Cape Town Pelagics v Zest for birds (1 Viewer)

I am coming to South Africa again this year (I came last time in Nov 2009). My mate & I are there for three weeks from Oct 20th until I fly back on Nov 11th.

Part of the trip will be a Pelagic from Cape Town. Cape Town Pelagics have vacancies on both Oct 22nd & 29th whereas ZFB only have the 29th. We would prefer the 22nd if possible as it would free up the rest of the itinerary but the last time we went to South Africa we were told that ZFB was the better of the two The problem is we used ZFB last time but the weather turned fowl on us and we had to return early. This meant we didn't have too successful a trip because of that weather, which is no reflection on ZFB as they can't control the weather.

The question is to you guys and gals is who do you think is the better of the two. Obviously I need some quick answers as we are running out of time to book either of them. ZFB only have two dates that have places available from between the beginning of September to Dec 17th and that is Oct 29th & Nov 3rd so obviously these places are going fast.

John

Hi John,

There are a number of pre-arranged tours that one can book, but these tend to be at the weekend, which is unfortunately when we were travelling, so the dates didn’t work for us. So we decided to take the risk and charter a boat through Anne Albatross. This was on the understanding that she would do her best to advertise the extra spaces for us and try to fill the boat, but if she couldn’t manage it, we would need to make up the shortfall. In the end, Rene, a local, and her travelling companion Jeanne from California joined us. This meant that Helen and myself had to make up the remainder of the cost at a surcharge equating to about £50 each.

It was, in my opinion, well worth the money. Our skipper on the trip was Alan Blacklaws and our guide was the enthusiastic and very knowledgeable Alvin Cope. As we headed out, just past the harbour we encountered a southern right whale, which was a great start to a wonderful trip. We started to get a little concerned when we had trouble finding any trawlers. We did finally manage to locate a lone long-liner, which seemed to be loosing most of it’s catch of Kingclip fish to a large mixed flock of seabirds and Cape Fur Seals. We were 15 nautical miles out at co-ordinates s 34,27,18 and E 18,11,61. Rene eagerly goaded Alan into collecting some of the lost catch for dinner later, much to the chagrin of Alvin.

Alvin enthusiastically pointed out the different birds we were seeing. The most common birds were White-chinned Petrels, elegant black birds daubed with varying amounts of white on their chins. There were also quite a few sooty shearwaters. Of course the stars of the show were the albatrosses. Of these, the majority that we saw seemed to be Shy, these were beautiful birds, subtly coloured in shades of grey. He also pointed out both Atlantic Yellow-nosed and Indian Yellow-nosed two very similar species, which I found to be quite difficult to separate in the field. He also pointed out the occasional Black-browed Albatross.

Alvin then got very excited when he saw a much larger albatross and shouted out to us that it was none other than a Wandering Albatross! But then after getting a better view he quickly realised that it was a Northern Royal Albatross, a massive bird, with a snow-white back and long black wings that dwarfed all the other albatrosses we had seen. In fact, we believe we saw two different Northern Royals through the trip.

Other rarer finds that excited Alvin were Northern Giant Petrel, the little checkerboard-patterned Pinatdo Petrel (Pintado meaning “painted” in Portugese), a Great Shearwater and one that caused Alvin a few ID problems, a Flesh-footed Shearwater (which is near identical to Sooty Shearwater).

The seals were also a joy to watch as they squabbled over the fish and then, in little rafts fell asleep at the surface. On the way back we stopped to look at a rock on which four species of cormorant could be seen, and then we went on to see another colony of seals.
Back in the harbour there was a line of terns on the jetty, this included Arctic, Common, Swift and Sandwich.
List of birds seen:
Northern Royal Albatross
Shy Albatross
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross
Atlantic yellow-nosed Albatross
Northern Giant Petrel
Pintado petrel
White-chinned petrel
Great Shearwater
Flesh-footed Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
Subantarctic Skua
Cape Gannet
Arctic Tern
Common Tern
Swift Tern
Sandwich Tern
Kelp Gull
White breasted Cormorant
Cape Cormorant
Bank Cormorant
Crowned Cormorant

Piccies: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kittykat23uk/sets/72157625461202634/

As quick answer - Zest for Birds use a bigger boat, so have a slightly better chance of going out if the weather is marginal. If both have vacancies on the right weekend that's who I would book with. I've been out with them twice in the past and both trips were superb. However, if you choose the weekend that only Cape Town Pelagics are available then I would have no qualms about booking them either.

Either way as long as the weather behaves you will have a great trip, especially if you latch on to any trawlers.

Cheers
Martyn

I asked the same question back in June and got the same response locally as Martyn: get on the Zest boat if you can. Will post list when I find it...!

Cheers,

Jon

Official trip list for June 12 2011 on Zest II:

Shy Albatross - c250
Black bowed Albatross - c50
Indian Yellow nosed Albatross - c10
Atlantic Yellow nosed Albatross - 4
Northern Giant Petrel - 4
Southern Giant Petrel - c8
Pintado Petrel - c50
Great winged Petrel - 1
Antarctic Prion - c500
White chinned Petrel - c1500
Sooty Shearwater - c150
Great Shearwater - 2
LITTLE SHEARWATER - 1, elegans race
Wilson's Storm Petrel - c100
Subantarctic Skua - c25
SOUTH POLAR SKUA - 1, intermediate morph adult
Arctic Tern - 1 adult
Swift Tern - common coastal
Kelp Gull - 1 pelagic, common coastal
Cape Cormorant - abundant roosting on shoreline and foraging up to 10 miles offshore
Cape Gannet - <50
African Penguin - 1 juv offshore (>5 miles), rafts off Boulders
Barn Swallow - 1 suspected, far offshore

I have been e-mailing Trevor Hardaker for a few weeks. I am awaiting confirmation that my mate has booked and paid for an Oct 22nd Pelagic.

We used Trevor when we went in 2009.

John

Jon Gallagher said:

I asked the same question back in June and got the same response locally as Martyn: get on the Zest boat if you can. Will post list when I find it...!

Cheers,

Jon

Click to expand...