COORDINATED AVIFAUNAL ROAD COUNTS (CAR)

Summer 2006 count

Thank you!

Thank you all so much for counting your routes again and for sending through your roadcount forms so promptly. This was of particular help this time, as I was able to check forms during the many power cuts earlier this year. I have also really appreciated receiving photographs of the habitat on some routes. This is particularly helpful in areas which I am not familiar with and will be a useful way of recording land use and changes in habitat.

You have also been fantastic in remembering the new abbreviations for species which have had name changes- thank you!

The weather!

I realised afresh how incredibly blessed we have been with the weather for most CAR counts over the last 13 years. This last summer was the first count that it has been necessary to postpone the count over quite large areas. My heart sank when Brian Colahan phoned me on Friday morning, the day before the count, to say that they had received heavy rain and were due to receive more, so the roads were already impassable. So a big thank you to Brian, who spent all day on the phone re-scheduling the counts for about 100 routes and to all the Free State participants for re-arranging their lives! I was in touch with a number of Precinct Organisers in the summer rainfall area that day and counts in the northeastern Cape and Wakkerstroom precincts were also affected. The roads in the Wakkerstroom district were impassable after over 500 mm of rain in January, so it was only possible to count 3 routes. Judy Lynn Wheeler did make several attempts to re-schedule the counts, but rain persisted. I do appreciate the lengths that you go to complete CAR routes, for example travelling an extra 66 km to reach the other side of a flooded river!

Some highlights from summer count

Allert Bijleveld and Linda Tsipa, who assisted me counting on a very dry Overberg route

As you can see from the updated trends on the website (click on CAR, click on Blue Crane at the foot of the CAR webpage), the density of Blue Cranes is still on the increase in the Overberg and the Swartland. Very dry conditions prevailed in both precincts, with many comments that most dams were dry. This was best expressed on the phone by Elna Slabber, who coordinates the Swartland routes, 'dit is verskriklik droog, nêrens water wat loop of staan'. I was encourgaged when Elna remarked that people are much more aware of birds, often mentioning how many Blue Cranes they have seen. Not many White storks were seen in the Overberg, with 169 being the highest total on Keith and Michelle Moodie's route, OV08. However Jan Hofmeyr recorded 430 on the pig farm near Tygerberg Zoo.

I received a data request for species on a route in the Overberg from Andrew Jenkins. This route criss-crosses an area for a proposed powerline between Riversdale and Swellendam. The fact that habitat is recorded during counts, was very helpful in explaining the results. So I do encourage you to keep recording habitat.

In the Beaufort West precinct Stefan Theron remarked on the disappointing number of birds, probably due to the dispersal of birds after widespread rain. Maria Andela was unable to complete her route, as a very muddy riverbed prevented crossing.

In the Uniondale precinct White Storks were only recorded on 2 routes and Mike Euston-Brown expressed surprise that they didn't have any, especially after recording 859 a few years ago. There was however a Ludwig's Bustard on their route. After a disappointing recce in July, a new route near Wilderness produced 47 White Storks, 2 Denham's Bustards and 25 Black-headed Herons.

Tea break on EH06 with observers (left to right) Maggie Keulemans, Yvonne Craig and Desmond Ponti, game guard from Thula Moya Nature Reserve, checking the area before moving off

In the northeastern Cape most counts were re-scheduled due to rain on the CAR day. Les and Adrian Larter saw seven different species on their route, EE17. Bo Bonnevie also saw seven different species on his route EG03, including 298 White Stork. In the Humansdorp precinct there was a noticeable drop in numbers from the last few summers, probably due to extensive fires in the area in November last year followed by a dry season. A strong wind during the count probably also affected numbers. However, Wendy Rosser and her team recorded 363 White Storks. On routes EP06 and EP09 in the Fish River Valley, there has been a significant change in crops again, due to the low mealie price. Last year there was about 70/30 maize, but this year 70/30 lucerne. As there have been good rains the area was lush and the lucerne almost high enough to conceal storks! Ken and Jen Munro recorded high numbers, as in previous years when lucerne predominated, 1077 White Stork on EP06 and 564 on EP09.

View on KO01, the Calverley's route near Melmoth, KZN. Is a Secretarybird nest on the central tree!

Visibility was restricted in KwaZulu-Natal by very tall grass following a very wet summer. In the Dundee precinct Heino Wellmann recorded two White-bellied Korhaan. Tony Roberts, who coordinates this precinct, remarked that the Helmeted Guineafowl populations are growing nicely. In the East Griqualand precinct Bob and Judi Williams saw a pair of Grey Crowed Crane parents with three big chicks! They were able to confirm with the farmer that they were from same parents, when checking on them at a later stage. Two Goliath Herons were seen on Kobus Nel's route, KG07. It was encouraging to see that there were many more Wattled Cranes (23) back on Pat and Bruce Whittle's route on the Dorning's farm. Ken Gordon also recorded Wattled Crane(2) on his route KL01. Alan and Bernadine Turner saw a Red-necked Spurfowl on their route KM05. In the Underberg precinct Carol Horne recorded 247 White Storks on KU02, the highest total in KZN. Chris Thomas remarked on the unusual sighting of European Roller on both Underberg routes, Shirley Bennett and Evelyn Hughes also saw one on their Midlands route, KM01.

In Mpumalanga it was encouraging to see that Bald Ibis were recorded on all routes except one in the new Chrissiesmeer precinct. Grey Crowned Cranes were recorded on two routes. One route, MC06, was incomplete due to flooding and Craig Nelson also encountered flooded rivers, but was able to get to the other side via a 66 km detour! The Standerton routes were counted two weeks late due to the heavy rain. Colin Williams saw 30 Swainson's Spurfowl on his route MT02. In the Steenkampsberg precinct the numbers were generally above average for a summer count. Hendrik van Wyk had the highlight of five Denham's Bustard on his route, MS06. On MS07 Bryan and Alice Rowland spotted one Wattled Crane. Of special interest were two oribi sightings, each with 3 animals, including 2 juveniles.

Flooding on a Chrissiesmeer route, MC04

In the Gauteng province we had the incredible achievement of 17 routes counted, despite the fact that the routes were planned in dry, winter conditions. A huge thank you to Craig Whittington-Jones for all his efforts in organisng the counting of so many new routes. The large terrestrial bird species diversity is low in this province with mostly Northern Black Korhaan, Black-headed Heron, Helmeted Guineafowl and Spur-winged Goose being recorded. Habitat transformation has been extensive, so it is very important to keep track of bird numbers. Rouxdene Deysel saw two Yellow-billed Storks on their route in the Devon area. A single Blue Crane was recorded in this province, on a route in the area of the World Heritage Site, Cradle of Humankind.

The Karoo Large Terrestrial Bird Survey went smoothly, with 25 routes counted. Sterrie Marais saw eight Secretarybirds on his route, NK01. Francois Taljaard recorded 34 Blue Cranes feeding on an Opuntia (turksvy) land on NK04. There were 28 Ludwig's Bustards on Ronelle Visagie's route, NK23, the majority within 4 km.

Brian Colahan has many roadcount forms to gather in, about 100, so I haven't received the Free State data yet.

Scenery on FN39, Peter Millin's route in the northeastern Free State

Priorities for this year

James Harrison and I met earlier this year to look at priorities for CAR. I sent out a report on this meeting to all Precinct Organisers, but briefly we will be focusing on:

1 Updating the trends of all species by the end of this year.

Amazingly it is now five years since the data used for the eight-year report was collected! A major task for me before we can update these trends, is to capture all the new routes ( about 170!) onto GIS so that we can calculate the GIS length of each route (we need the GIS length to calculate birds/100 km).

I have updated the trends for different species for some precincts where we do have GIS lengths. These are already on the CAR webpage (click on the following species names: Blue Crane, Grey Crowned Crane Secretarybird, Denham's Bustard and White Stork in the table at the foot of the CAR webpage).

2 Pursuing funding initiatives

As we are all aware funding is still a major problem. There is more hope this year with some collaborative projects proposed. But this is still an area which consumes my time. We have just received the wonderful news that the South African Crane Working Group has received funding from the Darwin Initiative, so CAR will be receiving some funding over the next three years in return for providing trends in numbers of cranes. James and I spent last week writing a funding proposal after receiving a call for proposals through the Cape Action for People and the Environment (CAPE) e-newsletter.

3 Maintenance and growing the network

In order to maintain the project feedback is of vital importance in the form of newsletters, these website reports, email and articles in local newspapers. Thank you for positive comments about the CAR leaflet, we hope to receive funding to be able to increase our feedback to landowners. Some of you may have seen the very brief snippet about CAR on 50/50 after the summer count. I was sorry that more detail was not covered, but hopefully it has increased awareness of the project and these special birds.

At a later point the CAR database may be available online and it will then be possible to conduct online queries. This has already been developed for the Birds in Reserves project, but this will be a much more complex process for CAR and will definitely be in the future! (If you visit the website www.birds.sanbi.org you can get species lists for reserves, or reserves in which species have been reported etc. at the click of a mouse!) We also aim to integrate the databases for the various projects so that a more 'complete picture' is obtained

Growing the network

As mentioned earlier the most significant growth has taken place in the Gauteng province. In the Savannah Biome BirdLife Lowveld are looking at setting up routes in Kruger. Some of 'gaps' have been filled in the Eastern Cape.

Links with other organisations:

A number of organisations are involved directly in the project and CAR certainly benefits from association with these organisations. It is important to maintain and develop these links - without the dedication and commitment of many people this project would not exist.

All the best until the next newsletter that will be posted out towards the end of June. The winter count is scheduled for July 29th. Thank you for your generosity and perseverance in managing all the challenges that CAR counts bring, in weather and roads and wear and tear - I see there was one puncture on this last count!