The Barn Swallows of Mt Moreland – Past Present and Future 

 The role played by the Lake Victoria Conservancy, Mt Moreland in the recognition, and more recently championing, of South Africa’s largest barn swallow roost – the Lake Victoria Roost - in the face of the development of the Durban’s King Shaka International Airport, 2.5 km north of the roost. The Airport opened on the 1 May 2010. This is the first season the swallows are experiencing planes in the flight path over the roost. With the overall change and division of management of the airfield site from the construction to operational phase there was, as far as the swallows and wetlands were concerned, considerable loss of continuity in communications with all role players. A concerted effort is now needed by all concerned to re-establish communication with, not only the reaction of the swallows to the planes being a priority, but the on-going monitoring of the wetlands, the effects of storm-water run-off on them and, in the case of Froggy Swamp, the effluent from the Airport’s sewerage package plant.

The role-players that now need to reconvene and actively work together are, the Airport Company South Africa, ACSA, with its specially dedicated bird radar; BirdlifeSA who declared the site an I.B.A (Important Bird Area) in 2006: the Lake Victoria Conservancy, with its onsite “eyes and ears”, its public swallow watching and swallow ringing programmes; Tongaat Hulett, property owners of Lake Victoria wetland and its surrounds, and eThekwini Municipality’s Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department who are rezoning Mt Moreland and the wetland areas into the No 1 Umhlanga Town Planning Scheme.

Without renewed and committed co-operation of all parties the future of the migratory barn swallows and their roost, a worldwide concern, and the wetlands - a vital part of the natural functioning of the already threatened Umdloti River, estuary and sea - could be disastrous, and result in worldwide condemnation and costly intervention respectively.