Ugy Ducklings
14 March 2011 | 51 12.11'S:060 07.36'W, North of West Falkland
Chris
We had an early (ish) start this morning and were ashore before 9am so that we would have time to visit a Black Browed albatross colony on West Point Island before leaving for Carcass Island as we had to have Sally, Meredith and Dean there in time to catch their flight back to Stanley.
We motored ashore in the tender and were met my Michael who offered to drive us over to the albatross colony, a kind offer that we gratefully accepted as we were quite short on time and driving there would give us a little more time. The albatross chicks are a few weeks away from fledging and leaving the nest and are a messy mixture of down and feathers. The cute balls of fluff of earlier in the season are currently the �"ugly ducklings' of the albatross world but will soon have their flight feathers and will be soaring in freedom over the waves. There is a well-trodden path through the tussac grass around the perimeter of the colony as the island often has visits from the smaller �"expedition' style cruise ships. The albatross share their colony with Rockhopper penguins also looking very scruffy as they go through their moult. Screeching Johnny Rooks (Striated caracaras) hover around the colony looking for dropped food morsels and week or sick birds to feed on.
After visiting the albatross we lifted the anchor and motored the five miles over to Carcass Island, the home of Rob and Lorraine McGill, to drop off Sally and the children. Carcass Island has an airstrip so visitors can fly in and out on the Islander aircraft of FIGAS (the Falkland Islands Government Air Service); which is a kind of air taxi service that operates around the islands. Paul, Sam and myself are now approaching Pebble island on our way back to Stanley. We are expecting a slow trip with light to moderate head winds (the story of this trip so far, but the high pressure that had brought those winds has also brought some nice weather too) and hope to arrive around or just after midday on Tuesday. Then it's back to work and also a dentist appoint for me; which also set a deadline on when we had to back in Stanley.
We were discussing this morning how those of us lucky enough to live in these islands take a lot of wildlife for granted. Just as we stood on the beach this morning we could see five or six species of ducks, two species of penguin, cormorants, turkey vultures, Johnny rooks, siskins, finches, long tailed meadowlarks just to name a few off the top of my head. At sea there are whales and dolphins Ð I guess we are lucky and that is why I find it hard to write this blog as choosing what to include from all that �"normal' stuff that we see and do takes a bit of thinking about.