2 Apr 18 - Atlantic Odyssey - Day Five: South Georgia's Salisbury Plain

An early wake up call for many, but I was already up. We had arrived at the first of our planned landings in South Georgia & had the first proper land to look at from the Plancius since leaving Ushuaia. The ship was making its final approach to Salisbury Plain which had around 25,000 breeding pairs of King Penguins.

Sunrise at South Georgia: The old English expression "red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning" doesn't apply to South Georgia. It was just an indication of the start of an excellent "red letter day" which in Britain is a special treat day

Sunrise at South Georgia: The close up looks more like a sunset than a sunrise

At the daily pre-dinner briefing the previous day, we had been told the landings would be staged with the even cabins (known as the Albatrosses group) going first & the odd cabins (known as Petrels group) to follow. I was in an odd numbered cabin & therefore could have a slightly more leisurely breakfast. However, we would all have the morning ashore with zodiac rides back when we wanted, so the only difference would be the landing order. The landing order was alternated so that Petrels would be first at the next landing.

South Georgia

Salisbury Plain is in the North West of South Georgia: The long beach of Salisbury Plain is on the North coast where the vertical map line crosses the coastline

At first light, the ship made its final approaches to Salisbury Plain through the Bay of Islands. The initial views of South Georgia was stunning. This was the start of a routine we were to get used to when close to land. After an earlier morning call, there was an early breakfast during the final approach, with a couple of zodiacs put in the water to scout out the landing sites. Assuming the sea conditions were OK for us to get in the zodiacs, then up to 9 of the 11 zodiacs were launched. Seven of the Expedition staff & two of the Filipino crew were good zodiac handlers, but some of the Expedition staff took turns ashore to man the landing site. Generally, a few less zodiacs were used for landings, compared to occasions when we were only able to do zodiac cruises. Other members of the ship's crew & the Expedition Doc, Laura, assisted in coordinating the gangway, with the Doc usually one of the last to land with the fairly substantial medical kit.

Making the final approach to Salisbury Plain through the Bay of Islands

Some of the Islands were to our left

One of the many large South Georgia glaciers: As usual there was a stiff wind blowing (today it was a Westerly wind)

Getting closer to Salisbury Plain

Salisbury Plain: Anchored in the bay

It wasn't long after the first of the Albatrosses started getting into the zodiacs, before we were called to head to the zodiac loading deck. One of the advantages of travelling with a relatively small group of around 100 passengers on a well run expedition ship was we could all land fairly quickly.

The locals put out a good welcome committee as the final zodiac lands the last of the Expedition staff: Doc Laura (bobble hat) & Leon (from St Helena) with Hans driving the zodiac

King Penguin: These guys showing they didn't need a zodiac

It was difficult to know what to photograph first when surrounding with some many curious & obliging subjects. But I started with the King Penguins, which must be one of the top ten Birds I've seen. They weren't a Tick, but being so approachable & tame, they are great subjects. The only drawback is they are also very inquisitive & sometimes want to get too close to check you out.

King Penguin: Part of the beach at Salisbury Plain

King Penguin: It was raining by the time I arrived on the beach & the light wasn't great at that point, but fortunately, it picked up later after the rain stopped. The zodiacs had to carefully navigate through the mass of swimming King Penguins

King Penguin: That's where these Giant Penguins came from

King Penguin: Part of the colony carries on up towards the top of the hillside

King Penguin: The right hand King Penguin walked by & ignored the noisy disagreement from the other two

King Penguin

King Penguin: Even when dirty they are stunning & at three foot high they are the second largest Penguin. There are fossil records of a Penguin species that was five foot six inches high: that would have been amazing to see

King Penguin: They are noisy & this one is about to start calling

King Penguin

King Penguin: The main colony was packed

King Penguin

King Penguin

King Penguin

King Penguin

King Penguin: They are hard to keep away from anything left unattended

King Penguin: I'm sure this must be edible

King Penguin: There were large numbers of King Penguins in the water, including this porpoising individual

The beach was relatively quiet in places

The Expedition team had marked out a path along the back of the beach to minimise the our disturbance to the wildlife

This wet pool along the back of the beach stopped people walking off the beach

The King Penguins waiting patiently for the next Southern Rail train to the sea from the edge of the colony

The end of the accessible beach for the passengers

Hong Kong Birder John Holmes: Trying to impress the birds with his big lens

Guess I should have a photo taken

Bob Flood: Is he wondering how to convince Ashley to work on another Seabird book?

There was a selection of other Birds on the beach.

Wilson's Storm-petrel: One of the surprises was seeing a number of Wilson's Storm-petrels flying over the beach & just offshore during the morning. I guess they feel relatively safe from the attention of Brown Skuas & Kelp Gulls given the number of King Penguins chicks on the beach to provide food

Snowy Sheathbill: These unattractive Birds do a good job of scavenging & cleaning up the colony

Brown Skua: This is the Falklands subspecies & is another species that is a good scavenger around the colony

Brown Skua: The Falklands Brown Skua occurs from South Georgia to the Falklands & SE Argentina. Most winter off SE South America

Brown Skua: Unattended young or ill King Penguins don't have a chance with this bill

South Georgia Pipit: Several had flown out to check out the Plancius despite being a few hundred metres offshore. Unfortunately, I missed this first sighting. However, I did see a couple on the beach. Clearance of Rats on South Georgia seems to have resulted in the population of South Georgia Pipits bouncing back on the mainland. Rat & Mice clearance on these isolated Seabird islands is so important

It is very hard to really take in a place like Salisbury Plain. The natural instinct for anybody with a camera is to keep photographing the King Penguins, other Birds, Antarctic Fur Seals & spectacular scenery. However, you do need to remember stop photographing & just look & enjoy the overall wildlife spectacle & scenery in front of you. Anyway, back to photography. One of the first sights on landing on Salisbury Plain, after the King Penguins, are the Antarctic Fur Seal pups. Presumably, the pups are now large enough at this time in the season for the mothers to leave them & go out to sea to look for food. There were a fair number of pups on the beach, all looking for their mothers to return. Some are just resting, but quite a few are inquisitive & slowly waddling around on the beach: all are cute & photogenic. They are more than happy to come & check you out if you stay still.

Antarctic Fur Seal: Pup. Ninety-five percent of all Antarctic Fur Seals breed on South Georgia. However, they also breed in smaller numbers on Bouvet Island, Heard & McDonald Islands, the Kerguelen Islands, the South Shetlands, the South Shetland & South Orkneys Islands. Additionally, they breed on Prince Edward Island, Crozet Island & Macquarie Island which lie North of the cold circumpolar current called the Antarctic Convergence

Antarctic Fur Seal: Pup. This species was decimated in South Georgia by the whalers for their oil in the late 19th & early 20th century & it is thought there may only have been a few hundred left in South Georgia in the 1930s. Fortunately, this is long in the past & their numbers have recovered to an estimated 4.5 - 6.2 million worldwide

Antarctic Fur Seal: Pup. It is thought that part of the reason for the quick recovery of the Antarctic Fur Seal was their main competitor for Krill, the Rorqual Whales, were also decimated by the whaling industry & the population of the large Whales has been a lot slower to recover

Antarctic fur Seal: Most are cute & inquisitive, especially if you stay still

Antarctic Fur Seal: Pup. This one looks a bit more sleepy

Antarctic Fur Seal: Bull. There are still a few bulls left on the beach

Antarctic Fur Seal: The majority of the colony was behind the beach

There was a path marked across the Antarctic Fur Seal colony behind the beach: Which I decided not to take, to allow me to enjoy the King Penguins for longer

Waiting for the next zodiac back to the ship: Getting from the Plancius was straight-forward at first

King Penguins wondering why the Giant Penguins didn't swim in: The splashes are porpoising King Penguins

The last part of the zodiac route in was slow

Loading a zodiac

The Expedition staff could still enjoy themselves when on the beach

The next version of the Dunkirk evacuation story looks to be a low budget film

Zodiac heading back to the Plancius

Having got back to the ship, I grabbed a drink & went back on deck to find the Plancius was being checked out by more King Penguins. An excellent morning & one which the rain couldn't spoil. While we were having lunch, the ship was moving a short distance to our next location for the afternoon: Prion Island one of the islands which forms the Bay of Islands.

King Penguins

1 Apr 18 - Atlantic Odyssey - Day Four: At Sea From Ushuaia To South Georgia - Macaroni On The Menu

After leaving the Shag Rocks we were still Birding keenly, as we were within a day from South Georgia with the hope of a few of the breeding South Georgia species putting in an appearance.

Fishing Boat: I wasn't expecting to see this fishing boat as we left the Shag Rocks given we were inside South Georgia waters, where fishing is tightly controlled

Fishing Boat: Even less expecting to not be able to figure out the boat's name

The highlight of the rest of the day was our first Macaroni Penguins & Light-mantled Sooty Albatrosses of the trip.

Macaroni Penguin: I saw them on two of the three days in South Georgia, but it's always good to see a new Penguin. Penguins can be tricky to see far out to sea & this one was no exception: it quickly dived. I also saw a handful of King Penguins & Gentoo Penguins, but all escaped the camera

Light-mantled Sooty Albatross:

Light-mantled Sooty Albatross: A cracking Albatross

Light-mantled Sooty Albatross: They breed throughout the Subantarctic islands & range as far North as 35 degrees South

Light-mantled Sooty Albatross: The Albatrosses, Petrels & Shearwaters book by Onley & Scofield state that moult isn't well understood for the Sooty Albatrosses, but in line with other species that breed biannually, then they probably moult the inner primaries in one year & the outer primaries in the following year

Northern Giant Petrel: Adult. As they get older they become whiter. The grey cap and white lower face which contrasts with the mottled underparts helps to confirm this as a Northern Giant Petrel

Northern Giant Petrel: Adult. Additionally, the darker bill tip confirms the identification (Southern have a uniform pale greenish bill). I've noticed a number of the Seabirds have drips of water on their bill which is how they remove excess salt

Kerguelen Petrel: Good to see more of these Pterodroma Petrels

Kerguelen Petrel: Upperwing shot

Fairy Prion: At last a decent Prion photo. The well defined M shape on the wings, broad tip to the tail, white underwing & pale grey sides to the breast that gently merge into the rest underparts help to identify this species

Fairy Prion: Not a sharp photo, but it does show the underparts

Common Diving-petrel: Diving-petrels are not easy to identify in this part of the South Atlantic, but I think this one is a Common Diving-petrel. In fresh plumage, South Georgia Diving-petrels have while scapulars & white fringes to the secondary coverts & a contrasting pale upper collar which contrasts with the greyer supercilium. The collar & facial pattern is more uniform on Common Diving-petrel

Common Diving-petrel: All photos are of the same individual. The strong bill & protruding feet also point towards Common Diving-petrel

Common Diving-petrel: This looks to have a dusky grey patch on the upper sides of the breast again pointing towards Common Diving-petrel (whereas South Georgia Diving-petrels have less of a grey patch on the sides of the upper breast). South Georgia Diving-petrels are also expected to show a cleaner white underwing

Wilson's Storm-petrel: The all dark belly & pale crescent wingbar identify this as the world's commonest Storm-petrel

Wilson's Storm-petrel: The white rump extends around the sides of the body to the edge of the vent and the long legs again help to identify this species

South Georgia Shag: It was no surprise to see another South Georgia Shag towards the end of the day

There were a couple of mandatory briefings in the afternoon: the zodiac & biosecurity briefings. The zodiac briefing was fairly quick & focused on getting in & out of the zodiacs safely & only moving quickly in & out of the zodiac when we were told to do so. We were also told to ensure that we had both hands free, but it was surprising the number of people who thought hands free still allowed them to carry a large camera in their hands.

Iceberg: This very large iceberg was my first iceberg. Even at over a couple of miles away it looked very long. The photo doesn't do it justice, but it extended to the right hand side of the photo

Iceberg: Close up of the edge. We would have liked to get closer as sometimes Snow Petrels or other Antarctic Seabirds can hang around these big icebergs, but this wasn't possible this time

Biosecurity is taken very seriously in South Georgia & Antarctic to ensure that anybody going ashore doesn't carelessly take any seeds or other plant material ashore. Fruit & other similar foods were also banned from being taken ashore. So it was good to see a thorough biosecurity briefing. This also included how to behave when ashore & not to get too close to the wildlife or stress it. Afterwards, we were called to the observation lounge in groups so we could vacuum clean any clothing or bags we were planning on taking ashore, to ensure there was no plant material attached to them. All the South Georgia landings were expected to be wet, but as the ship had supplied us with insulated wellies for the landings, that wasn't expected to be a problem. In preparation for the trip, I had bought a dry-bag rucksack from Overboard which was excellent. I could get my 7D Mark II and 100-400mm lens, along with the little SX60 in my 15 litre rucksack: an excellent investment & I was hands free. The South Georgia landings were all landing into shallow water, but there is always the chance of a rogue wave or falling over as you get out of the zodiac. More likely was as the zodiacs were moving then waves were thrown up fairly often. Salt water is a killer of camera as one of the other Birders found out to his cost, when he forgot to shut his bag & later found water had been got into the bag. We were ready for our arrival at South Georgia in the morning & looking forward to getting ashore after four days at sea.

1 Apr 18 - Atlantic Odyssey - Day Four: At Sea From Ushuaia To South Georgia - A Promise Of An Early Morning Shag

Having spoken to one of my mates who was on the Odyssey two years ago, it sounds like there were many more serious Birders on our trip. I booked the trip through Wildwings who this year provided an excellent & proactive leader, Phil Hansbro, for the 24 Birders & 4 other punters who had booked through Wildwings. The Wildwings party was close to 30% of the passengers. There were several smaller groups of Dutch Birders with their own leaders & Phil also seemed to be talking to these guys. One of the proactive things Phil was doing was having regular discussions with the Expedition Leader, Seba, about how to maximise the Birding potential of the Odyssey. This was helped by the Expedition team also having a stronger wildlife background this year (compared to two years ago) & also wanting to see as much as possible on what sounds like will be the last Odyssey.

Phil Hansbro: A great leader who spent time checking everybody in the Wildwings party was happy, lobbied for improvements to the trip where realistic, fed back results & explanations to us where necessary, helped organised the trips ashore, ran a good log in the evening, knew his Birds, was on deck a lot helping everybody get onto the Birds & happy to enjoy a social time in the evening after all other tasks had been taken care off. One of the many characters on the Odyssey who helped to make it such a good trip. Thanks mate (St Helena on 18 Apr 18)

One of the first successes Phil & the Expedition team had was getting a route & speed change agreed with the ship's skipper so that we would be at the Shag Rocks at dawn. These are a group of isolated rocks which are 150 miles West of South Georgia. Normally, the Odyssey tends to miss the Shag Rocks as the ship passes them in the dark or significant fog on this stretch of the route causes visibility problems which hasn't warranted the diversion.

Shag Rocks: First light over the Shag Rocks

Shag Rocks: What I had initially taken to be a lighthouse (at a distance) was a rock stack

As the name suggests, the Shag Rocks are a breeding ground for the endemic South Georgia Shag which is restricted to South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands & South Orkney Islands. We saw South Georgia Shags daily around South Georgia so other Odyssey trips have not missed out on seeing them by sailing past the Shag Rocks. However, the chance to visit this large breeding colony was eagerly anticipated, even if it meant a pre-dawn alarm call. We knew we would only get an hour or so around the rocks before we had to continue towards South Georgia, so worth getting up early.

Shag Rocks

Shag Rocks

Shag Rocks

South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands are one of the 14 British Overseas Territories. The South Orkney islands have been claimed by both the UK (in 1908) & Argentina (1925), but as the islands lie only 375 miles off the Antarctic coastline, they are covered by the Antarctic Treaty which puts all territorial claims on hold.

Shag Rocks: The rocks were covered by breeding South Georgia Shags. It doesn't look like there is much free spaces

As it started to get light, the first South Georgia Shags starting flying off the rocks to get a close look at the Plancius.

South Georgia Shag: One of the first curious visitors to the Plancius

South Georgia Shag: There were often several flying around the ship to check us out

South Georgia Shag: Another close pass

South Georgia Shag: Some authorities have lumped South Georgia Shag in with Imperial Shag of the South American mainland

South Georgia Shag: All the Shags I photographed are immatures. Adults should have blue eyes & a yellow wattle just above the bill

South Georgia Shag

South Georgia Shag

South Georgia Shag: Some just wouldn't keep their distance

South Georgia Shag: Most of the close individuals were over our heads, so good to see this one over the water

South Georgia Shag: Finally, one on the water as we were leaving

The Seabird activity continued as we sailed away, until we got lured into breakfast. This morning's visit had been an excellent bonus for us.

Shag Rocks: Unfortunately, the Shag Rocks are disappearing into the distance as the light improves