Projects of the Avian Demography Unit

CWAC - Coordinated Waterbirds Counts

Report on Winter 2001 CWAC at Leeupan and Barberspan, North-West Province

Henk Bouwman

I finally tallied the counts for these two sites in the North West Province, and what a count!

Barberspan had a very high water level, due to good winter rains, and the place was crawling with all sorts. The total was 19 317 birds! Beat that. The Redknobbed Coots again ran the show with 13 648, followed by Egyptian Geese with 1717. We counted a total of 53 species, with Black Headed Gulls (6) and Ruff (2) being quite nice ones to add. The Goliath Herons seem to like the place and we saw 19 of them!

In one area there was a flock of geeses, cootses and duckses (a total of more that a 1000!) that was approached with great trepidation, as any disturbance would mean a recount. We stopped quite far and started counting. Suddenly groups of birds were flying up and down, giving us a real headache. The cause was a Fish Eagle (of which we counted 13!) playing havoc with our sanity, and the supposed serenity that unspoiled wetlands should invoke. At one stage a flock of Greater Flamingos took off in the path of a flock (pyramid?) of Egyptian Geese. There were two mid-air collisions, both of which ended with huge splashes of flamingo in the water. At least one was probably injured as it had to swim to shore. A suggestion to Sampie van der Merwe (the warden) to solve the cause of the disturbance (that is the Fish Eagle that was renamed as a new species, namely the $%#@ Fish Eagle) with a shotgun, was not well received, and we had to do with a recount that was not entirely satisfactory.

Leeupan was a revelation. Only 1 km north of Barberspan, it was as full as I have ever seen (I have seen it bone dry before). Now it was almost 10 km long! We could not cover most of the shore due to accessibility (we got stuck as well!), but counted 3684 birds of 25 species - Egyptian Geese (2007) and Spurwinged Geese (231) were the larger birds, with Blacknecked Grebe (25) and Fish Eagle (5) providing nice surprises. Due to the high water level, the salinity was diluted and few of the flamingoes were present.

At both sites we failed to see Chestnutbanded Plovers (also none in January) and it seems as if they must all be at the coast, judging from the recent reports of unusually large numbers at places like Port Elizabeth.

Thanks to all the counters and drivers, and especially to Sampie for all the arrangements. I actually managed to bring my boss along (Prof Huib van Hamburg). On the way he said that the only thing that he could count were coots - and did he count!

Sampie van der Merwe, of the North West Parks & Tourism Board, is the Park Warden at Barberspan Nature Reserve. His phone number is 082 4439777, and he is very happy to provide information to visiting birders.