Athlone Bird Count September 2015

A Pied Avocet flying over a pan.

photograph by Dick Bos.

Even though the sky was clear, the stiff South-Easter was likely to be a player for this count. The four of us set off in a good mood as usual and were met by a large flock of Pied Avocet (105). Soon after that, we recorded two flights of Black-winged Stilts, 133 birds in total. Maybe birds do not mind the wind so much?
But the wind was a player indeed. If flights took wing, they were easily scattered and that made counting a nice challenge. All in all records added up to a fairly average number of waterbirds and species. As usual Hartlaub’s Gull scored high (353) as did the Red-knobbed Coots (124).

The ‘bushbirds’ were not as prolific as usual. They were in total numbers but not in species, for example all previously recorded raptors were not seen today. And even though we only saw one Cape Weaver in their colony-tree, it was nice to see some Southern Masked Weavers building nests in the northern section.
In total 38 species were reported for MyBirdPatch and 1083 birds from 23 species for CWAC.

Many thanks to Gerhard Bothma, Gillian Ford and Fay Linder for joining this count. Many thanks also to
Mr Fred Cupido, Manager of Athlone WWTW, for permission to conduct these valuable bird surveys and to Mr Enver Manual for his support during the count.

This data is submitted to the Animal Demography Unit’s CWAC and MyBirdpatch, projects.

Counts take place on the third Thursday of every month and start at 13:00.
Anyone wanting to assist should contact;
Dick Bos on 021 423 2546 or dick@bosfoto.nl alternative bosfoto@outlook.com