Ardea
Official journal of the Netherlands Ornithologists' Union

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Velasquez CR. & Hockey P.R. (1992) The importance of supratidal foraging habitats for waders at a south temperate estuary. ARDEA 80 (2): 243-253
This paper quantifies the extent to which waterbirds, mainly waders, utilize foraging areas other than intertidal mudflats during high and low tides at the Berg River estuary, South Africa. Numbers of foraging birds in both saltmarshes and saltpans at high and low tide were quantified between August 1988 and April 1989. Saltpans were particularly important for Greater and Lesser Flamingos. A considerable proportion of the total estuarine populations of Curlew Sandpipers, Little Stints and Greenshanks foraged at high tide, indicating that these birds do not satisfy their daily energy requirements during the time that the intertidal mudflats are exposed in the estuary. Seasonal variations in the proportion of birds foraging during high tide are responses to the increased energy demands of pre-migratory fattening and post-migratory recovery. We propose that the availability of high tide foraging areas contributes significantly to the maintenance of high foraging densities of waders and other wading birds on the intertidal mudflats at the Berg River estuary.


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