Waterfowl Count 13 July 2000
Summary Report

The August 2000 waterfowl count occurred on 13th, and all sites within the Ramsar Site were surveyed. Outside the Ramsar Site, Tin Shui Wai, Nam Sang Wai and Chau Tau were not covered (the first and last of these are now very restricted in terms of available habitat due to development), nor was San Tin.

A total of 3178 waterbirds were recorded in the Deep Bay area, of which 2232 occurred in the Ramsar Site. Table 1 provides a comparison of selected counts for the years 1998-2000.

From table 1 it can be seen that the total number of ardeids and waders recorded was broadly in line with the figures for 1999, and that both were somewhat lower than the equivalent figures for 1998. In terms of ardeids, such a pattern over the three years was also evident for the month of May. It is not known whether the number of ardeids in the past two years has been relatively low, or whether the 1998 figures were relatively high.

Table 2 compares the counts of the most numerous ardeids in the Ramsar Site in August of the last three years. The figures suggest that lower numbers of Little and Great Egrets are largely responsible for the relatively low number of ardeids in 2000 compared with 1998.