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The morning of Sunday 20 May was
a bit blustery after the cold fronts that had swept
through the Cape in the preceding week. At 07h15 we
boarded a Cape Town Pelagics trip running out of Simonstown,
with Dalton Gibbs guiding. In the harbour were the
usual Cape and Hartlaub’s
Gulls, as well as long lines of Cape
Cormorants with a solitary Grey Heron
among them. False Bay was relatively flat, with Cape
Gannet in fair numbers as we approached Cape
Point.
Whist we were still in False Bay we started to pick
up a number of White-chinned Petrels
and then Sub-Antarctic Skua that
trailed our boat. These were soon followed by several
Shy Albatross before we had even
passed Cape Point. These birds were indicative of
the strength of the winds that were blowing further
out and we could see an “angry sea” with
waves breaking on the off shore rocks.
Young Black-browed Albatross turned
up in small numbers and soon a dozen or so Sooty
Shearwater were in our area. We travelled
some three miles off Cape Point, but found that the
weather reports had underplayed the strength of the
wind further out to sea. As a result we couldn’t
head far from land, so laid out some fish oil on the
water a few miles off Cape Point.
This oil quickly attracted Cory’s Shearwaters
and small flocks of Wilson’s Storm Petrel
turned up in low numbers as we got closer to the trawler.
A Northern Giant Petrel appeared
as well as several more Shy Albatross
and a few adult Black-browed Albatross.
With a heavy swell we chose to return to the relative
shelter of False Bay and head over to the Castle Rock
cormorant colony where we found White-breasted,
Cape Cormorants, and Bank Cormorants.
There was an assortment of age classes of seals on
the adjacent rocks and their accompanying smells!
We headed back into Simonstown, picking up Crowned
Cormorant in the harbour. Despite not being
able to get far out to sea, we had never the less
seen a fair assortment of pelagic species which the
weather had brought in.
Bird species seen and approximate numbers
Swift tern – coastal
Hartlaub’s Gull – coastal
Cape Gull – coastal
Cape Cormorant – coastal
Bank Cormorant – coastal
White-breasted cormorant – coastal
Crowned Cormorant – coastal – 3
African Penguin – coastal
Cape Gannet – coastal & pelagic –
100
Sub-Antarctic Skua – 25
White-chinned Petrel – 50
Northern Giant Petrel – 1
Cory’s Shearwater – 20
Sooty Shearwater – 50
Shy Albatross – 20
Black-browed Albatross – 7
Wilson’s Storm Petrel – 15
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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