22 Jan 23 - The Antarctica Trip - Seven Hours At St Andrews Bay, South Georgia

Today was Penguin day in South Georgia with a seven hour landing at St Andrews Bay. For anybody who loves Penguins, and it's hard to imagine wildlife fans who don't, then the chance to visit a King Penguin colony of over one hundred and fifty thousand pairs is a must. I was lucky to have visited this colony on my last visit to South Georgia and it was even better than I remembered.

The first zodiac heads for the beach on another great morning for weather

At the previous evening's briefing we were told the zodiacs will taking us ashore from five and the last zodiacs would be leaving the beach at midday. For those who wanted breakfast, there would be a normal cooked breakfast between eight to nine. But I certainly wasn't going back to the ship for that. So, like many of the passengers, it was some cakes, biscuits and tea for breakfast when I got up at four. It was going to be a morning of pacing ourselves, as toilet breaks aren't allowed ashore. So, it was important not to eat or drink too much, to ensure I didn't need to return the ship for a toilet break.

We landed on the beach to the West of the colony

Soon after I got back from the Antarctica trip, I bumped into a couple while I was volunteering on a Winter Brownsea Visitors Day. They had just got back from Antarctica on another cruise ship. They had booked on the larger cruise shop as they were attracted by the nice cabins and greater comfort on their ship. My first question was how many passengers were there on the ship. It was around the two hundred and fifty passengers. In comparison, I was on a comfortable expedition ship with good food, a lovely crew and cabins that suited my budget and around one hundred passengers. I was attracted to Oceanwide Expeditions as their priority is to maximise the landings and the wildlife experiences.

The beach gave way to this plain of short grass

There is a rule in South Georgia and Antarctica that landings are restricted to one hundred passengers. Therefore, the Plancius was allowed to land all the passengers in one go. Whereas, this couple had landed in groups of one third of the passengers at a time. To allow the passengers to have two hours ashore, took around six to seven hours, which is not enough time to take in a location like St Andrews Bay. In comparison, we had a fantastic seven hour ashore landing, with another destination planned for the afternoon. This was far more important to me, than a more comfortable cabin to sleep in and even more food.

Northern Giant Petrel: Resting in the early morning light

King Penguin: We followed a route across the grass that the Expedition team had marked before reaching this river. There was a gap in the King Penguin bathing area where we could cross

King Penguin: There were plenty of King Penguins trying to distract me from crossing the river

King Penguin: Looking back towards the landing beach

We had to wade this river to get to the King Penguin colony: It's fast flowing with slippery stones underfoot. Care was needed, given I hadn't taken the camera's dry bag ashore. A slip into the water, could be a disaster for the camera

Assistant Expedition Leader Eduardo explaining something to some of the passengers

Along the marked track I found a very photogenic group of King Penguins. I spent some time just watching and photographing them.

King Penguin: This group were very photogenic group of King Penguins and the mountain backdrop helped

King Penguin

King Penguin: You can add your own caption

Caroline enjoying the King Penguins: Caroline spends most of her life guiding tourists around the game parks in Tanzania

King Penguin

King Penguin

King Penguin: There were quite a few groups of three King Penguins. It appeared that they were a couple of males looking to pair up with a female. Every now & then one would slap the other male to encourage him to move on

King Penguin: I was editing these photos whilst playing a Madness concert on the TV. This line of King Penguins reminded me of one of the Nutty Boys trademark walks

Although the King Penguins were the clear stars of the landing, there was plenty of other Wildlife to enjoy.

Brown Skua

Brown Skua

South Georgia Pipit: There were a few around the edges of the King Penguin colony

South Georgia Pipit

South Georgia Pipit: This one became spooked and stood up as far as possible to see what was going on. I had seen another second South Georgia Pipit doing the same behaviour earlier in the morning

South Georgia Pipit: Panic over, it quickly went back to feeding

Antarctic Fur Seal: There were Antarctic Fur Seals scattered around the edge of the King Penguin colony

Antarctic Fur Seal

Antarctic Fur Seal: I think this is my favourite Antarctic Fur Seal

Southern Elephant Seal

Southern Elephant Seal: This individual is starting to moult

Southern Elephant Seal: Sleeping can look quite undignified when you are this large

Eventually, I decided to head on towards the viewpoint overlooking the main colony.

Esther (left) and Annelou have one of the best jobs going as Expedition Staff on the Plancius: The Expedition Staff get a bit of time to enjoy the wildlife. However, they also spend a fair bit of their time looking after passengers, getting them on & off the beach etc

King Penguin: The marked track continued behind this group of King Penguins towards this small hills which provided a perfect viewpoint of the colony and were as far as we could go without disturbing the colony

King Penguin: Overlooking a small part of the main colony

King Penguin: Every time I stopped, a few inquisitive King Penguins appeared

King Penguin: The view of the main colony

King Penguin: The right end side of the colony

A close up of a small part of the King Penguin colony: I enjoy counting the Wildfowl & Waders at Brands Bay, but you have to draw a line at counting at some point

Make sure you have your sound turned up for these videos of the King Penguins colony.

The left hand side of the King Penguin colony

Panning across the King Penguin colony

I've forgotten who took this photo of me looking at the main colony

Elodie, another member of the Expedition Staff, enjoying the view over the King Penguin colony

It was time to start heading back to the beach.

King Penguin: There were plenty of moulting juveniles when I got back to the river crossing

King Penguin: Looking up the river bank while I was crossing the river

Once in the zodiac, we asked if we could hang around off the beach for a few final photos, before heading back to the Plancius.

It had been a fantastic morning ashore at St Andrews Bay: Time to head back to the Plancius for a cuppa tea before lunch

King Penguin

King Penguin

King Penguin: Final photos taken it was time to leave

Panning across the landing beach

This South Georgia Shag was just off the beach as the zodiac prepared to return to the Plancius

Over lunch, we moved onto Godthul, where we had a zodiac trip planned for the afternoon. In the end, I decided to skip the zodiac trip and catch up on lost sleep. I wanted to be on deck in the later afternoon and evening, as we travelled to Cooper Island, for our final day in South Georgia. I was hoping to see some Cetaceans, but unfortunately, none appeared.

20 Jan 23 - The Antarctica Trip - Back To Salisbury Plain, South Georgia

I was excited that our first landing on my return trip to South Georgia was Salisbury Plain. This is a lovely site with about sixty thousand pairs of King Penguins in the colony. Fortunately, the weather turned out to be good for the morning. The weather can change rapidly in South Georgia and strong winds can whip up down the glaciers. So, we never knew for certain if we would be able to land until we reached our destination. It was also dry and sunny, which was nice, as my first visit was in the rain and a thirty mph wind.

It was interesting to see this member of the ship's bridge team using a sextant: In the modern world, the ship will have GPS positioning, but it makes sense that the team are still trained to use the older technology

Coming into Salisbury Plain bay

Antarctic Fur Seal: As we were dropping anchor, the first islanders popped out to check us out

Antarctic Fur Seal: Not everything that porpoises is a Dolphin

Looking left at the Lucus Glacier

Looking right at the Grace Glacier

Fortunately, the weather was looking good and we were quickly invited to queue for a zodiac, once the expedition team were ashore.

The Salisbury Plain beach

I'll be in the next zodiac

Approaching the beach: The sea was busy with Penguins and Seals. But we were approaching slowly into a relatively quiet part of the beach

The Expedition staff were there to direct us in & ensure we disembarked safely: Once the zodiac was held on the beach, passengers were told to swing over the bows end into the water one at a time. Getting off further back along the zodiac would mean going into the water at waist depth

King Penguin: The welcome committee were all smartly dressed

King Penguin: Looking along the beach towards main colony

Antarctic Fur Seal: There were also some Antarctic Fur Seals on the beach to welcome us

Antarctic Fur Seal

Antarctic Fur Seal: One of the bonuses of going later in the season, is the pups are independent of the mother, except for food and are happy to explore the beach. Like young children, they love playing in the water

Having dropped the life jackets off, we were free to explore along a path that the Expedition team had marked out with poles. This minimised the disturbance and also meant that is was easier to keep track of the passengers. There is always a risk on these landings, that a sudden change in the weather might mean we have to depart earlier than planned. So, being able to keep track of everybody is important.

King Penguin: They are gorgeous, incredibly inquisitive and not shy to approach to check us out. We were told not to approach closer than five metres to the Wildlife. But the Penguins and Seals will often come closer, if you stand still

King Penguin: In colder eras, this distant glacier would have continued down to the sea. As the Grace and Lucas glaciers have retreated, it has created a wide plain for the King Penguins and other Wildlife to occupy. As the largest flat area on South Georgia, there were plans to build an airport here. Fortunately, that plan was shelved. Hopefully, it will never be reconsidered now, given the importance of the site to the wildlife

King Penguin: Perhaps this King Penguin was wondering why the photographer just out of this photo had needed to take a tripod ashore to photograph them

King Penguin: This King Penguin is following the advice I was told on my first visit to South Georgia in 2018. It was put the camera down and just take in the scene using your eyes

King Penguin: They share the beach with some much larger Antarctic Fur Seal neighbours

Steve Preddy: Welsh Birder Steve was one of my cabin mates

I'm not sure about this selfie idea

Peter Morris: Notts-based Peter was one of about half a dozen keen Birders on the Plancius

There were a number of other South Georgian species at the site starting with the two endemics: although only one is regarded as a species.

South Georgia Pintail: This is the nominate georgica subspecies, but it remains an endemic subspecies of the widespread South American Yellow-billed Pintail

South Georgia Pintail: It was good to see the next generation

South Georgia Pipit: This is the only endemic on South Georgia and it's the only Passerine on the islands

South Georgia Pipit

There were a few scavenger species on the beach. The Skuas are the obvious scavengers to a European Birder. But both species of the Giant Petrels are also important scavengers which help to keep the colony clean, by feasting on dead Penguins and Seals.

Northern Giant Petrel: This monotypic species breeds on the Islands North of the Antarctic Convergence from South Georgia to Macquarie & the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands

Northern Giant Petrel: Time to stretch its wings: although, it didn't fly

Southern Giant Petrel: Scavenging isn't always a pretty sight, but it's an important job

Brown Skua: The Antarctic Fur Seal is looking healthy, so it's unlikely that the Brown Skua is planning to have a go at it. There will be plenty of other food opportunities in the area

Brown Skua with a few Antarctic Fur Seals

Brown Skua: This is the lonnbergi subspecies which breeds on the Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia & circumpolar Subantarctic Islands, apart from the Falklands where it is replaced by the nominate antarcticus subspecies

Antarctic Fur Seal: For some pups, it was possible to enjoy time with mum

Antarctic Fur Seal: Others just had to wait for mum to return from the sea

Antarctic Fur Seal: Others found an easy way to cope with the waiting

Antarctic Fur Seal: This one was more awake

Antarctic Fur Seal: They have a very pointed head shape

Antarctic Fur Seal: These adults were also happy to have a kip as well in the reasonable weather

Antarctic Fur Seal: Fur Seals and Sea Lions have small external ears. Whereas, Elephant Seals and Seals have internal ears, without any external protruding ears

Salisbury Plain was a whaling base up to the 1960s. Fortunately, the old base has been removed and the bay has been returned to the wildlife. But even with the buildings removed, there are still signs of the whaling period.

This Whale vertebrae provides evidence of a more brutal past for Salisbury Plain

Another discarded Whale vertebrae

Antarctic Fur Seal: Male. During the whaling era, Antarctic Fur Seals in South Georgia were driven almost to extinction by the whalers. Fortunately, their population has recovered with estimates of between four and a half to six million individuals around South Georgia. South Georgia accounts for ninety-five percent of the world population, with smaller numbers found across all of the other main Subantarctic island groups

It had been a great first landing, but finally it was time to head back to the Plancius.

King Penguin: It was time to head back to the Plancius

Lunchtime on the ship: While Steve & I were getting fed, the ship was moving to our afternoon destination, Prince Olav Harbour. Our lovely waitress, Sofia kept the starboard side of the restaurant fed