This afternoon we did a zodiac ride to a tiny speck of an island (Prion, but nothing to do with Jacob-Creutzfelt disease) that has a colony of giant wandering albatrosses (wing span 250 cm!!). The colony was not very dense and you had to stay on a boardwalk to not disturb the nests but it was still ok. We had to ride under a driving hail and that was not so fun. Riding the zodiac is hard on the back! Each wave causes a shock that is not buffered but anything and I can feel my spine slowly compressing.
Prion island
​​​​​​​Colony of nesting Imperial Shags
They also build up nest of mud like the albatross
Not much real-estate !
The kelp at low tide
Big crashing waves
Fur seal hidden in the kelp
The white dots are hail !
South Georgia pintail duck (looks like a common duck to me !)
The South Georgia pipit is a sparrow-sized bird only found on the South Georgia and it is the only song bird in Antarctica, and one of the few non-seabirds of the region.
"And you spend all that money to go take picture of a brown sparrow ?"
View from the hill
Albatross nesting (you cannot get closer then 10 m by regulation)
Half asleep on her nest
The nasal tubes allow the albatrosses to measure the exact airspeed in flight; the nostrils are analogous to the Pitot tubes in modern aircraft (Wiki), and they have excellent sense of smell (not a common bird trait)
Albatrosses barely move their wings they use Dynamic soaring and move gracefully up and down to collect the wind gradient
Petrel in flight

You may also like

Back to Top