This is a tragedy. There are saline pools all over the west of the city and I can understand why they are drained. They pose a threat to the housing in large areas. However there is a thin line running north to south in the middle of the city where freshwater appears on the surface in a few places. The two main places are F-Nord lake and Cinquieme Gardens.
F-Nord lake has grown and matured over ten years. It is fed by filtered sea water which is fresh by the time it reaches this far inland. It is almost certainly also fed by waste water from human activity. There is very little sewage collection in the city. However the water appears perfectly clean. It is cleaned by the soon-to-be-no-more reed beds as well as filtered by the earth. In this sense it is man-made.
I presume the drainage is part of a blanket policy to drain the city of lakes and pools or may be it is a private owner doing this.
There is very little I can do without local support. My friend Dr Mohamed Vall arranged for two of his students to do a study and report for their degrees but local awareness of the lake's value is very low. I wrote to Wetlands International three months ago but got no reply.
I am very upset. This lake has had the only breeding Eurasian coot south of the Sahara in west Africa. It has been the most northern breeding of African swamphen. It has the only breeding moorhen for 200 kilometres. It has attracted water birds normally not seen further north than the Senegal river. I have seen dwarf bittern, little bittern (african sub species) and Allen's gallinule, once in each case.
Marbled duck and black-necked grebe wintered there.
Last Saturday it was immediately obvious the water levels were well down and the pumps were humming.
black-winged stilt
I have never seen more than two black-winged stilt at the site. This time there were ten. A sign that the levels temporaily suit them.
moorhen
The moorhen, coot and African swamphen were still there but I doubt for much longer if or when the reeds start to dry out.
white-faced whistling duck
blue-cheeked bee-eater
Blue-cheeked bee-eater were back. I now know this is a July to December resident and not an all-year bird as erroneously declared in the maps of Birds of Western Africa. Indeed these were the first ones I and Mohamed Vall have seen in our travel throughout Mauritania since December and that includes the south. The only exception was a single migrant heading north in April.
five white-faced whistling duck
After a while I worked out there were five white-faced whistling duck present.
wood sandpiper
I counted 30 wood sandpiper. This is my largest number at any site in Mauritania. I presume many are on autumn passage.
grey heron with little grebe
blue-cheeked bee-eater
I decided to walk partly round the lake to get a closer look at the grey heron. I passed more blue-cheeked bee-eater on the way.
little grebe now half swallowed
I was surprised the little grebe was not too large but it wasn't.
almost all swallowed
The grey heron succeeded in eating it all.
many wood sandpiper
I am not sure I will visit the lake again. It is too distressing. I am hoping for a thunderstorm to give it a temporary reprieve. However, thunderstorms are very irregular in Nouakchott which is right on the northern edge of the Sahel.
At least I have good records of what can be in Nouakchott.
Species seen at F-Nord lake on 5th August
White-faced Whistling-Duck
Little Grebe
Grey Heron
Western Reef-Heron
African Swamphen
Common Moorhen
Eurasian Coot
Black-winged Stilt
Spur-winged Lapwing
Kittlitz's Plover
Kentish Plover
Common Sandpiper
Marsh Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Common Tern
Speckled Pigeon
Laughing Dove
Little Swift
Blue-cheeked Bee-eater
Crested Lark
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