Signy is home to some amazing wildlife, but, even though you can never get enough of the Adelies and co., there is nothing quite like experiencing a rare sighting. And we have been fortunate enough to see three in the space of just a few days!
On the 16th February, whilst counting Southern giant petrel chicks on the north of the island, a large group of birds was spotted on the water. Upon closer inspection in turned out to be dozens of giant petrels and hundreds of cape petrels feeding on a whale carcass! This is the first such reported sighting since January 1969!
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| A feeding frenzy for the birds |
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| The exposed blubber is great food for the giant petrels and small scraps that come off are easy pickings for the cape petrels |
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| Not content with the rarity of the carcass alone there were 17 Northern giant petrels feeding on the carcass as well; they themselves are very much a rare sighting on Signy and can be differentiated by the red tip to the beak as opposed to the green tip of the Southerns |
On the 18th February we were amazed to find not one, but two, very rare penguin sightings for Signy as well. Both were found on the southwest of the island during our all-island seal census. The first was a visitor from further north - an immature Magellanic Penguin that appeared in a group of moulting gentoos. These guys breed in the Falklands and seeing one this far south is extremely rare.
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| A young Magellanic confused to end up with gentoos at Signy |
Shortly after seeing the Magellanic we came across the biggest surprise of them all - an immature Emperor Penguin!!!! The other way around to the Magellanic, the Emperor has appeared further north than expected by being here as it should be further south on the continent itself. Another mega rarity to truly cap off an amazing string of sightings - things really do come in three's!
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| A very smart looking penguin even in the immature stage |
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| Emperor Penguin - never expected to see one of these here!! |
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| Well, everyone does it and even rare sightings can't always be pretty! |
Not content with seeing the Emperor just the once, it was still about a couple of days later as well! Eventually the young one left during the day, hopefully to find its way back further south, but it was amazing to see it at all!
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| Taking it easy before setting off for colder climes! |
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| It was simply incredible to have the Emperor here! |
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