Earthwatch Institute	Robben Island Museum	Marine & Coastal Management (DEAT)	University of Bristol

Earthwatch 2003 Project: South African Penguins

Diary of Team 3

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2005 Teams: 1; 3; 4; 5
2004 Teams: 1; 2; 3; 4; 6; 7
2003 Teams: 1; 2; 3; 4
2002 Teams: 1; 2; 6
2001 Teams: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6

Photo ADU/Earthwatch Team 3, 2003

Day One: May 29, 2003

There are two volunteers here, Amber and Antonietta, on the island right now. Meeting at the aquarium was rather stressful because we sat there until right at twelve and no one showed up. We were rather nervous that it had been cancelled and we were not notified, but Leshia and Linda showed up and treated us to a spectacular lunch at Dock's. The weather was very nice as we rode the boat over to the island. We were happy to learn that the plumber had visited the house and we had not only water but also hot water!

Day Two: May 30, 2003

We started our day bright and early. Before lunch we checked on over 70 nests. We also banded over twenty birds with the rubber band. There were nests all over and a ton of chicks, it was quite a sight. Mario was our human GPS and showed us all the nests. After a nice lunch we went to do the game count. We saw 102 Fallow, 23 Springbok, 63 Bontebok, 4 Eland, 30 Steenbok, 1 ostrich, and 138 rabbits, plus one cat. After the game count we saw an amazing sunset. On the count we had to drive through a massive swarm of Hartlaub's gulls. Reminded us of the movie "The Birds". For dinner we had a barbecue and went through the day's paperwork. After that a nice glass of wine and off to bed we went.

Day 3: May 31, 2003

Amber, Leshia, Mario, Johan and Antonietta set off in the morning to check on the rest of the Earthwatch nests. Amber held her first penguin! Very exciting. In the afternoon, we did Penguin re-traps and documented well over a hundred birds. We also marked new nests for the study in Area C. In the evening, after a gorgeous sunset, we were joined by Les and Kathy. Les and Kathy were there to catch Oystercatchers. We thought this would be a great experience, until the whole 1:30 a.m. part came in. We started at 1:30 and came home at 3:30, who knows how long Les and Kathy were out! We watched Kathy process 2 Oystercatchers and a Dikkop, she even had to draw blood from the bird. The bed felt nice after a few hours of chasing birds.

Day 4: June 1, 2003

After very little sleep we began Day 4 at 7:30, having slept about 4 hours at the most. Leshia, Johan, Amber and Antonietta headed outside the house and began walking the perimeter of the Island doing the Wader count. It is a very big Island. It got bigger as the morning went on. We were only a fifth of the way when we were convinced that we were finished. We all felt as if we were hung over. Not good. We were able to count 146 Oystercatchers, 23 Turnstones, 2 Grey Plovers, 18 Ringed Plovers, 2 White-fronted Plovers, 29 Blacksmith Plovers, 104 Sacred Ibis, 42 Sanderlings, 15 Spotted Dikkop, 13 Little Egrets, 180 Kelp Gulls, 14 Egyptian Geese, 2 Three-banded Plovers, and numerous Hartaub's Gulls. We came back for lunch and took a great nap. In the afternoon, we went back to the new nest that we had marked in Area C. It was an exhausting day and we slept well.

Day 5: June 2, 2003

It was our first day off and it rained and rained and rained. Amber and Antonietta visited the Castle in Cape Town, but we kept to the inside things because it was pouring rain. We got in a little shopping, but most of the outside vendors had packed up and left due to the weather. We got a huge pizza and a bottle of Amarula and headed back to the Island with Leisha.

Day 6: June 3, 2003

Our morning began going over all the Earthwatch nest sites which took us (Leshia, Mario, Linda, Amber and Antonietta) well into the afternoon. We banded a few more birds with the rubber bands. As the dark clouds rolled in we went home for lunch. After lunch we did a count of the Bank Cormorant nests. We skated along the guano (one inch thick in some spots) from one end of the pier to the other. If any of us fell into the poop, we were going to call it a day. After that, we set up our Penguin Road Crossing positions. We counted 181 Penguins from Beach towards Inland and 45 from Inland to Beach on Beach Road. And we counted 89 penguins from Beach to Inland and 13 Inland to Beach on the Entrance to Harbour Road. We counted 9 vehicles and 5 groups of people only on Harbour Road. The whole hour that we were counting we had to smell our nasty shoes that were covered in Cormorant guano…yuck.

Day 7: June 4, 2003

Today was a busy day. We started in the morning doing nest counts and retraps. We did this in areas A, B,C, D, E, F,G, and H. That was a lot!! This was all we did all day morning till late afternoon until 4:00 when we helped with the diet's. For the diet's there is a little fenced in walkway that the penguins went through to get back to their nest's from the beach. We put gates on both sides of the walkway and pulled string to close the gate when there were birds inside. Leshia and Linda needed to check the stomach contents of 10 birds, they do this every month. This allows them to estimate the amount and type of food penguins eat so they can limit the fishing industries if necessary. They have a very good system, but it was very smelly!

Day 8: June 5, 2003

We spent our morning from 9-10 doing the penguin crossing study. Not very many birds this morning, rather boring. But after a dull hour we were able to collect 10 bags of trash from the beach. We collected a tire, a diving bag, tons of fishing line, and Mario picked up a T.V., too bad it doesn't work. It was amazing how much trash has accumulated since the last Earthwatch team. In the afternoon we did nest counts and retraps in areas U, T, Q, and P. One bird that we saw was missing a left foot! But he hobbled along just fine.

Day 9: June 6, 2003

Today we were busy doing nest counts and retraps in areas V, S, Z, and X. In area Z we came across a bunch of abandoned ostrich eggs. After a wonderful lunch of cracker and cheese and meat, Amber and Antonietta set off to look for banded Hartlaub's gulls. We saw hundreds, maybe thousands of gulls flying all around, BUT we found only 2 rings. That was very sad. Having all those birds flying directly over your head made you want to be wearing a hat!! We all had invigorating baths today. There is apparently a cross in the plumbing and electrical lines, and we all got zapped while trying to bathe. It was a shocking experience.

Day 10: June 7, 2003

This morning we checked on all the Earthwatch nests and banded a few more with the new rubber bands. It is difficult to determine which birds to band because some have big chicks and they will leave the nest soon. Since the project wants the bands back, the decision to band or not to band can be difficult. For the afternoon we went to town for some supplies, while Leshia and Linda continued counting and counting for the census. Because they worked so hard all day we brought them back a pizza, HUGE pizza. If you are here on Robben Island and need pizza, catch the ferry and go to St. Elmo's in the mall. It is very good. Also, for an additional snack, you must try Bumps on a Log. All you need is celery, peanut butter, and raisins. The concensus was to omit the raisins.

Day 11: June 8, 2003

We spent our morning hours in the thick bush of area AA. We helped Leshia, Linda, and Mario with the census in that area. We were just happy we didn't have to crawl. It started raining and we quickly decided it was time to go. Because of the rain, we spent the rest of the afternoon entering data into the computer and doing our laundry. Trying to get the guano stains off of our jeans. We got our clothes nice and clean for our next day off. It took quite a bit of time getting our clothes dry, because the dryer was not working.

Day 12: June 9, 2003

Leisha and Linda came into town with us. We were supposed to get on the cable car to go to the top of Table Mountain, but the lift was having maintenance repair. So instead we headed off to Stellenboch for a lovely lunch after viewing the cheetahs and birds of prey. We did some shopping at the Waterfront and in Table View. Plenty of goodies to take home. The weather was marvellous (unlike our first day off).

Day 13: June 10, 2003

We spent this morning going through all the Earthwatch nests for the last time. We are going to miss checking on all the little chicks and watching their development. Banded a couple more birds and took some (posed) action photos. In the afternoon, the gang (Mario, Leisha, Linda, Amber, and Antonietta) did a census of area Y. We were 50 shy of 700, so that was our goal. We ended up with 714 retraps for our entire Earthwatch trip. We were very pleased. We also were able to increase the number of Earthwatch nests by 13. We also had a total of 43 birds that we banded with the new rubber bands. Good luck to the next 3 groups. We hope you enjoy your time on Robben Island as much as we did. A special thanks to Leshia, Linda, Mario, and Johan who made this trip such a memorable learning experience. We had a load of fun. P.s. make sure you try the pepperdews, they are fantastic.

Signing off,
Amber Hull, Wichita, Kansas
Antonietta Brocksen, San Francisco, California