More Port Lockroy Images...ANTARCTICA (12 March)

Even though bird diversity is low in the true Antarctic, there is always something going on, and it is fascinating to watch the behavior of the local birds, and of course absorb the amazing scenes all around.

Above is a pair of fluffy Gentoo Penguins with our Russian cruise ship in the background in the calm bay beside the British islet of Port Lockroy.

Above is a Gentoo Penguin resting on a massive whale bone, evidence of the numerous whaling boats that trawled these Antarctic waters in the last century....

Here is a shot of a Brown Skua ("Subantarctic" as it is sometimes known) displaying with our very comfortable cruise ship in the background.

More (Gross) Images of Port Lockroy...ANTARCTICA (12 March)

Here are some shots of the British post office in Port Lockroy just off the Peninsula, where I posted some postcards safe in the knowledge they would arrive just before Christmas! (we had just missed the last mail boat of the season). And with its attendant Snowy Sheathbills.


These mischievous birds scavenge or even kill anything they can. Athough with the main animal around Lockroy being Gentoo Penguins, the penguins are frequent prey for both skuas and sheathbills.


While I was there a sheathbill found a Gentoo nest with a dead chick inside (that it turned out was one of two killed by a Brown (Subantarctic) Skua that very morning. The skua had carried off with one of the chicks and left the other in the nest. So that was where the sheathbill stepped in, only problem was it had to get the chick away from an agitated parent Gentoo. Not sure of what exactly the penguin was thinking although I cannot help but think it had not really realized the chick was already dead.


All the same the sheathbill circled the nest trying a few exploratory pokes at the chick, only to initially be chased away by the angry Gentoo. However, the sheathbill is a master of persistence and pretty soon the Gentoo was dizzy and the sheathbill moved in and dragged the chick a few inches out of the nest, at which point the Gentoo seemed to have no idea it was even still there (even though it right under its nose!)


I also caught a lovely cute sheathbill later feeding on some form of faeces or regurgitated food. Not quite sure what it was but it was suitably gross for the sheathbill to gorge itself completely!

Port Lockroy...ANTARCTICA (12 March)

Next stop was to be the tiny “British” island of Port Lockroy, the location of a bizarre post office just off the Antarctic Peninsula! We awoke to a very different scene from the day before. Gone were the grey skies and gently falling snow, swapped for azure blue clear skies and bright sunshine. Our ship, named after a Russian poet that committed suicide after political strife among her family, looked just fantastic in this idyllic scene with a Brown Skua in the foreground. Most unexpected, that made for a truly beautiful scene. We walked among Gentoo Penguins, photographed Antarctic Shags calling excitedly, and examined old whale bones which betrayed the destructive whaling activities of a bygone era…

Next up the most disgusting bird on the Peninsula…

More Seals in the snow...ANTARCTICA (11 March)

While the Leopard Seal stole the show that afternoon, there was never a dull moment. One way there were our first young Southern Elephant Seals of the tour, squaring up to each other and may well the "beachmasters" of the future, then a dappled seal along the shore proved to be a specialist of this pack ice region, a delightful Weddell Seal. On top of all of this dainty Wilson's Storm-Petrels picked bits of penguin from the surface of the waters once the Leopard Seal had finished with it!

It was a truly dramatic opening day in Antarctica, with snow falling lightly around us, walking among Gentoo Penguins, and we even managed to find a few lingering Adelie Penguins that were hanging on in the colony longer than expected as they usually move off before this time of year. More of all of this to come...

The Cruel Seals of Antarctica..ANTARCTICA (11 March)

WARNING: anyone who thinks penguins are cute and adorable (which they are of course), may want to look away now! Our afternoon foray around the icebergs of the Peninsula saw us run into two notable seal sightings. The radio informed us a Leopard Seal had got lucky, and was playing with a Gentoo Penguin. A short ride later we were right alongside for front row seats as the Leopard Seal tossed the penguin in the air to break it down into edible chunks. We watched transfixed by this gruesome, though gripping show, that was only haulted briefly when the seal seemed to take offense at a passing Kayaker and made a brief lunge for the kayak, much to the amusement of the rest of us!

More seals were to come, although more gentile than this menacing Leopard Seal...

Happy Gentoo...ANTARCTICA (11 March)

ANTARCTICA AT LAST! We finally awoke in sight of the ice continent, with snow gently falling around us, and massive snow-cloaked mountains towering either side of the Lemeire Channel framing a wonderful scene. Pretty soon everyone was out on deck taking in this awe-inspiring scene, where icebergs littered the oceanic channel, many hosting Crabeater Seals resting on them, while Antarctic Minke Whales regularly broke the surface of the waters around the boat. Then it was time to step onto the ice for the first time, where the first official bird of the continent was one of hundreds of Gentoo Penguins. This one looked truly happy and in its element resting on its belly on the ice (TOP), while another lifted its head to catch the snowflakes drifting down from the heavens (BOTTOM)...

More to come from this magical first day in Antarctica...

Cooler waters...DRAKE PASSAGE (10 March)

Before we crossed the convergence into cooler Antarctic waters we saw a notable shift in the birds turning up around the boat. One of our regular "friends" out there was the Pintado (Cape) Petrel which started to come around the boat in numbers (TOP), and of course were always welcome! The albatross scenario changed too, with Gray-headed Albatrosses completely absent on our first day on the warmer northern waters off the tip of South America, but now out in cooler waters they too cropped up regularly (BOTTOM)...

Next stop..ANTARCTICA