MS National Geographic Explorer
Right Whale Bay and Willis Islands
Thursday, March 3, 2011

    Today was another opportunity for an early pre-sunrise landing. The ship anchored offshore in Right Whale Bay, a site with a large colony of king penguins. It was clear that it would likely not lend itself to more sunrise photography, though, since there was a low overcast, occasionally foggy conditions, and it was misting with intermittent light rain. In other words, it was another good day for photography.

    As the sun rose, shining somewhere above the clouds overhead, a low, very even light spread over the colony. It was as if a giant photographer's softbox was being used to light the beach. A bit more powerful light would have been nice, but it was adequate to capture some nice images.

    These king penguins were just as inquisitive as all the others we have encountered on South Georgia. Just stand still for a moment and you find yourself surrounded by these colorful “up-standing” birds. This beach was also covered with an incredible number of the young juvenile fur seal pups; some of which were still quite small and in their “adorable” phase. However, you had to stay vigilant because fur seals are born ready to fight and play vigorously. If they are not sleeping, they are spoiling for a fight.

    As expected, the skua and giant petrels were patrolling the colony for weak and injured penguins to satisfy their hunger. One giant petrel killed a young king penguin chick and was starting to eat. This triggered an influx of several skua and another petrel. The giant petrel didn't seem to mind sharing with the skua (although one skua chased all the other skua away), but violently attacked the encroaching giant petrel, finally driving it away.

    I set up one of my cameras on a tripod near the shoreline and programmed it to capture 900 images, each two seconds apart. I've taken these photographs and converted them into a time-lapse movie that compresses thirty minutes of beach activity into a two and a half minute short feature.

    I was also able to get a close look and photograph a leucistic fur seal pup. There are a surprisingly large number of these “blondie” pups born, probably related to the very small gene pool that was left after all but about 200 Antarctic fur seals remained after the hunting in the nineteenth century killed millions. The fur seals have made a comeback and are now estimated to number about two to three million.

    Returning by Zodiac to the ship, we observed another feeding frenzy by giant petrels, this time at sea. The petrels had found a fur seal pup that had just died and eight or ten giant petrels were devouring it. You can image the chaos and the bird-to-bird fighting that ensued. Meanwhile, the tiny storm petrels were flittering around and darting to the surface to grab small tidbits that floated away from the arena.

    In the afternoon, the ship weighed anchor and we prepared to leave South Georgia on our way to the Falkland Islands. Before departing South Georgia for the Scotia Sea, the ship made a close to shore tour of the Willis Islands. These very green, steep, rocky islands are home to many of the seabirds, especially the black-browed albatross and a colony of macaroni penguins. It was interesting to watch the penguins jump from the sea and climb up these steep slopes to their rookery area. The macaroni penguins prefer these hard to reach slopes.

    Finally, we had to say so long to South Georgia. This is a location that I must return to again. It would be very rewarding to re-visit in November, the other end of the season, when the big male elephant seals are fighting for dominance and mating with the females. The adult fur seals are also around right after that, which makes shore-visits a bit more challenging. South Georgia is another one of those special places on our planet that I feel very fortunate to have visited.