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As mentioned in my last post I’ve been in training for a charity walk for Atlas Copco’s pet charity Water4All, which provides sanitation and drinking water facilities to areas without any form of sanitation.  It’s a great cause and this year we’re fundraising to support a project providing facilities and education for a village in Uganda.  I’ve been to Uganda (but not to that village), so it feels a bit more personal.

The walk is 41 miles between our Burgess Hill and Eastbourne sites and for most it is done over two days (with a stop over at a youth hostel).  Four of us decided to do the whole thing in a day.  41 miles is a bit further than I’ve walked before, but the added 1500 m of ascent provides a much bigger challenge than normal.

Yesterday was the big day: a start in Burgess Hill at 0345 and we made great time in the morning with a couple of stops, magnificently supported by Karen in the car.  Early afternoon saw Fran hit the rocks, as blisters and serious pain in the hips hit hard, slowing us to, almost literally, a crawl.  At our 28 mile stop we decided to give it another 4 miles and see whether she could realistically hope to finish.  A combination of Lucozade, pain-killers, courage and incredible stubbornness, not only meant that she could pick up the speed, but she ended going up the hills on the Seven Sisters faster than I was.  Do not tell her she can’t do something!

We rolled into an empty car park just before 2000, after a great day with great company, we had a right laugh, even when it was hurting.  Many thanks to Dave, Darren and Fran for their great company, Karen for excellent support and Emily for arranging the whole event.

(You can still donate to to this great cause, my link is below)

0345: We'll be full of energy when we wake up...

0600: Beachy Head, 5 miles from our end point, is the most distant point in the far distance

1600 after highs, deep lows and some frightening blisters we're 10 miles from home

1730: Fran storming up Beachy Head, riding the Lucozade wave

1800: Looking back from Beachy towards Belle Tout

1955: Done it!

https://www.justadrop.org/fundraisers/water-4-all-fundraising-walk-mike-galtry

It’s not been a vintage winter bird-wise, and I’ve managed to miss quite a lot of the decent birds that have been around, but the on-foot birding has mainly been a build up for a walk for charity that will take me further than ever before.  The bird highlights have mainly been local, with a regular Barn Owl, and even up to three birds at once, hunting the fields behind us.

Sparrowhawk

Our local Barn Owl

Jack Snipe, sitting in an open patch for a change

Purple Sandpiper

It’s only taken weeks, but I’ve finally finished my pictures from Antarctica.  There’s a link to them on my OneDrive here: Antarctica 2024.  There’s a lot of them and they’re full size (rather than the smaller ones here) so they might be quite big.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures from our day out in Ceibas on the way home.

White-tipped Plantcutter

White-fronted Woodpecker

Lark-like Brushrunner

Ringed Teal

Spotted Rail

Snail Kite

Giant Wood Rail

Checkered Woodpecker

Marsh Seedeater

Brazilian Guinea Pig

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