MANGROVE SWAMPS – BAYHEAD : 23^RD MARCH 2014

 10 Club members & 6 visitors met at Glenwood Centre & proceeded to Bayhead.  These swamps are situated at the southern end of Durban harbour & because of their scientific, educational & historical value, they were proclaimed a national heritage site in 1996. The Bayhead Mangrove swamps covers a mere 10ha, this forest previously stretched to over 100ha. These plants require warm, humid tropical conditions & grow only on selected shores in river estuaries, bays & lagoons where salt water penetrates.  They also require a certain balance of fresh water provided by rain and rivers.  The Mangrove environment is extremely fragile & liable to destruction by environmentally unfriendly land use practices & economic developments.

Our route took us along a boardwalk which is raised on stilts & wanders through the Mangrove forest  for a good 100m where one has the opportunity to experience the ‘real feel’ of the swamp & observe the three Mangrove species that grow in this saline condition that would kill most plants. Because of the low oxygen content of the salt water strangely shaped roots are produced.

Besides being interesting from a botanical viewpoint a Mangrove forest also has a unique animal life including oysters which live on the prop roots & snails that climb up and down the trunks with the rise and fall of the tides. Mud Skippers - a fish which can live out of water & propel themselves along the mud with their flippers. Male Fiddler crabs wave colourful nippers to attract a mate. Sesama crabs collect fallen leaves. Juvenile prawns & marine fish swim into the swamp at high tide where there is plenty of food & a safe nursery away from the turbulent sea.

We left the boardwalk and skirted the fringe of the swamp with the tide receding & headed to the bird hide for a short break. It was a pleasure having amongst our visitors, Jocelyn Sutherland - custodian of the Hawaan forest at Umhlanga, Jill Seldon who holds a Saturday outing for tree identification. Also Bertha Pitout who is a lecturer at DUT & who has given talks in Sweden on the Durban Zanzibaries. All are keen birders.

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The 2km walk along the beach produced a good variety of birds & much to discuss as Rose, Ismail, Ingrid, Lee & Jon also have a good knowledge of birds. Amongst the variety of birds sighted were: Mangrove Kingfisher with its loud ringing call, the gregarious Sacred Ibis, Cormorant’s, Egrets, Fish Eagle, Egyptian Geese, Herons & Cranes, Hamerkop & Plovers.

As we had reached the end of the beach we made ourselves comfortable under cover in the old yachting club shelter.  It wasn’t long before we were approached by the Port Security who had monitored our progress on camera.  They had decided that as we were in a new construction site area we were a threat to their security although we had not crossed any fence or come across any security warning signs.  A year or so ago I could have walked on for another kilometre, however this is now a new development with restrictions. We returned along the beach & with the tide now almost fully out there was a lot more beach available. We were delighted to have sight of Sting Rays wallowing in the shallow water.

Back at the bird hide the weather had become quite humid with a very welcome cool refreshing southern breeze. I then explained to the group the next part of the hike would take in a section of grassland and then go through an uninteresting section of alien vegetation to arrive at a plastic polluted beach. It was then decided to split up with Philip leading 4 visiting hikers to the Millenium Tower & hike down to the old whaling slipway & along the newly constructed South Pier.  Rose’s group would take the opportunity to visit the recently constructed Zanzibaries Mosque. There certainly is an advantage of having other leaders on a hike so that these sort of decisions can be made.  I would lead the remaining 7 to the southern limits of the swamps

The feedback received from the group was very positive and all enjoyed the morning out.

DAVID TIGHE