| - 4 FIRSTS of the season
- First Pintados and prions of the season
- 1 Wandering Albatross
- 1 Royal Albatross
After some viscious storms and a run of very bad luck, the
weather finally
eased enough to venture on the first Cape Town Pelagics trip
in 2 months! The trip was led by Ross Wanless and assisted
by Patrick Cardwell and departed Simon's Town on Sunday 21
May 2006. We left with reports of a very heavy sea, although
the bay was relatively calm and treated us to a spectacular
display as thousands of Cape Cormorants flew in (somewhat
broken) formation past us on their way to the point. We picked
up our first Sooty Shearwater inside the bay, but soon found
thousands more beyond the point. The seas were pretty rough
at Cape Point, but skippers further out assured us that the
conditions were ameliorating in the deep, so we pressed on.
The amount of birdlife all the way out was really impressive,
indicating that winter has indeed arrived, with the concomitant
increase in the numbers of Southern Ocean species. The first
species of real interest was two very late European Storm-Petrels.
We were also treated to a close inspection by a very accommodating
ANTARCTIC PRION, the first record for this season!
As we neared the only trawler in the vicinity we picked up
the first PINTADO PETREL of the season, much to the delight
of everyone. We noticed a long slick of birds that was stretching
out behind the trawler, which was towing her nets and consequently
had few birds around her. We headed towards the rafts of albatrosses
and petrels and were able to get excellent views of all the
regular species. A shout of "What's that?" had everyone
going: it turned out to be the first WANDERING ALBATROSS of
the year! It was a stage 2 juvenile, and we ended up with
fabulous views of it as it repeatedly joined other birds and
sat on the water feeding, allow close views and excellent
photo-ops! While we were enjoying that, Patrick noticed another
huge albatross zooming past - close enough to see a black
cutting edge (although he only told me this after making us
sweat for an ID). Although it didn't hang around, we were
able to see that it had no white on the wings and no black
on the head or tail - making it a clincher for the first NORTHERN
ROYAL ALBATROSS of the year! We were able to stay long enough
to enjoy the spectacle as the nets were hauled, and we soon
found ourselves in the midst of thousands of seabirds all
urgently circling, plunging and squabbling for the spoils.
We missed out on possible Black-bellied Storm-Petrels, and
besides the two very late Europeans stormies, there was no
sign of any of the northern hemisphere migrants - perhaps
they had been given the final push they needed to leave with
the strong southerly winds of the preceeding few days? Whatever,
we were not sorry for the winds which brought in such fabulous
southern species. Bring on the winter!!!
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