10 Dec 25 - Antarctica 25 - Returning Along The Beagle Channel

It was the last full day at sea on our whistle-stop trip to Antarctica. We awoke to find the seas were moderating as we continued sailing towards the Tierra del Fuego. However, it had been another reasonable crossing of the notorious Drake Passage.

Not surprisingly, the ship's flag was looking a bit battered

I spent most of the day on the bridge as it was the best viewpoint to look for Cetaceans. There were a couple of Snowy Albatrosses and a Grey-headed Albatross among the far commoner Black-browed Albatrosses.

Black-browed Albatross

The clear highlight of the morning was another Western Rockhopper Penguin, which was well out to sea from Tierra del Fuego. Presumably, this was breeding on one of the Southern Chilean islands off the Magallanes Province or Cape Horn Archipelago.

Western Rockhopper Penguin: The only other breeding location is the Falkland Islands, which we didn't have the opportunity to revisit on this trip

Western Rockhopper Penguin

As we got closer to the Tierra del Fuego coastline, we started to encounter the first Chilean Skuas and large numbers of Imperial Shags. However, few were close and while the bridge provided a good viewing location, the glass windows made photography a challenge.

Chilean Skua: This monotypic species breeds along the coasts of South Chile & South Argentina and they range North to the coasts of South Peru & central Brazil outside of the breeding season

As I've got plenty of good Seabird photos from my two previous trips on the Plancius, I was focusing on looking for Cetaceans. Unfortunately, we didn't see any as we sailed towards Tierra del Fuego. A lone South American Sealion was the only Marine Mammal seen, before we reached the start of the Beagle Channel.

Finally, the Chilean coast (on the left) and the Argentinian coast came into view

Finally, we reached the entrance to the Beagle Channel in the afternoon. I was expecting this to be good as I've seen a reasonable selection of Cetaceans in this area. I was not disappointed. There was a Fin Whale with a second Whale blowing next to it, which was presumably a second individual. Also, a single Sei Whale and another unidentified blow. However, it was the Dolphins who put on a real show for us. In total, I saw thirty Dusky Dolphins, five Peale's Dolphins and another ten that were one of these two species. The first pods of Dusky Dolphins weren't close, but that didn't stop them being entertaining.

Dusky Dolphin: It's a pity these Dusky Dolphins weren't close to the ship

Dusky Dolphin

Dusky Dolphin

Dusky Dolphin

Dusky Dolphin: This pod were closer, but weren't they weren't feeling acrobatic

During the afternoon, we said goodbye to the three helicopters as they departed for their home base. I guess, it made more sense for them to depart in the outer Beagle Channel when the ship could manoeuvre to allow them to depart, rather than closer to Ushuaia when we had a pilot onboard.

One of the helicopters departing

The helicopters did a final flypast, before they departed

I had deliberately had a good lunch as I knew I would be skipping dinner, as well as, the Captain's final drinks. As I was in a good area for Cetaceans, I didn't want to miss this opportunity. Finally, we reached the Penguin Island and I was keeping a close look out for the Commerson's Dolphins that I had seen on the boat trip to Penguin Island. Unfortunately, I didn't see them. It was only when I was much closer to Ushuaia before I finally left the bridge.

The Penguin Island beach

The Rock Shag colony on Penguin Island

It's not just the wildlife, but the other fellow travellers on the ship, that makes these trips enjoyable. Thanks to all these passengers and the Expedition staff for being good company.

Nick, the other Birder on the trip and his partner, Caroline, talking to one of the Chinese passengers

Australian Anne, two of my cabin mates Rob and Zac, Janet & Clive

Expedition Leader Pippa

It had been a great trip. While we couldn't get far South into the Weddell Sea, I had seen three of the four Emperor Penguins that we seen. The other key species I was hoping to see were Antarctic Petrels and my first Crabeater Seal, which I had missed on the previous Antarctic trip. The stunning views of the Type B (Large) Orca were unforgettable. Finally, although I didn't land on the Antarctic Peninsula, I was pleased to have been able to land for the first time in the South Shetland Islands.

The Expedition Staff team: Shan, Allan, Saskai, Jess, Sam, Beth, Wei and Gary

We docked in the late evening in Ushuaia and stayed on board for the final evening. There was an early call for breakfast during the follow morning. Soon after breakfast, the ship was cleared for us to depart. I caught the ship's bus to the airport, where I spent the rest of day catching up with emails etc, as I hadn't wanted to be distracted with emails etc while I was at sea. I caught my early evening flight to Ushuaia that evening and arrived in the domestic airport about 22:00. I jumped into the pre-booked taxi which took me to a local uninspiring hotel for the evening. The following morning, I got the hotel to arrange an early morning taxi back to the domestic airport for breakfast, before my mid-morning flight to Trelew for the final leg of the Argentinian trip.

9 Dec 25 - Antarctica 25 - Sailing North In The Drake Passage

It turned out to be a more start to the first full day at sea heading North in the Drake Passage. Pippa's morning wake up call said there were fifty knot winds coming from the North East. Typically, Oceanwide Expeditions expect the winds to be South Westerlies. I spent most of the day looking from inside the shelter of the bridge. The sea conditions were generally OK, with a sea state of five and a three metre swell. However, there were some occasions when we plunged further into a trough and the waves broke over the bows. These occasions were good for photographic images, but they were the exception, rather than the norm. Given the sea conditions, it was disappointing to only see one Whale blow all day.

Every now and then Ortelius would go into a deeper trough: This was typical of the waves on this occasion. They weren't a big problem, but for obvious reasons the bows were closed to everybody

Occasionally, we hit the waves badly and the spray hit the bridge

I saw a reasonable selection of Seabirds during the day. However, I didn't take many photographs from the bridge.

Light-mantled Sooty Albatross: This monotypic species breeds from South Georgia to Macquarie, Antipodes & Campbell Islands

White-chinned Petrel: This monotypic species breeds on South temperate & Subantarctic oceans North of the Antarctic Convergence from the Falkland Islands to New Zealand's outlying islands. They range widely in the Southern Oceans

Aside from Expedition staff meetings, there was generally one or two members of the Expedition staff watching from the bridge: On this occasion, we had four from the team: Saskia, Jess, Beth & Gary

The sea state calmed a bit later in the day, but sadly, this didn't improve the Cetacean sightings.

9 May 26 - Not Everything Wearing A Hoody Is Bad

The visit to St Aldhelms felt like it was already June, despite only being the start of the second week of May. Historically this could be a great date to be out on the Dorset coast. Typically by this date, the bulk of the common Spring migrants have already passed through the Dorset coast, even more so in 2026, given this is clearly an early year. With fewer common Spring migrants expected, it's also a case where everything revolves around bumping into a less common species like a Turtle Dove, Golden Oriole etc. So, visits often feel like boom or bust from a Birding perspective. The initial walk towards the headland felt inauspicious, with many of the Whitethroats not bothering to sing today as they were already well established on their territories.

The Open Barn on a cold Winter's day (6 Feb 21)

After passing the Open Barn, I followed the Barn hedge and carried onto Bonvils on the new National Trust permissive track. It reinforced my feeling that no migrants had arrived and everything was well settled in. Four Swifts were feeding over the Dotterel field, but they were perhaps from the nearby cliff breeding colony, rather than arrivals that morning. I retraced my steps towards Trev's Quarry. The two fields on the West of the track from the Open Barn to Trev's Quarry have been left fallow this Spring. They are well worth a scan for Wheatears and skulking Yellowhammers. They look perfect for a Spring Dotterel or Stone-curlew to be hunkered down in them. But none of those species were present. However, my scan stopped in the Southern end of the field at 09:55, when I saw one of the Corvids was a Hooded Crow: it was clearly a boom day. It was quite happily feeding with the mainly Rooks, with the odd Jackdaw and Carrion Crow in the field, for the next half hour. Frustratingly, it moved even further away into the Southern end of the Buff-breast field, which is next to the coastal footpath. My last distant view of it, was it feeding in the same corner of that field when I left Trev's Quarry at 12:05.

Hooded Crow: Without the proper camera, I had to make do with some poor quality digiscoping using my old IPhone, which doesn't have the best of built in cameras. The phone doesn't leave the case, so even if I was prepared to paid a small fortune for a couple of bits of plastic to fix the phone to the scope, I still couldn't get a bit of plastic that would work while the phone remaining in its protective case

The Hooded Crow was never close. It was about three hundred metres away when I found it and that increased by another one hundred metres when it moved fields. I could have walked around to the coastal footpath, where it would have only been a couple of hundred metres. However, as I didn't have my decent camera I thought about heading out again that afternoon with it. In the end, I decided to defer the return to the following morning with the decent camera. I did return for the next two mornings, but I couldn't relocate it.

Hooded Crow: Note, all the markings look clean cut edges with no black feathers amongst the grey

This is only my second St Aldhelms Hooded Crow, with the previous one being an afternoon/early evening visitor to Peter Williams's garden in Worth Matravers in late June 18.

Hooded Crow: Worth Matravers (27 Jun 18)

Hooded Crows remain at St Aldhelms Patch rarity with only two modern records:

• Worth Matravers (27 Jun 18)

• St Aldhelms (9 May 26).

11 May 26 - Signs Of Spring Part 13 - Some St Aldhelms Butterflies

Keeping with the Signs of Spring theme for Blog Posts this Spring, early May has seen a big arrival of Painted Lady Butterflies. My highest day total was on 3 May when I walked from St Aldhelms to Winspit and then followed the coast path back to the Coastwatch building at St Aldhelms, before returning to the car park via Emmetts Hill. This maximised my time on the coastal footpath and resulted in my seeing fifty-three Painted Lady Butterflies, mainly in what I think is Oil-seed Rape plants growing along the clifftop. My plant identification skills are not great so don't rely on the Oil-seed Rape identification being correct. While I only saw thirty-two Painted Lady Butterflies on 11 May, I covered a much shorter length of the coastal footpath and I think there would have been higher numbers had I walked the same route.

Painted Lady: They were very active and not approachable in the sun. This was the best of the upperwing photos

The Painted Lady Butterflies were very active in the sun and rarely settled for photos, albeit I didn't try very hard to get more photos. About lunchtime, it quickly clouded over as a front arrived and they quickly became a lot more settled, although they were landing and immediately folding their wings.

The cryptic Painted Lady underwing

Dingy Skippers have also just started to fly at St Aldhelms. I saw my first flying there about a week earlier, with two more flying on 11 May, one of which posed for this photo.

Dingy Skipper

11 May 26 - An Unexpected Seawatch Species

Back on the St Aldhelms patch again. The light NE winds at the end of Dorset's Spring migration suggested there might be a few migrants. But the weather was too nice and sunny. If there had been the intermittent showers that are falling as I write this Blog Post, maybe there would have been more migrants than the singles of Blackcap, Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff that I saw.

I ended up at my seawatching rock, the Delphinus Seat, named after it was the first place I saw Short-beaked Common Dolphin on the patch. A thirty minute seawatch failed to produce more than a handful of Gannets, Kittiwakes and Black-headed Gulls drifting by. I was also keeping a good eye above the horizon in the hope of an arriving Raptor. Three in/off Swifts were the only highlight. It was time to looked around the rest of Quarry Ledge, which produced the Butterflies that will be in the next Blog Post, but nothing else.

Tawny Owl: One eye from the regular seawatching spot

The final coastal stop was my original seawatching spot above the Garden, where I spent another even quieter thirty minutes looking at the sea. However, when I seawatch at the Garden, I also check the vegetated ledge, which is a steep drop below the seawatch spot: in the hope of something in the bushes or the lone Sycamore. This ledge was cultivated up to the sixties by Billy Winspit who was the old quarryman, who owned the big house in Winspit Valley. Since his death in the late sixties, it has rewilded itself. I was doing well with Blackbird, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler and Wren in the Garden, when I saw a Tawny Owl fly out from the cliff into the Sycamore. In all my many years of watching this area, it's only the third time I've seen a Tawny Owl here. After a few minutes of scanning, I found where it was sitting in the Sycamore. Finally, I was going to get my first photos of Tawny Owl.

Tawny Owl: A slightly better angle, but still only one eye

Given it's taken me over twelve years to photograph a Tawny Owl and it didn't appear worried about my presence, I was keen to get more than one eye in the photo. I made sure the scope was safety laid down on the steep slope, before slowly and carefully moving down the slope. I know a number of locals wouldn't enjoy visiting the regular seawatching spot, given the slope. This is the first time I had moved to the steeper slope that was closer to the vegetated ledge. A slip here would mean joining the Tawny Owl in the vegetated quarry and probably not being seen again, but I felt happy to get a bit closer as I couldn't see any life insurance reps around. After about eight metres I was in the best position for a photo and finally I could see both eyes.

Tawny Owl: Just to show I wasn't too close, a non-zoomed photo, other than to crop the original to the standard six by five format I use on the Blog

Tawny Owl: A crop from the last photo

It was time to leave the Tawny Owl in peace and hope the local Blackbird didn't spot it and disturb its peace. It was a good thing it hadn't rained, I wouldn't have liked to move on the steep slope if the vegetation was wet.

8 Dec 25 - Antarctica 25 - Half Mooning In The South Shetland islands

I awoke to find we were still crossing the Bransfield Strait, between the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands. The crossing was good for Whales with four Humpback Whales, brief views of a Fin or Sei Whale and three other Whale blows. After breakfast, Livingston Island and Greenwich Island came into view. Our first destination was Half Moon Island, which is a small rocky island located within a sheltered large bay on Livingston Island's East coast. The plan for to visit the modest Chinstrap Penguin colony on Half Moon Island.

Approaching the South Shetland Islands: Livingston Island is to the left and Greenwich Island has the higher hills on the right. These islands lie towards the Western end of this three hundred mile long chain of islands

Greenwich Island: A five mile channel separates Greenwich Island from Livingston Island

Half Moon Island: Half Moon is a crescent-shaped island that is just over a mile from top to bottom, but it is a two mile walk from the ends of each crescent. We landed at the primary landing site in the South East corner of the crescent

The Argentinian Camara Base

The ship soon had the zodiacs in the water

The zodiac after mine landing another ten passengers on Half Moon Island

The South Shetland Islands lie about one hundred miles North of the Antarctic Peninsula: They are still considered as part of Antarctica

Walking up from the primary landing site

An abandoned ship's boat: I've not managed to find confirmation of the age of this boat, but it is generally described as an abandoned whaling-era boat

Practicing the lifeboat launch: It is always reassuring to see the crew practicing a lifeboat launch

It was an easy half mile walk to the tip of the island from the landing site. We were greeting on the beach by the first Chinstrap Penguins and we followed their route to the colony, whilst ensuring we weren't on their main trackway.

Chinstrap Penguin: They had laid on a small scale welcome party

Gentoo Penguin: This individual was late to join the welcome party

Chinstrap Penguin: This individual was heading towards the colony

Chinstrap Penguin

Chinstrap Penguin: They are an elegant Penguin to look at

Chinstrap Penguin: Sometimes they look a bit scruffy when they have been hanging around the colony

Chinstrap Penguin

Chinstrap Penguin

Chinstrap Penguin

Chinstrap Penguin

Gentoo Penguin: There were a few Gentoo Penguins with the Chinstrap Penguins

Chinstrap Penguin: Sometimes it was easier to toboggan on the snow, than to make small hops

Gentoo Penguin

There were low numbers of a few other species around the Chinstrap Penguins.

Snowy Sheathbill: This monotypic species breeds on the Antarctic Peninsula, the South Shetlands, South Orkneys & South Georgia. They winter as far North as coastal South-central Chile & East-central Argentina

Snowy Sheathbill: And then there were two

South Polar Skua: There were a few South Polar Skuas around Half Moon Island, but I didn't manage to get any good photos of them. This monotypic subspecies breeds on the South Shetland & South Orkney Islands and coastal Antarctica

Kelp Gull: With only a few hours of darkness each day, sometimes you just need to get some sleep during the daytime

Kelp Gull: This is the austrinus subspecies which breeds on Antarctica & the surrounding Antarctic islands

There was also a Weddell Seal and a Southern Elephant Seal on the island.

Weddell Seal

Southern Elephant Seal

It was time to return to the ship

Over lunch, Ortelius repositioned for a second landing at the nearby Yankee Harbour on Greenwich Island. This has a modest Gentoo Penguin colony. I decided to give it a miss as I was still recovering from the ship's cough and the tiredness associated with it. I wanted to be on the bridge as we sailed North out of the South Shetland Islands and like the earlier Kelp Gull, sometimes a power nap during the day helps.

There is long, curved spit which protects Yankee Harbour

Our route, day by day, for the trip

Pippa providing a weather update on our route back to Ushuaia: The pink colours on Windy.com is over two metres of swell, whereas the blue is up to two metres. It looked like we might have a reasonable return crossing of the Drake Passage

The sea conditions were looking good once we were at sea North of the South Shetland Islands: Unfortunately, all I saw was a single Whale blow that evening