23 Jan 23 - The Antarctica Trip - Heading South From South Georgia - Day 1

We left the Drygalski Fjord and Cooper Bay area in the South East corner of South Georgia in late afternoon. This provided an opportunity for a few hours of seawatching before and after dinner, while we were still relatively close to South Georgia. I knew that the next two days at sea were going to be well away from any land and in the deep ocean and consequently they would be a lot quieter. So, it was worth being on deck, while we still had the chance of South Georgia influencing the numbers of Seabirds. Unfortunately, no Cetaceans put in an appearance, but there was a selection of Seabirds that we had been seeing in the recent days around South Georgia.

Antarctic Prion: No surprise that Antarctic Prions were the commonest species seen with over eight hundred noted

Antarctic Prion: They continued to be our regular Prion over the next few days down to Elephant Island and as we passed the South Shetland Islands on our return North

White-chinned Petrel: I saw about a hundred after we left South Georgia

Cape Petrel: We checked every Cape Petrel party in the hope of an Antarctic Petrel, but this was a species that I thought had eluded us on the trip. That is until I found I had a photograph of one while I was photographing an iceberg as we sailed South towards Elephant Island. None of us saw it fly past at the time

On a more interesting note, we saw three single Snow Petrels and they were followed by an stunning party of six.

Snow Petrel: I'm never going to get tired of seeing Snow Petrels

Snow Petrel

Snow Petrel

Snow Petrel: How good is this flock of six Snow Petrels

As we headed South, this and the next iceberg passed us as they drifted North

I assume the two icebergs were once connected, given they were within a mile of each other

The final highlight of the day was seeing a number of Diving-petrels. This allowed us the opportunity to try picking out a South Georgia Diving-petrel from what should be the commoner Common Diving-petrels. The breeding population on South Georgia is thought to be about fifty thousand pairs of South Georgia Diving-petrels, compared to the best part of four million Common Diving-petrels. On my first visit to the Drygalski Fjord, I photographed lots of Diving-petrels as me cruised along the Fjord. When I got home, I spent the best part of a day reading all the books I had, as well as, looking for identification articles and photos online. The problem is some of the features overlap and you have to look at a number of features before you can be comfortable with identifying an individual. Once I had got my eye in on the features, then I could tackle the photos that I had taken. To help me remember, I put together a detailed Blog Post of the separation of South Georgia Diving-petrel from Common Diving-petrel, based upon photos I had taken in the Drygalski Fjord. It was good to have this Blog Post to refer on this return trip.

Common Diving-petrel: This Common Diving-petrel has obvious projecting feet, doesn't have a white scapular bar (which some Common Diving-petrels can show), and a chunky bill

Common Diving-petrel: The first individual. It has a long and bulky body, the facial pattern which doesn't stand out strongly and it is more uniform with the sides of the neck

Common Diving-petrel: The first individual. It's important to look at multiple photos to confirm the features and the ten reasonable photos I had of this individual and the blurry rejects all showed the same features

A second Common Diving-petrel.

Common Diving-petrel: The second individual. I only have one worthwhile photo of this individual, however, the protruding feet, the long and bulky body, the facial pattern which doesn't stand out strongly, the more uniform with the sides of the neck and the chunky bill all look good for a Common Diving-petrel

A third Common Diving-petrel.

Common Diving-petrel: Again this individual shows clear projecting feet, a large and bulky body, an indistinct face pattern that merges into the neck and a bulky bill

Common Diving-petrel: This photo shows the projecting feet a bit better

Common Diving-petrel: The large feet are even more obvious as it lowers them

As I was processing the photos of the third Common Diving-petrel, I saw there was a second Diving-petrel flying past in the background. This was a South Georgia Diving-petrel, which stands out very clearly from the Common Diving-petrel. Clearly, I should have focused on the further individual.

South Georgia Diving-petrel: Notice how small, compact, short-tailed, but with no projecting feet, slimmer & short-billed it is compared to the Common Diving-petrels. There is also a white scapular bar, which is more likely to be seen on South Georgia Diving-petrels, but both species can show this feature

South Georgia Diving-petrel: Another view as it turned away from the Plancius

There was a second South Georgia Diving-petrel which flew past the Plancius. These Diving-petrels show the importance of having good camera equipment when looking at Seabirds on these trips. Diving-petrels are no bigger than a small Little Auk and trying to see these subtle features on fast-flying Diving-petrels are sea is very difficult. Yet reasonable photos can provide the evidence that allow these two species to be separated, albeit not ever individual can be identified at sea for certain.

South Georgia Diving-petrel: This individual shows a short tail, but no projecting feet, a slimmer body and a small bill

South Georgia Diving-petrel: The same individual. Note, the short tail, lack of projecting feet, the white scapular bar, the pale crescent on the side of the neck and the small bill

South Georgia Diving-petrel: The same individual. Note, the short tail, lack of projecting feet, the slimmer body, the pale crescent on the side of the neck and the small bill

South Georgia Diving-petrel: The same individual. Note, the short tail, lack of projecting feet, the slimmer body, the pale crescent on the side of the neck and the small bill

South Georgia Diving-petrel: The same individual. Note, the short tail, lack of projecting feet, the white scapular bar, the pale crescent on the side of the neck and the small bill

South Georgia Diving-petrel: The same individual. Note, the short tail, lack of projecting feet, the white scapular bar, the pale crescent on the side of the neck and the small bill

It had been a good ending to the day with the good numbers of Snow Petrels and then both species of Diving-petrels for comparison with each other. We were now firmly in the Drake Passage & had two full days at sea before we reached Elephant Island on the third morning.

23 Jan 23 - The Antarctica Trip - The Icy Fjord, South Georgia

Not for the first time, the weather caused us to have to switch to Plan B in South Georgia. The original plan was for a zodiac cruise around Cooper Bay: but it was too choppy to launch the zodiacs. Plan B for me was a quick breakfast and get back on deck, as we headed for the nearby Drygalski Fjord. This wonderful Fjord is nine miles long and has the Risting Glacier and Jenkins Glacier at the far end. As a consequence of the glaciers, the water is colder and bluer than the surrounding sea. When I visited the area in Apr 18, I saw good numbers of presumably breeding Common Diving-petrels, as well as, a few of the much scarcer South Georgia Diving-petrels. I was surprised that we didn't see them again on this trip, but presumably we were too early for their breeding season.

This is the first of the glaciers in the Drygalski Fjord

The Bogen Glacier is opposite the entrance to Larsen Harbour

The Drygalski Fjord is wide enough and deep enough to allow the Plancius to cruise along its length and turn around at the end

Wilson's Storm-petrel: I saw about forty Wilson's Storm-petrels on the crossing from Cooper Bay and in the Drygalski Fjord

One of the key species I was looking for on my first visit to the Drygalski Fjord at the start of Apr 18 was Snow Petrel. They breed high on the slopes of the Fjord. However, we must have been too late in the breeding season as we failed to find any, despite having about sixty Birders on the Plancius. Fortunately, the return visit was better timed and we saw at least ten. The first wasn't a close view, but we saw several close to the Plancius, as we continued along the Drygalski Fjord.

Snow Petrel: The first one wasn't close, but it was as magical as I had expected, having seen them on various Attenborough documentaries

Snow Petrel: It wasn't long before another Snow Petrel was flying above the Plancius

Snow Petrel: We really needed a blue sky to photograph such a white & translucent species

Snow Petrel: Finally, we found a Snow Petrel sitting on a small iceberg that had dropped off one of the glaciers

Snow Petrel: This is the nivea subspecies which breeds on South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula. The other subspecies, major, breeds on islands in the Ross Sea region

Snow Petrel: Finally, the Plancius was too close to the iceberg and the Snow Petrel took to the wing. I love their translucent wings and large feet

Snow Petrel

Snow Petrel: The only dark parts to their body are they big black eye, bill and feet. Some showed a narrow dark edge to the outer most primary

Snow Petrel: A final flight view of another individual

I was pleased that we saw several Leopard Seals resting on icebergs, as we cruised along the Drygalski Fjord. On my first visit to South Georgia we saw one pop its head up during a zodiac cruise around Cooper Bay. However, I was still uneasy about using the camera on the zodiacs at the time, as I didn't have a waterproof cover for it. Consequently, I had decided to leave the camera on the ship that afternoon. So, while I had seen one, I didn't have any photos of a Leopard Seal. It was good to rectify that photographic omission.

Leopard Seal: The first of several sleeping Leopard Seals

Leopard Seal: As we got closer, I could see it was sleeping with one eye in melted water

Leopard Seal: Finally, it woke up and looked at us, still with one eye in the melted water

Leopard Seal: It was totally unfazed by a large expedition ship relatively close to it, albeit this is a cropped shot and we were much further away than this image suggests

Leopard Seal: Leopard Seals have a broad head, no external ears, two upturned nostrils, a big broad mouth and a characteristic smiley face. They don't look as friendly if they open their mouth to display a large set of sharp teeth

Leopard Seal: Another sleeping individual

Leopard Seal: Again it woke up, looked at us, but wasn't spooked by the ship

Leopard Seal: This individual shows the large side flippers and tail flippers. Males can reach 2.8 to 3.6 metres in length and weigh up to three hundred kilos, with Females being up to ten percent larger

Leopard Seal: Not a sight that a Penguin wants to see, given they are one of the prey items. They also eat Krill, Fish, Squid, Seabirds and young of other species of Seals including Crabeater Seal, Fur Seals and Southern Elephant Seals

Finally, we reached the Risting Glacier at the end of the Drygalski Fjord.

Finally, we reached the Risting Glacier at the end of the Drygalski Fjord

A panoramic view of the Jenkins Glacier (on the left) and the Risting Glacier

A better view of the Jenkins Glacier

I think Expedition Leader Ali and the Captain knew it was unlikely that the sea swell would have diminished at Cooper Bay, so they decided to stop and Larsen Harbour and launch the zodiacs after lunch. The plan was a zodiac cruise into the two and a half mile long side Fjord.

Lowering one of the zodiacs for the afternoon cruise

I decided that I might have a better viewpoint on the Plancius for passing Birds, so I topped up the coffee flask, before quickly returned to the bridge wing. I hoped for some Diving-petrels flying along the Fjord, but I was unsuccessful. Everything I saw were repeats of earlier species.

The first of the returning zodiacs

The zodiacs returned with the news that they had seen five Weddell Seals, but nothing else of note. I wasn't too worried as I had seen my first Weddell Seal in the Drygalski Fjord on my previous visit & fortunately, we had excellent views of more Weddell Seals in the Antarctic Peninsula.

Finally, there was a rush of returning zodiacs

With the zodiacs back on board, we returned to Cooper Bay, but it was still too choppy for the zodiacs to be launched. Expedition Leader Ali and the Captain announced we would start heading South for Elephant Island. The schedule in the brochure was to visit the South Shetland Islands, but that would have meant fighting a Force nine wind and seas. Whereas, we would miss the worst of the weather, if we headed further West for Elephant Island. As always, the exact route in the Southern Oceans is weather dependent and this seemed a wise compromise. It was a pity to miss the South Shetland Islands, however, there weren't any special Birds there. Plus, Elephant Island is the island where Shackleton left his crew and started his boat journey in the James Caird for South Georgia. So, as a big Shackleton and Crean fan, I was happy to see another of the locations they visited. There was still the chance of some seawatching as we left South Georgia. I will cover the late afternoon and evening in the next Blog Post.