Lagoon bird count ‘a flying success’

A TOTAL of 103 900 birds were recorded in the annual winter bird count at the Walvis Bay lagoon recently.

Keith Wearne, who organised the count, said it was decided to divide the wetland into three areas to ensure more efficient monitoring. The three areas and the number of birds counted were:Walvis Bay lagoon 25 300, mud flats and Pelican Point 9 400 and the salt pans 69 200.Wearne said the mud flats and Pelican Point area carried at least three times the number of birds during summer.The salt pans are home to most of the resident and intra-African birds.In winter they are in the majority as the adult palaearctic birds head off to breed in the Northern Hemisphere.They will only return in September.Wearne attributed the good count to the large number of Greater Flamingos and Black-necked Grebe, which totalled 56 800 birds or about 54 per cent of the count.”The Greater Flamingos seem to have bred well in Etosha with 540 juveniles observed,” said Wearne.The species with the largest numbers counted are: Greater Flamingos (43 700, including the 540 juveniles), Lesser Flamingos (26 500), Black-necked Grebe (13 000), Chestnut-banded Plover (5 500) and Pied Avocet (3 700).The record number of Lesser Flamingos counted last year was not matched this time as they have not yet returned.Apparently thousands of adult birds are still in the pans in Botswana.The other peculiarity, said Wearne, was that only 1 300 Curlew Sandpiper were counted.He cannot recall such a low count ever and attributes it to a possible poor breeding season in 2003, insufficient food as, at low tide, the sand between the Raft and Lovers Hill seems to be devoid of polychaete worms that normally live in the top five centimetres of sand, or that they have moved to another area such as Sandwich Harbour.The next count will be on January 22 and 23 2005.The three areas and the number of birds counted were:Walvis Bay lagoon 25 300, mud flats and Pelican Point 9 400 and the salt pans 69 200.Wearne said the mud flats and Pelican Point area carried at least three times the number of birds during summer.The salt pans are home to most of the resident and intra-African birds.In winter they are in the majority as the adult palaearctic birds head off to breed in the Northern Hemisphere.They will only return in September.Wearne attributed the good count to the large number of Greater Flamingos and Black-necked Grebe, which totalled 56 800 birds or about 54 per cent of the count.”The Greater Flamingos seem to have bred well in Etosha with 540 juveniles observed,” said Wearne.The species with the largest numbers counted are: Greater Flamingos (43 700, including the 540 juveniles), Lesser Flamingos (26 500), Black-necked Grebe (13 000), Chestnut-banded Plover (5 500) and Pied Avocet (3 700).The record number of Lesser Flamingos counted last year was not matched this time as they have not yet returned.Apparently thousands of adult birds are still in the pans in Botswana.The other peculiarity, said Wearne, was that only 1 300 Curlew Sandpiper were counted.He cannot recall such a low count ever and attributes it to a possible poor breeding season in 2003, insufficient food as, at low tide, the sand between the Raft and Lovers Hill seems to be devoid of polychaete worms that normally live in the top five centimetres of sand, or that they have moved to another area such as Sandwich Harbour.The next count will be on January 22 and 23 2005.