Birding Poole Harbour & Beyond: 3 Apr 18 - Atlantic Odyssey - Day Six: South Georgia's St Andrews Bay

3 Apr 2018

3 Apr 18 - Atlantic Odyssey - Day Six: South Georgia's St Andrews Bay - The King

After the good start to the landing at St Andews Bay detailed in the last Post, then there plenty more King Penguins to see & photograph.

The view over the front part of the colony

Brown Skua: Two Brown Skuas patrol over part of the colony

King Penguin: Adults & moulting juveniles

King Penguin: One of the features of Emperor Penguins is they have a pink patch on the lower mandible, rather than an orange patch. Clearly, this isn't a foolproof way to separate the two species as the right hand King Penguin demonstrates

King Penguin: A close up of the right hand individual

One of the great things about the Odyssey was meeting a couple of friends I had met on the trip to Pitcairn & French Polynesia in 2014: who were on the Odyssey as far as Cape Verde. It was great to meet up & spend time with both Richard & Bridget Lowe again as they are a really great couple.

Bridget Lowe: Meeting a new friend

Richard Lowe: You can see why Bridget was looking for a new friend

Gentoo Penguin: This single Gentoo Penguin was looking very lonely compared to his larger friends. It was the only Penguin I saw on the beach that wasn't a King Penguin

South Georgia Pintail: There were distant flight views of a small party of South Georgia Pintail

Chris Mills & a couple of Snowy Sheathbills: Somehow, Chris managed to overlook the Snowy Sheathbills at Salisbury Plain & came in for a lot of micky taking at the Wildwings log on the previous evening. Therefore, he was keen for evidence of having seen some today

Snowy Sheathbill: I saw a few around the edge of the colony

Snowy Sheathbill: There really aren't very pretty when seen close

Snowy Sheathbill

Patricia Creagh & Eileen Patterson make a friend

Doc Laura enjoying some King Penguin photography

Finally, as I've got a number of photos of other passengers, I guess I should add a couple of photos of myself on South Georgia.

Myself with a few King Penguins

Myself with a bemused King Penguin: Thanks to Keith Betton for taking the photo & allowing me to add it to the Blog (The copyright for the photo remains with Keith)

After a great morning it was finally time to head back to the Plancius for lunch & our next location.

Ron Hoff: The morning had all been too much for Ron (another of the Wildwings party). Ron learnt the hard way that if you are going to have a short sleep, it is better to head off to the cabin to avoid embarrassing photos