Antarctic Expedition. Part 8. Kings and Elephants

One of the species on most peoples most wanted list on visiting Antarctica is King Penguin. We were no exception and we eagerly anticipated our trips to visit the King Pengun colonies at Golden Harbour and St Andrews Bay. Unfortunately bird flu restrictions meant we couldn't land but we were able to cruise along the shore line in the zodiacs. The sight and sound of over 350,000 pairs of King Penguins and their young (over a million birds) was mind blowing and at times I didn't know where to look. After a few shots of thedensely packed rookery I decided to focus more on small groups of birds to show their beautiful plumage colouration to greater effect.

King Penguin appearing to tip toe past sleeping Elephant Seals

There were a lot of young King Penguins of various ages in the colony, with some still in their all brown wooly coats looking like a cross between a sheep and a penguin, whilst others were moulting into their full adult plumage with only traces of brown down. One of our guides, Koen K, managed to find a single Macaroni penguin that had somehow got itself lost and arrived ashore in the King Penguin colony. We'd see plenty of this species later in the trip but it's always nice to see the first one! It looked a bit bewildered and it was quite funny to see it being 'escorted off the premises' between two King Penguins.

Lost Macaroni Penguin. 

As well as the King Penguins St Andrews Bay was home to lots of Elephant Seals. The majority chilling out not doing much except flick cooling sand over their bodies but a few were a bit more active either looking at us inquisitively or having a bit of a territorial disagreement.

Sadly we did see a number of dead penguins and seals, victims of bird-flu, on the beaches and we tried to count as many as possible for reporting to the relevant authorities. A sobering end to another brilliant excursion. As we made our way back to the Plancius I reflected on how lucky we were to be able to get so close to these colonies without having to set foot on land. 

Before our evening meal we had our usual daily briefing as to what we'd done and seen that day along with the plans for the following day. Another superb dinner on board followed by an impromptu crash course in the star constellations of the southern night sky, on a moon lit deck by, Eduardo, our expedition leader.

Antarctic Expedition. Part 7. Arriving at South Georgia

 Leaving the Antarctic continent behind us we started out journey north to visit South Georgia where we were promised even more penguins and the chance to go ashore at Grytviken. We'd already been warned that  other landing sites, Gold Harbour and St Andrews Bay, were off limits due to outbreaks of bird flu and even at Grytviken we were limited to where we could go. Bio-security is taken extremely seriously in Antartica and even more so on South Georgia. We had to ensure our outer clothing and rucksacks were free of all organic material - velcro, pop studs and zips were all checked and tweezers used to remove any small pieces of organic material that was found. We had our kit inspected by the guides and had to sign to say we'd had our kit inspected and it had passed muster. We took the opportunity to do all this on the 2.5 day boat journey from the Antarctic Peninsula to South Georgia. I also took the opportunity to do more seawatching from the bridge deck and continued my onboard regime of getting up around 5 am , skipping breakfast and spending as much time outside. During our journey north we saw many of the same birds we'd seen before but started seeing a lot more Soft -plumaged Petrels.

We also made a detour to see what is currently the largest iceberg in the world. A23A is the size of Luxemburg and calved off the Filchner-Ronne Ice shelf in sector A of the Antarctic (hence its designation A23A - the twenty third iceberg to calve from sector A) in 1986 where it became grounded until it melted enough to start moving north in 2020. An amazing site and because its off the main shipping lanes very few people have seen it. I'll eventually break up and the resultant smaller portions will be known as A23A,B,C etc. Even our captain had his photo taken with it in the background. An amazing site and it even had its own micro environment being surrounded by birds feeding on krill that were feeding on organic matter being released into the water as the ice melted.

The video above does't do justice to the colossal size of this thing. It took us 4 hours at 10 knots to pass one of the shorter sides.

We eventually arrived at South Georgia and tool a  zodiac cruise  to Ocean Harbour where there was a large Fur Seal colony and we spent a couple of hours around these endearing animals.

These fur seals were hunted for their pelts and meat and there was an old sealing station here. Theres also the wreck of the Bayard a 1,200 tonne coal carrying ship, built in 1864, that broke from its moorings in 1911. The crew beached her to save the valuable coal and its now slowly being absorbed back into the environment and is home to a nesting colony of Blue-eyed Shags.

Several pairs  of Antarctic Terns were breeding on the shingle and a newly fledged youngster gave great views from the zodiacs as it waited o na wooden post for a parent bird to return with fish.

As much as I enjoyed this diversion I was itching to get to  what was going to be one of the highlights of the trip that'll be the subject of my next blog post. 

Antarctic Expedition. Part 6. The Antarctic Peninsula and Adelie Penguins

Leaving the South Shetlands we pushed further south towards the Antarctic peninsula. We had hoped to go ashore at Brown Bluff but the wind ad swell conditions made it impossible to use the zodiacs. Instead the expedition team and captain decided to push down into the Weddell Sea and try landing at a more sheltered position further south.

What a stunning journey. Surrounded by icebergs we eased our way down into the Weddell Sea and made preparations to take the zodiacs ashore and step onto the Antarctic continent. The last continent I had yet to visit.

Map showing our route and landing point on the Antarctic Peninsula

zodiac being launched

We took an evening trip ashore on a beautiful flat calm evening wit ha fantastic sunset and surrounded by icebergs and smaller 'growlers'. We were lucky enough to see  Weddell Seals and best of all, another animal I'd hoped to see, a Leopard Seal! This was in the water and although we got good views as it surfaced and eyed the zodiacs curiously I never managed a photo. The Weddell Seals proved to be far more cooperative.

One happy birder on  the Antarctic Peninsula

What an amazing experience and we were treated to a beautiful sunset before heading back to the Plancius and slowly moving overnight to a new location at Kinnes Cove where we'd go ashore to see Adelie Penguins in the morning

Adelie Penguins are getting pushed further south as the Antarctic temperatures rise. They're no longer found in some of their old habitats and their place has been mainly taken over by the ubiquitous  Gentoo Penguins. Adelie and Emperor Penguins have the most southerly distribution of all the penguin species. Adelie's are endearing things with a white iris and a dark pupil giving them a slightly mad  look. Indeed our expedition leader, Eduardo, referred to them a his 'psychotic little friends'.As with all penguin species they nest in loose colonies or rookeries and, as with the other species we'd already seen, their presence is marked by the 'red carpet'. 

Another great experience and in with the Adelies were the usual 'clean-up' squad of Snowy Sheathbills. 

With our time around the Antarctic Peninsula running out we headed back to the Plancius for the start of the long voyage north to our next port of call - South Georgia and the promise of more penguin species and two South Georgia endemics - South Georgia Pipit and South Georgia Pintail.