Tanzania October – November 2012 – Pemba Channel

Most birders visiting Pemba or Unguja (Zanzibar) go there by plane, however we took the second option: by boat. Taking the ferry offers the chance to see some seabirds as well as some cetacaeans. This is a post on the birds and mammals we saw one the three ferry crossings we took. The first ferry crossing was the one from Stonetown – Zanzibar to Mkoani – Pemba. This was also the most interesting as we saw the most seabirds during this crossing. The stretch of the channel between Zanzibar and Pemba is the most interesting as this part is in direct contact with the Indian Ocean. Birds noted on the crossing included: a single Masked Booby, several Long-tailed Cormorants, many Sooty Gulls, Greater Crested and Lesser Crested Terns. A feeding flock of terns included many Common Terns, some Lesser Noddies (no contrast on upper- and underwings) and a single Sooty Tern.

Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra)

The best bird noted on the crossing was a single Jouanin's Petrel, which is, according to the book of stevenson and Fanshawe (2003), a new species for Tanzania. The bird was flushed from the sea surface by the ferry and was observed for a minute in good light conditions and at close distance before it flew of in the direction of the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the bird, for at that moment the sea was quite rough, causing a lot of spray. Therefore I hid my camera in my bag to protect it from the salt water. However I can give an accurate description of the bird: it was a medium-sized, dark brown seabird with long, slender wings, that showed a lighter brown wingbar on the upperwing. When the bird was flushed from the sea surface it fanned its tail shortly reveiling its rounded shape. Held closed the tail looked pointed, but the rounded shape excludes Noddies or any other genus of seabirds except Bulweria. Bulwer's Petrel was excluded by the flight motion of this bird, as it was anything but batlike and rapid, but much slower and stronger. Any comments on this sighting are most welcome. I will send a description of the sighting and of the bird to the African Bird Club, but besides this I don't really know what to do with this sighting. Mammals recorded on this crossing where Indo-Pacific Bottle-nosed Dolpins an a smaller, darker unidentified species. Also several flying fishes were noted. 

On the next crossing (Mkoani - Stonetown) we noted not so many seabirds. The birds we saw included: Brown Noddy, Roseate tern, Sooty Gull and Long-tailed Cormorant. Howeve much more Indo-Pacific Bottle-nosed Dolphins were noted during this crossing. 

Indo-Pacific Bottle-nosed Dolphins (Tursiops anduncus)

Indo-Pacific Bottle-nosed Dolphin (Tursiops anduncus)

Our final crossing was from Stonetown to Dar es Salaam. This was a high-speed catamaran, therefore not every bird that was seen could be identified. We saw several Sooty/Bridled Terns, but those were left unidentified. However, we managed to identify three Brown Noddies and to Lesser Black-backed Gulls between the more common species. 

Brown Noddy (Anous stolidus)

Although this year a ferry in this stretch of the Indian Ocean sunk, we have the feeling that things have changed. There are life vests and other emergency equipment and most boats are now high-tech, high-speed catamarans. The price of a crossing is a reasonable 40 dollar and thus still cheaper than flying and much more fun. Yoy can also take the cheap (25 dollar) nightboat, but this is one takes 12 instead of two or three hours and is uninteresting if you want to see seabirds.