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On the morning of the 26th September
we set out from Simonstown after having postponed
the trip for two days due to heavy winds and rough
seas. There was a light south westerly wind and the
sea was starting to settle down. As we set off through
the harbour, we picked up Cape Cormorants,
Swift Terns, Cape
and Hartlaub’s Gulls. A single
young African Penguin accompanied us as we motored
out into False Bay.
In the bay, the rocks stacks opposite
the Boulder’s penguin Colony were covered with
Cape Cormorants, while Swift
terns flew overhead. Cape Gannet
and Cape Gulls accompanied us as
we headed for Cape Point. An early White-chinned
Petrel passed us in False Bay before we stopped
at Cape Point to check out with the lighthouse keeper
over the radio. In the same manner as recent trips,
the trip out into the Deep was uneventful, with only
White-chinned Petrels to keep us company. Only after
a few miles did we find Sooty Shearwater
and then our first Shy Albatross.
Sub Antarctic Skua briefly joined our boat
as we headed further out, with a few Wilson’s
Storm Petrels briefly showing. A small tern
passing us showed good features to be an Antarctic
Tern. At 20 nautical miles we spotted vessels on the
radar scope and made off toward them. Before we reached
them we had sightings of Pintado Petrel
and Black-browed Albatross. As we
came closer to the boats, we could see they were long
lining vessels with small flocks of a hundred or so
birds behind them .
We followed each of these long
liners in turn, working through the birds behind them.
We soon found both Northern and Southern Giant
Petrels, followed by an Indian Yellow-nosed
Albatross. Cape Gannet,
Shy and Black-browed Albatross
and Pintado and White-chinned
Petrels made up the bulk of the birds, with
occasional groups of Wilson’s Storm
Petrel coming through. We picked up a lone
Great Shearwater and later an Atlantic
Yellow-nosed Albatross to increase our albatross
tally for the day. A short while later we were visited
by a few Black-bellied Storm Petrels,
which proceeded to do their curious act of hitting
the water with their bodies.
We began our leisurely cruise back,
passing the trail of birds behind the long liner and
with the behind us, made good time towards Cape Point.
Here we entered False Bay and had a leisurely meal
beneath the Cape Point cliffs, picking up
Red-winged Starling and White-necked
Ravens as oddities for a pelagic trip list.
After lunch we headed across False
Bay to the Castle Rock cormorant colony, finding a
whale against the sea cliffs on the way. This animal
soon sounded and we had only a brief glimpse of it;
with the consensus that it was a Bryde’s
Whale. At Castle Rock we found White-breasted,
Cape Cormorants and Bank
Cormorants on nests, allowing us to pick
up their differing field features. On the adjacent
rocks we found Cape Fur Seals lounging
around and wallowing in the sea. We made good time
back to the harbour, picking up a single Crowned
Cormorant and a pair of African Black
Oystercatchers.
Bird species seen and approximate
numbers:
Swift tern – coastal
Antarctic tern - 1
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 –
100
Africa Black Oystercatcher – coastal –
2
Sub-antarctic Skua - 20
White-chinned Petrel – 400
Southern Giant Petrel – 4
Northern Giant Petrel - 8
Pintado Petrel – 500
Great Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater – 10
Shy Albatross – 800
Black-browed Albatross – 1000
Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross - 1
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross – 1
Wilson’s Storm Petrel – 100
Black-bellied Storm Petrel – 6
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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