| - 1 FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER
- 2 SPECTACLED PETRELS
A Cape Town Pelagics trip departed Simon's Town on Tuesday
14 February 2006, led by Ross Wanless. The first of several
rarities for the day was ticked before we even boarded, when
Patrick Cardwell found a Giant Kingfisher knocking about the
harbour. This is considered a rarity on most of the peninsula.
Conditions were flat in the bay and we made Cape Point well
before 8 am. The trip out to the fishing grounds was relatively
uneventful, picking up all the expected species, and an unexpected
aggregation of European Storm-petrels about 16 miles off the
point.
Our first stop was at an active longliner, but the birds
were not particularly abundant. We did, however, enjoy prolonged
views of a couple of Great-winged Petrels and a couple of
Long-tailed Skuas, the fourth skua of the day. Skipper Dave
Christie noticed an unusual bird on the water near a small
raft of White-chinned Petrels; it took off into the light
but straight towards us, and as it banked and flew passed
we were able to confirm the first SPECTACLED PETREL of the
day, and the fourth consecutive Cape Town Pelagics trip to
find this rarity! This was also our fifth petrel for the day!
We moved a couple of miles to the west to an active trawler,
and on the way picked up our fourth shearwater in the form
of a fleeting Manx Shearwater. We settled in behind the trawler
and were very quickly on to a brown, smallish bird with a
pale bill and a very distinctive jizz – it banked and
showed pale feet, conclusive evidence of our FIFTH shearwater,
and another great rarity: FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER! Not to
be out-done, a second SPECTACLED PETREL gave excellent views,
and as the net was brought to the surface we were able to
enjoy the fabulous scenes as hundreds of birds gathering in
anticipation. By then a northwesterly wind had began to freshen,
and the skipper called it a day. We surprisingly missed out
on Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses, but otherwise everything
that we expected to see we did, and then some. The day ended
with an impressive tally of 21 pelagic species.
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