Month: December 2024

The weather forecast for South Georgia was ominous, and our second day landing was impossible. The stunning sight of 150000 King Penguins in the St Andrew’s Bay colony made up for that, and on our third day we visited the colony at Fortuna Bay, a mere 20000 pairs, but it was amazing to be able to get close to the birds. Our final day was windy again, but a zodiac cruise around St Andrew’s Bay and some amazing seamanship from the Captain in outrageous winds at the south end of the island was very entertaining. Off we go to Antarctica…

St. Andrew's Bay King Penguin colony, about 150000 pairs breed here.

The zodiac goes out to Fortuna Bay

A picture of white elegance: Snow Petrol

A picture of white ugliness: Snowy Sheathbill

Our crossing from the Falklands to South Georgia was pretty flat, arguably too flat for seabirds.  We still managed some excellent seabirds and a mad half hour where everything happened at once contributed to a day with six species of Albatross.  The downside of the flat crossing is that the storm arrives while we’re at South Georgia, which limits our opportunities to land on this beautiful island.  We managed a couple yesterday, at Grytviken and Jason Harbour, where the fur seals were distinctly feisty, one young one being particularly reluctance to back off, leaving me in a stand off at about a foot for a minute.

Immature Snowy Albatross

Humpback Whale

Our first iceberg

Antarctic Fur Seal Pup

Antarctic Fur Seal after a hard season establishing himself on the beach

King Penguin

A young male Southern Elephant Seal tunes up

We’ve been on board the good ship Ortelius for a few days now, and we’re currently half-way between the Falkland Islands and South Georgia.  Today’s day at sea has not produced the hoped-for seabird festival, as it has been very calm and foggy, but that has given us some down time to catch up on some pictures.  Here’s a very quick sample from the journey from Ushuaia to the Falkland Islands, and a couple of landings at New Island at Black-browed Albatross and Rockhopper Penguin colonies.  The Falklands are beautiful and more British than Britain.

Southern Royal Albatross

Rockhopper Penguin

Imperial Shag

Fractious neighbours

There aren’t many new birds for us around Ushuaia, and yesterday’s trip targeted two of them, Yellow-bridled Finch, which we missed in Chile, and the much-wanted White-bellied Seedsnipe, a grouse-like wader that hides on mountain tops.

We had a surprise when our local guide sailed past the well-known site and continued driving for another half an hour, eventually driving us up a private forest track into beautiful Nothofagus forest, before we got out and had a gentle walk up to the edge of the snowline, rather than the rather more unpleasant one we’d have had back at the well-known site.    Yellow-bridled finch was found quickly, but after over an hour and a half of walking backwards and forwards up a mountain across snowy stonefields, we were beginning to wonder whether we were in the right place.  We shouldn’t have doubted Esteban, as we had superb views of two birds at close range.  An easy and happy walk down was improved further by a low-level fly past by an Andean Condor.  A cracking day!

Thorn-tailed Rayadito: common, but gorgeous

Yellow-bridled Finch

White-bellied Seedsnipe making tracks

Our trip started with lots of flying and a couple of short afternoon birding sessions, first in a suburb of Buenos Aires, and today in Ushuaia, where our tour starts tomorrow.  We’ve had no new birds yet, but Ushuaia is a rather fine place, made even more fine when Karen looked out of our hotel window and found a Magellanic Woodpecker, something that’s high on every birder’s wish list.

Campo Flicker

Chalk-browed Mockingbird

The beach at Ushuaia

Magellanic Oystercatcher

Magellanic Woodpecker