Seabird Viewing off Simon's Town and Cape Point

Birding Tours

Simon's Town has long been inter­na­tion­ally acclaimed for its unique African Penguin colony and its 'fyn­bos' bird spe­cials such as the cha­ris­matic Cape Sugarbird and the strik­ing Orange-breasted Sunbird. Now it enjoys world­wide recog­ni­tion as a base for inter­na­tional bird­watch­ers in search of seabirds or 'pela­gic' spe­cies as they are known in bird­ing circles.

Throughout the year 'birders' set off to sea from the old quay on a vari­ety of off­shore craft of which Harry Dilley's con­ver­ted motor tor­pedo boat 'Zest' is the best known. A typ­ical out­ing for a group of some 12 highly enthu­si­astic birders starts with a safety brief­ing and cast off at around 07:00 am. At this time of day the run to Cape Point offers spec­tac­u­lar views of the sun­rise over the mag­ni­fi­cent Hottentots Holland Mountains to the east.

The full geo­lo­gical detail of the strat­i­fied sand­stone cliffs of Cape Point is deeply etched in finite detail by the rays of the rising sun. The air is crisp and clean and the atmo­sphere is laden with anti­cip­a­tion. The first seabirds encountered before even cast­ing off are invari­ably the ubi­quit­ous Kelp and Silver Gulls, along with a line up of cor­mor­ants and terns roost­ing on the pipeline bey­ond the False Bay Yacht Club. Soon there­after the group sees the first flo­til­las of African Penguins mak­ing their way out to sea for a day's fishing.

Fast mov­ing Swift Terns with their dip­ping flight and skeins of Cape Cormorants liv­ing up to their Dutch name of 'Trek Duikers', stream off Ark Rock for the off­shore fish­ing grounds. Striking white Cape Gannets put on spec­tac­u­lar aer­ial dis­plays as they plunge-dive for bait­fish in the wake of the boat. It is a mar­velous spec­tacle of feed­ing activ­ity. And there is the very real pos­sib­il­ity of catch­ing sight of a pod of Southern Right Whales loaf­ing in the bay dur­ing the months of May to November.

African Penguin

Past Cape Point the ves­sel bears South West, care­ful to bypass the surge-active gran­ite dome, infam­ous Bellows Rock, respons­ible for more than a few ship­wrecks over time, includ­ing the lux­ury liner 'Lusitania' in 1911. From this point on the first true pela­gic seabirds are encountered. White-chinned Petrels careen across white-tipped wave crests and Sooty Shearwaters streak low across the bows in widely scattered groups.

As the sight of land recedes into the dis­tance, the last of the scav­en­ging Kelp Gulls heads back to the shore. Excitement mounts amongst the birders on board, all now on full alert and scan­ning the hori­zon for the ulti­mate prize — their first sight­ing of an albatross off the Cape of Good Hope.

And they are not to be dis­ap­poin­ted as a loud 'Albatross!' is soon shouted by one of the vigil­ant bird guides accom­pa­ny­ing the group. Usually a Shy or White-capped Albatross as it is also known, it comes sweep­ing in barely above wave height on fixed wings, two metres from wing­tip to wing­tip, half circles the boat in idle curi­os­ity and then dis­ap­pears into the blue bey­ond. This stun­ning intro­duc­tion is usu­ally fol­lowed by good views of Indian and Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross. With each naut­ical mile south into the Agulhas cur­rent, both tem­per­at­ure and depth of the water increase and seabird num­bers build up in qual­ity and quant­ity. There are now sight­ings to delight in every direction.

Diminutive Storm Petrels dance dain­tily across the wake and then dis­ap­pear from sight bey­ond the next wave. Great Shearwaters are com­mon in winter and Cory and Manx Shearwaters are seen reg­u­larly in sum­mer. In windy con­di­tions and a dash of luck you could see Great-winged and Soft-plumaged Petrels, and if excep­tion­ally lucky, an Atlantic Petrel…

Yet it is the sight of the deep sea fish­ing trawler ahead that trig­gers the adren­alin rush amongst the onboard birders. In a seem­ingly end­less orbit around the trawler are hun­dreds if not thou­sands of wheel­ing seabirds, and in its wake even more seabirds squabble with Cape Fur Seals over whatever is lost to the net in the final retrieve.

Pale Chanting Goshawk

Photo oppor­tun­it­ies at near point blank range abound and the group is treated to scin­til­lat­ing views of sev­eral spe­cies of albatross, pet­rels, includ­ing Pintado (or Cape Pigeon), both Northern and Southern Giant Petrels, shear­wa­ters, skuas, and gan­nets along with a chance of an extremely rare sight­ing of a vag­rant spe­cies such as Antarctic Fulmar or a 'stonk­ing' great Royal Albatross.

Finally after the fren­etic excite­ment dies down, the boat leaves the com­pany of the trawler and heads back to Simon's Town, its com­ple­ment of birders and crew weary but elated. Out come the refresh­ments and wel­come trays of sand­wiches to round off a mem­or­able exper­i­ence. And it's not all over yet. There is still the chance of a sun­fish or whale or grace­ful school of dol­phins on the long run home. Tally for the day could be in excess of 20 new pela­gic sight­ings for some and for most the trip will include a sought after 'spe­cial' of rar­ity worth, that could be a Wandering Albatross or even a new spe­cies for the South African bird list.

A final round of thanks goes out to skip­per and crew for a day to remem­ber before dis­em­bark­ing at the Simon's Town quay at around 15h00. What bet­ter now than to retire to a nearby 'refresh­ment sta­tion' to regain one's land legs and enjoy the very spe­cial ambi­ence that Simon's Town has to offer the vis­itor to the Fairest Cape in all the World.

To book a Pelagic trip, please con­tact:
Patrick or Marie-Louise at Avian Leisure
Telephone: +27 (0)21 7861414
Mobile: +27 (0)83 272 2455 or +27 (0)83 560 5510.
Website: Avian Leisue — Tailor-made Birding Tours in South Africa

Marie-Louise and Patrick also offer self cater­ing accom­mod­a­tion in Simon's Town. Avian Leisure has a mag­ni­fi­cent situ­ation at the top of Froggy Farm, Simon’s Town, over­look­ing False Bay and is set amidst pristine Cape Fynbos — this means you can see whales, pen­guins and a host of other birds right from your bed­room. Click to view: Avian Leisure Self Catering in Simon's Town