ADU travels, expeditions and events

Phil Whittington, PhD student in the Avian Demography Unit, was one of the guides on the S.A. Agulhas pelagic seabird cruise. Phil is also the author of the recently-published book The Adventures of Peter the Penguin. Here follows his account of the cruise ...

Getting into Deep Water

Photo P.A. Whittington A birder's view from the "monkey bridge", S.A. Agulhas

The good ship S.A. Agulhas slipped out of Cape Town harbour at 16.00 on a rather grey and dreary afternoon on 9 August 2001. Its special mission: to observe as many seabird species as possible and to raise funds to support the conservation of the world's albatrosses. This three-day "pelagic" birdwatching trip, organised by Dr Peter Ryan, of the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, and the team of "Birding Africa", aimed to raise funds to deploy long-term tracking devices on Grey-headed and Wandering Albatrosses. These devices will allow scientists to get valuable information on the movements of these birds during their non-breeding sabbatical years. This research is urgently needed to support conservation of albatross populations, many of which have undergone a serious decline due, in part, to their unfortunate demise on the hooks of long-line fishing vessels.

Photo P.A. Whittington Sunrise from the "monkey bridge", 11 August 2001

Pelagic birding trips are now run on a regular basis from Cape Town (see www.capetownpelagics.com for details) and allow a small number of birders to spend a day in the nearby trawling grounds, where a range of pelagic bird species can be found. This trip was something special, in that it gave an opportunity for a much larger number of birders to spend three days at sea and get into deeper waters, thus increasing the chances of seeing some of the less commonly recorded pelagic seabirds.

Photo P.A. Whittington "Relaxing" on the "heli-deck"

In the two or so hours of remaining daylight on the first evening, everybody got the chance to find their sea-legs and see the birds more typical of inshore waters of the Cape coast. These included Shy Albatrosses, Sooty Shearwaters, White-chinned Petrels, cormorants, a few terns and a couple of Subantarctic Skuas that came to investigate the ship. After dinner, Peter Ryan gave an illustrated and informative talk on the plight of albatrosses, the purpose of the trip and showed photographs of some of the birds that we all hoped to see on the trip, along with some tips on their identification.

Photo P.A. Whittington Waiting to see what comes to the "chum"

There was a brief delay when everyone went out on deck to see a group of Pintado Petrels that were now following the ship, clearly visible in the ship's lights. Murray Slotar, chairperson of the Wits Bird Club, pointed out that if everybody aboard donated R20, another four albatrosses could be adopted. This idea got the full support of those on board. Each contributor chose a name for each of the adopted albatrosses and a draw, held on the last day, decided which names the albatrosses would receive and to whom the information on their movements would be sent. There was, by now, what could be described as an "interesting" swell. Anyone who got a good night's sleep was certainly in the minority. Rolling from one side of the bunk to the other throughout the night, I began to appreciate what it must be like to be a clock's pendulum.

Photo P.A. Whittington Cape Town from the S.A. Agulhas

Friday dawned brighter and, after an early breakfast, there was a near-full complement of birders on the "heli-deck". Those of us nominated as guides wore a red woolly hat for easy identification, giving the impression that a contingent of garden gnomes had infiltrated the vessel. A Wandering Albatross was soon gracing the wake of the ship and the first Soft-plumaged Petrels began to appear, followed by two beautiful Northern Royal Albatrosses. Two or three Southern Royal Albatrosses also put in an appearance later in the day. A good "supporting cast" included small numbers of Shy, Black-browed and Yellow-nosed Albatrosses, both Giant Petrel species, Great-winged Petrels, a continual following of Pintado and White-chinned Petrels, a few Antarctic Prions and a couple of Wilson's Storm Petrels. An early appearance by a Little Shearwater caused the first of the day's "stampedes", but several others were seen, including a group of three together. Lunch on deck provided a short break from staring at the waves and some people began to catch up on missed slumber from the previous night. However, they were rudely awoken by what was considered, by most of the one hundred birders on board, to be the "bird of the trip". Three of the guides had casually raised their binoculars to look at something and then, in startled unison, yelled "Sooty Albatross"! Hundreds of bodies converged on the stern with cries of "where, anyone still on it?" Unfortunately, the bird flew straight into the sunlight and headed for the distant horizon. There was great celebration among the few who saw it well, a little disappointment for those who got a brief, silhouetted view and a wailing and gnashing of teeth from those who missed it altogether. A couple of hours later, the unthinkable happened: the bird, or another, came back. To everybody's joy and great relief, it circled the ship a couple of times, did a song and dance act and gave everyone an excellent view, right down to the yellow cutting edge on the bill and white crescent at the rear of the eye. The crew provided a braai that evening and everyone sat on the "heli-deck" eating, drinking and generally being merry.

Photo P.A. Whittington Assembled birders on the "heli-deck", Cape Town

The final day of the trip began in deep water. The birding remained good, with similar species being seen as on the previous day. One Yellow-nosed Albatross repeatedly sailed majestically past the upper deck, so close that some of the passengers could almost have shaken hands with it! As the ship crossed over the edge of the continental shelf, the bird species composition began to change with thousands of Cape Gannets dominating the scene. The highlight, for many, was a large school of Bottle-nosed Dolphins, which graced the starboard bow of the ship, along with a small pod of Long-finned Pilot Whales. The trip ended in relaxing manner as the ship sailed alongside the Cape Peninsula; the sun shining down on the participants, now ably refreshed from the ship's bar. We docked in Cape Town at about 17.00 on 11 August.

Photo P.A. Whittington S.A. Agulhas

There was no doubt that the trip had been a great success. Very few people escaped without seeing at least one new bird and funds were raised to obtain about 30 tracking devices. A large debt of gratitude is owed to the officers and crew of the S.A. Agulhas for their efforts in making the trip such a safe and comfortable one, and to the team of "Birding Africa" for their excellent organisation. The question upon everybody's lips as we disembarked was "when is the next one?"

Anyone who wishes to help albatross conservation by adopting an albatross (R500 per bird) can get further information from Peter Ryan telephone 021 650 2966, or by visiting www.capetownpelagics.com.

P.A. Whittington
14 August 2001

Photo P.A. Whittington Pintado Petrel Daption capense

Photo P.A. Whittington Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans