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Trip Highlights: Red Phalarope
The morning of the 14th January
was perfectly calm after the strong south-easterly
winds of the preceding week. A large group of birders
gathered on the pier at Wharf Road, Simon’s Town ready
to board 2 Cape Town Pelagics boats, destined for
the trawling grounds off Cape Point. Dalton
Gibbs of Cape Town Pelagics was guiding on board
the larger boat. (To see what was seen from the other
boat, please click here).
We set out in a gap in the weather
and as result had a mirror surface on the water; in
the harbour we met up with Cape and Hartlaub’s
Gulls, Cape Cormorants,
Swift Terns, and a few Sandwich
Terns and a lone Grey Heron.
Once in False Bay we soon came across a feeding group
of African Penguin setting off from
the Boulder’s Penguin Colony. False Bay was quiet
as we motored toward Cape Point, with only a few lines
of Cape Cormorant breaking the horizon.
We picked up a Parasitic
Jaeger near Cape Point harrying the Swift
Terns. At Cape Point we stopped to check out with
the lighthouse keeper and admire the view; soon coming
into contact with White-chinned Petrels
just beyond Cape Point. The sea conditions were very
unusual, with a sea temperature in False Bay of 21.4
deg C.; much higher than the usual 13 to 15 deg C.
In these warm water conditions we soon came across
numerous Cory’s Shearwater and a
few Sooty Shearwaters.
We set on out further to sea, seeing
numerous patches of bait fish just below the surface
of the ocean being harassed by Swift Terns
and the occasional Parasitic Jaeger
in attendance. At the 15 Nautical mile mark we spotted
a trawler and headed for her, picking up distant views
of Shy Albatross and a Sabine’s
gull. A flock of Arctic Tern
were found on the water in a tight cluster after having
fed on the adjacent pelagic fish.
We got closer to the trawler, picking
up a lone Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross
that performed a fly past. Our second boat called
us as they had just had two Red Phalarope
fly past; we immediately turned toward them and saw
the birds fly some 50m from us. We gave chase, bounding
over the light swell but after a few minutes chase
we gave up as the birds did not put down on the water.
We turned back to the trawler, but she unfortunately
was steaming south and had no birds behind her.
A long liner lay to our north and
we turned toward her, finding Shy Albatross
and a few Black-browed Albatross
and a Great-winged Petrel en route.
Wilson’s and European Storm
Petrel made an appearance in small numbers
and we had a few Sabine’s Gulls on
the water. By the time we reached the long liner we
found she was finished fishing and en route back to
Cape Town, being followed by numerous Cape
Gulls, Great Shearwater
and White-chinned Petrels. We pulled
up next to our second boat and poured some fish oil
on to the water, turning up a few more Storm Petrels
of both species in the process.
The water temperature at this point,
some 22 N miles out to seas, was an uncharacteristic
22.7 deg C. We had shoals of pelagic fish and Skipjack
on the surface. An Atlantic Blue Shark
made an appearance hunting these shoals; proving that
there is always a bigger fish in the ocean. We turned
for home as a light wind picked up from the west;
with a few Flying Fish jumping alongside
the boat.
The sea conditions were very unusual,
with very high water temperatures throughout the whole
area, large shoals of warm water fish and proportionately
low numbers of pelagic birds. Never the less by the
time we reached Cape Point we had picked up a number
of our target species.
Once we were back in False Bay we
headed across to the Castle Rock cormorant colony,
turning up a whale on the way. This was probably a
Bryde’s Whale that sounded soon after
we came across it. At Castle Rock we found White-breasted,
Cape Cormorants and Bank
Cormorants on nests. Two Crowned
Cormorants were found alongside African Black
Oystercatchers on a nearby rock.
Back in Simonstown we had a line-up of the resident
tern species along the buoy line as we came in. Despite
the highly unusual water conditions, we had a great
trip with some great birds.
Bird species seen and approximate
numbers:
Swift tern – coastal
Arctic tern – 50
Sandwich Tern - coastal
Hartlaub’s Gull – coastal
Cape Gull - coastal
Cape Cormorant – coastal
Bank Cormorant – coastal
White-breasted cormorant – coastal
Crowned Cormorant – coastal – 2
African Penguin – coastal
Cape Gannet – coastal & pelagic –
50
Africa Black Oystercatcher – coastal –
2
Parasitic Jaeger – 6
White-chinned Petrel – 50
Great-winged Petrel – 1
Cory’s Shearwater – 50
Great Shearwater – 5
Sooty Shearwater – 5
Shy Albatross – 20
Black-browed Albatross – 5
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross – 1
Wilson’s Storm Petrel – 20
European Storm Petrel – 5
Sabine’s Gull – 20
Red Phalarope - 2
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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