Monday, 3 May 2010
Waterbird counts at Oursi, Burkina Faso, November 2009-March 2010
With support from the Cambridgeshire Bird Club, the local bird club at Oursi and Naturama (the BirdLife partner organisation in Burkina Faso) have undertaken monthly waterbird counts at Oursi from November 2009 to March 2010. The most numerous birds were White-faced Whistling Duck (58,000 birds, with a maximum of 16,000 in February), Ruff (36,700 individuals, with peaks of 12,000 in January and 10,000 in February), Garganey (35,400, peaking at 12,600 in January), Black-tailed Godwit (33,500, with 11,700 in January), Spur-winged Goose (a total of 23,400), Fulvous Whistling Duck (18,700), Knob-billed Duck (14,100), Purple Swamp-hen (12,100), Cattle Egret (9,900), Spotted Redshank (3,800), Black-winged Stilt (2,400) and Glossy Ibis (1,650). Other species recorded in smaller numbers included 846 Grey Herons, 21 Purple Herons, 71 Squacco Herons, 62 Great and 113 Little Egrets, 101 Greenshank, 615 Wood Sandpiper, 185 Marsh Sandpiper, 107 Common Sandpiper, 43 Green Sandpiper, 12 Eurasian and 7 African Spoonbills, 107 Ringed and 89 Little Ringed Plover, 32 Common and 19 Jack Snipe, 253 Little Stint, 43 Moorhens, 9 White Storks, 111 Marsh and 6 Montagu’s Harriers.
Monday, 8 February 2010
October 2009 bird count at Oursi
Our partner bird club undertook another inventory of birds at Oursi in October 2009 (see postings on previous counts). The count included 14 transects. A total of 13,045 wetland birds in 29 species were counted. The most common waterbird was once again White-faced Whistling Duck with 7634 individuals, followed by Garganey (1470), Cattle Egret (1209), Knob-billed Duck (621), Spur-winged Goose (478), Black-winged Stilt (471), Ruff (233), Spur-winged Plover (227) and Glossy Ibis (184). Other species well-known to us include 96 Grey Heron, 94 Wood Sandpiper, our logo bird Black-tailed Godwit (26 individuals), 11 Moorhen, 7 Marsh Harrier, 6 Yellow Wagtails, 5 Ringed Plover, 5 Greenshank, 2 Little and 2 Great White Egrets and a single Jack Snipe.
In the dry areas, a total of 3711 birds in 59 species were counted. This includes some wetland birds as well. The most common species here were 1707 Red-billed Queleas, 530 Four-banded Sandgrouse, 262 Turtle Doves, 185 Cattle Egrets, 106 White-throated Bee-eaters, 102 Spur-winged Geese and 116 Grey-headed Sparrows. Also found were 10 Woodchat Shrikes, 9 Hoopoes, 9 Bonelli’s Warblers, 7 Ring-necked Parakeets, 6 Common Whitethroats, 6 Spotted Flycatchers, 3 Egyptian Vultures, 3 Northern Wheatears and 2 Melodious Warblers. The next count is planned for this month (February).
In the dry areas, a total of 3711 birds in 59 species were counted. This includes some wetland birds as well. The most common species here were 1707 Red-billed Queleas, 530 Four-banded Sandgrouse, 262 Turtle Doves, 185 Cattle Egrets, 106 White-throated Bee-eaters, 102 Spur-winged Geese and 116 Grey-headed Sparrows. Also found were 10 Woodchat Shrikes, 9 Hoopoes, 9 Bonelli’s Warblers, 7 Ring-necked Parakeets, 6 Common Whitethroats, 6 Spotted Flycatchers, 3 Egyptian Vultures, 3 Northern Wheatears and 2 Melodious Warblers. The next count is planned for this month (February).
Sunday, 7 February 2010
Twelve years of site support at Oursi
A BirdLife International press release from 29 January 2010 reports on 12 years of work of the site support group, the Cambridgeshire Bird Club partner club, at Lake Oursi. Read more about what the site support group has been doing and what they have achieved, with strong support from NATURAMA, the BirdLife partner organisation in Burkina Faso: http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2010/01/lake_oursi.html
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Migrant ringing at Oursi, November 2009
By Rosemary Setchfield
I joined the RSPB team working on the ‘Migrants in Africa’ project in Burkina Faso in November, providing support for the ringing operations. The project, jointly run by RSPB and BTO with support from Naturama and the Ghana Wildlife Society, operates transect surveys in parallel with ringing sessions at five sites from Oursi in northern Burkina Faso southwards to the coast of Ghana. The aim of the project is to understand how Palearctic-African migrants use and move around the different vegetation zones found in West Africa.
A round of ringing and surveys had previously taken place at Oursi in October, and I arrived in time to join the second round in the second half of November. Rains had stopped, being well into the dry season, and nights were starting to get cooler. We had four main sites for the ‘protocol’ ringing, and performed extra-curricular ringing activities when opportunities arose. Western Bonelli’s warbler was the most commonly caught European migrant during November (32 birds), followed by olivaceous wabler (15) and common whitethroat (14). Eight yellow wagtails were caught during two extra ringing sessions on the lake edge prior to evening roost. The number of turtle doves surveyed on transects crashed from 150 to 17 between October and November, although we still managed to ring seven in November. Smaller numbers of the following migrants were caught and ringed: subalpine warbler, common redstart, woodchat shrike, rufous scrub robin, northern wheatear, western orphean warbler, wryneck, European hoopoe, chiffchaff, black-eared wheatear and masked shrike. The only migrants recorded during transect surveys that were not captured during ringing sessions were one willow warbler, two barn swallows and one Montagu’s harrier. During November, just over 25% of all birds caught in Oursi were migrant species, compared with 2% at Nazinga, the southern study site in Burkina Faso.
The project is still in its early days, and the precise protocol is still being refined. Oursi appears to have been the most important of all five study sites for migrant numbers and range of species during October and November. It is interesting to note there was almost no overlap in the range of species caught and ringed in Oursi compared to elsewhere, melodious warbler being the exception. In comparison, the predominant species captured in Ghana were pied flycatcher and willow warbler, along with a few garden warblers and nightingales.
I joined the RSPB team working on the ‘Migrants in Africa’ project in Burkina Faso in November, providing support for the ringing operations. The project, jointly run by RSPB and BTO with support from Naturama and the Ghana Wildlife Society, operates transect surveys in parallel with ringing sessions at five sites from Oursi in northern Burkina Faso southwards to the coast of Ghana. The aim of the project is to understand how Palearctic-African migrants use and move around the different vegetation zones found in West Africa.
A round of ringing and surveys had previously taken place at Oursi in October, and I arrived in time to join the second round in the second half of November. Rains had stopped, being well into the dry season, and nights were starting to get cooler. We had four main sites for the ‘protocol’ ringing, and performed extra-curricular ringing activities when opportunities arose. Western Bonelli’s warbler was the most commonly caught European migrant during November (32 birds), followed by olivaceous wabler (15) and common whitethroat (14). Eight yellow wagtails were caught during two extra ringing sessions on the lake edge prior to evening roost. The number of turtle doves surveyed on transects crashed from 150 to 17 between October and November, although we still managed to ring seven in November. Smaller numbers of the following migrants were caught and ringed: subalpine warbler, common redstart, woodchat shrike, rufous scrub robin, northern wheatear, western orphean warbler, wryneck, European hoopoe, chiffchaff, black-eared wheatear and masked shrike. The only migrants recorded during transect surveys that were not captured during ringing sessions were one willow warbler, two barn swallows and one Montagu’s harrier. During November, just over 25% of all birds caught in Oursi were migrant species, compared with 2% at Nazinga, the southern study site in Burkina Faso.
The project is still in its early days, and the precise protocol is still being refined. Oursi appears to have been the most important of all five study sites for migrant numbers and range of species during October and November. It is interesting to note there was almost no overlap in the range of species caught and ringed in Oursi compared to elsewhere, melodious warbler being the exception. In comparison, the predominant species captured in Ghana were pied flycatcher and willow warbler, along with a few garden warblers and nightingales.
Friday, 18 December 2009
Cambs Bird Club Supports Bird Monitoring at Oursi
With support from a number of donors, NATURAMA (Fondation des Amis de la Nature, BirdLife partner in Burkina Faso) has implemented a comprehensive programme of bird monitoring at Oursi for some time (see previous postings for results) but funding has now come to an end. The Council of the Cambridgeshire Bird Club has decided to bridge the gap in funding with a donation of £1,000, which will enable NATURAMA and the local Site Support Group to continue with bird monitoring while long-term solutions to funding are being sought.
Please also check out the BTO/RSPB project Out of Africa, which involves a suite of projects investigating the decline in numbers of our summer migrants. Field work is being conducted, among other sites in Western Africa, at
Migrant Birds in Africa contains a report with recent sightings and ringing results from Oursi.
Monday, 7 September 2009
Late July bird inventory of Oursi
8 Black-crowned Cranes were counted at Oursi in July. Photo: © NATURAMA
From 27-29 July 2009, NATURAMA (Fondation des Amis de la Nature, BirdLife Partner in Burkina Faso) and the Oursi Site Support Group undertook another bird count at Oursi. Three teams of two observers counted the birds using a transect method. A total of 2771 waterbirds of 27 species were recorded. Most common were White-faced Whistling Duck (848 individuals), Fulvous Whistling Duck (438), African Jacana (283), Spur-winged Goose (244), Spotted Redshank (217), Abdim’s Stork (156), Black-winged Stilt 1(34) and Spur-winged Plover (102). Other species that Cambridgeshire Bird Club members will be familiar with include Garganey, Glossy Ibis, White Stork (a surprise count of 22 birds), Grey Heron, Purple Heron, Great White Egret, Little Egret, Wood Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper and Greenshank. The observers noted that, contrary to expectations, no Black-tailed Godwits was found.
Away from the water, 61 species totalling 1546 individuals were counted. Here, Red-billed Quelea was the most common species, with 555 birds, followed by Grey-headed Sparrow (146), Buffalo Weaver (98), Grey Hornbill (90), Chestnut-backed Finch-Lark (52) and Golden Sparrow (51). 22 Ring-necked Parakeets, 18 Hoopoes, 7 Black Kites, 2 White Wagtails, 1 Crested Lark, 1 Subalpine Warbler and 1 Montagu’s Harrier besides two possible Red Kites might be of specific interest to Club members.
Monday, 15 June 2009
Conferences and meetings held at Oursi
Photo © NATURAMA
NATURAMA held a conference on climate change on May 1st at Lake Oursi. The conference took place in the framework of the National Adaptation Programme of Action of Burkina Faso under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. One of the suggested activities under the Plan relates to Lake Oursi. On May 1st and 2nd, NATURAMA held a meeting with the Oursi Site Support Group, discussing progress in the Oursi action plan. In addition, from May 2nd to May 6th, training was organised for the Site Support Group at Oursi, in monitoring the ecological status of the ecosystems, including the avifauna. The training, which was made possible through the support of the Dutch group Vogelwacht Utrecht, focused on the use of a Global Positioning System (GPS).
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