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Cape Town Pelagic - 8 August 2009 (Trip Report by Rob Leslie)

Published by Callan Cohen (callan AT birdingafrica.com)

Highlights: Antarctic Fulmar, Southern and Northern Royal Albatross

A Cape Town Pelagic trip www.capetownpelagics.com left Simonstown on Saturday August 8th guided by Cape Town Pelagics guide Rob Leslie.

The weather forecast was for perfect conditions and I was looking forward to a great day at sea as the group of eager birders assembled at the public jetty in Simonstown. There was a stiff breeze blowing as we left the harbour and the skipper told us that wind was 19knts at Cape Point. Nevertheless I wasnÕt concerned, but when we rounded the breakwater and I saw the Cape Cormorants streaming from their normal roost on Ark Rock to the sheltered rocks at Boulders the image of a pleasant day at sea started fading. However, once round the Point and past the coastal chop sea, conditions moderated under the influence of the long Atlantic swell and we were able to head out to the trawl grounds.

We set a course a few degrees north of the direct line to the Cape Canyon to give us a more comfortable ride intending to turn south once we reached the shelf edge to approach the Cape Canyon from the north. The first excitement of the trip was provided by a school of about 20 Short-beaked Common Dolphins who joined us to play in the bow wave.

As we approached the shelf edge we picked up two suitable Òtrawler-sizedÓ targets on the radar to the south. We made for the closest target, which turned out to be the SAS Protea, a Navy research vessel with a conspicuous lack of birds. We turned to the second vessel an I&J trawler, the Foxglove, which passed us heading north towards Cape Town followed by a huge cloud of birds. The Foxglove passes the offal through a macerator before discharging it thereby producing small fish bits that are bite-sized for smaller petrels, which no doubt accounted for the cloud of Pintado Petrels in her wake.

We let the Foxglove pass us and we dropped back in her wake enjoying the birding spectacle. A beautiful white morph Southern Giant Petrel gave a good showing, but was soon eclipsed by a brief sighting of an adult Northern Royal Albatross. About 5-10 mins later, we were again treated to a brief visit from a Northern Royal Albatross. I assumed that it was the same individual that we had seen earlier, but another pelagic vessel (about 5 nautical miles south of us) reported seeing 2 Northern Royals together, so they could have been two individuals and not 2 sightings of the same individual.

The Foxglove was heading home at speed, doing about 15 knts (a horse heading for home after a ride has nothing on a trawler) and it took a major effort to catch up to her again. We then slowed down letting the trawler move off as we dropped back to work through the birds in her wake. We were well rewarded by a Southern Royal Albatross and an Antarctic Fulmar as well as another Northern Royal Albatross.

After a terrific lunch surrounded by petrels and albatrosses we turned for home approaching the Point from the north - which incidentally gave us a much more comfortable ride than if we had gone south to the Canyon. Shortly after we rounded the Point, we spotted a whale breaching in the distance, but it was too far off to identify. After a detour to view the Bank Cormorant breeding colony off Partridge Point - the birds were in immaculate breeding plumage we crossed False Bay to SimonÕs Town well satisfied with the day out.

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 Rob Leslie.

To book one of Cape Town Pelagics weekly scheduled pelagic trips, simply email or phone us, or submit a booking enquiry online: www.capetownpelagics.com

Species Lists

Bird Species seen and approximate numbers

NORTHERN ROYAL ALBATROSS 2-3
SOUTHERN ROYAL ALBATROSS 1
Shy albatross 500
Black-browed Albatross 400
Yellow-nosed Albatross (Juv) 1
Southern Giant Petrel 10
Southern Giant Petrel – white morph 1
Northern Giant Petrel 8
White-chinned Petrel 500
Sooty Shearwater 300
ANTARCTIC FULMAR 1
Pintado Petrel 6000
Wilson's Storm Petrel 1
Cape Gannet 50
Subantarctic Skua 15
Kelp Gull 4
Jackass Penguin Coastal
White-breasted Cormorant Coastal
Bank Cormorant Coastal
Cape Cormorant Coastal
Crowned Cormorant Coastal
Kelp Gull Coastal
Hartlaubs Gull Coastal
Swift Tern Coastal

Mammals

Short-beaked Common Dolphin 20
Unidentified rorqual whale 1
Cape Fur Seal few deep, lots coastal