Page 194 - Atlas Sea Birds Ver1

2.2.4.7 Coastal breeding sites of seabirds between Cape Hangklip
and Cape Agulhas

Authors: D Geldenhuys, LJ Waller, RJM Crawford, BM Dyer, M Masotla, L Upfold, and AB Makhado

Abstract:
All 15 of the seabirds of the Benguela upwelling system (BUS) have bred or attempted to breed in the region between Cape Hangklip
and Cape Agulhas: African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus), Leach’s Storm Petrel (Hydrobates leucorous or Oceanodroma leucorhoa),
Great White Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus), Cape Gannet (Morus capensis), Cape Cormorant (Phalacrocorax capensis), Bank Cormo-
rant (P. neglectus), White-breasted Cormorant (P. lucidus), Crowned Cormorant (Microcarbo coronatus), Kelp Gull (Larus dominicanus),
Hartlaub’s Gull (Chroicocephalus hartlaubii), Grey-headed Gull (C. cirrocephalus), Greater Crested Tern (Thalasseus bergii), Caspian Tern
(Hydroprogne caspia), Roseate Tern (Sterna dougallii) and Damara Tern (Sternula balaenarum). The breeding took place at 23 localities.
The region includes the easternmost record of breeding by Bank Cormorant and the westernmost record of breeding by Roseate Tern in
the BUS.

Introduction:
All 15 of the seabirds of the Benguela upwelling system (BUS) have bred or attempted to breed in the region between Cape Hangklip
and Cape Agulhas: African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus), Leach’s Storm Petrel (Hydrobates leucorous or Oceanodroma leucorhoa),
Great White Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus), Cape Gannet (Morus capensis), Cape Cormorant (Phalacrocorax capensis), Bank Cormo-
rant (P. neglectus), White-breasted Cormorant (P. lucidus), Crowned Cormorant (Microcarbo coronatus), Kelp Gull (Larus dominicanus),
Hartlaub’s Gull (Chroicocephalus hartlaubii), Grey-headed Gull (C. cirrocephalus), Greater Crested Tern (Thalasseus bergii), Caspian Tern
(Hydroprogne caspia), Roseate Tern (Sterna dougallii) and Damara Tern (Sternula balaenarum). The region includes the easternmost
record of breeding by Bank Cormorant (Cooper 1981, Crawford et al. 1999) and the westernmost record of breeding by Roseate Tern in
the BUS (Crawford et al. 2009).
The 23 sites which are shown on Figure 1 and at which breeding took place are briefly described below. For each site, records of
breeding by the different species were collated for all years having information. For years having multiple counts, the highest count was
shown; ‘√’ signifies that breeding occurred at a locality but the numbers were not ascertained and ‘?’ that breeding may have occurred but
was not confirmed. A short summary of methods used to obtain the estimates of numbers breeding is given in the chapter ‘Introduction to
Seabird Breeding Localities’.
In 1998, in the coastal region considered, Dyer Island Nature Reserve was identified as a Globally Important Bird Area (Barnes 1998).
It was too in 2015, as also was the Cape Whale Coast, which included Stony Point (Marnewick et al. 2015).

Sources of information: in 1973 and 56 pairs of Crowned Cormorant in 1973. The
The estimates of numbers of seabirds breeding at the 23 highest overall number of nests was 102 in 1973 but fewer
localities were from the following sources: African Penguin birds bred in the early 21st century.
(Shelton et al. 1984, Underhill et al. 2006, Crawford et al.
2011, 2013a, Sherley et al. 2020), Leach’s Storm Petrel Cape Bank White- Crowned
(Whittington et al. 1999, Underhill et al. 2002, Crawford Year Cormorant Cormorant breasted Cormorant
et al. 2007), Great White Pelican (Crawford et al. 1995b), Cormorant
Cape Gannet (Sherley et al. 2019), Cape Cormorant (Coo- 1949 10
per et al. 1982, Crawford et al. 2016), Bank Cormorant 1953 10+
(Cooper 1981, Crawford et al. 1999, 2008), White-breast- 1959 15 40
ed Cormorant (Brooke et al. 1982, Crawford et al. 2013b), 1963 √
Crowned Cormorant (Crawford et al. 1982b, 2012), Kelp 1968 16 43
Gull (Crawford et al. 1982a, Whittington et al. 2016), Hart- 1973 46 56
laub’s Gull (Williams et al. 1990, Crawford et al. 2007), 1976 9
Grey-headed Gull (Brooke et al. 1999, McInnes and Allan 1978 3
2011), Greater Crested Tern (Rand 1963, Cooper et al. 1979 15 4 26
1990, Crawford 2009), Caspian Tern (Cooper et al. 1992), 1980 14 45
Roseate Tern (Crawford et al. 2007, 2009) and Damara
Tern (Braby 2011). These observations were updated 1996 9
by unpublished records of CapeNature (CN) and South 1997 10 √ 9
Africa’s Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the 1998 3
Environment (DFFE). 2006 3 7
2011 6 0 3
Cape Hangklip Rocks 2012 11 0 4
Coordinates: 34.3878 S; 18.8279 E 2013 2 0 2
Description: Rocks to the south of Cape Hangklip. 2014 3 0 6
Conservation status: It is not protected. 2015 6 2 7
Species and numbers breeding: Four species of sea- 2016 6 0 7
bird have bred at Cape Hangklip Rocks. Their numbers 2017 5 0 0
(pairs) are shown on the following table. Maxima observed
were one pair of Cape Cormorant in 2018, 15 pairs of Bank 2018 1 3 0 6
Cormorant in 1979, 46 pairs of White-breasted Cormorant 2019 3
2020 0 0

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