Bird Island Nature Reserve

Sixty meters offshore from Lambert's bay is a small island (2.2ha) - very renowned in birdwatcher-circles. Because of the thousands of penguins living here years earlier, the island was originally called Penguin Island.  Between 1900 and 1909 44 000 penguins were counted here. It is unbelievable to think that just a 100 years later, this number had dwindled to only 26 000 in the world in 2009... Because of egg exploitation, habitat alteration and disturbance associated with commercial exploitation of guano, the numbers have fallen drastically.  African penguins burrowed in the accumulated guano and the removal of this nesting habitat forced them to nest on the surface, exposing the birds to heat exposure and extreme weather events and increasing predation of eggs and chicks by Kelp gulls.  The central area on Penguin Island was also paved with flat stones to facilitate guano scraping, further reducing the quality of nesting habitat.  Bird Island was scraped for guano from 1888 to 1990.  During the 1940`s, about 300 tons of guano was harvested annually.  More recently, it is predation effects and reduced availability of pelagic fish due to competition with commercial fisheries and altered distribution of prey that have been implicated in contributing to the overall African penguin population decline.  These are the reasons why the African Penguin numbers have so dramatically dwindled to only 50 breeding pairs and is at risk of going extinct.

The gannet colony now is the main attraction of Bird Island, as the island was meanwhile  renamed.  Although the gannets on the island were in decline between 1956 en 1967, the population has recovered  and between 4000 and 6000 pairs breed annually.  This is no reason to be content, though. Small changes can be disastrous and lead to immediate dwindling of breeding pairs or the total abandonment of a breeding site, like in 2005.

During the 2005 Cape gannet breeding season, regular forays by Cape fur seals and predation of nesting adult birds resulted in more than 200 adult gannets being killed and the birds deserting the entire breeding season.  The following year birds were encouraged to breed on the island with the assistance of strategically placed decoys and numbers increased till in 2012 there were 9000 breeding pairs.

Gannets are gregarious birds that roost in large groups on islands or at sea.  The breeding cycle begins at the end of winter (August) when most of the birds arrive at the islands to begin preparations for breeding.  They usually return to the same nest site and partner year after year., immediately beginning courtship and construction of a mound in the guano crust, which is softer after the winter rains.  The hollow-topped mound is built just beyond the pecking distance of other pairs.  Both birds collect nesting material, which includes feathers, seaweed, bones, sticks and small stones.  A single, bluish-white egg is laid between September and November, although late eggs and a second laying may take place until February or March.

It is quite amazing to watch the gannets at a gannetry.  If the wind is strong enough, the gannet will just spread its wings, jump and be airborne. With less strong winds, the gannet has to make its why passed all the thousands of beaks of its colony to find a runway where it can gain enough speed to take off. These runways are unoccupied corridors of land on the edges of the colony or in between nests, and lie in the direction of prevailing winds.

Gannets eat small pelagic fish that shoal near the surface of the sea, mostly anchovy and sardine, but also scavenge hake offal from deep-sea trawlers.  The birds feed by plunge-diving from about 10m above the surface and flapping their wings once underwater to ‘swim’ to their prey.  The impact of hitting the water is absorbed by air cushions at the base of their necks and they have no external nostrils where the water could rush in.

Around 90% of all Cape Gannets are found in South Africa.  In the 1990`s a cencus of breeding pairs on the islands revealed the following results:  Bird Island (Lamberts Bay) 14 000, Malgas Island 71 000 and Bird Island (Algoa Bay) 68 000.

Of the three gannet colonies in South Africa, this one is the only one where tourists can watch these magnificent birds from close up.  In 1959 is a causeway between the island and the mainland was built as a storm shelter for Lambert's Bay harbour.  This causeway not only opens the island to tourists, but also expose the birds to predation by dogs, cats, rats and mongooses.

On Bird Island, the tourist facilities consist of a hide, built in 1998, on the edge of the gannet colony, a small museum which portrays the history of the guano industry and a restaurant.  The museum was constructed within the former guano labourers` quarters on the island.

But the island does not only host Cape Gannets.  Around 13 000 Cape Cormorants, Whitebreated Cormorants and the rarer Crowned Cormorants are also found here. Also Kelp gull breeding pairs' numbers increased over the past years. Other seabirds include Hartlaub`s and Greyheaded Gulls, Swift- Common- and Sandwich terns.

Although the situation at Bird Island seems stable, things can quickly change and threats can come from unpredictable sources. In 1974, large quantities of natural fish oil, predominantly from anchovy, were released into the sea due to a failure of the oil recovery system in the factory at Lambert's Bay harbour.  It is estimated that at least 100 African Penguins, 700 Cape gannets and 7000 Cape Cormorants were killed.

Bird Island at Lambert's Bay is very important as it is the northernmost of the seabird Islands on the west coast of South Africa.  Apart from some small cormorant colonies on rock stacks, there are no large seabird breeding colonies north of Lambert's Bay until the Namibian islands are reached.  This a gap of about 600km.

A bigger threat for the seabirds of Bird Island though, was recently found in the proof of changes in the Benguela ecosystem, which can be attributed to a number of anthropogenic factors such as over-fishing as well as natural drivers like climate change.  The distribution of both Anchovy and Sardine has shifted more to the east and the biomass since 1996 is now found east of Cape Agulhas.  This could have a huge impact on the distribution of sea birds in the future.