Another bird photography bucket-list destination is Boulders Beach. When we lived in Cape Town in the late 70’s and early 80’s, Boulders was a favourite destination when visiting Simonstown. It was a picturesque destination for swimming but there were no penguins at that time. Photos in our family album from the early 90’s record the children growing and penguin numbers increasing until the beach was fenced off and an entrance fee charged for access. There are now wide boardwalks and viewing platforms which accommodate numerous visitors without disturbing the penguins and is a good value destination.

Photographically the challenge is usually dealing with bright African light on high contrast black and white birds on bright white sand, so I was very excited as the skies clouded over as we approached Simonstown from Cape Point. Conditions were perfect and we spent a couple of absorbing hours observing and photographing and were rewarded with some lovely images which was fantastic as after all previous visits I have been disappointed with my pictures due to the lighting.

African penguins were previously known as Jackass Penguins due to their donkey-like braying call and are the only penguins to breed on the African content and look similar to Humboldt and Magellanic Penguins from South America. They from long term pair bonds and head out in groups to hunt co-operatively during the day. They forage up to 20km from shore and despite dramatic increase in numbers at Boulders are threatened with total population numbers having dropped by 50% since 2004 due to competition from, among other factors, pelagic fishing, which forces them to forage further afield for less preferred food species.