Project visit to Oursi

In March, Oursi was visited by members of the French Committee of IUCN, which is supervising the NATURAMA project on the Oursi Wetland Conservation Plan. The project is funded by the Small Initiatives Programme (PPI) of the French Global Environment Fund (FFEM), WWF, Vogelbescherming Nederland, the Swedish International Biodiversity Programme (SwedBio) and BirdLife International. Among others, the team checked on the status of hedges planted to stabilise wetland banks, and the community tree nursery. The project implementation was found well developed and further recommendations, including a zoning plan for Oursi, were presented.

New bird counts from Oursi

From 21-23 February, a team of local birdwatchers and members of NATURAMA (BirdLife International partner organisation in Burkina Faso) conducted another bird count at a number of sites in the region, focusing on wetland birds. At Oursi, the impressive number of 52,561 waterbirds in 35 species was recorded. The most common species were White-faced Tree-Duck (16,843 birds) and Knob-billed Goose (15,285), followed by Spur-winged Goose (8272), Fulvous Tree-Duck (7483) and Ruff (1273). Other species that also occur in Cambridgeshire include 573 Garganey, 4 Little Grebe, 31 Grey Herons, 6 Little Egrets, 510 Marsh Harriers, 154 Moorhens, 25 Little Ringed-Plover, 7 Ringed Plover, 10 Little Stint, 7 Common Snipe, 203 Black-tailed Godwit, 50 Redshank, 1 Green Sandpiper, 53 Wood Sandpiper, 52 Common Sandpiper and 171 Yellow Wagtails.