly interesting local flora.

Please join us on Thursday 9 March to hear more about this exciting new project. Attendance is free, and refreshments will be served after the talk. For more information, please contact Roger Graham, the Chairperson of the Friends of Meadowridge Common, on 021 715 9206 or email the Friends on MeadowridgeFriend@gmail.com.

Autumn update

Thank you to all the members of the Friends of Meadowridge Common who came to the AGM which was held on Saturday 2 April. Since then we have held a successful cake and plant sale at the Meadowridge Park and Shop on Howard Drive, where more tickets for the raffle of the lovely painting of the Common by Nicholas Walker were taken. Congratulations to the winner, Pam White, and many thanks to all who took tickets, the income from which amounted to well over R2000. Bergridge Park and the Constantiaberg Bulletin are thanked for their support. Thank you too to everyone who baked or made delicious goodies for the sale, and to Erin for volunteering to sell locally indigenous plants from the Fynboslife Nursery.

The bench on the Common was given a facelift by Roger Graham, using Brian Gripper’s belt sander and the other materials that were sponsored by Illuminate Real Estate; the City provided the plugs to secure the bench.

We also participated in the international iNaturalist City Nature Challenge photographing and uploading images of the plants and animals, fungi and algae spotted on the Common. Meadowridge did amazingly well, notching up 690 observations and 252 species in total. Overall, Cape Town clocked up 66 376 observations and 3 814 species. We were fairly soundly beaten into second place by the Bolivian city of La Paz with their 138 222 observations of 4 063 species. Click here for more information.

Lanius collaris, Southern Fiskal, on the Common. Photo: Daryl de Beer, iNaturalist.

Leucadendron salignum, the Common Sunshine Conebush, on the Common. Photo: Ashton Mouton, iNaturalist.

Stegodyphus dumicola, a sociable spider, dealing with its honeybee prey. Photo: Caroline Voget, iNaturalist.

Rhodogastria amasis, the Brown Tricolour Tiger Moth on the Common. Photo: Melinda van Deventer Lottering, iNaturalist.

Last chance to win this lovely painting ...

The Friends of Meadowridge Common are holding a raffle for this framed watercolour of the Common (above) painted by well-known local artist, Nicholas Walker. Funds will go towards the upkeep of the Common and a planned Biodiversity Garden. Tickets cost R30 each and the raffle will run for a few weeks before the final draw takes place during May. If you would like to buy a ticket, please contact the Chairperson Roger Graham at 021 715 9206 or send an email to MeadowridgeFriend@gmail.com.

Farewell to Esmé Morris

Esmé Morris (right) with Luyanda Mjuleni on Meadowridge Common.

It was very sad to hear of the passing of Esmé Morris earlier this month. Esmé was involved with the Friends of Meadowridge Common for many years and it was partially through her work on the Protea Atlas Project that the Common's Critically Endangered little Cape Flats Silky Puff (Diastella proteoides) was first noticed and the Common seen for what it is - a valuable remnant of Cape Flats Sand Fynbos. See article here. Esmé had a deep and prodigious knowledge of the Cape's extraordinary sand fynbos flora and fauna, having grown up on a farm in Philippi and maintained an interest in it all her life. She has contributed immensely to the conservation of Meadowridge Common over the years, and will be greatly missed.

Raffle and cakes

The Friends of Meadowridge Common are having a cake and plant sale at the Meadowridge Park and Shop Centre on Howard Ave, Meadowridge on Saturday 7 May from 9 till 10 am to raise funds for the conservation of the Common. This will also be the last chance to buy tickets for the raffle of the beautiful framed watercolour painting of the Common by artist Nicholas Walker. Tickets are R30 each. The draw will take place shortly after the cake sale, and the winner will be contacted by the Chairperson of the Friends.

Please visit the stand to buy tickets, goodies, or donate things to sell. There will be a lovely selection of locally indigenous, waterwise fynbos plants from the Fynboslife nursery to buy, as well as honey, cakes and muffins.