Birds everywhere! Marine Big 5 Daily Blog
Written by December 17 2020
It has been another day with perfect conditions for a cruise on the ocean. Out in the bay we stopped at one of the shark cage diving boats to see some sharks, the Bronze whaler sharks we managed to see showed great surface behaviour. Our next sighting was in the Pearly Beach area, a small bait ball with thousands of Cape cormorants and a few kelp gulls in between, what a spectacular sighting. The cormorants kept coming up with little bait fish and you could observe them all around us.
Closer to the Dyer Island ecosystem we spotted a couple of Northern Giant petrel feeding on a dead seal and on the Island itself some African penguins, cormorants, terns and a pair of African black Oystercatcher. As usual we also made a stop just around the corner at the Cape Fur seal colony before heading to Danger Point and then Kleinbaai harbour.
What species did we see today?
Cape Cormorant Cape Cormorant
One of the most famous species of Cormorant in the Western Cape, the Cape Cormorant is well known for it's beautiful turquoise eye and impressive size.
African Penguin African Penguin
As one of only 17 penguin species left in the world (and the only one on the african continent), the african penguin often breed in offshore colonies, such as Dyer Island.
Bronze Whaler Shark Bronze Whaler Shark
The Bronze whaler (also known as Copper sharks) here in Kleinbaai are very curious and interactive. These sharks eat mostly fish, with sardines being one of their favourites.
Bank Cormorant Bank Cormorant
Often enjoying a broad diet including klipfish, rock lobster and more, the increasing rarety of the Bank Cormorant makes every moment we see them even more special.
Cape fur seal Cape fur seal
With a local population of 60,000, it's no wonder our guests capture so many photographs of these wonderfully playful marine mammals.
