Earthwatch 2005 Project: South African Penguins
Diary of Team 5
Principal Investigators: Leshia Upfold, Michael Brooks and David Swanepoel
Team 5 Members: Art Boyle, Kristy Phillips, Ron Piovesan and Dick Richmond
Narrative by Dick Richmond and Ron Piovesan
Day 1, Monday, July 25, 2005
At 1 pm Team 5 members were greeted near the Clock Tower by Professor Leslie Underhill, Mario Leshoro, Leshia Upfold, Michael Brooks, and David Swanepoel. We then were treated to a welcoming outdoor lunch closeby at the Pancake House. While the weather was comfortable early on, the wind picked up and we retreated inside to avoid the accompanying shower. Before returning to his office at the University of Capetown, Professor Underhill provided each of us with a copy of “African Penguin Populations in the Western Cape, South Africa, 1992-2003”. Our departure for Robben Island was delayed until 5:15 pm, providing a small delegation (led by Leshia) with an opportunity for a quick trip to the V&A Waterfront for last minute provisions.
A high powered catamaran brought Leshia, Michael, Ron, Kristy, Art and Dick quickly through rough seas to the island, where we transferred ourselves, luggage and provisions by truck to #12 Lighthouse Road, our home until August 5th. While most of us settled into our new rooms, Leshia and Kristy began preparation of a tasty evening meal that included breaded-fried fish filets, creamed vegetables, salad, sliced papaya, and an undistinguished red wine from Tulbagh (Paarl, RSA). We were joined at the table by Tracy Shaw, a University of Pretoria undergraduate honors candidate who is resident here for several weeks while observing road crossing penguins and gathering GPS data on Robben Island penguin sea routes to their most common feeding areas. Art washed the dishes while Dick watched the dishes dry in the rack!
Ron and Kristy retired somewhat earlier than the rest of us, who remained in the kitchen area for a chat. Art and Dick shared some stories from their Air Force adventures of more than 50 years ago. Our new South African friends provided some welcome but sad insight into life for those in the minority in the new republic. By 11 pm the last light winked out at #12 Lighthouse Road.
Day 2, Tuesday, July 26, 2005
We awoke to the sounds of kitchen activity at 7 am and by 7:45 we all were enjoying breakfast together. We each prepared our own delights from a wide choice of fresh fruit, cold and hot cereal, boiled eggs, fried eggs with bacon, toast, jam, tea and coffee.
About 9 am we six were in our truck and on our way to Mario's office, where Dick and Art were given an opportunity to send e-mail messages to our wives. With that accomplished, Mario led us first to the Kramat penguin colony. There are many, many nests in each colony, but our specific interest was, is and shall be in the Earthwatch nests, which have been tagged with yellow ribbons by previous Earthwatch teams. Kristy volunteered to record findings at each Earthwatch nest. Dick spelled Kristy after a while, and by the time we had moved on to the Cornelia Road colony, Ron had become the recorder. With Mario's expert guidance, we found and checked 27 “closed” and 26 “open” nests in the Kramat colony; while 15 “closed” and 7 “open” were found among the Cornelia Road colony. (A closed nest has previously been judged to be inactive; an open nest is recently in use.) Penguin chicks are age graded (by experts such as Mario) from P0 to P4, P0 being just hatched and P4 nearly ready to go to sea for the first time. We were told that as the chicks age, they lose more and more down in favour of more and more feathers, and that is the means by which they are age-graded.
This afternoon Michael introduced Ron and Kristy to procedures for spreadsheet entry of data recently collected. Ron and Kristy then spent much of the afternoon transferring data from the field sheets to Earthwatch files on the laptop computer. About 4 pm Michael drove Tracy to the beach to begin her 4 to 8 pm observations using infra-red glasses. Ron, Kristy and Art went along for a chance to see the penguins move in from the sea. Dick walked up to the lighthouse, then down to the sea, past the quarry and school, then back home. During his walk he spotted Black Oystercatchers, Swift Terns, and Sacred Ibis.
Day 3, Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Wednesday dawned bright and clear with comfortable temperatures and a light breeze. Our day started much as the one before with the team gathered around the breakfast table enjoying a light meal before the day's activities. Prior to breakfast Michael had fetched Cornelia Nieuwenhuys from the ferry. Cornelia is a Third Year student here for three days to perform a course-oriented, special study of Bank Cormorants. This morning thee Earthwatch team was divided into two groups, with Dick, Leshia and the newly arrived Cornelia off to observe and band Bank Cormorants in the morning, while Art, Michael, Kristy and Ron went off to pick up Mario to lead inspection the penguin nests on North Perimeter Road (we also gave Tracy a lift but she went off on her own.). The following account is that of this second team.
A little background: to get to Robben Island we (Ron and Kristy) planned and saved for a year; flew 24 hours over 2 continents, 2 oceans and the equator; survived an airline strike, a wet ferry ride and a ride in what South Africans call a “bakkie;” and today we finally got to do what we planned, prepared, trained and weighted to do, pick-up a black-and-white flightless water-fowl and stick a rubber band on its flipper.
Kristy, Art, Michael, Mario and Ron went tramping through the soggy brush at NPR to continue to investigate penguin nest, record sightings of previously banded bird and band new birds.
Mario lead the way with Art putting his years of air-force training as the GPS-master. Kristy drew on her years in academia to be the official record keeper. Michael and Ron attempted to be useful in a general-helpful sort of way.
The expedition got off to a rather sad start as a banded penguin was noticed to be badly injured and laying on the rocks off of the shore. It was surmised that the penguin had been attacked by a seal that had bitten off its stomach.
As we investigated the various Earthwatch nests, there were about 10-12 nests that we had to find and band the birds. Over the course of the morning, we found the nests of 5 of penguins that needed to be banded. One nest was empty, and in another nest, the penguin was sitting on two eggs. When a penguin is banded and has eggs or a young “P0” chick, it will often become so agitated that it will abandon its nest leaving the egg or the chick to die. It is for this reason that his second bird was not banded.
We found the first bird to be banded under a tree. Michael went around behind the bird to prevent its escape as Mario lunged under the tree to grab the penguin by the neck. He lifted the bird up by its neck and, with his other hand, secured the penguin's feet. This we were told is the proper way to hold a penguin.
A penguin essentially has four weapons of defence: a razor sharp beak, the talons on its feet, its flippers and most fearsome of all, strong smelling guano which is known as “fish soup.” Holding the penguin away form the body by the base of the head and the feet, with the bum pointing in a safe direction away from the team-members is the best way to neutralize the penguin's formidable array of defensive weapons.
This lesson was successfully learned by the team as two other birds were located, caught and tagged and despite extreme pecking, flapping, wriggling and guano-spraying, there were minimal casualties to the team.
In the meantime, study of the Bank Cormorants was being performed at the Old Jetty, a short walk from #12 Lighthouse Road. On arrival at the base of the jetty About 9:30 am, Leshia, Cornelia and Dick could see various numbers of the following non-nesting, non-breeding bird species perched along the edge of the jetty: Kelp Gull, Hartlaub's Gull, Cape Cormorant, Crowned Cormorant, White Breasted Cormorant and Bank Cormorant. Breeding Bank Cormorants (the object of our study) occupied the furthermost end of the jetty, where there was a concrete block house followed by a 10-meter open pier frame. The top of the block house and the pier frame housed approximately 30 Bank Cormorant nests, almost all of which were occupied by chicks and parents. As the study team slowly walked out the jetty, the non-breeding birds all flew off. Using the blockhouse as a hide, Leshia very patiently and cleverly captured the first adult cormorant by using stealth and a net with extension pole. Cornelia held the strong, struggling bird while Leshia applied an identifying band to each leg of the bird, then measured the beak and tarsus, calling out the measurements to Dick, who recorded them along with band numbers, nest number in a notebook. Soon after, Leshia had the second adult cormorant in hand, and it too was banded, measured and recorded. Having accomplished their objective for the morning, the group returned home and prepared a fine “leftovers lunch” for everyone upon their return from the field.
Soon after lunch, Leshia and Cornelia returned to the Old Jetty and captured, banded, recorded and released three more Bank Cormorants. The study team relaxed after lunch in preparation for their 4 to 6 pm missions. Michael, Ron, Cornelia and Kristy were assigned to conduct a game count around Perimeter Road, while Dick and Art were to conduct a count of penguins expected to be crossing a single point on Perimeter Road when the penguins were returning to their nests or heading out to sea to feed. Art and Dick also were asked to use a spotting scope to read and record as many identifying penguin bands as possible.
Those on penguin road crossing patrol were taken by “bakkie” to the crossing point and seated slightly off the road at a partial hide at 4:15. In the period 4:30 to 6:00 pm, 88 penguins were seen returning to nest sites, and 8 were seen headed out to sea. What was most intriguing was the penguins' hesitation to enter the road, followed by their hesitation to leave the middle of the road once there. At one point there were 20 penguins standing in the middle of the road, looking about, preening and making false moves toward one side of the road or the other.
From 4:30 to 6:00 the aforementioned Michael, Cornelia, Ron and Kristy packed up in the “bakkie”—the origins of this term remains a mystery to all non- South African participants of the Earthwatch Penguin Expeditions Team V—to drive around the island to conduct the game census of large mammals (not including humans.) With Michael and the wheel, Cornelia at “shotgun” and Ron and Kristy in matching yellow shells (not Ron's idea) in the open cab, the team used a discerning eye, razor-sharp wit, highly acute tracking abilities and exact mathematical precision to spot and count a series of fallow deer, Springbok (animal, not the rugby player), Bontebok and the only Eland on the island. We also counted countless rabbits and climbed around an old 8 inch WWII-era gun.
By far the most intriguing site was the enigmatic Eland. A huge creature standing over 2.5 metres-- reminding the Canadians on the team somewhat of a moose-- it had a majestic silver-white coat and a serene, serious face. It moved with surprising agility between the grazing deer and Bontebok. We also saw an aged Bontebok on its own that was literally on its last legs. The animal could hardly get up on its weak unsteady legs. The animal was probably quite old and did not have much longer to live. At 6 pm on the dot, Michael, Cornelia, Ron and Kristy drove up to the slightly chilled penguin patrol, and all went home for dinner.
Day 4, Thursday, July 28, 2005
Leshia and we four Earthwatch volunteers were up at 6 am and were positioned by 6:40 am to begin the penguin count at two different crossing points. It was dark and chilly before sunrise, and penguin road crossing activity began when they were barely visible in dim light. Art and Dick were stationed at the same hide on Cornelia road as that used the evening before. During their two hour and fifteen minute watch, they counted 437 birds in tuxedos going seaward; only six were headed toward the nest area. Eight identifying bands were seen and recorded using the spotting scope.
Ron and Kristy were stationed at Beach Rd. closer to the Robben Island office, next to the Leper Cemetery. The crossing was less used by the well-dressed water-fowl than the one where Art and Dick were sitting. Kristy also put a lull in the crossing to good use as she used her cell-phone to call home and get the recipe for her mother's famous apple crumble, which was made for dinner that night.
It was good to get back to Lighthouse Road at 9:30 to warm up and enjoy the belated breakfast. At 10:30 Leshia, Cornelia, Ron and Kristy left for the Old Jetty to continue the Bank Cormorant study, while Art made auto reservations for the coming weekend.
Before lunch Mario, Leshia, Michael and the four Earthwatch volunteers drove to the beach most used by the penguins and performed a three-hundred yard sweep of the beach, collecting detritus (such as netting, rope and plastics) that might be harmful to the penguins. We collected five large bagfuls and left them at a collection point for retrieval by the Robben Island maintenance staff.
Cornelia (the student, not the road) still had a few more Cormorants to track so off went Kristy and Ron (lead by Leshia and Cornelia) back to the Cormorant jetty in an attempt to ring a few more necks. This time, however, the birds were watching out for the Earthwatch team and although Leshia used the same tried-and-true tactics of hiding in the blockhouse, the Cormorants used their own tried-and-true tactics of flapping their wings and flying away. Standing in slippery, slopping Cormorant guano, it was decided that it would be too difficult to ring the birds at the moment but perhaps we should try later in the evening when the birds may be tired/asleep. Sneaking up on them as they snooze may give us a better chance to capture and ring a few more. We shall see.
While Ron and Kristy were observing at the penguin crossing, Leshia, Michael, Cornelia, Dick and Art drove and walked to the principal penguin path that crosses Cornelia Road. Near that location there is a gated trap for nest-bound penguins. The trap consists of a 30-foot segment of the path that is bounded by a two-foot fence and thick foliage on both sides, and is enclosed by a gate at either end. Dick sat at the closed inland gate; Leshia and Cornelia hid in the foliage near the seaward gate. When the first 15 nest-bound penguins had passed the open seaward gate (at about 5:20 pm), Leshia and Cornelia popped up from their hide and closed the gate, and the fifteen penguins were securely penned in preparation for collection of their stomach contents. One by one, Leshia carefully and firmly retrieved a penguin from the pen, holding each firmly by neck, torso and feet with special gloves. When seated on a crate, she held the penguins between her legs, flippers extended above her thighs. When she had the bird's beak spread widely open by use of thick rubber gloves, she passed a sterilized, long plastic tube down the bird's throat and into its stomach. She then directed Dick to pour sea water into a funnel that was connected to the tube and held high and directly above the bird. By manipulating the bird's neck, Leshia could determine when the stomach was full. At that point the tube was quickly drawn out, and Leshia inverted the bird to release its stomach contents into a sieve. Cornelia placed the stomach contents from the sieve into a marked specimen bag. Michael was positioned in the pen to keep the penguins crowded and forward in the enclosure. Art provided a good supply of seawater and served as photographer. As a matter of fact, when returning from the sea with a second bucket of water, Art missed a low fence hidden in the thick foliage and, without spilling the water, completed a near perfect jack knife dive, face down into the test site. He was unhurt and received an appreciative 9.5 from the startled judges. When purged, some penguins had nothing in their stomachs; others presented varying amounts of small squid, anchovy, sand eel, pipe fish and red eye. After being released by Leshia, each penguin rushed away toward the general nest area. Before releasing the final bird, Leshia instructed Art and Dick on the proper technique for holding penguins, then permitted each to hold the bird for a photo opportunity. We learned that when we lightly ran our fingers down the penguins breast, the surface was silky smooth. That done, we gathered our gear and returned to the “bakkie”. Leshia soon found Ron and Kristy, who decided to walk back to Lighthouse Road. Art and Michael joined them. This completed another day's adventure under a nearly cloudless sky in pleasant temperatures. What a marvellous spot, and we all get along so well!! Kawabunga!
Dinner was again prepared by Leshia with Kristy's mother's world famous apple crumble making a dessert appearance. Following dinner Cornelia, Leshia and Ron made a night-time trek to the Cormorant jetty in a further attempt to ring a few birds. As explained earlier in this log, the goal was to sneak up on them in the night when there were sleeping and hopefully a little easier to catch.
We found out the Cormorants are very light sleepers and we were on the jetty only long enough to get our shoes dirty and watch all the black Cormorants fly away into the night. Cornelia, Leshia and Ron watched silently as the movement of the black-coloured Cormorants flying against the blackness of the night sky created an interesting visual effect.
Day 5, Friday, July 29, 2005
It was a cloudy day when we arose at 7 am. By 8:15 breakfast was history, and we all were on our way to Mario's office, where Art sent another e-mail message to his wife and beloved Irish Setters. The morning's mission was nest checking in the three principal Earthwatch penguin colonies. Ron and Kristy were asked to work with Michael in the Kramat and Cornelia Road colonies. Art and Dick were to work with Mario in the North Perimeter Road area.
Working with Mario proved to be a privilege, given his intimate knowledge of Robben Island, its wildlife, and in particular, the location and status of the many penguin nests that are the focus of the Earthwatch study. Much of the North Perimeter Road area is thick with thigh high vegetation, and it was wet from overnight precipitation, so the team wore waterproof trousers and boots. Mario found and described the contents of each nest, while Art recorded the data. Dick stuck close to Mario to view and understand the manner in which he determined the number of eggs and chicks, as well as the age of chicks in the active nests. This area of Robben Island was particularly attractive this morning, as there were many, many clumps of calla lilies in bloom.
Kristy and Ron headed out with Michael and the GPS to do their nest-checking in the Kramat and Cornelia Rd. areas. The team proved reasonably proficient with the GPS although there were two or three times when the team was unable to figure out the GPS location, which caused them to go on a wild-goose chase around the area hunting penguin nests. But ultimately all nests were found and accounted for. There was however, one fairly traumatic moment for the team as one of the birds to be banded proved particularly aggressive and un-helpful. The penguin in question had two P3 chicks in a nest built next to an old short wall surrounding a small moat. First Michael, then Ron, then Michael again attempted to pick up the penguin in order for it to be banded. The bird was very aggressive and fought back, rapidly pecking at all who approached it. Finally, Michael got the better of the penguin and was able to pick it up by the neck. The caused the chicks to panic and jump over the wall into the small moat. As these chicks are not yet used to the water, we had to retrieve them post haste. Michael put down the parent penguin and jumped into the water with his “wellies” in order to save the chicks. The parent also jumped into the water and fought Michael every inch of the way. Finally, Michael was able to fight off the parent, retrieve the two chicks, and hand each one off to Ron and Kristy. Michael then when to fetch the parent bird and—finally-- band it. The ordeal was finally brought to a close as the parent was banded, the chicks returned to land, and the humans were off to the next nest.
The Earthwatch team was released for the weekend after lunch. At 2 pm Mario, Michael, Cornelia, Ron, Kristy, Art and Dick caught the 2 pm ferry for Cape Town. Earlier in the day an abandoned juvenile Cormorant had been found alone on the beach. Leshia and Cornelia brought it back to #12 Lighthouse Road and held it in a rescue box. Cornelia took the boxed juvenile with her to Capetown where it was to be turned over to SANCOBB for rehabilitation. Upon arrival at the Clock Tower pier, the Earthwatch volunteers rented an automobile for the weekend, and drove to Swellendam, where they dined at Herberg Roosje van de Kaap, and spent the night in a neighboring and delightful Afrikaans style B& B (The Carriage House).
Days 6&7, July 30-31, 2005
On Saturday the team drove N2 along the Garden Route through Mossel Bay to Knysna, where they dined on a cultured and wild oyster lunch. The afternoon was spent on a long drive through George to Oudthoorn (past many very well stocked ostrich farms) and on to the classic town of Montagu, where they were overnight at a fine old (1912) English B & B (Airlie's Guest House). Dinner at Preston's Restaurant featured Ostrich Kabob, which was uniquely tasteful. On Sunday we drove back to the Cape Town area and down to Cape Point to give Ron and Kristy their first look. We returned by way of Chapman's Peak Drive to the Clock Tower parking lot, where we returned our rented car at 4 pm, right on time! David Swanepoel, our new assistant Principal Investigator, joined us on the 5:15 ferry for Robben Island. Our Principal PI and heroine, Leshia Upfold, met the ferry and carried us off to #12 Lighthouse Road. Today was Art's 75th birthday, which we all celebrated tonight with a card, a bottle of special South African liqueur and special birthday pudding prepared by Leshia. We all had been blessed with magnificent weather throughout the weekend!
Day 8, August 1, 2005
Back to work this Monday morn! The day began cloudy and unpromising, but in time the sun was blessing us with its warmth. Nest check was the first order of business, so Mario, David, Ron and Kristy covered the North Perimeter Road nests, while Leshia, Art and Dick worked the Kramat and Cornelia Road nests with dispatch and ease, and without Mario or a working GPS! Well, if truth be told, there was one nest that proved difficult but not impossible to locate. Leshia served as overseer and scout; Art was our recorder; Dick inspected nest contents. Three birds were successfully banded. We enjoyed our foray as the weather improved.
Mario lead David, Ron and Kristy off to NPR. In addition to the assigned task of counting chick and nests, the team came across a small herd of Bonteboks that observed the team with great curiosity and the occasional snorting. The morning's activities passed un-eventfully as the team continued to count and monitor the progress of the chicks along North Perimeter Road.
Upon our return from the field, Kristy, Ron and Dick transcribed the manual field data for the last two nest inspections. Mario joined us for lunch and Leshia revealed her afternoon plans for the team. Part of the afternoon plan was for the team to assist Tracy in her work by color-coding a dozen or so penguins on a particular nest-sea route in hopes of learning whether or not these penguins subsequently and regularly use the same route or a variety of routes. The color spray to be used for coding was delayed in arrival #12 Lighthouse Road until mid-afternoon, so the team variously looked after laundry chores, reading or a trip to the store for milk.
At 3:45 Dick and Art were in hide positions not far from the Leper Cemetery on Murray's Bay Road to begin a “penguin road crossing count” from 4 to 6 pm. There is a lot of vehicular traffic at this crossing, and the count is consistently less than that recorded at the Cornelia Road crossing. This evening we observed 71 “tuxedos” returning to their nests, but only four were on their way to the sea. At 5:35 two young boys approached on bicycles, accompanied by a young German Shepard (dog). As soon as the dog spotted the penguins waiting to cross the road, he charged and chased the terrified birds into the brush. Twice one of the boys retrieved the dog, but he immediately escaped and charged toward the penguins again. Dick left his hide and captured the dog, which approached happily when Dick whistled. He convinced the boys that they should return home with the dog, and Dick was walking away from the penguin crossing with the dog in his arms when Leshia and David came up in the “bakkie”. Leshia took the dog home, and Dick and Art resumed their penguin crossing watch. It was 15 minutes before the dog-terrified penguins reappeared. Twelve crossed the road just before David appeared to take us back home.
As Art and Dick counted penguins, Leshia, David, Tracy, Kristy and Ron went off to do a diet sample and also mark penguins. The diet sampling process has been described above, when Art and Dick were in charge of it. Kristy was in charge of pouring water down the poor penguin's throats as Ron and Tracy scooped out and bagged partially digested penguin lunch. Unfortunately for the penguins, quite a few of them had quite a good day's hunting but weren't able to properly enjoy it. Unfortunately for the team, quite a few of the penguins had quite a good day's hunting which meant they had to deal with scooping and bagging huge smelly chunks of penguin lunch. Kristy proved to have the most weak stomach and expelled penguin lunch almost caused her to expel her own lunch.
Part two of the expedition involved assisting Tracy in her project. Tracy is a zoology student creating a map of the penguin paths on Robben Island. To evolve her project, it was decided to mark at least 30 penguins and then over the course of the next few weeks watch where they go and which paths they use. This turned into quite a “mission” as David and Leshia cornered the penguins and passed them off one-by-one to Tracy and Ron. Kristy held the spray canister and marked off each bird as they were passed off. Kristy got to handle some penguins but one turned a little nippy and tried to bite her hand causing Kristy to jerk her hand, thereby rendering the penguin airborne. It was perhaps one of the most impressive flights ever recorded by a flightless penguin, but it came to an inglorious end as the bird came crashing to the ground. Unlike cats, penguins do not land on their feet when thrown. This was also the first time Tracy had ever handled a penguin. Tracy, a great penguin lover, was at first hesitant to grab the wriggling penguin strongly by the neck and carry it around. She attempted to soothe the birds with caring words and a calm, easy manner. That didn't work so she just grabbed the birds by the neck and off she went. At the end of the exercise, about 50 penguins (and three humans) were marked with purple dye. David and Leshia scored many battle wounds as they had to trap and pick up many biting, flapping, scratching penguins. David now spots and impressive round-the-wrist bite mark and Leshia has a very sore looking bruise on her arm as a result of a flapping flipper.
Day 9, Tuesday, August 2, 2005
While we had rain during the night, the morning dawned pleasantly once again. As Tracy had the “bakkie” for a sunrise to 9 am penguin crossing count, the Earthwatch team had a slightly later than normal departure from #12 Lighthouse Road. The morning mission was to conduct a penguin nest count in Areas S and Z. Mario and Tracy joined Leshia, David and we four Earthwatch volunteers for the nest count. The technique for counting was to align the eight of us abreast about ten meters apart and to move forward in a sweeping left and right movement looking for and grading all nests found as: Active, Creched, Abandoned, Potential and Moulters. Mario and Leshia were on each flank. Area Z was sufficiently large that we were required to make three passes to complete the search. We were pleased when, at lunchtime, Leshia told us that in her opinion our nest search had been the best performed by any team to date.
Our team had expressed an interest in receiving a tour of the infamous Robben Island Prison, and Mario made reservations for Tracy and we four volunteers to join a tourist group at 1:30. The tour was slightly delayed as the tourist group was first given a tour of the island. We joined the group as it entered the prison yard. After an introductory history of the prison by our guide, a former inmate in the prison from the 1970s, we were taken to a former dormitory that held 60 or so prisoners who slept on the floor on rush mats. Next we saw the single cell (#5) in which Nelson Mandela was held for 18 years. All are more than glad that the period of apartheid and Special Branch atrocities are past but not forgotten.
We were very sorry to learn that our esteemed and dear Principal Investigator (Leshia) is not feeling well today. She has some flu-like symptoms and was able to take it easy this afternoon and evening. Ron, Kristy and David have pitched in to prepare an excellent evening meal.
A late afternoon assignment for Art and Dick was to join David in a rabbit count within 12 distinct areas of the island. We drove slowly through the 12 areas in the “bakkie”, and in a period of about 90 minutes counted 92 rabbits. While cruising for rabbits, it was a really pleasing gift to see so many other birds and mammals, which included: Bontebok, Springbok, Steenbok, Swift Terns, African Black Oystercatchers, Hartlaub's Gulls, Crested Cormorants, Egrets, and Blacksmith Plovers.
Ron and Kristy took the field scope and set themselves up on the Cornelia Rd. crossing to count penguins returning back from the sea for the evening. The most notable part of the observation was the spotting of two penguins marked with the purple dye from the day before.
Day 10, Wednesday, August 3, 2005
Another gorgeous day on Robben Island! The drill this morning was a count of 25 bird species found in a 14 km. walk around the circumference of the island. David, Ron and Kristy went counter clockwise from the shipwreck on the North coast, while Mario and Dick proceeded in a clockwise direction from the shipwreck. Before long, Mario and Dick came across a penguin badly hobbled by a fish net around its neck. Mario soon had the bird in hand, and Dick used a jack knife to cut away the netting. Upon release, the bird quickly moved five meters away, then stopped to look at us before hopping down and away from sight. (Art joined us perhaps half way along in our count. He had been with Leshia and Cornelia, who were attempting once again to capture and band Bank Cormorants. Once again the birds proved too shy to allow their approach.) By the time we had completed our portion of the 14 km. circuit, we had seen and recorded 292 Kelp Gulls, 85 African Black Oystercatchers, 95 Swift Terns, 49 Hartlaub's Gulls, 26 Sacred Ibis and lesser numbers of five other species. During this time we saw numerous other species that were not on our list of 25 to be counted. Notable was a juvenile Black Capped Night Heron that allowed an unusually close approach.
Our afternoon was free. Some took the opportunity to get a little laundry done. Art and Dick walked from Light House Road to the Light House, then to the old, unused airstrip, past an old 9 inch Coast Artillery battery, and along a very large meadow on which we observed four Ostrich, many Bontebok, even more Springbok, a few bouncing Steenbok, and many Farrow Deer, some of which had Moose-sized antler racks. Eventually we reached the Perimeter Road and walked a long way along the sea shore before spotting the Light House, at which time we headed for home.
At dinner tonight, Kristy mentioned having heard a strange noise in the night. Leshia offered an explanation. #12 Light House Road is haunted !!! It seems we have a friendly and beneficial lady ghost in residence. Leshia assures us it's a lady ghost, because she's been heard walking the bedroom corridor in high heels. Well, we checked Art's closet but found no high heels. Hmmmm, food for thought. Friendly ghosts on Light House Road!
Day 11, Thursday, August 4, 2005
In spite of the weather forecaster's 80% chance of rain, the day was cloudless once again. After breakfast Leshia, Art and Dick performed their final Earthwatch nest check in the Kramat and Cornelia Road sectors. As Mario was unavailable, David, Ron and Kristy used a hand-held GPS instrument to find and check Earthwatch nests in the North Perimeter Road sector. Both assignments were fairly routine and completed successfully a little after noontime.
At 1 pm. Leshia, Mario, David, Tracy, Ron, Kristy, Art and Dick sat down for a very enjoyable lunch together for the last time. After lunch Ron and Kristy very generously spent more than two hours entering the last of our week's observation data into the Earthwatch computers. Art did the dishes once again; others cleaned house and began the dreaded task of packing, as tomorrow we leave this very unique and truly lovely island and its inhabitants.
As sunset approached, the clever one among us suggested that we hop into the “bakkie” and drive over to the shipwrecks for a sunset party. Wine and beer were quickly bagged, and before long we all were on the western shore. A stiff on shore wind was chilling as the sun played catch and seek with low lying clouds. Twenty penguins and countless gulls must have been puzzled by our joyous laughter as the South African daylight slowly gave in to darkness.
Tonight was braai night, so we "bakkied" back to base. David and Art had earlier gone to the beach for fire wood so all was ready to get the fire stated upon our return. Lamb is on the menu!
Day 12, Friday, August 5, 2005
There was a sunrise scramble by all seven of us to clean house, pack up and catch the 9:30 am ferry for Capetown. The Earthwatch Team will spend the weekend in Capetown, visiting local cultural spots before catching planes for the USA late Sunday afternoon.
The Annex to this log identifies the wildlife that we've been privileged to see while on the Cape and on Robben Island.
All four Earthwatch team members agree that our two weeks on Robben Island with Leshia, Mario, Michael, David, Tracy, and Cornelia (as well as with our special friends in tuxedos and all other wildlife) have been a spectacular success! We greatly appreciate and wish to honor Leshia Upfold for her gentle leadership, planning, thoughtfulness, her lovely friendly manner, her knowledge and her skills.
Ron, Kristy, Art and Dick
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