An interesting day at sea on Easter Saturday, 30th March, off the coast of Eastern Cape.
The first identifiable bird of the day was a brown morph Red-footed Booby which had me running inside for the camera as I suspected (rightly) that they were not common in these parts.
A few dark petrels in the morning were mainly Great-winged Petrels (despite the protestations of eBird) but there were also at least two White-chinned Petrels. A couple of Cory’s Shearwaters in the morning also surprised me as I did not think that they would be that easy to find so far south but I saw at least 40 during the day; all those photographed had the dark hand typical of the species.
The only albatross of the day was an Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross which flew past mid-morning. Unfortunately, it had a big patch of oil on its breast, and it was even trying to preen it as it flew.
Just before lunch, there were some typically (for this trip) brief dolphin sightings. Two individuals, which never surfaced and were only seen underwater, seemed to be distinctly bicolored. Another group just a few minutes later had big falcate dorsal fins and so were probably Bottlenose Dolphins.
There was just one Cape Gannet in the morning but, at lunchtime, a trickle became a flood in the early afternoon as we passed Cape Padrone, east of what was formerly Port Elizabeth, now renamed Gqeberha. One of just six Cape Gannet colonies in the world is at Bird Island in Algoa Bay, between Gqeberha and Cape Padrone. There were quite a few newly fledged juveniles amongst them.
White-chinned Petrels also got much commoner at around the same time and we went through several rafts of up to 30 on the sea, as well as having birds flying past; Great-winged Petrels had disappeared by now.
Several more unusual species were also seen in the afternoon. Four Sabine’s Gulls were seen around the same time that the gannets first started appearing in the afternoon, as we went past Cape Padrone. A Brown Skua flew so close to the ship that it was too fast to photograph properly. A second Red-footed Booby of the day was not photographed but it was close enough to see the bill and leg colour and it stood out clearly on size and colour from the nearby juvenile Cape Gannets. A storm petrel sp. was briefly glimpsed passing the bows, which are inaccessible on this ship of course.
Most surprisingly, a small dark bird came up with one of the White-chinned Petrel rafts – I managed a couple of photos and then looked at the field guide thinking that whatever looked most like Balearic Shearwater would be it – and the only species that fitted was Balearic Shearwater!
I twice saw Southern Right Whale blows in the afternoon. I dismissed the first as I never saw it blow again but another blew four times. All I saw was the blow rapidly blown in the wind – there was no sign of the animal, nor any time to get an impression of the blow shape.
I ended the day chatting to Nigel Marvin, the speaker on board, who is a birder. When he saw me turn up with binoculars, camera and telescope he remarked “oh, I didn’t think there were any other birders on board!”
The next day the wind picked up and as it was a westerly and we were heading in that direction it was especially windy on board. At sunrise, we were passing Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa, but it could barely be seen due to the haze and distance. I could barely stand on our balcony, and there didn’t seem to be any birds passing anyway, so we went to breakfast. There were lots of birds passing on the port side, however, and, eventually, we found a sheltered spot on the promenade deck on the port side.
There were lots of albatrosses flying past, but as most of them were coming across the bows and then flying away from us they were not easy to identify. We saw about 30 albatrosses altogether and judging from my photos there were three species in roughly equal numbers – Shy Albatross, Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross and Black-browed Albatross.
White-chinned Petrels and Cape Gannets were also common, as were Cory’s Shearwaters, although they were mainly east of the Cape, and Great Shearwaters, although they were mainly west of the Cape. We also saw two Brown Skuas.
A few Brown Fur Seals also began to appear, floating past flapping their fins in the air like sails.
In mid-afternoon, we started to come inshore and Cape of Good Hope, and (the bottom) of Table Mountain began to appear from the haze.
As we came inshore, some new birds started to appear. These included some Sandwich Terns, Great Crested Terns and Crowned Cormorants, as well as the first Hartlaub’s Gulls and Kelp Gulls, the two common gulls in the area. As we came into the harbour, there was an Egyptian Goose and a large flock of Cape Cormorants on the breakwaters.
We berthed just after three. Fred Olsen’s Borealis was in our berth at the cruise terminal, so we were just a bit further along. By the time we got off, Borealis had left. Brown Fur Seals were swimming around the ship as we berthed.
The captain announced that we were cleared by the authorities so we went to get off, only to find a queue almost the length of the ship. We decided to watch the second half of Liverpool versus Brighton in one of the bars instead of queueing.
Once we got off we could hear seals barking away and realised that the Brown Fur Seals were playing on the bulbous bow, the extension of the ship just which is usually below the waterline. This was protruding from the water slightly as the ship was at rest, and the seals seemed to be playing a noisy game of “I’m the king of the castle”!
We had tickets to go on the ‘Table cable’ up Table Mountain but decided that as the website said visibility at the top was zero we decided to give it a miss and see if we have time tomorrow.
We took the shuttle to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront instead. This seemingly inaccurate name commemorates the visit of Queen Victoria and one of her sons (not her husband, Albert). The shuttle bus was the first I had ever been on with five seats and a very narrow aisle for getting on and off.
We took a look at another mall. Much more interesting was looking at the Brown Fur Seals sleeping on the pontoons in the harbour. A few Red-eyed Doves, House Sparrows and Red-winged Starling were just about the only land birds to be see. When we returned to the cruise terminal it was raining, as forecast, and fully justifying our decision not to go up Table Mountain.
In the evening, a local act named (I think) Drumstruck appeared in the ship’s theatre. They were dressed in traditional costume and started out by introducing the origins of some of the local instruments, before starting on the drums, but their repertoire was varied and included some Western music – I was not expecting the Twist.
When I Grow Up I Will Go There 