The last Blog Post focused on the Black-browed Albatross colony on West Point Island: which contains about two thousand pairs. Additionally, there are around five hundred pairs of Rockhopper Penguins in the colony.
Rockhopper Penguin: This is the nominate chrysocome subspecies which occurs on the Cape Horn Archipelago & the Falklands. There is a second subspecies which occurs on the Kerguelen Islands & New Zealand's Subantarctic Islands
Rockhopper Penguin: Like the Magellanic Penguins and Gentoo Penguins on Carcass Island, they do a lot of sitting around and waiting when they are in the colony, after they have fed their youngsters
Tristan Penguin: The closely related Tristan Penguin is now split from Rockhopper Penguin & it occurs on Gough Island, the Tristan da Cunha Islands, St Paul & Amsterdam islands. This is also called Moseley's Rockhopper Penguin. They are slightly larger than Rockhopper Penguins with a larger and denser yellow crest. Gough Island (10 Apr 18)
Rockhopper Penguin: The raised nests of the Black-browed Albatrosses are perfect to stop the two species getting too close to each other as the Rockhopper Penguins walk through the colony
Rockhopper Penguin: The original Punk
Rockhopper Penguin: Juveniles. A pair will normally have two chicks
I'm a big Penguin fan, so I won't apologise for a few more Rockhopper Penguin photos.
We saw a few Long-tailed Meadowlarks on the walk back to the settlement.
Long-tailed Meadowlark: Adult
Long-tailed Meadowlark: Adult
Long-tailed Meadowlark: Sometimes I managed to take a really nice photograph
All too soon we were back at the settlement & catching the zodiacs back to the Plancius.
The Settlement Beach: Like the historic farms in Tierra del Fuego, the farm buildings are wooden
At least we had a jetty to board the zodiac from
There was still time for some seawatching as we sailed for Port Stanley before dinner.
Southern Giant Petrel: The pale green tip is hard to see. However, it is clearly not the dark dull red tip of a Northern Giant Petrel
Imperial Shag: This is the albiventer subspecies which is endemic to the Falklands. The nominate subspecies occurs on the islands & coasts of South Chile & Argentina
South American Tern: They breed along the coasts & islands of Southern South America & the Falklands
One of the good things about visiting Antarctica in Jan, is there are still over two hours of good birding light after dinner to allow some more Cetacean & seawatching. We were away from the coast by the time we had eaten. There were usually a few hardy souls joining me on deck in the late evenings. We didn't see anything surprising on the Seabird side that evening, but two Sei Whales and another three unidentified Fin or Sei Whales were nice to see.
Sei Whale: The large size and prominent dorsal fin limits the options to either a Fin Whale or a Sei Whale. The shape of the dorsal fin confirms this is a Sei Whale
Sei Whale: The obvious kink in the Dorsal Fin confirms this is a Sei Whale: it would be a gentle constant curve in a Fin Whale
Sei Whale: This photo was taken three minutes later when it resurfaced. A second individual had just blown before going under
I went to bed with the alarm set for an early start to get some seawatching in as we approached our landing in Port Stanley.
