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On the morning of the 20th
August a Cape Town Pelagics trip, led by guide Dalton
Gibbs, set out from Simonstown in calm conditions,
but at the tail end of a cold front and with another
frontal system approaching. Given these conditions
we were keen to get out on the trawling grounds. In
Simonstown harbour we found White-breasted and Cape
Cormorants, Swift Terns
and a single Grey Heron that was
fishing amongst the buoy lines. The usual Cape
and Hartlaub’s Gulls accompanied
us as we sailed out of the harbour.
Out of False Bay we found large flocks of Cape
Cormorant on the off shore rock stacks; whilst
a group of African Penguin appeared
in the water off the Boulders Beach penguin colony.
Closer to Cape Point we found Swift Terns
and Cape Gannets heading out to sea.
We stopped at Cape Point to check out with the lighthouse
keeper over the radio and soon after came into contact
with a White-chinned Petrel just
off the Point. A few Sooty Shearwater
soon followed this, as we headed out to sea.
We soon picked up our first Shy Albatross,
a species which continued to be present in low numbers
for the next few miles. At the 12 mile mark we came
across Wilson’s Storm Petrels,
but these didn’t stick around for long as we
headed toward a trawler on the horizon. As we got
closer, our first Black-browed Albatross
appeared, followed by the beautifully marked Pintado
Petrels. The trawler was the Krotoa Harvest
out of Saldanha and she was covered with thousands
of birds!
There Cape Gannets,
Shy and Black-browed Albatross,
Sooty Shearwater, Pintado and
White-chinned Petrels milling in
a mass behind the trawler as she processed her catch.
The site was exhilarating; standing at the front of
our boat we had birds of all species either side of
us literally within arm’s length as the flocks
parted around us. It took a while for us to pick up
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross in this mass
of birds, whilst Cape Gannets dropped
into the water alongside our boat. We saw three of
these birds before its counterpart, Atlantic
Yellow-nosed Albatross, turned up. More searching
turned up a young Southern Giant Petrel
and then a while later a Northern Giant Petrel.
We worked through the mass of birds, trying to take
it all in, the sheer numbers of birds forcing one
to try track individuals to sort out one species from
another.
The trawler that we were following set her nets and
started to run south and away from land, so we set
up to have a look at another nearby trawler approaching
us. She was the Bluebell from Cape Town, but didn’t
have nearly the same number of birds behind her. She
too started to head south, so we turned back to following
the Krotoa. Once more behind her we were treated to
the spectacle of so many birds in the air and sea
at once. Although nothing new turned up, we enjoyed
our lunch on the front of the boat with all these
birds surrounding us.
A group of Storm Petrels made an appearance up and
amongst the Wilson’s Storm Petrels
an un-seasonal European Storm Petrel was
picked up. With the trawling heading further from
land, we turned back for the mainland. A trawler near
us on the way back interestingly had few birds behind
it; it seemed as if every bird in the neighbourhood
had been behind the trawler, the Krotoa. We thought
maybe it had been because she was processing a large
amount of angelfish that attracted all these birds
from the other trawlers? The return trip was relatively
uneventful and once in False Bay we headed across
to the Castle Rock cormorant colony. Here we found
White-breasted, Cape Cormorants
and Bank Cormorants on nests. On
a nearby rock we found a Crowned Cormorant
which flew on to the adjacent rocks full of Cape Fur
Seals. We headed back to harbour where we had a close
final view of a pair of African Black Oystercatcher
and Crowned Cormorant on the harbour
buoy line before tying up.
Bird species seen and approximate numbers:
Grey Heron - coastal
Swift tern - coastal
Hartlaub's Gull - coastal
Cape Gull - coastal
Cape Cormorant - coastal
Bank Cormorant - coastal
Crowned Cormorant - coastal, 4
White-breasted cormorant - coastal
African Penguin - coastal
Cape Gannet - coastal & pelagic - 1500
Africa Black Oystercatcher - coastal - 2
Sub-antarctic Skua - 25
White-chinned Petrel - 500
Southern Giant Petrel - 4
Northern Giant Petrel - 6
Pintado Petrel - 1700
Sooty Shearwater - 150
Shy Albatross - 1000
Black-browed Albatross - 1000
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross - 6
Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross - 4
Wilson’s Storm Petrel - 30
European Storm Petrel - 1
Mammals:
Cape Fur Seal
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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