Delta floods bring openbill bonanza

Last year, the Zambezi River reached its highest level since 1969, inundating most of eastern Caprivi. For the first time in 30 years, the Okavango Delta connected with the Kwando- Linyanti and Chobe-Zambezi Rivers via the Selinda Spillway (Magwagana).

The Savuti River flowed for the first time since 1983. In early October, the water was eight kilometres east of the Chobe National Park cut-line and about 20 kilometres from reaching the Savuti Marsh.

This has been good news for storks. An aerial survey of the wetlands of the Caprivi region (the lower section of the Okavango River in Namibia) and the Kwandu-Linyanti- Chobe-Zambezi system in Namibia in September showed about 2 000 nesting openbilled storks in Lake Liambezi and a nesting site of about 2 500 openbills on the Chobe/Zambezi floodplains.