Walvis Bay Birding trip

Most of my birding is done around Swakopmund, but today I went to Walvis Bay for a morning birding at the Lagoon. It wasn't a great time of day because the tide was in, but I still had a good time birding.

Birds for the day: Hartluab's Gull, Common Tern, Kelp Gull, Cape Cormorant, Greater Flamings, Pied Avocet, Cape Wagtail, Grey Plover, Common Greenshank, Grey-headed Gull, Common Whimbrel, Sanderlings, White-fronted Plover, Common Sandpiper (only one,) Cape Teal (Huge numbers of them,)Little Egret, Caspian Tern, Grey Heron, Black-necked Grebe, Ruddy Turnstone, White-breasted Cormorant, Ruff, Little Stint, Common Ringed Plover, Chestnut Banded Plover (a fair number,) Red Knot (only a couple,) Bar-tailed Godwit and thousands upon thousands of Curlew Sandpiper.

Amongst others, the Curlew Sandpipers appear to have their first hint of breeding plumage. For those of you in the northern hemisphere, this means summer is on it's way!

What I missed: Lesser Flamingos. They are often more numerous on the salt pans south of the Lagoon. I saw a distant bunch of pink and I presume those were Lessers. It is different from other areas, because the salt supports more algae blooms, it's better food for the lessers. The small shrimps and things the Greaters eat are more abundant in the regular lagoon. Kittlitz's Plover an Three-banded Plover (I must have seen them, but didn't write it down, and can't actually remember one,)

Notable others that I missed, Swift, Damara, Black and Sandwich terns. I am sure there were good numbers of them around, just not a good time to see them. Marsh Sandpiper would have been nice. As would a phalarope or two. But I didn't see any of those. No rare or unusuals either.

It is really such a pleasure to bird the lagoon. It is a very vast area and round the back I was mostly totally alone. Great morning outing!

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