The Cape Bird Club

Strandfontein – Scenario for dual land use   by Dave Whitelaw
                                                                                                             (for the Julie te Groen bequest)

Purple Heron

Promerops No 266 (May 2006)

I can find no record as to when the Cape Flats Waste Water Treatment Works was “christened” Strandfontein. I can find numerous to attest that it is a good birding area. 
Despite its artificial nature, it is recognised as an Important Bird Area (Barnes KN: IBAs of Southern Africa 1998 – ADU/BLSA publication) and carries numbers of waterfowl which are comparable to a number of internationally recognised wetlands. (Table 1) and would qualify as a Ramsar site. Although it is incorporated into the False Bay Ecology Park (which also includes Rondevlei and Zeekoevlei eastern shore – proclaimed Nature Reserves and Zeekoevlei a recreational area), it does not enjoy any conservation status. This was insisted upon by the City Council by a  request of the Engineering Dept., who expressed reservations about conservation status interfering with the functioning of the site. However after negotiations an agreement was struck that the area could be managed as a conservation site.

Demographics and Importance as an IBA.

The area covers approximately 340 ha in the Cape Floral Kingdom and contains remnants of both Dwarf Fynbos and Strandveld. This alone makes it an important site but for the purposes of this description, I shall confine my remarks to the avifauna.
271 bird species have been identified at the site. 14 of the species resident at the site comprise >1% of the national population, there are 2 nationally threatened species and 4 near threatened species.
Its relative importance in terms of numbers are presented below (Table 1)

(Taylor PB et al: Total Co-ordinated Wildfowl Counts (CWAC) 1992-97. ADU publication.)

The Present.

Strandfontein has always been a good place for “routine bird outing – fairly predictable. However even those of us who are not twitchers will have noticed the recent flurry of activity at Strandfontein. Last year saw significant numbers of Lesser Flamingo, a Pratincole and an increased number of waders. This year there was a marked increase in the number of terns roosting there and of course the ELEGANT TERN, as well as a number of lesser lights including Black Tern and Lesser Crested Tern.

There have been two major reasons for this:

• The agreement with the City council to manage the area as a conservation area is working well. We have enjoyed excellent co-operation from Michael Toll, the site manager and his team. Without their help we would not have been able to achieve anything.
• Julie te Groen, a long standing member of the Club and a hard working member of the committee left us a very generous bequest with a specific brief – to improve the biodiversity at Strandfontein.

So how was the bequest used? 
The bequestees consulted widely and after much discussion it was decided to appoint a ranger at the site. In the past 2 years a number of changes have been implemented including;

• manipulation of water levels in one of the settling pans,
• creation of a kingfisher wall, 
• berms have been fenced to protect breeding cormorants and gulls from feral dogs and cats; and
• areas have been cleared of aliens and indigenous plants reintroduced.
• more recently islands have been constructed to improve breeding opportunities.

It is seldom that any project runs smoothly and Strandfontein is no exception. Last year the ranger resigned at very short notice and as a result there was little activity. 
This year Morne Carstens has been appointed and we are confident that the project will thrive. This year management at the site has agreed to us dropping water levels in a number of pans. We can only wait and see!

Aims of the current initiative. 

These can be grouped into 2 broad categories;

• Biological – the improvement of biodiversity of the area both in the aquatic and terrestrial environments.
• In the long term we would like to see this as a means of investing in the community – to improve the area as a birding destination.
• By doing so to aid in the upliftment of the local community both directly and indirectly
• Directly – by employment at the site
• Indirectly– by stimulating the local economy through increased birding in the area.

Future Plans.

These  include; 

• Dropping water levels in other pans,
• Construction of additional islands, artificial nesting sites for Shelduck,
• Erection of dead trees as perching, roosting and nesting to attract species such as Fish Eagle and possibly Osprey.
• The better regulation of mud islands with a view to producing conditions suitable for breeding of species such as Flamingo and Caspian Tern (both have shown breeding behaviour and the flamingo have been observed building nest mounds.
• The reconstruction of an island used as a breeding site by a number of cormorants species.
• Increasing the area available for birds which nest in burrows.
• Eradicating aliens plant species and the introduction of indigenous species.
• Strandfontein pans are well populated by exotic fish species – large scale Carp. It is postulated that these fish being bottom feeders generate silt and may inhibit certain species. The local piscatorial society has been approached and in principle they have agreed to help in eliminating the species from a selected pan. They will be replaced by indigenous species to produce a new habitat – a clear water pan containing fish.
• The modification of one of the pans as described above.
• Clearing of sites to allow for fishing and fishing competitions
• The initiation of a ringing programme
• Analysis of water to determine why certain species are attracted to certain ponds. This information will hopefully allow us to maintain biodiversity.

And the list goes on and on.

Finally the terms of the bequest is very specific improve biodiversity. We have taken legal advice and have been advised to interpret this in the narrow sense.
This means we do not have funds to equip ourselves with items such as a vehicle, bush cutters etc construction of an education centre.

Donor suport welcome.

We have opened a specific bank account for Strandfontein. Anyone who feels they would like to support this project is invited to send a donation to,

The Treasurer,
P.O.Box 5022,
Cape Town,
8000.

or deposit it directly into the,

Nedbank – Claremont
CBC Acc No: 1046380400
Branch No 104609

We hope to add a Strandfontein option to the BLSA renewal notice as another method of supporting the project. Finally I should add that we have already received handsome donations from Gerhard Verdoorn and Jan Fourie – the Director and Chairman of BLSA respectively.