Travelling South!

After two months of training, and a lot of anticipation, on the 5^th November I finally began my journey south. Starting in Cambridge we had a coach to Heathrow and an 11 hour flight overnight to Sao Paulo, Brazil just to get into the Southern Hemisphere.

With just a few hours between connections we unfortunately didn’t get to see anything but an overcast airport in Sao Paulo. But as our next flight took us across to Santiago, Chile for the night we were able to see a little bit of that city…. and have a final meal out, at a very nice steak house!

From Santiago we flew further south on the morning of the 7^th to Punta Arenas and from there to the Falklands finally arriving a little after lunchtime. From the airport we were taken to the harbour in Stanley where our vessel was waiting, the RRS James Clark Ross.

The RRS James Clark Ross

Throughout the journey I was reading South! by Sir Ernest Shackleton. A description of his expedition meant to land a team for the first ever trans-Antarctic crossing. Unfortunately their ship, the Endurance, was trapped and crushed by ice leaving Shackleton and his crew to survive a polar winter by camping! What followed was an escape from the Antarctic, a sailing across 600 miles of open water to South Georgia and a winter crossing of that island (the first ever!) to find rescue. An interesting book to choose when going south myself, but definitely a recommended read.

After a few days of travelling it was brilliant to finally arrive on the ship and start to prepare for the real travelling! But as we had a couple of days in the harbour it also meant I got my first opportunity to see some Southern Hemisphere species.

In the harbour I saw my first Wandering Albatross and Giant Petrel. But as all these species will be major focuses of my updates from Bird Island I will say nothing more on them now, other than........ WOW!!!

The Falklands have a number of other very cool species to see though, and it was great to get out and see the likes of: Turkey Vulture, Magellanic Oystercatcher, Black-throated (Canary-winged) Finch, (Falklands) Grass Wren, Long-tailed Meadowlark, Steamer Duck, Crested Teal, Upland Goose, Kelp Goose, Two-banded Plover, Rufous-chested Dotterel, Baird’s Sandpiper, Rock Shag, Blue-eyed Shag, Black-crowned Night-heron, Kelp Gull and Dolphin Gull.

Left to right: Baird's Sandpiper, Two-banded Plover and Rufous-chested Dotterel

Left to right: Dolphin Gull, Black-crowned Night-heron and Rock Shag

Top left going clockwise: Turkey Vulture, Falklands Grass Wren, Black-throated Finch and Long-tailed Meadowlark

I also managed to see my first penguin on the Falklands, the Magellanic Penguin, which is actually a burrow nesting species which lay their eggs at this time of year. We managed to see a couple of them leaving the water and making their way up a beach to their burrows. It was very exciting to see my first wild penguins waddling up a beach and I can’t wait to spend the coming months working within the colonies of other penguin species on Bird Island.

Magellanic Penguin

In the same bay as the penguins there were also glimpses of Peale’s Dolphin, a pod of 4 individuals, showing their dorsal fins above the water. It is always amazing to see cetaceans and I hope to see a few more on our crossing, fingers crossed especially for a whale or two!

After our time in Stanley we actually moved to another part of the Falklands to refuel. From our new location there was a whole new coastline to investigate. Along this we saw many of the same species as before but also saw South American Terns and Gentoo Penguins for the first time (again more on the latter when I write future blogs from Bird Island).

South American Tern

But one of the highlights of this new location came on the morning of the 11^th when we found my first wild King Penguin!! It actually came ashore as we were walking back to the ship the night before but in the morning we found it asleep and were able to get quite close, amazing!

King Penguin

After spending time with the King we continued along the beach and not only saw a Southern Sea Lion but also a pod of at least 7 Commerson’s Dolphins hunting and playing in the waves! These are tiny little dolphins and seeing them under the waves as they broke was outstanding.

Southern Sea Lion

Commerson's Dolphins

Spending this time with my first wildlife down south has really got me excited for what is to come and we left the Falklands on the 12^th November to journey to the bases of Signy, King Edward Point and Bird Island. The real adventure begins now!