Antarctica IX.

1-26-17 NEW ISLAND, FALKLANDS: We’re in the Falkland Islands. There are two big, main islands and dozens of small ones. We spent the morning on New Island. The birds included—shags, albatross, rock-hopper penguins, geese, caracara, turkey vultures, a tyrant, skua, gulls, and a brazen, in-your-face tussacbird.

The vegetation consisted of grasses, some of the grass in big tufts called tussac grass that made nice chairs, scruffy juniper-like shrubs, but no trees except for planted ones near the tiny village. There are lots of rabbits, non-native, obviously, and their burrows. Dolphins and whales made a number of cameo appearances.

It was warm, sunny and breezy, a pleasant change from the weather further south. The islands bedrock is sandstone. The sandstone was deposited underwater and later uplifted above sea level at some point. After which erosion of the sandstone supplied the sand for the beaches.

The hike was across the island’s narrow neck to paired rocky ravines/rookeries with mixed colonies of shags, albatrosses and penguins. It was fun watching the different flight patterns of the albatrosses and shags. After lunch, we motored off to Carcass Island.


New Island with a sandstone cliff turning into beach.

Magellanic oystercatcher.

Ruddy-headed goose is almost identical with the Upland goose.

Dark-faced ground tyrant.

Enjoys the grassland and has many burrows.

Sooty albatross?

Rookery with rocks and tussac grass. It's mostly shags, but can find albatross and penguins in there.

The river-cut ravine is great for rookeries.

Black-browed albatross and chick.

Black-browed albatross and chick again.

Rock-hopper penguin, our fifth species. red eye, red bill yellow eyebrow and ear feathers.

Dolphin gull.

Striated caracara.

Turkey vultures.

Falkland imperial shags are different from Antarctic, South American and South Georgia shags.

Tussacbird, makes friends easily.

Beach day.

Antarctica VIII.

1-23-17 CAPE LOOKOUT, ELEPHANT ISLAND: We motored north overnight to Elephant Island, 150 miles from the peninsula, and after lunch we did a zodiac cruise. There was a moderate swell making for a bouncy ride, plus dense fog, mist, drizzle made the visibility poor. Half way to the island the ship disappeared in the fog.

This part of the island is composed of black rock, very steep cliffs and crags, surrounded by rocky islets, well polished by the surf. This spot is the southern tip of Elephant Island.

There are penguins everywhere, mostly chinstraps, but a few Macaroni’s. We saw fur seals and elephant seals. The fog, swells, drizzle and ocean spray made it tough to take pix as everything was wet and rolling.


Lookout Point, Elephant Island, inhospitable looking in the fog, wind and waves. Zodiac landing out of the question.

It looks like another volcanic island. The cliffs are eroding. All those white dots are penguins.

Penguins pretty much everywhere.

Penguins.

Fur seal in middle, elephant seal behind.

Fur seals and elephant seals.

Fur seal male.

Two more macaroni penguins hanging out with the chinstraps.

1-23-17 POINT WILD, ELEPHANT ISLAND: The plan was to zodiac cruise Point Wild after dinner. Shackleton landed there after escaping from his ice prison in Antarctica, and after the Endurance was crushed by ice in the Weddell Sea. Frank Wild was Shackleton’s second-in-command, and the spot is named for him.

Shackleton sailed from this spot in an open boat to South Georgia Island, 800 miles to the east, with a few of the men. The rest of his men, under Wild’s leadership, were rescued from this spot later by Captain Luis Pardo, a Chilean from Punta Arenas. A bust of Captain Pardo stands there now. It looks like the only landing spot for miles around. There was too much swell to launch zodiacs, so we only saw it from the ship.


Point Wild is that gap in the black cliffs. It looks like the only place to land on this part of the north coast of Elephant Island.

That vertical thing at Point Wild is a bust of Captain Pardo.

1-24-17 DRAKE PASSAGE: We’re motoring north across the Drake Passage in mild to moderate seas with the swells moving from west to east. The wind is from the south so it’s comfortable on deck with little apparent wind. The temps are in the thirties. The sun occasionally breaks through the overcast sky. Petrels, prions, albatrosses, appear briefly but rarely close enough to the ship to get a picture.

1-25-17 DRAKE PASSAGE: We’re still headed for the Falklands, about 500 miles from Elephant Island. There have been lectures and lots of marine life. We just saw a pilot whale and earlier saw hour-glass dolphins. There were penguins and seals at sea and a variety of petrels, prions, shags, shearwaters and albatross. This afternoon the clouds cleared and we had lots of blue sky and a nice sunset.


Black-browed Albatross.

Black-browed Albatross.

Southern Great Petrel.

Wandering Albatross or Southern Royal Albatross?

Drake Passage Sunset.

Antarctica VII.

1-22-17 GOURDIN ISLAND, ANTARCTICA: Our first hike was on another volcanic island to see a gigantic rookery for Adelie penguins, a new breed for us. They were everywhere, on little islets off the beach, on the beach and extending upwards to the top of the ridge. I counted babies and adults in one small section—there were more babies. Some of them are almost grown and some quite small. There were the usual predators—gulls, skua, and sheathbill. We saw one penguin chick eaten by skuas.

One adult penguin on the beach was busy building a rocky nest. He/she picked up walnut sized rocks with its beak and carried them to its pile/nest. It seemed to me to be late in the season to be starting a nest, I wondered if its chick had been killed. We saw one chinstrap and one Gentoo penguin.

I have the cold now, so both of us are ailing. After the morning visit to the rookery, there were cruises of the ice—I passed and went back to bed. The ice that we’re seeing now was blown in on easterlies from the Weddell Sea. It’s called tabular ice because many of the bergs are rectangular with flat tops, and some are bigger than the ship.

The afternoon excursion to Brown Bluff was cancelled because of the intrusion of the ice pack. Watching the smaller pieces of ice go by we saw lots of penguins and seals. The plan now is to head north to Elephant Island for tomorrow’s adventures.


Gourdin Island is off the northern end of the Antarctic peninsula as we head north. We landed where you see the 'red' penguins. If you look closely, the whole island is covered with penguins.

Adelie penguin, our fourth species, the macaroni penguin was the third species. The Adelie has a black head, stubby beak, and blue eye.

The Vavilov is dwarfed by the ice. These 'tabular' bergs, because they look like tables.

Adelie penguin steppin' out. the red stuff is trampled kelp.

Adelies.

Adelies, more chicks than adults in this image.

Cruising the ice.

Southern Fulmar coasts by.

Antarctic VI.

1-21-17 DECEPTION ISLAND, ANTARCTICA: The ship was rolling and pitching all night and continued through breakfast. Judy has a cold and stayed in her bunk. Waves were five feet of more, the wind was up to forty knots from the northeast, it was cold and the air was full of snow and fog. When I was out outside, bits of ice were blowing off the superstructure and landing on the deck. We were occasionally escorted by chinstrap penguins and petrels, who both seemed to enjoy things just as they were.

Deception Island is a ring-shaped caldera with a narrow opening on the east side. Like Santorini in the Mediterranean, Deception Island is a massive blown out volcano, and it’s still active with smaller eruptions, most recently in 1969. We motored in and the sea conditions improved a little, but the wind was still very strong.

The plan was to land, hike and explore, but the weather and waves were so bad the zodiacs could not be safely launched, so we exited and headed for Half Moon Island, about 5 hours north in the McFarlane Strait.


The nautical chart showing Deception Island on the lower left and Halfmoon on the upper right, sheltered in a bay on the east of Livingston Island.

Inside Deception I. the waves flattened out, but the wind and snow continued.

The wind had the ship heeled to starboard, the decks were wet and icy.

Penguins can fly. Undaunted by the storm and miles from any rookery, this one comes up for a breath of air.

Cape Petrel also unimpressed by the storm.

Leaving Deception I. That's Neptune's bellows ahead, a narrow gap in the ring of the island with a sub-marine rock in the middle that has caused shipwrecks.

Deception I. land hills outlined by snow.

1-21-17 HALF MOON ISLAND: The storm blew itself out. We had a late hike on this small, half of an inactive basalt caldera. There were chinstrap penguins with one Macaroni penguin interloper, who has been there a long time, long enough for the naturalists to have named him Kenneth. Kenneth was busy grooming himself, with his distinctive head plumage bent too low to be seen, except that about every ten minutes he held up his head for three seconds.

The hike was from the beach, over a low ridge to the other beach. In addition to the penguins, there were kelp gulls, imperial shags, snowy sheathbills, Antarctic terns, and a whaleboat wreck. Those of the passengers who wanted a chance to go swimming in the ocean got it here. None of us got wet. There was no wind, no snow, lots of fog, but it wasn’t very cold.


Half Moon Island. If you look closely all those hairs on the ridge and all those white dots are penguins.

Chinstrap penguin huddled with chick.

The Vavilov in the fog at Half Moon I. The red stuff is kelp.

Whale boat wreck and penguins.

The other beach on Half Moon I. Livingston Island in the distance, penguins in the water.

Kelp Gull.

Immature kelp gulls.

Kenneth the Macaroni penguin in the middle of a Chinstrap rookery. Yellow eyebrows and a prominent beak with orange trim. The name comes from the Eighteenth Century when 'macaroni' was a term used to indicate excessive ornamentation. Think of 'Yankee Doodle Dandy with the feather in his cap...'

Less ostentatious is the Snowy Sheathbill.

Antarctic Tern, I presume.