The Drake Passage, Beagle Channel and Ushuaia, Argentina
When this black-browed albatross left its nest near the southern tip of South America, it may well have gone on a 21-day foraging trip following the West Wind Drift. In doing so it could have started in the "Roaring Forties" and easily followed us to the Falkland Islands, then traveled southward, again with the wind (locally named the "Furious Fifties") to the Island of South Georgia. Tacking back into the wind and flying with a technique called "dynamic soaring", it is entirely possible that this albatross may have headed still further south, and accompanied us to Elephant Island. It may have even brushed the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula proper, while steering well north of the "Screaming Sixties" and any serious pack ice. Northbound heading across the Drake Passage would have been a breeze (pun intended), and the bird pictured may well be the same bird we saw when we left the Beagle Channel exactly 4008 nautical miles, or 4409 statute miles ago.
Along the way it would have been looking for fish, squid, krill and jellyfish, all the while diligently avoiding the perils of storms, halcyons or long line fishing fleets. During its odyssey (or while sojourning), this intrepid albatross may have seen hundreds of thousands of penguins (the kings, Magellanic, chinstraps, Adelies, gentoos, macaronis and rockhoppers), other albatrosses (the wanderers, royals, grey-headed, light-mantled sooties), petrels big and small (the giants, pintado, blue, white-chinned, storm petrels and diving petrels), greater shearwaters, Antarctic prions, rock shags, blue-eyed cormorants, South Georgian pintail ducks, Falkland Islands flightless steamer ducks, kelp and upland geese, striated caracaras, turkey vultures, Magellanic and blackish oystercatchers, snowy sheathbills, skuas (sub-Antarctics, browns and south polar), gulls (dolphin, brown-hooded and kelp), and Antarctic terns, just to name a few of the birds. As far as mammals go, it may have encountered posturing South American sea lions, frolicking fur seals, jousting elephant seals, hundreds and hundreds of the "ice" seals (crabeaters, leopards and Weddells), feeding baleen whales (fins, humpbacks, minkes and sei whales), and the energetic Peale's and Commerson's dolphins.
I am reminded of two authors as I try to sum up our remarkable journey with a witty quip, and I think of David Campbell who wrote The Crystal Desert: Summers In Antarctica when he reminds us that, albatross "are global citizens, crossing with indifference all of the crazy, invisible boundaries of humans." Whereas we all required cars, airplanes and an ice-strengthened ship, plus layers of long underwear, Gore-Tex outer shells, wool hats, waterproof pants, lined gloves, rubber boots and red parkas, this amazing creature of the wind could have logged all those miles easily and is "able to encircle the entire planet with its body using nothing more than feathers, flesh and bone."
Early last century my all-time favorite naturalist, Robert Cushman Murphy, wrote in his journal, "I now belong to a higher cult of mortals, for I have seen the albatross."
I wish you all safe travels home and calm seas (and just enough wind for the albatross!).
When this black-browed albatross left its nest near the southern tip of South America, it may well have gone on a 21-day foraging trip following the West Wind Drift. In doing so it could have started in the "Roaring Forties" and easily followed us to the Falkland Islands, then traveled southward, again with the wind (locally named the "Furious Fifties") to the Island of South Georgia. Tacking back into the wind and flying with a technique called "dynamic soaring", it is entirely possible that this albatross may have headed still further south, and accompanied us to Elephant Island. It may have even brushed the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula proper, while steering well north of the "Screaming Sixties" and any serious pack ice. Northbound heading across the Drake Passage would have been a breeze (pun intended), and the bird pictured may well be the same bird we saw when we left the Beagle Channel exactly 4008 nautical miles, or 4409 statute miles ago.
Along the way it would have been looking for fish, squid, krill and jellyfish, all the while diligently avoiding the perils of storms, halcyons or long line fishing fleets. During its odyssey (or while sojourning), this intrepid albatross may have seen hundreds of thousands of penguins (the kings, Magellanic, chinstraps, Adelies, gentoos, macaronis and rockhoppers), other albatrosses (the wanderers, royals, grey-headed, light-mantled sooties), petrels big and small (the giants, pintado, blue, white-chinned, storm petrels and diving petrels), greater shearwaters, Antarctic prions, rock shags, blue-eyed cormorants, South Georgian pintail ducks, Falkland Islands flightless steamer ducks, kelp and upland geese, striated caracaras, turkey vultures, Magellanic and blackish oystercatchers, snowy sheathbills, skuas (sub-Antarctics, browns and south polar), gulls (dolphin, brown-hooded and kelp), and Antarctic terns, just to name a few of the birds. As far as mammals go, it may have encountered posturing South American sea lions, frolicking fur seals, jousting elephant seals, hundreds and hundreds of the "ice" seals (crabeaters, leopards and Weddells), feeding baleen whales (fins, humpbacks, minkes and sei whales), and the energetic Peale's and Commerson's dolphins.
I am reminded of two authors as I try to sum up our remarkable journey with a witty quip, and I think of David Campbell who wrote The Crystal Desert: Summers In Antarctica when he reminds us that, albatross "are global citizens, crossing with indifference all of the crazy, invisible boundaries of humans." Whereas we all required cars, airplanes and an ice-strengthened ship, plus layers of long underwear, Gore-Tex outer shells, wool hats, waterproof pants, lined gloves, rubber boots and red parkas, this amazing creature of the wind could have logged all those miles easily and is "able to encircle the entire planet with its body using nothing more than feathers, flesh and bone."
Early last century my all-time favorite naturalist, Robert Cushman Murphy, wrote in his journal, "I now belong to a higher cult of mortals, for I have seen the albatross."
I wish you all safe travels home and calm seas (and just enough wind for the albatross!).
