A "Cape Town Pelagic" - 22nd Sept 2012

As you can see, airspace can be crowded in some parts of the south Atlantic.

A while ago I bought a book called "Southern African Birdfinder".  I have a habit of buying books about places I half-plan to visit, and then don't always actually get round to actually doing the trips.  But the Cape area of South Africa  looked too tempting to neglect, and we finally started our trip there last month. 

A highlight of birding the Cape Town area looked like the pelagic trips detailed  in "Southern African Birdfinder". We booked the trip through http://www.capetownpelagics.com and availability was only confirmed a couple of days before we left Hong Kong.  

So, on only our second full day in South Africa,  still a bit jet lagged,  we arrived at the wharf of Hout Bay on the western side of the Cape Peninsula at 07:30hrs on a bright Saturday morning.  We were among only six clients in total on the outing, under the supervision of our Cape Town Pelagics guide, Cliff Dorse.

Our boat for the day was "Obsession" skippered by the enthusiastic Dave Christie.  Dave's "Two Oceans Sport Fishing Charters" website is here:-    http://www.tosf.co.za

Cliff had already pointed out a few seabirds as we headed out to sea, but, rightly, we didn't stop for odd birds because it was pointed out that we should soon be seeing plenty more.  Dave and Chris explained that, usually, they would aim to find a commercial trawler, because hundreds of sea birds could be found following just one such boat, but in the absence of a trawler, some birds could be attracted by "chumming" - the  art of enticing seabirds with the remains of fish.  Dave also takes sport fishermen to sea, and an element of "chumming" is common to both fishing and pelagic birding.  

After 2 1/2 hours we stopped at a point 36 miles from Hout Bay. Things got busier as the commoner local species came in to sample  Dave's mega-mash of South African pilchards.

White-chinned Petrel (Procellaria conspicillata)

Pintado (Cape) Petrel  (Daption capense)

Wilson's Storm Petrel  (Oceanites oceanicus)

There was another operator's boatload of pelagic birders leaving from Hout Bay, so we rode in its' wake as both boats headed south through fairly choppy waters. Dave and the other boat captain kept in touch as we went out, sharing seabird sightings and a commentary on where they might find a trawler.

Both birding boat captains kept an eye on their radar, and after some false alarms, a trawler was sighted, heading north.  Off after it we went, and for us first  timers, it was easy to see why Cliff and Dave were so happy to find a trawler.  We were happy, too !

A cloud of seabirds followed the trawler as it processed its' catch.  The discarding of large quantities of unwanted fish is likely to be bad for the marine environment, but it's a real bonus if you want to see seabirds - "chumming" on an industrial scale.

Commoner south Atlantic mollymawks include Shy and Black-browed.  Two of each above...  with White-chinned Petrels. 

Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris (immature)

Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris (adult)

Shy Albatross Thalassarche cauta

So many birds we didn't know where to look, although Cliff manfully kept pointing out the passing highlights...  below is a view of the other boat

Larger Diomedea albatrosses are considered noteworthy in South Africa, and we were lucky enough to have a total of five Wandering Albatrosses during the trip (Although these shots are of the two which came closest !)

A "full and frank exchange of views", but all the other birds seem to back off when a larger albatross is scrapping for the same food.

Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans

Petrels large and small were also on show..

Pintado (Cape) Petrel Daption capense and Northern Giant Petrel Macronectes halli

Subantarctic Skua (below) was among the "ticks" for Jemi and I.  Great Shearwater which is pretty much confined to the Atlantic Ocean was also seen....

Subantarctic Skua Catharacta antarctica

Pintado (Cape) Petrel Daption capense

We returned to Hout Bay in mid-afternoon, well-pleased with the seabird show we'd had.  Cliff's account of the trip is on the Cape Town Pelagics website here:

http://www.capetownpelagics.com/cape_reports_TR1222_22sepCD.htm

Cliff and Dave had done everything to make the outing really memorable for us all.

These  photos were mostly taken with a Canon 1d MKIV and 400mm 5.6 lens, which was a good length to use on a small bobbing boat but I missed a shot of the Southern Royal Albatross, which was a  highlight for many.

Anyhow, the day provided a great kick-start to our South African trip.

Tiger Shrike at Mai Po Nature Reserve

Thanks to John Allcock for getting out news of this one !   I got from my armchair to Mai Po in about twenty minutes, Andrew Hardacre was already there, having been at Mai Po when it was found.

Tiger Shrike (Lanius tigrinus)

Clive Viney's text in "The BIRDS of HONG KONG and SOUTH CHINA"  says….."rare autumn passage migrant (first winter birds in September)...", which is spot-on for this one.

At the boardwalk the light has been variable but the waders fairly constant..

Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus)  -  Hong Kong leg flags

Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) - here for the next few months ?

Broad-billed Sandpiper (Limnicola falcinellus) - right

Some wagtails can be found around the nearby fishponds now, some here to spend the winter, some heading further south. 

M.a.leucopsis being our commonest White Wagtail.

M.f.tschutschensis (a Yellow Wagtail, obviously)

Collared Crow (Corvus torquatus)

Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus)  - sorry about the wires !

And last, but not least...

Dunlin (Calidris alpina)   - we can get thousands in midwinter, but they're usually even farther away than these were.

And with Hong Kong's autumn migration hotting up, we're away on a trip.  

Connections permitting, I'll post more on that in due course.

Mai Po waders - "Here today..."

Andrew Hardacre and I arrived at Mai Po's boardwalk hide in bright sunshine to find the water just receding and a few waders circling about, looking for somewhere to land.

Neil Fifer was already there, and tipped us off that there was a Yellow Bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) lurking in the thick grasses in front of the hide.  It wasn't long before the bittern came briefly out into the open. With some down on the head, this was obviously a juvenile, which might have bred in Hong Kong.

Yellow Bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis)

Great Egrets (Casmerodius albus) were, as usual, much more obvious.

We waited to see what else would drop in. Here are shots of a variety of southbound migrant waders seen today.

Great Knot (Calidris tenuirostris)

Common Redshank (Tringa totanus)

Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica) - (Edited 18th Sept.  - Siberian race "baueri" has been proposed as a "split" in 2010.... but the suggestion doesn't seem to have much traction.)

Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa) - some moulting going on here !

Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus)

Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus) - rear left

Grey-rumped Tattler (Heteroscelus brevipes)

So we were not disappointed.  But don't take my word for it - Andrew's blog post is here:-

http://ajh57.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/mai-po-birds/

A " Cold Front " arrived around six o'clock this evening. There should be a few birds behind it.

One cold front does not an autumn make, but by golly, it's a lurch in the right direction !

Mai Po - Expect the Unexpected ?

You never know who – or what – you are going to bump into at Mai Po.  From last Saturday, here are a family of Asian Mongooses.  (Or should that be “Mongeese” ?). 

Meanwhile, on the tideline of Deep Bay, a daytime high tide today brought the birds to about forty metres from the hides in the early afternoon.

Most unseasonal was a Saunders’s Gull.  This is the earliest autumn record by several weeks…. They wouldn’t normally show up until the end of October.

A reasonable variety of waders were to be seen, including several with Hong Kong leg flags.

But if the birds aren’t gripping enough, then sorting out the leg flags on view can certainly keep birders entertained on a late summer afternoon.

One of the Greater Sandplovers on view today had an interesting combination of pale Yellow-over-Blue leg flags.   If the flag was originally white, now stained  yellow,  with the blue flag below, it will be a bird flagged in Taiwan.  A flag-sighting “First” for Hong Kong. We just don't see Taiwanese waders here in Hong Kong.... they must usually migrate well east of us.

Three views of the same bird. I'll update this post if the flagging location is clarified. 

The British Birdfair this year raised funds for projects along the “East-Asian Australasian Flyway”.  To have been selected from the dozen-or-so “flyways” in the world is, sadly, a sign that some of the birds here in East Asia are in deep trouble.

The “flyway” concept is a completely man-made one, but a great way of conveying the interconnected nature of the birds’ stopover and refuelling sites. And the presence in Hong Kong of birds from elsewhere in the flyway certainly reinforces the message, wherever they were originally flagged.

  

One Great Knot in my last posting, these were among 29 seen today.

Three species here (above) … Greater Sand Plover (7), Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (3) and Broad-billed Sandpiper (2).

Whimbrel.....  common in Autumn, but relatively few HK-flagged birds are re-sighted here - a suggested reason is that individuals don't stay in Deep Bay for long.

And it's not just birds to look at ....

Fiddler Crabs on the mudflat.