The surveys of Um Afain

Um Afain is a remote coastal wetland which had only been surveyed once before I went there last Friday. It is vast and because it is so far east its bird life has something in common with the Nile delta.


The previous survey was by the UN wetland winter counters in late January 2006. Remarkably they found pied kingfisher and little bittern. The latter has since been found at other wetlands in the Benghazi area and the former at Ain Al Ghezala which is a larger wetland a little further east of Um Afain (and closer to Tobruk).


I went in search of pied kingfisher!  I didn't find it but I did find a vast fresh wetland with huge reed beds as well as a big variety of habitats (and plenty of good birds). 

the main fresh water section of Um Afain

The reed beds offer protection from the elements and people. However I was still very surprised to see 3 wintering purple heron. This bird rarely winters north of the Sahara. Most of these can be found in the Nile delta.

 

purple heron at Um Afain photographed last Friday

Purple heron had not been seen in the previous survey. However given the large size of the wetland many species could be missed. I walked round it for five hours and still failed to visit more than half of the perimeter.

second view of purple heron at Um Afain

great egret in the middle of the complex

Another bird which I can add to the local species list is great egret. I saw six of them.

little egret at Um Hafain

I stayed until just before sunset and it looks like the herons and egrets are more in the open then. A hour before sunset a large flock of little egret appeared in the main lake.

grey heron at Um Hafain

Several grey heron were seen. It is the one heron/egret seen in the previous survey though they of course saw little bittern which eluded me. 

cormorant at Um Afain

There were also several cormorant around.

vast reed beds at Um Afain

Given the vast reed beds present it is not surprising we both saw reed warbler and I saw reed bunting too. This bird has very few records mostly near Benghazi. 

marsh harrier at Um Afain

Several marsh harrier were patrolling all day. This is ideal terrain for them. 

Darting over the reeds and tamerisk I saw many barn swallow, crag martin and three house martin. Crag martin is a known resident bird in this part of Libya. House martin was probably on passage. The barn swallow status is more questionable. It is resident in parts of north east Libya - notably around Benghazi but I have seen barn swallow in other places this week such as in-land meadows which are clearly on passage. My instinct is that some of the birds I saw were resident and some were on passage but I can't prove it.

water logged land - another of the habitats at Um Afain

The waterlogged land held some common snipe and green sandpiper.


I have put a list of the species found in the two surveys below. I am sure its still quite incomplete. I will certainly go back there to help fill it out.

Species seen at Um Afain	Late Jan 2006 by UN	Early Feb 2011 by me
Great cormorant	x	x
Little bittern	x
Great egret		x
Little egret		x
Purple heron		x
Grey heron	x	x
Moorhen	x	x
Water rail	x
Dunlin	x
Snipe	x	x
Redshank	x	x
Green sandpiper		x
Pied kingfisher	x
Kingfisher	x	x
Marsh harrier	x	x
Meadow pipit	x	x
Barn swallow		x
House martin		x
Crag martin		x
White wagtail	x	x
Robin	x	x
Stonechat	x	x
Reed warbler	x	x
Chiffchaff	x	x
Starling	x	x
Reed bunting		x