01 September 2013 – more sea time

It’s that time of the year when lots of pelagic trips run and today saw another Zest for Birds pelagic trip departing with Trevor co-guiding with Peter Ryan, Alvin Cope and John Graham. The trip out into False Bay was fairly quiet, but we rounded Cape Point, we soon started encountering White-chinned Petrels and Sooty Shearwaters in reasonable numbers as well as a few Shy Albatrosses.

White-chinned Petrel

Sooty Shearwater

We continued south-westwards out towards the trawling grounds picking up a number of the regular species along the way as well as a wonderful Wandering Albatross, always a real highlight for the passengers… and the guides!

Wandering Albatross

Approaching a trawler, we could see that there were lots of birds around but, only once we were right in behind it could we see the real numbers. Pintado Petrels were there in their thousands and it was quite a sight indeed – everyone was overwhelmed with the sheer volume of birds. Most of the other species we had already seen were also present in good numbers and it was particularly good to get some nice close up looks at Wilson’s Storm Petrels.

Approaching the trawler

Lots of birds behind the trawler!

Pintado Petrel

Wilson’s Storm Petrel

Careful scanning through the immense flocks of birds eventually turned up a Northern Royal Albatross as well, our 6th albatross species for the day before we eventually had to turn for home. It was a very satisfied group of birders that eventually arrived back in Simonstown after another fantastic day at sea.

Northern Royal Albatross

31 August 2013 – a new reptile for us

We had met up with Cliff and Suretha Dorse this morning to look for Sand Rain Frogs for a research study that we had been asked to assist with, but were unsuccessful in finding any. There had not really been enough rain over the last few days to get the animals active and calling, so we resorted to looking for a few reptiles in the area.

This was also not hugely successful although we did find a few Silvery Dwarf Burrowing Skinks, a couple of Cape Skinks, a Spotted Skaapsteker and a lovely young Cape Cobra. After lunch at a local restaurant, we headed off only to get a phone call from Cliff a little while later to let us know that they had found a Flowerpot Snake, a species we had never seen before! It’s not the most exciting looking reptile in the world and is also introduced to South Africa rather than being indigenous, but it was a chance to add a new species to our reptile list, so we screamed through anyway…:)

We spent a bit of time photographing the animal, but it has got to be one of the more difficult reptiles to actually get a decent photo of. It just doesn’t look like much more than an earthworm, so is not very photogenic at all. Nevertheless, a new species for us and another one for our challenge list, so it was still all smiles at the end of it…:)

Flowerpot Snake

24 – 25 August 2013 – of owls and pipits…

Trevor had been advised that he would be receiving an Owl Award from BirdLife South Africa at a function in Johannesburg on Saturday evening, so we travelled up to Gauteng late this morning. Owl Awards are presented to people who are thought to have done something beyond the normal call of duty to further the philosophy of BirdLife South Africa which it to promote the enjoyment of and conservation of birds and their habitats in South Africa, so it was quite an honour to be receiving this award.

After landing at OR Tambo International Airport and collecting our hire car, we made our way out to Muldersdrift where the function would be taking place and also where would be staying over. What we hadn’t really thought through was that, if we had flown to Lanseria Airport instead, we would have been right where we needed to be instead of having to drive all this way – sometimes, we make some silly mistakes…:)

We arrived at the Misty Hills Country Hotel late afternoon and booked into our accommodation before cleaning up and getting ready for the function. When we got together for the welcome drinks at around 5pm, it was great to see so many other familiar faces there, many of whom we had not seen in quite some time. The function was a great event and, with so many birding friends there, ended up in a lot of socialising as well which turned into a VERY late night! A great experience all round and thank you very much to BirdLife South Africa for the honour of this award.

Trevor receives the award from the President and Vice Chairman of BLSA

Sunday was a late start and then a very relaxed breakfast with a bunch of friends who had stayed over at the hotel. When we eventually managed to pull ourselves away from there, we decided to head over to Krugersdorp Game Reserve about 20km away where we had been told that Striped Pipit was quite easy to see. Since we had never photographed this species before, we thought we would give it a try. After all, we were right there anyway…

It didn’t take long after arriving to locate the birds and eventually, we managed to get reasonably close to them. Unfortunately, because of our very late start, the light was already a bit harsh, so we will definitely try and get back there again in the future at a better time of day for photography, but it was good to at least be able to aim the camera at a new species for a change. Once done there and, after a late lunch at a local restaurant, we made our way back to the airport to begin the journey back home. Not the greatest biodiversity weekend in the world, but fantastic from a social point of view and, sometimes, that is also important…:)

Striped Pipit

Striped Pipit

18 August 2013 – an 8 albatross day!

Another Zest for Birds pelagic set out this morning, having been delayed a day due to the series of wild cold fronts that had been belting the Cape Peninsula. (Trevor was co-guiding with Barrie Rose, Alvin Cope and John Graham) We set off with some anticipation as the wind had dropped sufficiently overnight to allow the trip but was recent enough that we had hopes of finding birds still lingering that had been blown in from the deep south over the previous few days.

The trip through False Bay was in calm water, but already showed signs of the recent weather as we had White-chinned Petrel, Southern Giant Petrel, Subantarctic Skua and flocks of Sooty Shearwaters before even leaving the Bay. On rounding Cape Point, we were greeted by a moderately large swell that was still a bit bumpy from the recent wind, but with the promise that it would ease quickly in the light winded conditions we pressed on south-westwards.

We had an excellent movement of Sooty Shearwaters in the first few miles beyond Cape Point and quickly also added Shy Albatross. A late Antarctic Prion was a surprise and an unseasonal Great-winged Petrel added to the recent pattern of winter records of this species. While only partway through our voyage down to the trawling waters the shout of “Whiteback” went up and there to the east was a magnificent juv Southern Royal Albatross gliding gracefully down the face of a giant swell, clearly showing its distinctive white leading edge, white back and massive wingspan. The seemingly inquisitive bird passed close ahead of our bow and then proceeded to shadow us all the way to the trawling waters, remaining visible within 500m or so of us the whole while.

Southern Royal Albatross

We spotted a couple of trawlers working in the vicinity of the Cape Canyon and as we approached the first, MV Forest Lily, we were bowled over by the vast numbers of birds feeding in her wake. Pintado Petrels were abundant, and were joined by large numbers of White-chinned Petrel, Wilson’s Storm Petrels and albatrosses. The Southern Royal Albatross crossed our bow yet again and while flying over the multitude of foraging birds joined up with a crisply marked Northern Royal Albatross and circled alongside its fellow visitor from New Zealand waters for a while, unfortunately remaining a little distant from the boat. An Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross added to the albatross tally for the morning, and Black-browed Albatrosses were only slightly outnumbered by the Shy Albatrosses scrapping over fish remains broken up on the surface by Cape Fur Seals.

Approaching the first trawler

Pintado Petrel

Black-browed Albatross

Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross

At this stage the second trawler, MV Compass Challenger, had approached close to us and as she had a whole new gathering of seabirds brought in from the southeast we detoured over into her wake. An excellent dappled brown immature Wandering Albatross glided effortlessly past our port bow and disappeared into the melee, and while picking through the hundreds of albatrosses in search of this we found our seventh albatross for the day, an excellent adult Salvin’s Albatross, an extremely rare visitor to our waters. The search now of course switched to the Salvin’s, which we had lost sight of amongst the thousands of other birds before everyone had seen it adequately, and while searching we added another Northern Royal Albatross and a Stage 4 adult Wandering Albatross.

After adding a Soft-plumaged Petrel, Northern Giant Petrel and our eighth albatross of the day, an adult Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross, to the list we reluctantly set off homewards as we were running a little late. Our voyage homewards was punctuated by occasional great looks at Great-winged Petrels and further Giant Petrels.

Approaching the second trawler

Wandering Albatross

Salvin’s Albatross

17 August 2013 – twitching madness…

Today was one of those mad days where we would be chasing regional rarities all around the province! We left home at around 4 am and drove just short of 400km to get to a place called Matjesvlei very near to Calitzdorp in the Little Karoo. The reason for this was that there had been reports recently of a small group of White-fronted Bee-eaters, a species that we still needed to photograph for our challenge and a rather rare bird in the province as well as a single Common Scimitarbill, a full Western Cape lifer for us, from this area.

Arriving there just after 8am, we set about trying to find the birds. It didn’t take too long before we found the Bee-eaters, but a little longer to get a photo of one of them. Surprisingly, we saw at least 8 of these birds there and they seemed to be possibly breeding in one of the sand banks along the river. Given that the closest known population is near Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, some 500km east of here, this was a pretty weird record.

White-fronted Bee-eater

We then set about trying to find the Common Scimitarbill. We walked for a long time not finding anything until, eventually, Trevor caught a glimpse of it across the river. It then took quite a bit longer before we saw it again but, by 10:30am, we were starting to get a little concerned that we hadn’t had even vaguely decent views of it yet let alone any photos. One last attempt and we finally found it sitting up and we were able to get a few record shots before it disappeared off again. Another great Western Cape bird in the bag…!

Common Scimitarbill

We then climbed into the car again and began our next drive, this time to Sedgefield about 200km away, where we hoped to catch up with a Red-capped Robin-chat that had been located there recently. This was a first record for the Western Cape province and one we definitely wanted to see. Arriving at the site, a residential garden in Sedgefield, it took us all of about a minute before we caught our first glimpse of the bird. Success! However, trying to get a photo of it was a completely different story and we spent quite some time before managing to get a few record shots.

After a quick lunch at a local take-away, we then began the long drive back home (just over 500km) feeling very satisfied that we had connected with all of our targets on this mad day. Sometimes, these odd things just need to be done…:)

Red-capped Robin-chat

04 August 2013 – back out to sea

Trevor was once again a guide on a Zest for Birds pelagic trip today (co-guiding with John Graham and Alvin Cope). The trip out into False Bay was calm and also fairly quiet delivering just a few Cape Gannets and White-chinned Petrels, but once we rounded Cape Point, we started encountering our first Sooty Shearwaters and a little later, our first Shy Albatrosses of the trip. Not too far offshore, we also came upon a small pod of Humpback Whales, one of the animals showing a somewhat odd back with very little dorsal fin.

Shy Albatross

Humpback Whale

We headed further out into the deep picking up regular birds along the way until we came across a couple of Longliners. Although not quite as impressive as trawlers in terms of the number of birds they attract, there were still good numbers around and we were soon picking out a number of the more regular species like Southern Giant Petrel, Pintado Petrel and Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross. We also got a little bit of a surprise with an aberrant White-chinned Petrel which showed white up on to its crown. Initially, from a distance, we thought it might have been a Spectacled Petrel but, as it came closer, we could soon see that it wasn’t one.

Approaching the longliner

Southern Giant Petrel

Pintado Petrel

Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross

Aberrant White-chinned Petrel

Careful scanning through all the birds eventually turned up the highlight of the day, a lovely Northern Royal Albatross and our only rarity of the trip. The trip back to shore was uneventful in terms of adding new species to the list, but it was a satisfied bunch of birders that disembarked back at Simon’s Town after another great day at sea.

Northern Royal Albatross

03 August 2013 – no cat spotted…

With the second sighting of a Leopard at Rooiels in a couple of months, we decided that this would be a worthwhile spot to visit for a morning, so we took a leisurely drive out there this morning to see what we could find.

The walk along the mountainside was great and there was virtually no wind to speak of which made the birding and photography a little better. We spent a few hours in the area constantly scanning the mountainside in the hope that we might catch a glimpse of the spotted cat, but our poor luck with a Western Cape Leopard was destined to continue as we came away empty-handed. Nevertheless, we still connected with a number of the expected species in the area and some of them even posed for a photo or two.

It was once again reinforced that, if we ever do get to see a Leopard in the province, it is going to be because we just luckily bumped into it rather than us actually going to search for one…

Familiar Chat

Orange-breasted Sunbird

Cape Siskin

Cape Rock Thrush

Cape Rockjumper

20 July 2013 – a reptile at sea…

Trevor was lucky to join another Zest for Birds pelagic trip today (co-guiding with Barrie Rose, Alvin Cope, Cliff Dorse and John Graham). The extra set of guiding eyes was a response to our slightly surreal sighting of an Amsterdam Albatross close to Cape Point last week, as we had unrealistic hopes of finding the bird again. Unfortunately the weather was not ideal, with a north-west wind of around 20 knots and a choppy sea, and we were troubled by some light rain after rounding Cape Point.

Amazingly, at around 4 nautical miles past Cape Point, Barrie picked up a Wandering-type Albatross at long distance flying parallel to the boat, and the views we were able to accumulate between rolls appeared very similar to last week’s mega albatross. Unfortunately, the bird disappeared into some rain and despite following its course for some time we were unable to relocate it.

The waters close to the shore had an unusually large collection of Sooty Shearwaters, and an interesting shearwater with darker, uniform underwings was seen amongst them, close to the boat. This is a feature of Short-tailed Shearwater, but it was felt that the bill length was too long and the leg extension too little for this species, and so we let it go. Due to the rain and spray we got no pictures, and so it will remain unidentified.

Our voyage outwards took us out of the rain and into clear skies, and we added good birds as we headed southwards. Antarctic Prions were regular and gave excellent views, and Soft-plumaged Petrels and Great-winged Petrels were seen early in the trip. A loud yell of “Turtle” from Cliff alerted us to a Loggerhead Turtle loafing close to the boat and we were afforded great views. This is a particularly uncommon species in our part of the world and was also a new species for our Western Cape challenge list. A brief Sunfish spotted by Alvin was unfortunately not seen again.

Loggerhead Turtle

As was the case last week, we were unable to locate a trawler and so did some chumming with fish oil in the vicinity of the shelf edge. We brought in Wilson’s Storm Petrels, Soft-plumaged Petrels and Antarctic Prions for good close looks, and a quick flyby of a very similar Slender-billed Prion was only revealed from examination of photo’s shortly after setting off northwards. Astonishingly, we did not see a single Pintado Petrel, even when chumming. These are strongly attracted to chum and so there cannot have been any within reasonable reach of the boat (downwind, of course).

Our voyage home was quiet, although added further views of Humpback Whales.

Shy Albatross

Slender-billed Prion

14 July 2013 – showing our friends a lifer…

Our friends, Keir and Alouise Lynch and their son, Cian, had spent the night with us last night and, as they were still looking for Antarctic Tern for their lifelists, we decided that a little jaunt up the west coast to a roost that we knew of would be a good bet. These terns visit South Africa during the austral winter, arriving in the Cape in late May and departing again in early September.

Just over an hour’s drive later (after having stopped off for a take-away breakfast), we arrived at Mauritzbaai and headed straight for the tern roost. It was almost too easy as we could just walk out to where the terns were the Lynchs could just tick them off. Carefully scanning through the roost of several hundred birds revealed only a handful of Swift and Common Terns hidden in amongst the majority of Antarctic Terns. They were in a wide variety of plumages ranging from juveniles through to adults in both summer and winter plumage. We spent the next little while photographing them and enjoying their antics before calling it a day and heading back home.

Even if one doesn’t get a new addition to your own list, there is still some enjoyment in watching the smiles on your friends’ faces as they get to tick off another lifer…:)

Swift Tern

Antarctic Tern

13 July 2013 – a mega pelagic trip

After a long break, we eventually managed to get out to sea again today on another Zest for Birds pelagic trip (Trevor co-guiding with Cliff Dorse and John Graham). The weather was a bit miserable, with a 15 – 20 knot north-westerly wind and a bit of rain around, but predictions were that the wind would go into the south-west at midday and the swell was a choppy but still relatively easy 2,5m south-westerly swell, ensuring an easy ride home.

Our trip outwards was relatively uneventful, bar a steady accumulation of the regular pelagic species and a heavy downpour for 10 minutes or so. An unseasonal Manx Shearwater was a surprise, as were a sprinkling of overwintering Arctic Terns. By the time we were in the trawling waters, the skies had cleared somewhat but our spirits dampened again when we realised that there wasn’t a trawler or fishing boat within radar range.

White-chinned Petrel

Shy Albatross

Black-browed Albatross

We birded on and accumulated a good list of species before turning back for home. Highlights were some excellent views of Soft-plumaged Petrels and Great-winged Petrels revelling in the windy conditions and showcasing their spectacular powers of flight, and a magnificent young immature Southern Royal Albatross that flew the length of the boat before disappearing down the wake. Pintado Petrels were their normal endearingly friendly selves and the prions showed very well, but all appeared to be the regular Antarctic Prions.

Pintado Petrel

Antarctic Prion

Soft-plumaged Petrel

Southern Royal Albatross

Our voyage homewards was back into overcast conditions, but was entertainingly punctuated by regular visits from Soft-plumaged Petrels, and it was when watching one of these at only 6 nautical miles from Cape Point that a huge dark brown bird got up off the water some 150m or so off the starboard bow. Calls of “juv Wanderer” immediately went up from the guides and cameras were lifted and snapping away as this graceful giant flew level for a short while before heading off to the south-east. Immediately, something did not feel “right” about this bird and we carried out the mandatory review of pictures immediately and realised that there was something seriously amiss with this bird. Despite its overall brown “monkey jacket” type plumage and white face, it showed a glaring broad white hind collar that contrasted with a dark brown cap and ear covert line, and a broad white belly. Closer examination appeared to reveal a dark cutting edge and dusky tip on the bill, near diagnostic features of the critically endangered Amsterdam Albatross. Subsequently, the photos were sent off to a number of experts across the globe and the following passage is a direct quote from the SA Rare Bird News Report a few days later:

“We have finally reached a point, after having done some very thorough research into the various possibilities and communicated with a number of people on the issue, to announce that we now believe that the bird we saw and photographed about 6 nautical miles south-west of Cape Point on Saturday, 13 July 2013 was, in fact, an AMSTERDAM ALBATROSS! We have not taken this decision lightly and have discussed the issue ad nauseum with a number of people. It seems wrong, when so many people have given detailed and valuable input on the bird, to single out just a few, but there are 3 people who certainly should be mentioned and who all add definite weight to the credibility of the record.

The first two are the world’s leading seabird identification authorities, Hadoram Shirahai and Peter Harrison, both of whom have confirmed that they are happy, based on the latest understandings of identification criteria (much of which is not even published in literature yet!), that all other possible candidates can be eliminated and the bird is definitely an Amsterdam Albatross. The third person that deserves a mention is Jean-Paul Roux, the person who wrote the paper originally describing Amsterdam Albatross to science, and he, too, has come back to confirm the identification as that species! We could not have asked for a better vote of support for this record than from these 3 gentlemen!

This is a hugely significant record of a species that is classed as “Critically Endangered” with current population estimates sitting at a maximum of 170 individuals left in the world! I still have to check this, but it may well be the rarest species (on a global scale) that has ever been recorded in Southern Africa. Although this species has been satellite tracked into our waters before, there has never been a sight record that has been confirmed up until now. We count ourselves as truly fortunate to have been on board when this really special bird came to visit the boat and are extremely thankful that we managed to get photographs of it which were able to confirm the identification. Big smiles all round…:)”

Amsterdam Albatross

We continued on home, adding Humpback Whale and a playful pod of Long-beaked Common Dolphins to the trip list to bring to an end surely our most memorable pelagic trip of 2013 so far!

Long-beaked Common Dolphin