Prayers for our water birds answered as more rains fall.

Think about SANBI’s nine National Botanical Gardens for a moment, about how much rain they received recently and then spare a thought for our Garden, the Free State NBG. Rainfall here is relatively low (averaging at about 564 mm per annum), received mainly in the form of thunderstorms in summer.

The historical manmade dam in the Garden helps to attract wildlife and also large numbers of human visitors to the Garden, but its level was getting low. After recent heavy rainfall, however, the dam is now overflowing – a wonderful sight.

This is good news for birds and other wildlife living in and around the dam. Just before the rain, when you walked along the path along the dam in the evening, you could see the ducks, other birds and fishes gathering together as if praying for the rain to come. The good news is that rain has finally fallen and that the dam is now spilling over. This is beneficial to biodiversity and to the ecosystem since we all agree that water is life.