Links
We were excited to be going on our first proper pelagic trip – our Flock at Sea cruise in March didn’t really count. This trip, arranged by Niall Perrins, was to leave from Durban either on Saturday or Sunday so we had to prepare to have the full weekend available in Durban. On Thursday we got confirmation that the trip is on for the Saturday so we planned to add a little detour to St Lucia after the pelagic. Having left Middelburg at 2pm on Friday, we drove to Durban via the N11 and N3, arriving just after 9pm. It was a rather awful drive with lots of road works and heavy traffic but we made it safely and checked into a centrally located B&B. Dinner was quickly followed by hitting the pillows.We were excited to be going on our first proper pelagic trip – our Flock at Sea cruise in March didn’t really count. This trip, arranged by Niall Perrins, was to leave from Durban either on Saturday or Sunday so we had to prepare to have the full weekend available in Durban. On Thursday we got confirmation that the trip is on for the Saturday so we planned to add a little detour to St Lucia after the pelagic. Having left Middelburg at 2pm on Friday, we drove to Durban via the N11 and N3, arriving just after 9pm. It was a rather awful drive with lots of road works and heavy traffic but we made it safely and checked into a centrally located B&B. Dinner was quickly followed by hitting the pillows.
At 04:30 my alarm got us going. After a quick breakfast we left and initially struggled a little finding our way down to the harbour but eventually got there with plenty time to spare. We were to leave from Wilson’s Wharf. Soon after parking we saw another birder and he led us onto the boat, the isiHuhwa. The rest of the group, including the crew, soon showed up and just after 6am we started up and navigated out of the harbour. It wasn’t long after we left the breakwaters when we spotted our first pelagic bird, and a lifer to boot – Indian yellow-nosed albatross! For the next 3 hours we pounded through some sizable swells of 1-2m, making our way into deeper water and looking for fishing trawlers or rafts of birds. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any of these and although we got some fantastic views of Humpback whales and Common dolphins, the only other birds we got were Subantarctic skua and White-chinned petrel. Our guides started chumming with popcorn covered in fish guts and oil but the only bird that eventually showed up was a lone Wilson’s storm-petrel. Eventually we had to go back and our return journey was equally quiet except for one Subantarctic skua that first flew behind the boat, then responded well to thrown pilchards and eventually sat still in the water for all to photograph. We were back in the harbour at 2pm and although even the guides mentioned that it was unusually quiet in terms of birds, we were still happy to have added a few pelagics to our KZN list, and having seen two new mammals. The rest of the afternoon we caught up on some sleep before starting a braai for dinner. There was time for some coffee and rusks before we again left before dark and drove a good 100km north on the N2 before the sun had risen. By 9am we were in St Lucia. After booking a boat cruise up the estuary for 3pm, we drove to the Iphiva campsite to walk the Iphiva trail. Our first attempts to find the trail led to numerous scratches and swearing so we decided to rather follow the much clearer horse trails leading into the grasslands. Earlier, while driving towards St Lucia, we listened to some of the calls of birds we were hoping to see and now, not 5 minutes after walking into the grasslands with a patch of forest on our left, we suddenly heard one of these calls! It was Woodward’s batis! Unfortunately the call wasn’t close so we carried on walking, adding White-eared barbet, Tambourine dove, Trumpeter and Crowned hornbills, African dusky flycatcher, Malachite and Brown-hooded kingfishers, Yellow-throated longclaw, Woolly-necked stork, Scarlet-chested and Collared sunbirds, Livingstone’s turaco and Narina trogon. We returned from the walk, then drove out to a picnic site at the estuary for lunch. Our accommodation for the night was at Oppi Rotse in Kingfisher street and after settling in we left for our boat cruise up the estuary. It was a Sunday, the boat was full of booze cruisers and a stiff breeze was blowing – we weren’t expecting to see much. Apart from a few Caspian terns and Grey-headed gulls we added Giant and Pied kingfishers, Water thick-knee, African darter and Lesser swamp warbler. Back on land we headed for a local pub to get fish for dinner and then relaxed at our accommodation for the rest of the night.
It seems to have rained during the night as the road was damp when we left well before sunrise. We arrived at the Cape Vidal gate on the dot at 6am, paid our entrance fee and started birding. Heavy fog collecting in the lower areas together with distant clouds and increasing pre-dawn light, made for a surreal but pretty picture. It was therefore very fitting when we heard THE call of the African wild – a Fiery-necked nightjar. We stopped the car to listen to this beautiful call and then all of a sudden there was another call that we immediately recognized: Swamp nightjar! – Our third lifer for the trip! It was an amazing start to the day! We drove on through the grasslands and picked up Rattling and Croaking cisticolas, Burchell’s coucal, Yellow-throated longclaw and African stonechat. On the Pan loop we saw a few waterbirds like African jacana, Egyptian goose and Blacksmith lapwing but nothing special. The next loop off the tar road was the Vlei loop that also went deep into the coastal forest. Here we picked up African paradise flycatcher, Red-capped robin-chat, Brown scrub-robin, Black-crowned tchagra, Yellow-bellied apalis, Yellow-rumped tinkerbird, Fork- and Square-tailed drongos, Dark-backed, Spectacled and Cape weavers, Sombre and Yellow-bellied greenbuls, Emerald-spotted wood dove, Tambourine dove, Orange-breasted, Gorgeous and ruddy form Olive bish-shrikes and a proper sighting of Woodward’s batis. Realizing that we were not going to make Cape Vidal at the rate we were going, we pushed on back to the tar road but made one more stop at the Mafazana pan hide. On the way in we got cracking views of Green twinspots and Blue-mantled crested flycatchers. Grey waxbills sat still long enough for good views and an African cuckoo-hawk brought our 2013 tally of birds of prey to a whopping 34. The hide itself was very quiet and we quickly returned to the tar road to drive north. We made it Cape Vidal just after 10am and drove around for a short while. On the way out we added our first Eastern nicator for the year and picked up a Southern banded snake-eagle sitting on a telephone pole. At noon we were back in St Lucia and then settled in for the long drive home.
Although the species diversity on the pelagic was a little disappointing, it was a great trip and Cape Vidal delivered the goodies. We plan to return again for a weekend later in the year.
