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Trip Highlights:
Spectacled Petrel and Wandering Albatross
The morning of Saturday
29th October was still and calm as we set out from
Simonstown aboard a Cape Town Pelagics trip led by
Cape Town Pelagics tour-leader Dalton Gibbs.
There was a mild cold front approaching and we were
keen to see what birds we would find in its path.
In the harbour we met up with Cape Cormorants,
Swift Terns, a lone Sandwich Tern and African
Black Oystercatcher. We entered False Bay with
a fly over of a mass of Cape Cormorants forming
lines in the sky above us.
Our trip across False
Bay was fairly uneventful, with only Cape Gannet
and Cape Gull escorting us to Cape Point, where
we checked in with the lighthouse keeper.
As soon as we headed out to sea, we found a few White-chinned
Petrels, Sooty Shearwater and then our
first Shy Albatross. We headed into the deep
ocean, finding few numbers of these species before
receiving a report of a trawler to our north. Heading
in that direction, we picked up a group of Sabine’s
Gulls at the 15 mile mark and these were joined
by a mixed flock of Common and Arctic
Terns. At the 20 mile mark we made contact
with the trawler and headed towards her, picking up
a lone Great Shearwater and Black-browed
Albatross on the way. The trawler had already
processed its catch and a number of Shy and Black-browed
Albatross loafed on the water behind it. Amongst
these birds we soon picked up Atlantic and
then Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross. More Sabine’s
Gulls were about and a lone Wilson’s Storm Petrel
pitched up. A Sub-antarctic Skua made a brief
fly past and was making a line for another trawler
that had appeared to our north; we decided to head
toward it, but not before two Hump-backed Whales surface
near us. These giants lolled around just below the
surface of the water for a while.
When
we reached the second trawler there was a line of
mixed birds feeding from the fish that had been processed.
Another pelagic boat out in the area soon pulled up
next to us. There was much waving from the people
aboard and we heard “Spectacled”. This could only
mean one of two things: either they had just seen
a Spectacled Petrel or someone’s spectacles had fallen
into the ocean; had we seen them? With the information
of “400m” being called out and waving of arms we headed
down the line of birds for 400m, looking intently
at every White-chinned Petrel. This search proved
fruitless, so we decided to take our chances at the
trawler, where hundreds of birds were congregating.
No sooner had we arrived
close to the trawler when someone called out and the
Spectacled Petrel was close by. We had good
views of the bird before it took off; we were able
to chase it and had further views showing its details
well.
We
stayed behind the trawler and worked through the mixed
flock of Shy and Black-browed Albatross, Indian and
Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross, White-chinned and
Pintado Petrel, Great and Sooty Shearwater and had
good views of both Southern and Northern
Giant Petrels. There was a call for a large albatross
that rose from the water and headed into the mixed
flock of birds behind the trawler. Its wing pattern
showed it to be an immature Wandering Albatross,
which we chased with our boat, finding where it had
put down on the water. No sooner had we arrived than
this bird swam towards the boat, appearing curious
about us. Everyone had a good opportunity to view
this magnificent bird.
We enjoyed a leisurely
lunch in the trawler’s wake, taking in the spectacle
of the great variety of pelagic birds around us. With
some fish oil out on the water we were hoping for
another species of storm-petrel, but we unfortunately
only picked up on more Wilson’s Storm-petrels. After
lunch, we headed for home, connecting with a Parasitic
Jaeger chasing terns off Cape Point. Once back
in the calmer waters of False Bay, we headed across
to the Castle Rock cormorant colony, where we found
White-breasted, Cape and Bank Cormorants.
A lone Crowned Cormorant showed some distance
away on inshore rocks, but due to the tide we couldn’t
get any closer. Closer to Simonstown harbour were
a few long distance African Penguin
on Boulders Beach and a final lone African Black
Oystercatcher on the harbour buoy line.
Bird species seen
and approximate numbers:
Swift
Tern coastal
Arctic Tern 30
Sandwich Tern - coastal
Hartlaub’s Gull coastal
Cape Gull - coastal
Cape Cormorant coastal
Bank Cormorant coastal
White-breasted Cormorant
coastal
Crowned Cormorant coastal
1
African Penguin coastal
Cape Gannet coastal
& pelagic 70
Africa Black Oystercatcher
coastal 2
Sub-antarctic Skua
4
Parasitic Jaeger 1
White-chinned Petrel
400
Spectacled Petrel - 1
Southern Giant Petrel
6
Northern Giant Petrel
- 4
Pintado Petrel 80
Great Shearwater 40
Sooty Shearwater 50
Shy Albatross 400
Black-browed Albatross
200
Atlantic Yellow-nosed
Albatross - 10
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross
6
Wandering Albatross (immature)
- 1
Wilson’s Storm Petrel
4
Mammals:
Cape fur seal
Hump-backed Whale - 2
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 Dalton Gibbs.
To book, simply email
or phone us, or submit a
booking enquiry online.
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