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Just before dawn on Sunday
10 July 2011, a small group of birders departed from
Simonstown harbour aboard a Cape Town Pelagics trip,
guided by Barrie Rose of Cape Town Pelagics.
We departed Simonstown in
calm clear conditions which continued throughout the
day. Our trip up the bay was interrupted on two occasions;
the first when a large school of Common Dolphins crossed our path and provided an exciting spectacle as a
portion of the school accelerated towards us and proceeded
to bow-ride for some minutes, the school was accompanied
by good numbers of Sooty Shearwater and the
odd White-chinned Petrel. A mile
inside Cape Point we slowed to view a pair of Humpbacked Whales which
surfaced twice approximately 300m from us.
Once around Cape Point we
headed towards the shelf-break in a West-South-Westerly
direction, the calm sea and very low density of birds
saw us making good headway stopping briefly to identify
another pair of Humpbacked
Whales which surfaced and blew to the north of
us. As we progressed offshore we slowly accumulated
more species; Antarctic Prion, Wilson's Storm Petrel, Pintado Petrel and Shy Albatross.
At 20 miles we picked up a
'blip' on the horizon to the south of us. A change
of direction and we soon had the trawler 'Foxglove'
in full view. The vessel had a good number of birds
in its wake, but no feeding frenzy due to a lack of
fish processing on the trawler. We had a chat to the
skipper who informed us that he had arrived in the
area some hours before and was due to haul his net
within the hour. We hung around in the area adding
Black-browed and Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross to our list before he hauled his net. Once the net was hauled
and processing began bird numbers sky-rocketed and
we spent the next 2 hours surrounded by really good
numbers all the expected winter species including
a confiding Southern
Giant Petrel and an interesting breeding plumage Arctic Tern. An out of
season Great
Shearwater paid us a brief and unsatisfactory visit (for some!). By
this time we had followed the trawler to 26 miles
and we turned for home after our 'up close and persona'l
time with more than a thousand seabirds.
The trip home was calm and
pleasant, we had a great late lunch inside Cape Point
before heading back to Simonstown via the Partridge
Point Bank Cormorant
colony and Cape
Fur Seal roost.
Pelagic Species :
Shy Albatross –
200+
Black-browed Albatross – 200+
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross – 8
Southern Giant Petrel - 1
Giant Petrel sp - 2
White-chinned Petrel – ca 1000
Pintado Petrel – 200+
Antarctic Prion – 50+
Sooty Shearwater – 500+
Great Shearwater - 1
Wilson's Storm-Petrel –
50+
Subantarctic Skua –
25
Cape Gannet – 500
Arctic Tern - 1
Swift Tern – coastal
and to 8mls
Kelp Gull – 40 and coastal
Cape Cormorant coastal and
to 15mls
White-breasted Cormorant -
coastal
Bank Cormorant – coastal
HartlaubŐs Gull - coastal
African Penguin – coastal
Mammals:
Humpbacked Whale - 4
Common Dolphin – 500+
Cape Fur Seal – 100+
A message from Cape Town Pelagics:
A huge thank you to our experienced skippers who are
able to safely lead us to the best birding areas and
skillfully manoeuvre the boat into just the best position
while all on board are busy concentrating on the birds!
Coordinating a pelagic trip over a year in advance
with guests from all across South Africa and different
countries around the world requires an organised office
team. We thank them for their special eye for detail
- and for the sometimes last-minute rearrangements
and frustration if the weather delays the trip to
another day! Our biggest thank-you is to our Cape
Town Pelagics guides who take time out of their work,
often involving seabirds and conservation, and time
away from their families, to provide our guests with
a world-class birding experience. Cape Town Pelagics
donates all it profits to seabirds, and so all the
participants who join the trip make a contribution
towards bird research and conservation a big thank
you from all of us.
Trip report by Cape Town Pelagics
guide Barrie Rose.
To book, simply email
or phone us, or submit a
booking enquiry online.
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