| - NORTHERN ROYAL ALBATROSS
- FIRST PINTADO OF THE SEASON
- 20 PILOT WHALES
A party of 5 departed from Simon’s Town at 7 am on
Saturday, 23 April 2005, led by Ross Wanless. Despite some
early rain, the trip got off to a cracking start. We were
barely beyond Miller’s Point when a large school of
Dusky dolphins was sighted. As we drew closer they began to
forage, and large numbers of Cape gannets, Swift terns, Cape
cormorants and Cape gulls came in to feast. We spent 15 –
20 minutes with dolphins and seals feeding and playing around
the boat.
Just beyond the point we got good views of our first giant
petrel – it was a young Northern. We picked up the usual
procellariiforms and the odd Subantarctic skua on the way
to the trawling grounds. After some searching, and the single
Great-winged petrel of the trip, we soon picked up a couple
of active hake longliners and a pole boat. Before we had really
gotten comfortable, a giant albatross hove into view. We were
able to follow it for 2-3 minutes through the melee of other
birds, and were able to identify it as a Northern royal albatross!
It clearly showed the white back, tail and head contrasting
with clean black wings, without any whitening from the edges,
top or centre of the wings.
We then moved on to two nearby trawlers, which promised to
have more birds behind them. Although we followed them all
the way to about 30 nm south of Cape Point, the distance travelled
was worth it! We had impressive numbers of birds around the
back of the boats, and everyone got excellent, close-up views
of every species. We were also lucky enough to get onto a
Pintado petrel – apparently the first bird of the season,
and a welcome bonus for the cruise. As we were leaving, the
skipper called cetaceans ahead, and we got great views of
a pod of around 20 pilot whales. The perfect way to round
off a really superb pelagic excursion.
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