28 January 2024

The Summer CWAC count was done on a glorious Sunday morning – perfect weather for counting birds. As usual, we started off by the Green Hub at the Umgeni River and walked up to the Blue Lagoon groyne at the mouth. At first we didn’t see many birds – just the usual White-breasted Cormorants on the sandbanks, with a few gulls, Swift and Common terns. However, a little scanning revealed six Water Thick-knees among the debris and, more excitingly, three African Black Oystercatchers resting quietly. Further along, on the sea-facing part of the dune, we managed to find many small plovers with the help of telescopes, counting 38 Common Ringed Plovers and five White-fronted Plovers.

From there, we headed west along the south bank to the Athlone Bridge to check out the birds roosting on the sandbank next to Windsor Park golf course. As expected, they were mostly Blacksmith Lapwings and Egyptian Geese, along with Grey Herons and White-breasted Cormorants. We managed to accumulate five Common Sandpipers in the end, as well as nine Common Greenshanks, but nowhere near the numbers of migrant waders that we used to get. Even the Little Egrets and Sacred Ibis were in small numbers only, and there were no Woolly-necked Storks this time.

Having exhausted this area, we drove around to the Umgeni Bird Park and checked the river from near the Connaught bridge. We found the usual African Fish Eagles, three in all, and watched the Village Weavers build their nests in the fever trees, along with a single Lesser Masked Weaver. We also had brief views of a Malachite Kingfisher and a Giant Kingfisher, but things were generally quiet. Our final total was 311 waterbirds of 26 species, a very poor summer count, characterised by very low numbers of terns compared to previous years.

As usual, we then moved to the Durban Bayhead Natural Heritage site, arriving at low tide with extensive mudflats. Here, we were pleasantly surprised to find substantial numbers of waders, and Dave Rimmer and I set to with the telescopes to scan from side to side to count the numerous small birds in the heat haze. There were the usual frustrations when groups of birds decided to move, requiring starting from the beginning again. The majority of the birds were Common Ringed Plovers, estimated at 272, with 46 Common Greenshanks and 46 Curlew Sandpipers, which we have not had in such numbers at Bayhead for some time. Quite exciting were two Common Whimbrels, four Grey Plovers and four Terek Sandpipers, the latter being lifers for some people. 

We walked to the end of the “beach” to peer around the corner as the tide turned and added four Great White Pelicansin flight and one Pink-backed Pelican on the water. We had the usual display of piscivores – three African Fish Eagles, one a subadult, and two Western Ospreys that were actively hunting. We then headed back to the mangroves, now rather hot and sweaty, and waited for the tide to push the birds closer. However, they chose rather to move away and we soon decided that we had managed to count everything that we could. In the end our total count was 425 waterbirds of 19 species, an excellent summer total by the standards of recent years, and very pleasing to see the numbers and variety of species of the waders back at Bayhead.

Thanks to all the club members who came along to help, and especially Dave for helping with some of the trickier distant birds.

Steve Davis