Birding News
Birdlife Botswana release Makgadikgadi IBA report
20/10/2010: Birdlife Botswana have released the 2009 report for the Makgadikgadi Pans IBA. Authored by G McCulloch, P Hancock, J Soopu and L Rutina, this is the first report of it's kind to be released. Part 1 deals with the state of the Makgadikgadi Pans IBA, with particular emphasis on the ‘trigger’ species of birds that ‘qualify’ the area as an IBA.
Part 2 focuses on pressures or threats to the IBA - these were originally identified by Tyler
and Bishop (1998), but some of these have been superceded and a current set of issues has
been identified through fieldwork. These threats are ranked so that they can be incorporated
into the World Bird Database (WBDB).
Part 3 of the report describes the conservation actions undertaken in response to the identified
threats. These actions are a measure of progress made towards addressing or mitigating the
threats. The actions are also objectively ranked for incorporation in the WBDB.
Read the full report (2.3Mb PDF file)
Receding floods create a paradise for visiting Palearctics
16/09/2010: The receding floodwaters of this year's monster flood are leaving vast expanses of exposed mudflats that will provide enourmous feeding grounds for the early migrants this year. With the largest floods since the mid-sixties the recently flooded plains are home to billions of tiny invertebrates which form the majority of the diet for our Palearctic waders during the southern summer. Although the influx has only just begun the following month should see some great birding particularly along the fringes of the central and eastern-central delta. There is little doubt that 2010/11 season will produce some really special birding and very likely some surprising passage migrants. The image on the right shows the Letaka Safaris plot where BirdingSafaris.Com is headquartered, in a 'normal' flood year the river is contained in the channel to the left of the white point now formed by the flood wall around the plot (bottom right hand quadrant). We now live on what is, to all intents and purposes, a real Okavango island!
Savuti (Savute) - Chobe National Park
01/08/2010: For the first time in almost 30 years the Savuti Channel is flowing again. The Savuti Channel connects the Selinda Spillway to the Savuti Marsh after 80 meandering kilometres. The Savuti Marsh is the rightful owner of the title "Jewel of the Kalahari" which has been usurped by the equally spectacular Okavango Delta since the drying up of the Savuti Channel. Spectacular as the delta is, it is the Savuti Marsh which, from the air, really looks like an emerald set in the golden wasteland of the Kalahari. For nigh on 30 years the marsh has been a vast semi-arid grassland supporting a limited number of herbivores able to exist on the limited water supplies. This year with the channel flowing into the marsh once again there is likely to be an unforgettable birding spectacle when the palearctic migrants arrive to find mudflats that stretch for kilometres along the advancing 'shoreline'. Because there is no established aquatic vegetation along the shoreline the visible birdlife will be astonishing and there will very likely be more than a few rarities turning up from October 2010 and onwards.
