Swakop River Mouth Bird Count March

Today we counted the birds at the small lagoon at the Swakop River Mouth. I have been writing about the Swakop River in earlier posts. Having had a significant flood event this year, where the river reached the Atlantic Ocean, the whole system has changed. This bird count was significant because it was the first monthly count of the river bed since the river flowed.

I mentioned before that the very high tides had flooded into the lagoon. Today it was clear that this has had a major impact. I didn't take notes, and so I don't have actual numbers to give, but it was certainly clear that the total number of birds had gone down significantly. There was only one grater flamingo, very few waders and generally less birds.

Should we be concerned? Probably not. We will have to wait and see what happens over the next few months. It is a really small wetland, and elsewhere nobody would be to concerned at all, but obviously we are in a desert here, and wetlands are few and far between. One wetland out of the loop, so to speak, could be a significant problem. We don't know, but we will certainly learn more as the year goes on.

For now there are still lots of pool in the river bed. But as time goes on these may dry. It is still rainy seasons, and perhaps the whole river could reach the ocean another time. Many of the birds such as Ducks, Teals and Coots may be holding out in these bits of water further up the river for the time being.

So, for now there are really more questions than answers about what the river has done to the system and the overall wetland status here at the coast. It is interesting, though, to be watching while it all happens.

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More on Swakop River

In reference to my previous post on the Swakop river flooding, I thought I would just post a link for those interested in the area, but who have not visited Namibia yet. I plan to spend a good bit of time birding the Swakop River mouth over the next week or so to see what happens, and will, of course, blog about what is going on.

The best place for information about a lot of what I talk about is the NACOMA website, and specifically the page 'walk our coast.'

The Namibian, a prominent Namibian newspaper, had a story about the Swakop River reaching the Atlantic.

That whole page contains lots of information about Namibia's coastline, and for any traveler planning to visit the region, it is certainly worth reading.

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Swakop River's 2009 flooding

The exitment around here for the last week or so has been our rivers. In Namibia all the rivers between the northern border and southern border are dry river beds. The rivers flow most years at least a little, but it's once in years, or even once in decades that the rivers actually reach the ocean.

At the coast we have two rivers in the vicinity of Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. The Kuiseb is just south of Walvis Bay, and it has nearly flooded into the lagoon. The Swakop river is here, just south of Swakopmund. Swakopmund's name comes from this river, the 'mund' being 'mouth.'

For us as birders there are aditional reasons for the interest. The river flows through the little wetland at the river mouth. Basically it's a bit like pressing a reset button. The whole system gets flushed out, and a somewhat new wetland is created. It all depends on how much water comes down and with how much power. This year it also depends on the human impact, digging trenches to encourage the river to flow out to the ocean.

We watched and watched. Everyone kept talking about the river coming down. It hasn't had a good flood into the Atlantic since 2000, so you can imagine that it's a big deal.

On Friday I went down with my boys. They had cut a long channel in the river bed. I am not too sure that it is a good thing. Anyway, the paper had said the river had already flowed, but when we were there, it certainly hadn't.

The man in the photograph is Dr. Hu Berry, a rather well known conservationist and guide in Namibia. Read more about him here. Him and his wife were also there to check it out when we got down there.

Hu walking down the channel cut for the river on Friday

The river made it to the ocean later. It was fun walking around there the next day. The river had already dropped and clay was left where the river had flooded at it's highest. Full of bird's tracks.

The birds had changed remarkably little at a casual glance. I will, of course, be watching each day.

Everyone comes out to check it out, and the kids, including mine, have a good time in the river.

The ocean has washed very high over the last couple of days, and there were some images in the newspapers. I haven't been back to the river mouth, but will try to pop down tomorrow. It may be, if the river flooded so high, that salt water went into the small wetland at the mouth. I am not sure how significant this will be environmentally.

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