Falkland Islands – Temple & Iceberg Trails: A Journey Through Asperger's

19 November 2022 – Late afternoon and evening

Heleen hosted an informative lecture on the “Fantastic Fins of the Falklands” – Whales and dolphins around the Falkland area. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures – but did manage to identify some Hourglass Dolphins swimming along the ship the next day. Again – no pictures as my camera was charging in the cabin and we were up in the Explorer Lounge. They were too far to be captured on the cellphone and after I fetched my camera – naturally, they were gone. But I was the one to spot them and that’s super cool!

Hourglass Dolphin (**Lagenorhynchus cruciger**)- picture from Wikipedea

Then it was time for Manu’s “Scientific Diving and Kelp Forests” presentation. He explained what being a scientific diver entails and the work he has been doing as part of a National Geographic team to campain for Peninsula Mitre to be declared a conservation zone.

The National Geographic Peninsula Mitre team…

They succeeded in their mission and the formalities were concluded on 6 December 2022, not long after our cruise. The story also made it into the South American edition of National Geographic.

“The print copies arrived!” Screenshot Manu’s Instagram account.

A particular picture in the Kelp forest with an octopus made such and impression on me that when on the way home, I later saw an octopus stuffed toy in Istanbul Airport, I immediately thought of that pic and Manu.

THE Octopus Pic (Manu’s Instagram) and the extremely rare “Istanbul Airport” Octopus species – clearly the “Top of the heap”!

Sadly the time arrived for the final landing briefing session “Saunders Island” by Lancy.

Everyone was very excited because this landing held the promise of possible King Penguin sightings – only a small percentage of the guests went to Volunteer Point – so this would be their only chance to see King Penguins on this journey.

For me personally, the ‘main attraction’ would be the Imperial Cormorants (Falkland’s Blue eyed Shags) seeing that their Antarctic cousins have eluded my lens so far.

Lancy also elaborated on a study at Falklands that have found that although the Rock Hopper penguins that arrive early and nest at the lower end of the cliffs have the advantage of stronger chicks (less distance to the sea, shorter commute, more regular food runs) the “Late Nesters” who have to make due with available space higher up end up with the higher chick survival rate – the reason? Their Imperial Cormorant neighbours high up act as an alarm system against predator bird attacks, giving them an advantage – to quote Lancy “The early bird catches the worm, the late bird catches the luck!”

It was bittersweet when Lancy closed out his “penguin-starring briefing” with his signature slide…

♥♥ Always be yourself, unless you can be a penguin… then be a penguin! Connect with your inner penguin… ♥♥

The sunset was spectacular – even though the wind almost blew us away.

Sunset from the “Sauna”…

Some MS Roald Amundsen – when the lights go on…

Good night – tomorrow I have a date with some “Blue eyed Shags” and the odd King Penguin.

19 November 2022

Free from the rules of IAATO, West Point Island landing was for all intents and purposes a daytrip, with optional afternoon tea. Boat groups were ferried to the little wooden pier – a luxury dry landing.

Landing briefing in progress – do’s and don’ts for this particular excursion.

After Yibo’s landing briefing we could leave our life vests with the Expediton Team gear, grab some walking poles, if we wanted to and head off over the hill for the 2 km hike to the Black Browed Albatros Colony on the cliff.

Hiking to the Black Browed Albatros Colony at West Point

For those that did not want to do the hike the hosts also provided a ‘Land Rover Shuttle Service’ to and from the main house.

I chose to do the hike and at some point I was walking with Fritz and he was eagerly counting and re-counting the chicks along the way – there was a possiblity that this little brood exceeded the number of offspring usually associated with this breed. But alas, several re-counts confirmed that this was not the case- they were a ‘common’ little Upland Goose family.

Mom (Brown) and Dad (White) and their ‘standard’ Upland Goose six chicks

Just before we reached the cliff where the Albatros nests are I spotted a bird I recognized from Lancy’s lecture on birds of the Falklands – well he’s kinda hard to miss.. Longtailed Meadowlark.

Longtailed Meadowlark – conspicuous with that red breast.

The line waiting to go down to the colony – numbers controlled as to not stress the birds.

Then we descended down through the tussock grass down to where an absolute magnificent scene awaited us…

Even WITH these red jackets one could get lost here….

Black Browed Albatros so close you could probably touch one… intersperced with a sprinkling of red-eyed Southern Rockhoppers. Fly-overs so low one actually almost hit of the guests… almost…

In all honesty I stood there at the colony from 11:16 to 14:10 and took 1107 photos with my Sony camera alone.. and some with the phone.

It was both breathtaking and overwhelming – the highlight of the Falkland Islands.

Those feet vs these….

On the way back – some more birds…

Austral Thrush adult and juvenile (Thanks for the juvenile identification – Lancy!)

Although there was an invitation to have tea and biscuits with the hosts at the main house – apparently it is very very good – I decided to go back to the ship.

Tag: Falkland Islands

Scientific Diving, Saunders Island Build-up and Spectacular Sunset

“Even if you don’t like birds, you’ll fall in love with them tomorrow” – Luciano – West Point Island briefing