The start of the new year once again meant that Namibia's bird watchers had to dust off their binoculars and venture out to do the annual summer wetland counts. The global economic crisis does not seem to have affected the birders because I'm pleased to report that twenty-seven sites were counted although the geographic coverage is still very much biased in favour of the coast. The two Ramsar sites, Sandwich Harbour and Walvis Bay, once again came up trumps in terms of bird numbers but the most species were encountered by Wilferd at Oponono. Wilferd also reported the lowest count (Fischer's Pan). Cape Cross and the Walvis Sewage Works are emerging as important sites in terms of numbers. For the first time the figures for the Orange River Mouth are also included (these were usually reported by Mark Anderson as part of the South African counts) where unfortunately only the Namibian side was counted because no replacement for Mark Anderson has yet been appointed.