Lesser noddy surprise at Cape Vidal!

Sometimes special rare birds are very hard earned and at other times, if one is lucky, they find you.

This happened to me recently at Cape Vidal. I was snorkeling in the beautiful, crystal-clean warm waters of Cape Vidal bay- watching a colourful kaleidoscope of fish swim past- and paused to clear my mask of some condensation. I stood in the shallow water and took my mask off and at just that moment a dark-coloured bird flew past. I have spent countless hours watching shorebirds around St Lucia and immediately knew this was something special by the unique way it flew. It flew low and haphazardly-as if drunk- over the rock ledge, dipping down occasionally to try catch something as the waves washed over. Luckily, it did a U-turn and flew past a bit closer the second time allowing me views of its white head and long bill- confirming my suspicion that it was a Noddy. It then continued flying and disappeared to the South.

I was overjoyed to have seen a Noddy but a bit disgruntled that I hadn’t had the opportunity to see it well enough to definitively say that it was a Lesser or Brown. 

Anyhow, after snorkeling, I went to fetch my binos and camera and ran along the beach South, hoping that I would get a second bite at the cherry. As I rounded the Southern corner of the bay, a patch of white on the rocks caught my eye- the white forehead of the noddy! It was perched! I was nervous to disturb the bird so edged slowly forward bit by bit. Eventually, after leopard-crawling the last 50m or so (leaving a plough mark across the beach reminiscent of that left by a a nesting turtle) I was finally close enough to positively identify it as a Lesser noddy!

If only I’d known then how ridiculously relaxed the bird is…..it’s obvious to see that this is a bird of remote islands and not the  mainland. It is seemingly oblivious to human presence, preening itself on the rock ledge whilst only metres away from fisherman and kids playing in rock pools. I have even witnessed it tuck it’s head in to sleep whilst only metres away from a group of noisy, playing children! 

Anyways, this is a seriously special bird for South Africa. Pelagic by nature, they spend most of their time out in the tropical Indian Ocean, surface-dipping for fish and squid and usually only touch land when roosting and breeding on tropical islands. ‘Once in a blue moon’, lost individuals are found roosting ashore on the mainland (usually in the company of terns). 

Perhaps this explains why this bird is so approachable…because it is solitary and not roosting with terns (which are very nervous by nature) it is not influenced by their nervousness and has no inherent fear of humans…

As I write this blog, the bird is still present for the 4th consecutive day. Fingers crossed it decides to stay for much longer!

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