Travels with rarecat: skua

Tuesday, 2 July 2019

Crossing the Barents Sea to Svalbard

The Barents Sea was the last hurdle before the Arctic - I was certainly worried about the crossing of such a wide expanse of sea which is really part of the Arctic Ocean. Luckily there was no storm - even though the waves were quite high at times, it was a relatively smooth crossing even for someone prone to seasickness like myself. In fact, it was calm enough that when we were half way across and reached the one island in the middle of the sea - Bjornoya (Bear Island), the southernmost island in the Svalbard Archipelago, we were able to stop and cruise around the island, something that many of the expedition staff haven't been able to do during their many previous crossings because of rough seas.

The island is wild! Its geology spectacular! And there was amazing bird life on its cliffs - this remote island in the middle of this vast expanse of sea plays host to puffins, murres, guillemots, kittiwakes, skuas, auks, eiders, gannets and gulls in the tens of thousands. The sky around it was full of birds flying back and forth. While I was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of birds and the noise they made around us, it was the rocks that struck me dumb with their astounding cragginess, probably the result of weathering arctic storms. It was for me, one of the most beautiful islands I have seen on this trip.

Spectacular rock formations around the island

Those are not dust spots on my camera - they are birds flying above the island!

Look at the astonishing bird population on these cliffs! The sedimentary rock layers are almost designed to accommodate the residents, whether migrant or permanent...

Bear Island has only 4 inhabitants, the staff at a meteorological station. It's hard to imagine living here with the birds! When we were in our zodiac, we discovered a natural arch and with the approval of the group leader, our zodiac ventured forth through the unknown tunnel. It was quite an adventure and we were surprised to find even birds inside the tunnel! Please see the video below of our navigation through the tunnel and also to get a sense of the sea conditions - considered calm but still tossing in our zodiac. I was taking photos at shutter speeds of 1/1250 second and higher to get sharp enough photos. We also came across an abandoned Russian trawler that had washed up on the shores of this island - a piece of junk on an otherwise all natural environment.

Abandoned Russian trawler on island

Puffins

Common murres and guillemots

Looks like a social here

And some mating on the side

A skua feeding on a kittiwake

A Northern Fulmar enjoying the swell

Skua flying off for more food

Looking at the island from this angle reminded me of images of Ayer's Rock in Australia

An overnight journey from Bear Island would take us to Svalbard in the morning - the top of the world!

Tuesday, 25 April 2017

Patagonia - Ushuaia, "el fin del mundo"

After an exhilarating few days having our breaths taken away by the magnificent landscapes in Patagonia, we were ready for the last stop on our Patagonian journey - Ushuaia, "el fin del mundo" as the Argentinians called it (the end of the world). After a short 1.5 hr flight from El Calafate, we arrived in Ushuaia - a bustling town, the capital of Tierra del Fuego, a busy port for cruise ships and also hopping off point for adventure trips to Antartica. There were any number of excellent restaurants and our first night we headed straight for the fisherman's restaurant to try the king crab. We picked our own live crab and it was quite an experience. More later on Foodsparks, the food blog.

The main reason for our visit to Ushuaia was to see the penguins on Martillo Island and a zoologist had delivered an interesting lecture on penguins the evening of our arrival to prepare us for the trip. In the morning we boarded a catamaran that took us down the Beagle channel. Along the way we saw king cormorants and other birds in flight - there were islands full of sea lions and cormorants. There was a slight wind and the sea was just slightly choppy, enough to make a few people sea-sick, but not too badly.

The catamaran took us to the Estancia Harberton, a historic farm founded in 1886, the oldest in Tierra del Fuego. From there, we boarded a zodiac which took us to Martillo Island. All through the trip, we were entertained by a charming naturalist (his name is Valentin!) who gave us interesting details delivered in inimitable style - this guy is a natural showman, which certainly enhanced our enjoyment of the trip.

We were lucky that one lone King Penguin was sitting on the beach as we landed. The rest were Magellanic and Gentoo penguins. We were warned to keep at least 2 or 3 metres from the penguins in order not to disturb them. The guide took us through to the rookery where the penguins were mottling. The young penguins had already left the nest at this time of the year, in fact, in a few weeks (in April), these penguins would all be gone. The penguin pairs were fascinating to watch and we had to be dragged away when our hour on the island was up.There were not only penguins on the island, we saw at least 10 different kinds of birds and you can see some of them below.

We had lunch at the Estancia and a guided tour of the museum which had a huge collection of whale bones. The trip back to Ushuaia was on a 4x4 bus! It was quite a day! It was topped off at dinner by a treat of merluza negra (Patagonian toothfish), the sweetest fish I have ever tasted in my life (no exaggeration), a far cry from the frozen Chilean sea bass, the closest thing to this we could sink our teeth into at home.

I was lucky to capture some cormorants in flight - no wonder, there were several islands full of them in the Beagle Channel

And islands full of sea lions AND cormorants

A Southern Giant Petrel - note the tube beak

This looked like a Chilean Skua

Sandpiper in flight

The lone King Penguin on Martillo Island - the Gentoo penguins were keeping it company


This photo gives a better idea of the rookery An informative chart showing the annual cycle of the Magellanic Penguins - note how they will be migrating from mid-April to mid-September so they won't be on the island.