The Gliding Grace That Flies Without A Flap

There is something special about a light-mantled sooty albatross.

- Peter Sullivan

Yes, you are right, all albatrosses are special. But the light-mantled is especially special. Even Professor Peter Ryan, guru of gurus on all things ornithological, thinks it is special. He has seen more albatrosses than the Ancient Mariner.

“Only two people I know have seen one in southern Africa,” he said; it is that impressive. Well, make that more than ,002 now.

This tale has four components: BirdLife South Africa’s Annual General Meeting, albatrosses in general, the light-mantled, and South Africa’s extraordinary achievement.

A decade ago, BirdLife SA struggled to get 100 people to its AGM. So, because nobody wants to go to an AGM, the name was changed to Flock, and at Flock 2011 the number of participants doubled.

This year, the AGM was held at sea. Flock at Sea 2017 attracted an astonishing 1,969 birders.

The good ship Sinfonia was jammed to the rafters with cameras, bird books, lenses, tripods, experts, ornithologists, bird watchers and twitchers, the last being birders who like to keep lists of birds they have identified.

She set off south from Cape Town at the end of April, and for four days and nights wandered about the ocean searching for albatrosses, prions, shearwaters, storm petrels, et al.