TRIP REPORT
10 September 2011

Anne Albatross Pelagic trip Report 10 September 2011 by Patrick Cardwell who guided the trip.

After a blustery night of strong winds and heavy rain in the early hours of the morning the weather pattern finally settled down by dawn with the north-west onshore wind forecast to give way to south-easterly conditions during the course of the day.
This left False Bay flat and calm and we had an uneventful but cold run down to Cape Point under cloudy conditions. Cape Gannets were very much in evidence as well as hundreds of Cape Cormorant streaming off the boulders along the shore line along with small groups of Swift Tern heading south along our line of travel.
After the mandatory safety stop below the cliffs at Cape Point we headed out on a bearing of 245 degrees for the trawling grounds to the south west of Cape Maclear.
Progress was unfortunately painfully slow due to lumpy sea conditions and a pronounced ground swell caused by the strong north westerly wind the day before.
Birdlife was prolific with White-chinned Petrels very much in evidence as they careened about followed by the first of many Sooty Shearwaters cutting across the bow in low level flight followed by a sighting of a single Northern Giant Petrel.
Beyond Bellows Rock we had hoped the sea would flatten out but this was not to be and we had to contend with slow progress up and down a continuous progression of some seriously large swells striding purposefully towards the Cape of Good Hope in the receding distance.
At about 14 miles a line boat was spotted on the horizon and with it a steady increase in seabird numbers including sightings of Pintado Petrel and a single Wilson's Storm Petrel. Activity on board the fishing boat was conspicuous by the absence of any one on deck so we headed on in the direction of another vessel in the far distance.
This proved to be a stern trawler heading our way having recently recovered the first drag of the day. As a result close on a thousand seabirds were very much in evidence as they wheeled about the vessel or settled on the water to squabble over scraps drifting back along the wake.
Shy Albatross across the age-class spectrum along with Cape Gannets dominated the mass. Black-browed Albatross in fair number circled and wheeled about the vessel. Northern Giant Petrel ranged up and down the offal line. Subantarctic Skuas patrolled about our boat or took up station on the trawler's gantry while further back Wilson Storm Petrels pattered about within the mass of larger seabirds.
By now sea conditions were settling down and we elected to run parallel with the trawler as it set its net for the next drag of the day. Visibility was good and the light was improving steadily, as the cloud bank backed off to the north, and we settled into sifting through the hundreds of seabirds around us in search of new sightings for the day.

In this we failed to add either of the 'yellow-nosed' albatrosses to our tally and observed nothing noticeably different within the mix of Shy and Black-browed Albatross careening about us that would qualify as something new or exciting within the family. We did however pick up on a single SPECTACLED PETREL amongst the hundreds of White-chinned Petrels and this proved to be the highlight bird of the day.
After staying with the trawler for a further three nautical miles, with nothing new added to the pelagic list, we decided to head back to the shelter of False Bay surfing the impressive swells all the way to Cape Point at an exhilarating rate of knots.
After a brief stop to check on the Bank Cormorants at Partridge Point we made our way back to Simon's Town.

Thanks to Anees for ably skippering 'Stella' in frustratingly difficult sea conditions and to Emmie for the food platters which went down a treat while birding alongside the trawler earlier in the day.

Species list with approximate numbers for the day is as follows:
Shy Albatross - 300
Black-browed Albatross - 150
Northern Giant Petrel - 16
White-chinned Petrel - 500
Spectacled Petrel - 1
Pintado Petrel - 50
Sooty Shearwater - 200
Wilson's Storm Petrel - 50
Subantarctic Skua - 20
Kelp Gull - 30
Cape Gannet - 300
Cape Cormorant - 400
Bank Cormorant - 20
White-breasted Cormorant - 4
Crowned Cormorant -1
Swift Tern - coastal
African Penguin - coastal
African Black Oystercatcher - 1

What was missed by way of albatross variety on the day was more than compensated for by the sheer abundance of seabirds present on the trawling grounds. All in all a good day in spite of the cold wind and frustratingly lumpy sea conditions that prevailed throughout and everyone on board thoroughly enjoyed
a memorable pelagic experience seeing the spectacle of hundreds& hundreds
of pelagic birds out on the deep sea.

Thanks to skipper Anees and Patrick.