Nightingale and Inaccessible Islands, Tristan da Cunha Group
Small remote, predator-free, infrequently visited islands are wonderful relicts of what the world once was. Keyholes to species dispersal and evolutionary processes, they are purely refreshing to experience. The outlying isles of the Tristan da Cunha Group in the South Atlantic house a veritable Darwin’s laboratory of wonderful whimsical animals.
Blessed by favorable seas and guided by local Tristanian lobster fishermen, we were able to land on two places of magical names and creatures – Nightingale and Inaccessible Islands. Nightingale has no birds of its namesake but totally abounds in endemic thrushes and buntings. The wildlife, all of it winged save for the two-toned Sub-Antarctic fur seal, retains the purest Galápagan naivety, and we found ourselves nose to beak with many curious creatures. Nesting yellow-nosed albatrosses, great shearwaters, and an extravagant variety of rockhopper penguins became intimate acquaintances as we clambered through the tussock grasslands of the island.
Now talk about a bad hair life. The mosleyi subspecies of the rockhopper has got to be the most flamboyantly coiffed and least observed of all the world’s penguins. (Some of us advocate separate species status, as well as for the mini-archipelago’s spectacled petrel.) We discovered a large gathering of pinnamins (as the Tristanians call the penguins) near huts in reparation from a recent hurricane where locals of Tristan da Cunha twenty miles distant occasionally vacation to collect eggs.
A penciled remark on an old chart lends the name to the remote sea-cliffed fortress of Inaccessible Island. Isolated, daunting, protected and rarely visited, we were able to run our Zodiacs through surf today up onto a cobbled beach. Wandering the edge of the dense tussock grass behind the beach, we made a fantastic discovery! Here we were extremely lucky to find one of Earth’s rarest creatures, a holy grail for birdwatchers, the Inaccessible Island flightless rail, the world’s smallest flightless bird! Colleague of Galápagos’ flightless cormorant and the flightless rails of New Zealand, the tiny Inaccessible rail is an extant expression of making the best use of your habitat; flight is an energy-consuming luxury if your food, safety and reproductive needs are met. Most flightless birds with flying family members have gone extinct on islands around the world due to human hunting, habitat destruction and introduction of alien species. Our tiny dark ground-dwelling creatures forewent flying generations ago, but lives on in this most inaccessible of places.
Reveling in our wildlife experiences and savoring the absolutely untouched nature of the islands visited today, we were pleasantly distracted by pilot whales, dolphins and beaked whales on our return crossing to Tristan da Cunha where we said farewell to our guides and new friends. We leave behind us a remarkable community of insular people and a menagerie of unique birds living on outpost isles in the vast sweep of the South Atlantic. We take with us a renewed sense of optimism, knowing that natural processes continue unadulterated and that wonderful works-in-process thrive somewhere in the world.
Small remote, predator-free, infrequently visited islands are wonderful relicts of what the world once was. Keyholes to species dispersal and evolutionary processes, they are purely refreshing to experience. The outlying isles of the Tristan da Cunha Group in the South Atlantic house a veritable Darwin’s laboratory of wonderful whimsical animals.
Blessed by favorable seas and guided by local Tristanian lobster fishermen, we were able to land on two places of magical names and creatures – Nightingale and Inaccessible Islands. Nightingale has no birds of its namesake but totally abounds in endemic thrushes and buntings. The wildlife, all of it winged save for the two-toned Sub-Antarctic fur seal, retains the purest Galápagan naivety, and we found ourselves nose to beak with many curious creatures. Nesting yellow-nosed albatrosses, great shearwaters, and an extravagant variety of rockhopper penguins became intimate acquaintances as we clambered through the tussock grasslands of the island.
Now talk about a bad hair life. The mosleyi subspecies of the rockhopper has got to be the most flamboyantly coiffed and least observed of all the world’s penguins. (Some of us advocate separate species status, as well as for the mini-archipelago’s spectacled petrel.) We discovered a large gathering of pinnamins (as the Tristanians call the penguins) near huts in reparation from a recent hurricane where locals of Tristan da Cunha twenty miles distant occasionally vacation to collect eggs.
A penciled remark on an old chart lends the name to the remote sea-cliffed fortress of Inaccessible Island. Isolated, daunting, protected and rarely visited, we were able to run our Zodiacs through surf today up onto a cobbled beach. Wandering the edge of the dense tussock grass behind the beach, we made a fantastic discovery! Here we were extremely lucky to find one of Earth’s rarest creatures, a holy grail for birdwatchers, the Inaccessible Island flightless rail, the world’s smallest flightless bird! Colleague of Galápagos’ flightless cormorant and the flightless rails of New Zealand, the tiny Inaccessible rail is an extant expression of making the best use of your habitat; flight is an energy-consuming luxury if your food, safety and reproductive needs are met. Most flightless birds with flying family members have gone extinct on islands around the world due to human hunting, habitat destruction and introduction of alien species. Our tiny dark ground-dwelling creatures forewent flying generations ago, but lives on in this most inaccessible of places.
Reveling in our wildlife experiences and savoring the absolutely untouched nature of the islands visited today, we were pleasantly distracted by pilot whales, dolphins and beaked whales on our return crossing to Tristan da Cunha where we said farewell to our guides and new friends. We leave behind us a remarkable community of insular people and a menagerie of unique birds living on outpost isles in the vast sweep of the South Atlantic. We take with us a renewed sense of optimism, knowing that natural processes continue unadulterated and that wonderful works-in-process thrive somewhere in the world.
