Welcome to Bird Island!
What better way to start the day than with a selfie on Bird Island, South Georgia.
Neither rain, nor fog, nor smooth seas stopped the crew from having a bit of a shore party today. All of the scientists and the students went to install a GPS station, and "us extra bits" were able to go ashore and have a tour of a gentoo penguin colony and a wandering albatross nesting site. Pure magic!
So close to such a majestic bird, the wandering albatross.
With calm seas and an amazing crew, multiple zodiac trips were able to land on Bird Island. First, the science party headed off and hiked 1000 vertical feet carrying all the gear to set up GPS station number two. In the mean time, there were a few of us with no designated duties who were allowed to also go ashore.
Greetings from Bird Island of South Georgia, lovely day for a hike.
Welcomed by two of the four station personnel, Jess and Cian, we entered the realm of research. Having lived on the island already for a year, and with months left on their tour, what wonderfully gracious hosts. Cian monitors Antarctic fur seals and leopard seals, and Jess is an evolutionary ecologist, and just one of her jobs is to study the albatross. If you are interested in following along with their science, Cian has a blog:
http://cianluckthesealofapproval.blogspot.ie
Jess then volunteered to take us on a tour of a gentoo penguin breeding colony, and for those interested in hiking, up to an albatross nesting site. Wow!
The Bird Island gentoo penguin colony.
A day of firsts, penguins in the field, penguins building nests making wonderful penguin sounds, penguins posing for pictures.
Jess asked if anyone wanted to hike to the albatross nesting area and three of us jumped in, full of excitement and enthusiasm: me, Nina, and Lexie. We set out on our hike up a stream bed, with tussocks of poa grass covering the hill sides. I wasn't much paying attention, mostly staring at my feet for most of what we had walked on so far, which had been covered by seal bones (a story for another day). All of a sudden, we heard a bit of a growl, bark-like noise, looked up and not 300 meters away was a fur seal, setting up shop I believe for having a pup. Tomorrow I will be interviewing our New Zealand naturalist who will clarify for me a lot of the biological questions I have been having.
Antarctic fur seal, stream side, setting up to have a pup.
We have been back on the boat for a few hours and are now transiting to our first dredge site. I am still a bit in awe of today's experiences and think I will leave off for tonight with some pictures, a warm heart, and a smile on my face.
As indicated by the biologist, this adult male wandering albatross is distinctive because of his predominantly white body.
Giant Petrel
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