The Rock - St Croix Island

Today marks the start of a new era in my blogging, as I have reluctantlly had to leave Blogger, because of persistent upload problems, which they seem unable to resolve. I have imported all my old posts into Wordpress, but will have to do some tweaking, because Wordpress is not configured for my large format pictures

St Croix Island in Algoa Bay is just one big rock filled with penguins, oyster catchers and a large assoetment of other sea birds.



St Croix has the largest breeding colony of African Penguins in Southern Africa. These poor birds have been put under a lot of pressure to find food as the fish in the Bay has been depleted as a result of trawling. They apparently swim out for up to 155 kilometres to find food.




Stepping out. Or is it the quick step?



The Oyster Catchers were an added bonus, as they are endangered. There are apparently less than 5 000 of these birds left in the world and it is the only oystercatcher that breeds in Africa.
Oyster catchers mate for life and may live for 35 years. The name is a misnomer, as the birds eat limpets and mussels and not oysters. They do not breed until they are three years old