Bulletin 347 - South Africa 2020 #1 - new families and seabirds

I was enthralled with my first visit to Africa in November 2018 and so I scheduled another trip with the same guide Casper Badenhorst. As we had done the eastern part of the country from Durban to Kruger NP, we went to the Capetown area and the famous fynbos habitat.

There are many families of birds such as owls, hummingbirds, hornbills etc. Some have species worldwide and some are localized to certain continents or geographic areas. It is always exciting to get your first bird in an entirely new family.

I did get 3 new families of birds in South Africa this time. The first is the 10" Namaqua Sandgrouse (Pterocles namaqua). The male here has a reddish throat. There was a small flock of the birds drinking at a pond.

Namaqua Sandgrouse - male

The second was the most special, as my first ever penguin in the wild. The 18" African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus) breed in several location on the South African coast. There is one large colony just outside Capetown with a nice visitor center and boardwalk for viewing the birds. It was formerly known as the Jackass Penguin for its donkey-like call.

Of course, it is black and white with a striped head in the adult. 

African Penguin - adult

The juvenile lacks the striped head and is duller overall.

African Penguin - juvenile

There is egg laying at all times of the year in the colony and some pengiuns climbed up on the dunes and even into yards of the homes to make the nest, others dug holes in the dunes for a nest and some just laid the egg on the beach.

African Penguin with egg

This bird is endangered as the population has estimated to have dropped 90% since 1900 to about 70 thousand pairs now due to overfishing in their feeding grounds.

The storm petrels were formerly all considered to be a single family, but recently have been split into Northern Storm Petrels mostly breeding in northern oceans, and Austral Storm Petrels mostly breeding in southern locations. I had seen some of the Northern Storm Petrels on pelagic trips out of California, but I photographed my first Austral Storm Petrel when I did a pelagic trip out of Capetown on this trip.

The 7" Wilson's Storm Petrel (Oceanites oceanicus) is black with a white rump and the legs extend beyond the tail. we saw several of them on the trip.

Wilson's Storm Petrel

The conditions on the pelagic trip were horrible and it was almost cancelled. The seas were 6 feet and it was overcast, windy and drizzling for part of the trip. The boat was a small fishing boat and we had the captain, a guide, and about 6 people on the trip. But we did manage to see some birds, but with the rocking of the boat, it was sometimes hard to keep the bird even in the frame..LOL

Most of the birds were lifers for me. We got 3 albatrosses. The 38" Shy Albatross (Thalassarche cauta) has a wingspan of almost 9 feet. It breeds of Tasmania and ranges over the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is white with black upper wings and tail. It has a grey bill with yellow tip.

Shy Albatross

The 30" Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross (Thalassarche carteri) has a wingspan of 7 feet. It breeds on islands in southern Indian Ocean.  It is white with black wings and tail, but has a dark bill with red tip and yellow line down center of the upper mandible in the adult. we only saw a juvenile and they lack the yellow line.

Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross - juvenile

The 29" Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross (Thalassarche chlororhynchos) has a wingspan of 6.5 feet. It has a slight gray head. This one flying at us shows the 'yellow nose' strip on the upper mandible. They breed on the Tristan da Cunha islands in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross

We got several members of the shearwater and petrel family. The 22" White-chinned Petrel (Procellaria aequinoctialis) is a blackish-brown petrel with white chin and a light bill. It breeds on islands off Antarctica.

White-chinned Petrel

The 14" Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus) is black above, white below and has a dark bill. It breeds in the North Atlantic islands and is an uncommon visitor to South Africa waters. 

Manx Shearwater

The 19" Cory's Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) is one I had photographed before. It is brownish with a yellow bill. They breed on islands in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. Several were on the water making it a little easier to get a photo. It is a common bird to find in South Africa waters.

Cory's Shearwater

There was a huge flock of 6" European Storm Petrels (Hydrobates pelagicus). These are in the Northern Storm Petrel family. They were probably organizing for the flight north for breeding. It was raining very hard when we found them, so just managed a couple of photos to protect my equipment. They are small dark birds with white on the underwing as well as the top. In the photo 2 birds can be seen with the wings up showing the white.

European Storm Petrel

The 25" Brown Skua (Stercorarius antarcticus) is a heavy bodied gull-like seabird that scavenges from other seabirds.

Brown Skua

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2020 David McDonald

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