Pelagic seabirding off Cape Town, RSA : 2

Rarities and the legendary 1984 season...
For local birders it is the lure of local rarities that makes pelagic trips so popular. Almost anything can turn up, including the following rarities recorded in the Western Cape, characteristically in winter: (Southern) Royal Albatross D. e. sandfordi (four records at sea), Buller's Albatross D. bulleri (one record at sea), Sooty Albatross Phoebetria fusca (two confirmed records at sea, two from land, ten washed up dead on beaches), Light-mantled Sooty Albatross P. palpebrata (two confirmed records at sea, three beached), Antarctic Petrel Thalassoica antarctica (two beached), White-headed Petrel Pterodroma lessonii (two at sea, one beached), Atlantic Petrel P. incerta (very scarce, no figures available), Kerguelen Petrel P. brevirostris (very scarce, except in 1984), Blue Petrel Halobaena caerulea (very scarce, except in 1984), Thin-billed Prion Pachyptila belcheri (very scarce, except in 1984), Fairy Prion P. turtur (one beached), Grey Petrel Procellaria cinerea (very scarce), Little Shearwater Puffinus assimilis (scarce), Black-legged Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla (two at sea, one on land) and South Polar Skua Catharacta maccormicki (scarce). Rarities seen in summer include White-faced Storm-Petrel Pelagodroma marina (very scarce) and Laysan Albatross Diomedea immutabilis (one at sea). In July 1984 a remarkable seabird irruption occurred from Australia and New Zealand to South Africa. This was possibly linked to the El Niño weather conditions prevailing during the previous season and was associated with many beached seabird corpses. There were sightings of birds ordinarily very rare at sea, including large numbers of Kerguelen Petrel, Blue Petrel and Slender-billed Prion. The most bizarre record was surely that of the dazed Dark-mantled Sooty Albatross found atop an apartment block in suburban Cape Town!

Organising a pelagic trip
Reasonably priced day trips, led by experienced local leaders and using radar to detect and approach trawlers on the continental shelf, 30-40 km offshore, depart from Simon's Town and Hout Bay harbours at least once a month (more often in winter and spring). Conditions may turn fairly rough, especially during winter, so be sure to bring anti-nausea tablets if you are prone to seasickness. Please contact the authors for an update on the constantly changing pelagic birding trip details. A centralised Pelagic Booking Service has been formed to accept bookings for all the major pelagic operators (visit www .capetownpelagics.com or call + 27 21 683 1898 for further details).

Seawatching from the Cape Peninsula
Those who don't trust their sea legs may consider taking their telescopes out on a windy day and gazing out to sea to search for pelagic seabirds that are blown inshore. Although the popularity of this pastime has declined recently due to the increased availability of pelagic birding trips, there are still some sites worth visiting on the peninsula if you are a hardened seawatcher.
In winter seawatching is best on the western side of the peninsula when a strong north-westerly is blowing. Try to find a position elevated enough to preclude your quarry dipping infuriatingly behind the wave troughs, and if possible sheltered from light rain squalls. The best spots are at the Cape of Good Hope (find a sheltered vantage point on the cliffs above the parking area), and Cape Point (take the path from the old lighthouse to the new one), in the Cape of Good Hope reserve, and the village of Kommetjie (from the shore near the lighthouse), on the peninsula's Atlantic seaboard. Even the casual seawatcher is bound to see a sprinkling of Cape Cormorant, Cape Gannet, White-chinned Petrel and Sooty Shearwater just offshore. If there is a strong wind, Shy and Black -browed Albatrosses may also be seen, with regular appearances made by Subantarctic Skua, Northern and Southern Giant Petrels, Yellow- nosed Albatross, Wilson's Storm-Petrel and Broad-billed Prion.

In spring, summer and autumn, the persistent south-easterly winds produce good seawatching, and the best vantage points are Glencairn and Cape Point. Glencairn, made famous by dedicated seawatcher Mike Fraser, is a small suburb on the east coast of the Peninsula, between Fish Hoek and Simon's Town, and the best vantage point here is the whale-watching site 1 km north of the railway station. The seawatching is best in spring and late summer (October and February-March), on the first or second day of the south-easter. Birds are blown into False Bay and are best viewed in the late afternoon as they move south, out of the bay. Most common are Cape Gannet, Arctic Skua, Sooty Shearwater and White-chinned Petrel. Less common but regular nonetheless are Pomarine Skua and Cory's Shearwater; scarcer still are Soft -plumaged Petrel, Great Shearwater and Long-tailed Skua.
In summer, scan offshore from the Mouille Point lighthouse (just west of Cape Town's Victoria and Alfred Waterfront), for distant flocks of Sabine's Gull (October-April), as well as Cape Gannet, White-chinned Petrel, Arctic Skua and Swift Tern S. bergii.

Greater Sheathbill, South Africa (Callan Cohen)

Coastal birds
Cape Town hosts several coastal species endemic to southern Africa, most of which are fairly common and easy to find close to the city . The three endemic species of Phalacrocorax - the common Cape Cormorant P. capensis, Crowned Cormorant and the much scarcer and threatened Bank Cormorant - are easily seen at the seaside village of Kommetjie , on the west coast of the Cape Peninsula and 30 minutes south of Cape Town. African Black Oystercatcher Haematopus moquini, another coastal species under threat and currently subject to intensive monitoring, is fairly common along peninsula shores and is invariably present at Kommetjie . This is also a classic site for Antarctic Tern; a small flock roosts here each winter, from April to early October. Winter is also the best time to enquire if there is a Greater Sheathbill in the area, as vagrants (probably ship-assisted) regularly turn up on the Western Cape's Atlantic seaboard.
The now famous Boulders Beach African Penguin Spheniscus demersus colony at Simonstown on the southern Cape Peninsula is another obvious destination, and also holds African Black Oyster- catcher and Crowned Cormorant. Further afield, on the West Coast north of Cape Town, other good sites for all the coastal specials are the village of Yzerfontein, and the Tsaarsbank picnic site in the West Coast National Park. Damara Tern Sterna balaenarum, a superb southern African endemic, breeds in tiny numbers in the De Mond Nature Reserve, near Cape Agulhas. A few are often present around the reserve's estuary mouth, although the colony itself is situated in dune slacks some 9 km to the west.

Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Mike Fraser, John Graham, Anne Gray, Trevor Hardaker, Rob Leslie, Peter Ryan and Ian Sinclair for assisting with pelagic trips and seabirding information, and wish to thank Bruce Dyer, Peter Ryan and Ross Wanless for kindly supplying photographs. Pippa Parker of Struik Publishers gave permission to partially reproduce text in this article from Essential Birding - Western South Africa: Key Routes from Cape Town to the Kalahari (Cape Town: Struik Publishers, 2000).

Further reading

1. Cohen, C. and Spottiswoode, C. 2000. Essential Birding - Western South Africa: Key Routes from Cape Town to the Kalahari. Cape Town: Struik Publishers.
2. Enticott, J. and Tipling, D. 1997. Photographic Handbook of the Seabirds of the World. London, UK: New Holland.
3. Fraser, M. and McMahon, L. 1990. Seawatching from the Cape Peninsula. Birding in SA 42: 118-122.
4. Fraser, M. and McMahon, L. 1993. Seawatching off Glencairn. Promerops 210: 10-11.
5. Graham, J. 2000. Offshore Gains. Africa -Birds & Birding 5 (4): 26-32.
6. Ryan, P.G. 1997. The Wandering Albatross. Africa - Birds & Birding 2 (1): 29-35.
7. Ryan, P.G. 1998. The taxonomic and conservation status of the Spectacled Petrel Procellaria conspicillata. Bird Conserv. Intern. 8: 223-235.
8. Ryan, P.G. 2000. Separating albatrosses: Tristan or Wandering? Africa - Birds & Birding 5 (4): 35-39.
9. Ryan, P.G., Avery, G., Rose, B., Ross, G.J.B., Sinclair, J.C. and Vernon, C.J. 1989. The Southern Ocean seabird irruption to South African waters during winter 1984. Cormorant 17: 41-55.
10. Stanford, W.P. 1953. Some seabirds off the S.W. Cape. Ostrich 24: 17-26