Botriver CWAC - 20th anniversary

The Co-ordinated Water Avian Count or CWAC for short, is carried out on hundreds of water bodies across South Africa twice a year.  Today was the winter count for the Botriver Estuary near Kleinmond in the Western Cape.

It's a relatively early start with the counters meeting at 08h30 at the Kleinmond beach.  Our first job was to count the birds that were present in the shallow lagoon next to the car park and the beach.

Hartlaub's Gull, Little Grebe, White-breasted Cormorant, Cape Cormorant, Giant Kingfisher and Pied Kingfisher were among the birds listed there.

Among the many Hartlaub's Gulls, we found this lovely bird that kept us guessing for a while.  It turned out to be a juvenile Grey-headed gull.

The next job was to check the river that connects the Botriver estuary to the small lagoon.  Every time I have been to Kleinmond before, this river has been full and it was impossible to walk down it but today, the water was very low and the mud flats were exposed.  We were therefore able to walk down and count the birds we found there which included Greater Flamingo, Purple Swamphen, African Spoonbill, Water Thick-knee, Common Moorhen and a Purple Heron.

Sometimes it is necessary to attempt a semi-split to be able to spot birds far away :), like these 3 Greater Flamingos.

Once the mud flats started disappearing under the water, we detoured onto the beach and crossed the river on a wooden bridge.  The wind had come up at this point and we had a few near misses of hats flying into the water.  The wind sure can pump on this coast.

Having counted everything we could see on that side, we drove a few km up the main road, out of Kleinmond, to Rooisand Nature Reserve to continue.

This reserve encompasses the western side of the Botriver estuary and we were to count our half of it.  Another team would be counting from the other end.

We started off counting the birds on the shore of the estuary itself.  Helmeted Guineafowl, Reed cormorant, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Pied Kingfisher, Blacksmith Lapwing, White-breasted Cormorant and Yellow-billed duck were among the many birds found there.

In the grass next to the wooden boardwalk, we had good views of a beautiful Cape Longclaw.

We took quite a long walk all around the north side of the estuary to the quarry which was our mark to stop.  Not many birds were seen on the water due to the very strong wind blowing at the time.  Some cormorants, Cape Teal, Yellow-billed Duck and Hartlaub's Gulls were recorded.  By now it was lunch time and time to head back to the cars for refreshments.

By the time we walked back to the car, Lesley Teare's team had arrived having finished their count.  They joined us for our lunch and then walked along the boardwalk with us to the lovely big bird hide which was our next counting point.

Although we are there to count birds, it is always great to see one of the horses from the wild horse herds.  There are two herds that occupy this reserve.  No one cares for them or owns them and they survive perfectly on their own.  I have seen them a number of times when coming to bird on the reserve.

The section in front of the hide was full of birds.  Lovely African Spoonbills, Hartlaub's gulls, Little Egrets, African Black Oyster-catcher, Three-banded Plover, Cape Shoveler, Red-bill Teal and many more were waiting to be counted.  A Rock Kestrel and a Jackal Buzzard flew over to be added to the list.  Shortly another counting group, one led by Mariana Delport, the organiser of this CWAC, arrived to tell us they had spotted an Osprey in the parking lot!! We were not impressed that we had missed that one.  They also saw a Buttonquail on the road leading down to the reserve!! Two lifers missed, not good for me.

Slavi, Helene and Beverly updating the list

At last we were done and we could sit back and just enjoy watching the birds feeding and being what they are... birds.  The hide is very big and comfortable and it is enjoyable to sit there quietly and take in everything around you.

Mariana then gave us a little talk about it being the 20th anniversary of counting water birds on this estuary and that she and Beverly are the only two left from the original group who started.  Quite an achievement.  Twenty years of valuable data in the bag!  We then compiled the joint total bird list and there were 99 different species on the list at the end.  Not bad for a mornings birding.

Mariana and Beverly, two of the original CWACers from 20 years ago

And so ended a very enjoyable birding morning.  I love being out with my fellow birders who love and appreciate the birds as much as I do.  Looking forward to the next one, in January 2014!  See you all then.

L-R:  Karin, Marlize, Linda Stephens, Helene Thompson, Slavi Pombo, Robyn Kadis, Jane van der Heever

For more information on the CWAC, feel free to navigate to their web page here.  They also have a Facebook page which you can get to here.