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The morning of the 2nd July a Cape
Town Pelagics trip departed from Simonstown, guided
by Dalton Gibbs of Cape Town Pelagics. As we stood
on the jetty, the sky was overcast with light rain.
We were experiencing the tail end of a cold front,
with a south-westerly wind blowing squalls of light
rain over the mountain. Due to the weather, we consulted
with the lighthouse at Cape Point and set out at 8:00.
Inside the harbour along the buoy lines we found Cape
Cormorants, Swift terns
and a single hopeful Grey Heron.
The usual Kelp and Hartlaub’s Gulls
were also knocking about amongst the moored yachts.
Once out on the flat waters of False Bay we made good
time towards Cape Point, seeing Cape Cormorant and
the occasional White-breasted Cormorant on the off
shore rock stacks, whilst Boulders Beach had large
numbers of Cape Cormorant and a few
African Penguin on the beach. Closer
to Cape Point, Swift Terns and Cape Gannets
flew over. There was also a whale blow of
what was assumed to be Bryde’s Whale.
At Cape Point we stopped to check out with the lighthouse
keeper over the radio and immediately found a Shy
Albatross soon followed by White-chinned
Petrels. Upon heading out to sea we came
across a few Sooty Shearwaters mixed
in with these other species. The sea was cold at 13
deg C with a large swell, which made for slow and
bumpy travelling. We continued like this for some
way until several Antarctic Prions
flew at crazy speeds around the boat. They were soon
joined by a Sub-antarctic Skua that flew up to the
back of our boat and followed us a few meters above
our heads. Just after it left us a Southern
Giant Petrel performed a fly-by past our
boat and circled to put down on the water. We slowed
down and were focused on this bird when Susan pointed
out that there was a Southern Fulmar
right behind us. And indeed there was a beautiful
Southern Fulmar fighting with a Sub-antarctic
Skua over the carcass of a Cape Gannet.
These two birds were so intent about their tussle
over the dead gannet, that we managed to drift up
to a few metres from them and viewed them practically
from water level.
By this time we were some 12 miles out and the water
had warmed to 15.2 deg C, Wilson’s Storm
Petrel made an appearance in small numbers
as we headed further out. These were followed by the
delicately marked Pintado Petrels
in low numbers. We spotted what appeared to be a trawler
some distance out and headed in its direction even
though it did not show up on the radar. A light rain
squall cut out our view of the trawler, but once the
water temperature topped the 16 deg mark we started
finding our first Black-browed Albatross.
These were a few young birds with heavy head markings.
Eventually we found the trawler: as we got close to
her we entered a patch of sea that was alive with
birds, Shy and Black-browed
Albatross, White-chinned Petrels, Cape Gannet, Sooty
Shearwaters, Pintado Petrels, Antarctic Prions, Sub-antarctic
Skua and Wilson’s Storm Petrel.
Once we reached the trawler we realised that the route
we had arrived by was through the area into which
the trawler had just processed its catch. We were
at some 22 miles and Cape Fur Seals
moved through the groups of birds to find whatever
scraps of fish offal remained. We tagged behind the
trawler and decided to use up an old box of pilchards.
This brought the birds right to the side of the boat
and we had excellent views of most of the species
present, being so close we had views of the pink display
skin a Black-browed Albatross has
under its eye. We were just wondering where the prime
scavenger Giant Petrels were when on cue a Northern
Giant Petrel put down next to our boat. It
didn’t feed, probably being full from the trawler,
but obviously couldn’t resist being around a
feeding group of birds.
The trip back was relatively uneventful,
until a few miles off Cape Point a lone Indian
Yellow-nosed Albatross flew around our boat
and then immediately headed out to sea. We had missed
this species out on the trawling grounds and its presence
in the inshore waters was explained by the small long
liner boat that was working the inshore waters. We
pulled up behind this boat but failed to find any
further yellow-nosed albatross. We headed back into
False Bay and had lunch underneath the cliffs of Cape
Point before heading off toward the Castle Rock cormorant
colony, seeing the blow of a Bryde’s
Whale en route. At the Castle Rock colony
we found White-breasted and Cape
Cormorants, with Bank Cormorants
on nests that had recently been rebuilt after the
winter storms. On the flat adjacent rocks were several
Cape Fur Seal trying to avoid the
waves at the spring high tide. Following the coast
we pasted Boulders Beach, with its groups of African
Penguins, before entering Simonstown harbour
and finding a final African Black Oystercatcher
on the harbour buoy line.
The following is a list of the species seen during
the course of the day. The numbers reflected can be
considered as rough estimations only.
Grey Heron
Swift tern – coastal
Hartlaub’s Gull - coastal
Cape Gull - coastal
Cape Cormorant – coastal
Bank Cormorant – coastal
White-breasted cormorant – coastal
African Penguin – coastal
Cape Gannet – coastal & pelagic –
100
Africa Black Oystercatcher – coastal –
1
Sub-antarctic Skua - 15
White-chinned Petrel – 150
Southern Giant Petrel – 2
Northern Giant Petrel - 1
Pintado Petrel - 200
Sooty Shearwater – 30
Antarctic Prion - 200
Shy Albatross – 150
Black-browed Albatross – 150
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross – 1
Wilson’s Storm Petrel – 2
Southern Fulmar – 1
Mammals:
Cape Fur Seal
Bryde's Whale
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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