Kearsney Birder: IN THE WAKE OF HEROES

Wednesday 11 December 2019

IN THE WAKE OF HEROES

Another epic journey undertaken with Sandwich Bird Tours and Oceanwide Expeditions lasted for almost four weeks and visited Argentina,the Falkland Islands,South Georgia,the Antarctic Peninsular and back to Tierra del Fuego across the infamous Drakes Passage.
I will deal with the cruise side of things first and it will be in three episodes as it would be too much for a single story.
Part one will be the leaving of Puerto Madryn the journey across the South Atlantic and our time in the Falklands,so put on your life jackets and take your seat.
We joined the Hondius on Sunday November the 3rd in Puerto Madryn and were shown to our cabin and given a lifeboat drill before setting sail later in the evening as dusk fell.

HONDIUS at Puerto Madryn

The HONDIUS is a Dutch vessel,the Argentinian flag is flying from the pier ..
As we set out from the harbour a small flock of Black Necked Swans flew in from the ocean..

BLACK NECKED SWANS.
We didn`t exactly sail off into the sunset, we sailed away from it,but it was a most spectacular send off.

SUNSET OVER ARGENTINA.
The next morning we were well out to sea..with the first Giant Petrels and Albatrosses,

GIANT PETREL

ROYAL ALBATROSS

GIANT PETREL,the green horn of the bill indicates the Southern species.

BLACK BROWED ALBATROSS

WHITE CHINNED PETREL

WCP

So day one was fairly uneventful and we got our sea legs in friendly sea conditions.

GIANT PETRELS were almost ever present followers of the ship.

CAPE PETRELS joined the voyage on the second day and were also almost constant companions throughout.

SLENDER BILLED PRION.

WHITE RUMPED SANDPIPER hitched a ride to the Falklands.
By morning we had arrived off the Faklands and after breakfast we were loaded onto the zodiacs for our first run ashore.The islands are always windy so they say,this was fact not fiction and it was an interesting ride to CARCASS ISLAND.This is the home of Cobbs Wren one of the rarest birds in the world.

UPLAND GOOSE

HONDIUS with zodiac leaving,our cabin was forward of the loading door just where the blue turns to dark blue.

MAGELLANIC SNIPE -very similar to ours.

BLACK THROATED FINCH

STRIATED CARACARA

STRIATED CARACARA.

FALKLANDS STEAMER DUCK female

FSD male

COBBS WREN

UPLAND GOOSE female.

UPLAND GOOSE f

MAGELLANIC PENGUIN- like puffins they nest in burrows underground.

FALKLANDS BROWN SKUA.

MAGELLANS PENGUIN heading home from the sea,looks like he`s had a near miss with blood showing on his wing.

MAGELLANIC PENGUIN.

-BLACK THROATED FINCH

LONG TAILED MEADOWLARK.

UPLAND GOOSE

STEAMER DUCKS steaming out through the surf.

GENTOO PENGUINS heading out to sea.

KELP GOOSE male

BLACK THROATED FINCH- By now everything was being well and truly sand blasted so we had to leave.

CARCASS ISLAND.

SAND DUNES

CARCASS ISLAND is near the top left of the map.Just below is Westpoint where we were due to land after lunch to visit the Rockhopper penguin colony,unfortunately the wind conditions meant this was impossible.
The following morning we were at Port Stanley where we spent a few hours mooching around the harbour,surprisingly these Turkey Vultures are residents.

TURKEY VULTURE

QUITE A WINGSPAN.

PROTECTOR-Just before I left Dover I bumped into Ray Unsworth an old football team mate,when I told him where I was going he said he had been there in the navy when he was a lad on HMS PROTECTOR and he had helped put that name on the hillside.