South Georgia
We sampled the best of South Georgia’s wildlife today while threatening skies held back their fury. Prion Island, Salisbury Plain and Elsehul revealed the full breadth of nature’s beauty. Indeed, it was a day for the beauty and the beast.
The advance party went ashore on Prion Island to open a way to the top. Large, aggressive male fur seals had come ashore and were establishing their territories. This would have been fine but we had to cross their beach. With some sweet talk and some mild coaxing we established a beachhead. The climb to the nesting wandering albatrosses was easy on packed snow. Once at the top numerous nearly full-grown chicks were in their nests often exercising their magnificent wings. Nearby a pair of giant petrels were constructing a nest. And, overhead, South Georgia pipits were singing their hearts out declaring their share of this rat free island, a necessary condition of their existence. We were reminded of skylarks.
At Salisbury Plain with thousands of king penguins spread out before us, we made our way ashore through a gentle surf, wended our way pass the elephant seals and headed for the bluff ahead. Thousands of young penguins called oakum boys by the early sailors waddled their way around us. Ever curious, they flapped their flippers, shook their fat bellies and whistled their high-pitched tunes. The ones who had failed to survive the winter were being worked over by the skuas. The perennial scavengers were feeding to support their young. And what they couldn’t get the sheathbills did. Indeed, the sheathbills were so enamoured with us that about a dozen landed on the ship’s foredeck and rode with us for many miles on our way to Elsehul. Their droppings covered the deck.
At Elsehul in the late afternoon, we put boats down for a Zodiac cruise. We headed for the macaroni penguin colony with thoughts of the line from Yankee Doodle Dandy singing in our heads. No sooner had we arrived at the colony than a leopard seal and his mate showed up and swam circles around us. At one point the big male put his mouth around the idle propeller of one of the boats. This was playtime and we all enjoyed our encounter with a major predator of the southern ocean. Further in the bay we passed nesting grey-headed albatrosses, shags and many fur and elephant seals. At the head of the bay, an elephant seal had died and the giant petrels, nicknamed stinkers by the early sealers, were feasting ‘high on the seal.’ After we watched them poking their necks deep in the decaying corpse we understood their name.
It was a day of majestic birds, panoramas of penguins and the power of the predatory animals. On this day both the beauty and the beast highlighted our last day in South Georgia.
We sampled the best of South Georgia’s wildlife today while threatening skies held back their fury. Prion Island, Salisbury Plain and Elsehul revealed the full breadth of nature’s beauty. Indeed, it was a day for the beauty and the beast.
The advance party went ashore on Prion Island to open a way to the top. Large, aggressive male fur seals had come ashore and were establishing their territories. This would have been fine but we had to cross their beach. With some sweet talk and some mild coaxing we established a beachhead. The climb to the nesting wandering albatrosses was easy on packed snow. Once at the top numerous nearly full-grown chicks were in their nests often exercising their magnificent wings. Nearby a pair of giant petrels were constructing a nest. And, overhead, South Georgia pipits were singing their hearts out declaring their share of this rat free island, a necessary condition of their existence. We were reminded of skylarks.
At Salisbury Plain with thousands of king penguins spread out before us, we made our way ashore through a gentle surf, wended our way pass the elephant seals and headed for the bluff ahead. Thousands of young penguins called oakum boys by the early sailors waddled their way around us. Ever curious, they flapped their flippers, shook their fat bellies and whistled their high-pitched tunes. The ones who had failed to survive the winter were being worked over by the skuas. The perennial scavengers were feeding to support their young. And what they couldn’t get the sheathbills did. Indeed, the sheathbills were so enamoured with us that about a dozen landed on the ship’s foredeck and rode with us for many miles on our way to Elsehul. Their droppings covered the deck.
At Elsehul in the late afternoon, we put boats down for a Zodiac cruise. We headed for the macaroni penguin colony with thoughts of the line from Yankee Doodle Dandy singing in our heads. No sooner had we arrived at the colony than a leopard seal and his mate showed up and swam circles around us. At one point the big male put his mouth around the idle propeller of one of the boats. This was playtime and we all enjoyed our encounter with a major predator of the southern ocean. Further in the bay we passed nesting grey-headed albatrosses, shags and many fur and elephant seals. At the head of the bay, an elephant seal had died and the giant petrels, nicknamed stinkers by the early sealers, were feasting ‘high on the seal.’ After we watched them poking their necks deep in the decaying corpse we understood their name.
It was a day of majestic birds, panoramas of penguins and the power of the predatory animals. On this day both the beauty and the beast highlighted our last day in South Georgia.
