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Boxing Day was the beginning of our trip back north and started cloudy and windy.  Eventually we found Orcas in the Gerlache Strait and a one last zodiac cruise around Ketley Point on Rongé Island gave us a last Adelie Penguin, more Chinstraps and Gentoos and then nice views of Shags with snake-like chicks.  As we looked for shelter around Brabant Island it was scenic but very windy, but in the strait between Brabant and Lecointe Islands it was still and a glorious way to end our time in Antarctica.

The next two days were the crossing of the Drake Passage.  The first day was bumpy and the seawatching from the bridge was very quiet, with the 100 or so Blue Petrels the only species into double figures.  The following morning was quieter, but still windy, but there was much more activity, finally we had numbers of Snowy Albatross, mainly immature, but we had one adult bird distantly among the closer Southern Royals.  As we neared Cape Horn it was calm, and as we headed for home there was one last surprise, as a Subantarctic Shearwater went past.

We landed in Ushuaia the next morning and flew up to to Buenos Aires for one last day’s birding…

Type B2 Gerlache Orcas

Antarctic Shag

One last Adelie

Southern Fulmar

Immature Snowy Albatross

Southern Royal Albatross

Cape Horn marks the end of our crossing of the Drake Passage

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the one I’ve come to know
With the views outstanding,
Antarctic landing,
Polar plunge and whale blows in the snow.

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,
With every memory card I write.
Dancing, snowball fighting all night…
After this next Christmas will seem sh*te!

You shall not pass!

Paradise Harbour

On the Antarctic continent

And no mistletoe in sight (photo Joyce Mulder)

Wilson's Petrel

Weddell Seal

Christmas dinner

Christmas Eve started wintry, with a landing at Palaver Point on Two Hummock Island in a snowstorm.  The walk up to the Chinstrap Penguin colony was a nice chance to stretch  our legs, but the views of the birds were limited and photography was challenging.  In the afternoon we had a zodiac cruise around Foyn Harbour.  As well as the ubiquitous Humpbacks, the Antarctic Shag and Antarctic Tern colony was interesting, the latter nesting in the wreck of the whaling ship Guvernøren.  Later on the wind dropped and in still conditions we toured icy inlets where an Emperor Penguin had been seen a few days earlier.  It was a long shot, as they don’t belong on the west of the peninsula.  Suddenly Pash and I found the bird swimming some distance in front of us and all hell broke loose.  Sadly, the bird vanished almost as quickly as it appeared and not all of us got onto the it, but it was an early Christmas present for those of us who saw it.

Two Hummock Island

Hands up who wants to go whale watching

Nice barnacles

Maybe we won't go back to the ship just yet

Gentoo Penguin

All too brief, all too distant, but an Emperor Penguin's not to be sniffed at

Our first day in Antarctica was Point Wild on Elephant Island.  This is where Shackleton’s expedition got to after the Endurance was crushed by the ice, and where Shackleton left them to sail to South Georgia for help.  After multiple attempts they were rescued in August 1916, with only four days’ supplies left.

To say the place looked ominous was an understatement, but we were able to do a zodiac cruise (the first the team had managed for three years) around the point.   (There are no landings now after some fatalities a couple of years ago – we didn’t feel we’d missed out.)  The place, the history and the wildlife were superb, with a Leopard Seal starring.  The place was dramatic in midsummer – the Shackleton expedition survived for over four months in winter.

Heading further south we passed Bridgeman Island, which was birdless, but an iceberg next to it had Adelie Penguins on it, which was a bird we were going to struggle to see, with the most accessible colony being closed due to bird flu.

The next day took us to Half Moon Island, where we had our first Weddell Seals and a Chinstrap Penguin colony, buzzed by South Polar Skuas.  Chinstraps are fun, there’s always something going on.  In the afternoon Yankee Harbour was a Gentoo Penguin colony with more skuas and better yet, an Adelie Penguin on the beach gave us our best view of the trip.  The weather turned to torrential drizzle, so we didn’t stay ashore that long.

Point Wild on Elephant Island

Leopard Seal

Shackleton and his team's heroism needs a statue... of the Chilean captain who rescued them.

One of about 20 Humpbacks in a feeding frenzy of whales and birds

Gentoo Penguin

A white morph Southern Giant Petrel

Wilson's Petrel

Our first Adelie Penguins with Gentoos and Chinstraps

Half Moon Island

Southern Elephant Seal

Weddell Seal

Nice ice

South Polar Skua

Chinstrap Penguin

Adelie Penguin

Too many pictures to keep up with, so I stopped posting.  We’re back now and I’m wading through the 35000 pictures.  These aren’t necessarily the best pictures…

After a bumpy afternoon and night leaving South Georgia we had two full days at sea en route to Elephant Island.  The first included a detour to see A23a, the world’s largest iceberg, with enough fresh water to give 5 litres of water to every person on the planet for 70 years.  It’s about the size of Greater London, or about 0.17 Wales in proper units.  We all rushed out to see it as we drew up to it – I don’t know why: we were sailing past it for four hours.  Obviously a huge cold thing in the middle of the sea generates a fair bit of murk, so the pictures are a bit average.  There were some decent birds, though.

On the second day we had to pick our way through a field of sea ice, which was fun and had some great wildlife, including our first good views of Southern Fulmar and a very frustrating Antarctic Petrel, which flew behind me so I missed it.  I had a rubbish view of one later, but the stars of the show were the whales: Humpbacks will bore you in later posts, so no pictures, but Fin Whale was nice and a female Blue Whale with a calf was magnificent.

A23a stretches out ahead of us

Black-bellied Storm Petrel

Antarctic Prions

Chinstrap Penguins

Picking our way through the sea ice

Southern Fulmar

Fin Whale

Blue Whale. A female of the Antarctic subspecies is as big as animals get

There's a calf

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