The South Shetland Islands continue to amaze me. The islands are typically a little warmer than the Peninsula and as a result the wildlife is more abundant. On the morning of the 9th we landed on rarely visited Robert Island. The beach was littered with Elephant Seals and Fur Seals, including a rare leukistic fur seal. The blonde colour is a result of an absence of melanin. A lone Weddell Seal pup lay asleep amongst the rocks on the shoreline and neatly rounded out our seal sightings for the voyage.
While unloading one of the zodiacs a huge Elephant bull raised its enormous head just a few feet away and moments later hauled itself out of the water onto the beach. Waves of blubber resonated up and down its huge body. The large males can weigh over 3 tonnes. It’s quite an effort for them to haul themselves up the beach and quite a funny sight so long as you’re not in its path.
The island was alive with birds. Gentoos, Chinstraps, Antarctic Terns, Skuas, Kelp Gulls and Giant Petrels all nest on jagged hilltops and rocky outcrops. The shore was also littered with myriad seal, whale and penguin bones, wonderful for black and white photography.
After lunch we relocated to Barrientos Island the home of the extraordinarily curious Gentoo Penguins that we visited on our last voyage. This time we made our approach enveloped in fog. When we dropped anchor we could not see the shoreline. It was wonderful to approach the beach in dense fog. Initially the first thing you see is the outline of the island then a little closer it becomes apparent that there are thousands of penguins dotted all over the island, from the beachfront to the hilltops. On the final approach there is inevitably a group of curious penguins there to greet us.
I found a nice rock to sit on to watch the comings and goings in the colony. I was soon surrounded and my trousers, drybag, jacket and even fingers were consistently nipped. I stayed perfectly still so as not to startle them. It really is a privilege to visit these places and sit and admire these engaging hardy creatures.
The Gentoo chicks are now almost the same size as their parents. Most Gentoos have two chicks which makes for double trouble at feeding time. The parents come back with stomachs full of krill and the chicks chase and harangue them as soon as they get wind that a meal is in the offing. It’s a comical scene seeing an adult Gentoo running full speed any which way from its too fully grown chicks. The penguins often trip and stumble, right themselves and continue the chase. The feeding process itself is also amusing. The chicks stroke the underside of their parents bills to commence the processand the parents stomach starts to heave before it regurgitates its catch. Its also quite amusing watching penguins expel their meal. Their stomachs will contract a little, they will raise their brush tail and violently expel a stream of white and pink residue at least three or four feet away. This is obviously a mechanism to ensure they do not foul their own nests.
We are now back in the Drake Passage. The wind charts indicate that the wind speed will reach 40knots later this evening. For some folks this is bad news but for the bird lovers its terrific as the pelagic birds love the wind to carry them far and wide. We’ve already seen four species of albatross this morning and a total of nine species of birds today.
David Sinclair
