I had wanted to go on a pelagic birding trip for a while but when I looked at the schedule, all the trips I could go on were fully booked. That was until the first of September 2015 when I saw that there was one spot open on the November trip. This was perfect because it meant I stood a chance of seeing a Barau's Petrel! I sent Niall an email and my spot was booked. Now the wait began.
After finishing the matric exams, I started counting down the days until the trip and I checked Windguru on a regular basis in hope of good weather. On the day before, I checked the weather and it said that there was a chance of rain and it was going to be overcast but the sea was going to be rather flat and there wouldn't be much wind. It felt as though it had been ages but the day of the 28th of November eventually arrived and I found myself packing for my first pelagic trip. Both excitement and nerves were rushing through my body.
When we arrived at Wilson's Wharf, the weather wasn't great but at least it wasn't raining! The first birds seen at the wharf were Great White Pelicans and hundreds if not thousands of Rock Doves taking flight. Eventually everyone arrived and we made our way to the boat where we were greeted by a large Goliath Heron standing on the bank.
After the skipper gave us a quick briefing, we left the dock. We had only moved about one hundred metres when David spotted a Terek Sandpiper on a concrete block. This was my first lifer of the trip. It was little bird sitting among Common Whimbrels, Grey-headed Gulls, Grey Plovers and a lone Grey Heron.
Out in the harbour, we saw a few Caspian Terns, Swift Terns, Kelp Gulls and White-breasted Cormorants. Near the harbour mouth, a Western Osprey was spotted in the distance and a Lanner Falcon sat on a wire on the northern wall.
 |
| White-chinned Petrel |
 |
| White-chinned Petrel |
 |
| White-chinned Petrel |
 |
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross
We then left the harbour and started the 30 kilometre boat ride to the chum
site. A flock of Common Terns behind the backline were the first birds seen outside the harbour. After admiring the view of Durban that I had
never seen before, we came across our first pelagic bird; a White-chinned
Petrel. One of the more common species encountered off the South African
coastline. |
 |
| Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross |
 |
White-chinned Petrel
The light was really bad which meant I had to adjust my camera settings accordingly. Since I was on a moving boat and 90% of the birds that we saw were flying, I set my shutter speed to 1/2000th of a second and adjusted it up or down depending on the situation. I was shooting in shutter speed priority which meant the camera chose the aperture automatically. Luckily the camera kept the aperture at f/5.6 or 6.3 throughout the day. I was shooting with auto ISO on and the low light conditions and high shutter speed meant the ISO was rather high as well. I also had to add exposure compensation in order to brighten up the image. Most of the time I was adding one stop which was fine for the albatrosses but the darker birds needed a bit more exposure in order to get detail on their bodies. This was especially important when the birds flew against the white sky. |
 |
| White-chinned Petrel |
 |
| Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross |
 |
Great-winged Petrel
Getting back to the birds...The next bird that we saw was a Great-winged Petrel that kept its distance. A little while later, a call of Shy Albatross came from the stern but unfortunately the bird was quite distant so I didn't get any photos. A few White-chinned Petrels followed the boat for a few kilometres and among them; David spotted a Flesh-footed Shearwater. Eventually we had two flying around at the back of the boat but unfortunately I didn't get any decent photos of this species. As we got closer to the chum site, we saw our second albatross, an adult Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross. This bird also kept its distance. The smallest bird of the day, the Wilson's Storm-petrel then popped into view, providing brief views between the swells. |
 |
| White-chinned Petrel |
 |
| Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross |
 |
| Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross |
 |
| Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross |
 |
| White-chinned Petrel |
 |
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross
We arrived at the chum site, the chum went in and the searching for the Barau's Petrel began. After a short while, there were about 15 Wilson's Storm-petrels water skiing over the slick, picking up scraps. White-chinned Petrels were numerous and the odd Great-winged Petrel came in to see what the fuss was all about. The largest bird at the site was an adult Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross that flew so close to the boat at one stage that I couldn't focus on him with the focus limiter on. It was amazing. We then got the bad news that we had to turn around and head back in. So no Barau's this year. |
 |
| Wilson's Storm-petrel |
 |
| White-chinned Petrel and Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross |
On the way back we came across a party of birds resting on the surface. These included White-chinned Petrels and Indian Yellow-nosed Albatrosses. We went through patches of rain on the way back which wasn't good for my camera but since this would be the last time I would be at sea for while, I didn't pack it away and tried to keep it was dry as possible. Since we were heading back, I decided that I was going to fill my card with photos of anything that came close enough for a decent photo. This meant I took loads of photos of the White-chinned Petrels and I also took quite a few of Indian Yellow-nosed Albatrosses since they were the only birds that came into view behind the boat besides the odd Common Tern and Wilson's Storm-petrels.
 |
| Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross |
 |
| White-chinned Petrel |
When we got back to into the harbour it was low tide so there were good numbers of waders on view. It was difficult to make out exactly what they were but they included Curlew Sandpiper and Common Greenshank. We also saw the Western Osprey again. The last bird added to the list was a distant Lesser Crested Tern.
When I got back home, I sifted through all the photos from the day and I noticed a storm-petrel that looked a bit different. It had a white under-wing and the legs didn't stick out from behind its tail so I knew it wasn't a Wilson's Storm-petrel. I looked in my book and concluded that it was a European Storm-petrel, an uncommon bird off Durban. |
All in all it was a great day out at sea, I managed to pick up 7 lifers and get my South African list over the 350 mark with a White-chinned Petrel.
