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.

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.

20 Jan 23 - The Antarctica Trip - The Prince's Harbour, South Georgia

After an excellent first morning at Salisbury Plain in South Georgia, we headed onto a new location for me: Prince Olav Harbour. As soon as I finished lunch, I was back on the bridge wings to see what was around.

Antarctic Prion: The photos were better than on the crossing from The Falklands

Antarctic Prion: They are the commonest Prion breeding on South Georgia with an estimated population of twenty-two million pairs out of a world population of around twenty-five million pairs

Antarctic Prion: The Prions all look very similar and the bill size and shape are important features for Prions seen well away from their breeding colonies

White-chinned Petrel

Prince Olav Harbour is a small harbour in the south west portion of Cook Bay about ten miles East of Salisbury Plain as the Skua flies. It is the site of one of the seven main whaling bases that were established on South Georgia.

Heading into Prince Olav Harbour: The low cloud turned into rain for most of our visit

This Antarctic Fur Seal came out to greet us

The plan was for a zodiac trip around Prince Olav Harbour. There is a very dense breeding population of Southern Elephant Seals in the bay and this makes landings difficult during the main Antarctic season. Looking at the debris around whaling station, it's also probably unsafe to allow visitors to explore it.

We were soon in the zodiacs and heading out in convoy around the bay

The bay was calm and so it was fairly safe to use cameras in the zodiacs without the risk of salty waves damaging them

The weather wasn't great & we were all wrapped well in our zodiac

Some of the Southern Elephant Seal in the area

As well as the big heavy head, the lack of any ears indicates this is a Southern Elephant Seal

Wilson's Storm-petrel: They are comfortable flying close inshore and over the land during the day, as the Gulls and Skuas don't seem to bother them. This is a real contrast to Storm-petrels in the UK, where sadly many end up as food for these species

Wilson's Storm-petrel: This is the nominate oceanicus subspecies which breeds on Subantarctic islands from Cape Horn to the Kerguelen Islands

Prince Olav Harbour was a Norwegian whaling station which dates from a 1911 floating factory ship, with the shore station being set up in 1916. The whaling site was finally closed and abandoned in 1931. Unlike Salisbury Plain, the site hasn't been cleaned up and the remains of the whaling buildings litter the bay. Not only did the whaling companies go to South Georgia and the South Atlantic to kill Whales and Seals, they abandoned the sites when it was no longer financially viable, without bothering to remove their debris. Interestingly, the Norwegian company that originally leased the whaling site, sold it onto Unilever before the whaling was abandoned. So, it would be good if Unilever paid for the clean-up efforts. The South Georgia Heritage Trust is now responsible for surveying the abandoned whaling stations which are still polluted with asbestos, oil and other major contaminates, as well as, rusting and decaying buildings and ships. They are appealing for funds to help with this work, so clearly Unilever isn't contributing as much as they could. But it is good to see some of the new tour ship companies visiting South Georgia, like Hurtigruten are also helping to fund this work.

The Brutus was deliberately beached to serve as a coaling station for the base

A closer view of the Brutus

More of the whaling station: The zodiacs are advised to keep well clear of the whaling station, in case there are hidden underwater obstacles

A whale oil tank and jetty

The old buildings don't look particularly safe

These propellers can't have been cheap to leave in South Georgia

Dutch Birder Siegfried: Siegfried was head of the WWF for the Netherlands in his earlier days. You meet some people with interesting backgrounds on these expedition trips

The zodiac convoy continued to explore the bay

There was a reasonable selection of Birds in Prince Olav Harbour, but not in the great numbers we had seen at Salisbury Plain.

King Penguins and Antarctic Fur Seals: There were small parties of King Penguins around the bay

King Penguin

Northern Giant Petrel

South Georgia Shag and Antarctic Fur Seals: They are small compared to our Shags

South Georgia Shag: This monotypic species occurs on South Georgia, the South Sandwich & South Orkney islands. Just about every isolated Subantarctic Island group in the Southern Oceans seem to have their own endemic Shag

South Georgia Shag: taking advantage of the derelict jetty

South Georgia Shag: It looks a good place for a nest, now that Rats have been exterminated from South Georgia

Snowy Sheathbill: The bizarre-looking Sheathbill family are another of the scavengers in the Southern Oceans around the Penguin & Seal colonies

Snowy Sheathbill: This monotypic species breeds in South Argentina, South Chile, the Falklands, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula

Brown Skua

Antarctic Tern: This is the georgiae subspecies which breeds on South Georgia, the South Sandwich & South Orkney Islands. This individual was proving Antarctic Terns would have no problem with the weather, if one turned up in a UK summer

Tour over and the first zodiac is reloaded onto the Plancius

It had been a long & enjoyable first day and we still had three more days left in South Georgian waters.