More penguins and ice

A selection of airborne penguins, penguins on ice and penguin tracks on
the ice floes we were passing (or breaking). Taken around the South
Orkneys as we dropped people off at Signy and Powell Island.

Gentoo penguins, Bertha's Beach

Quick stomp along the beach from Mare Harbour during bunkering
operations to the Gentoo Penguin colony was well worth it. There are
four subcolonies close together, olphin with several non-breeding birds
hanging around the edges. One skua was in attendance trying to get the
chicks and a few Dolphin Gulls hanging around for scraps.

Around Stanley, Falklands

Test post (dodgy internet connection), there may be all the right photos, but they are probably not in the right order

Quick trip out to Gypsy Cove on the evening we arrived in Stanley was worth it to take advantage of the unusually calm and sunny conditions. Plenty of Magellanics around the colony, a few Gentoos mixed in and somevery distant King Penguins.

An unusual sight along the shore towards Stanley was three Coscoroba Swans, which I haven't seen in the area before. They have shoveler-like bills, with curved ends and filaments for sieving the water and were happily feeding away unperturbed by people.

Also along the shore, and under the jetty to FIPASS (Falklands Interim Port and Storage System, built 1983), were some Black-crowned Night Herons.

Off again (for a while)

The time has come round again, the music in the shops, the queues for the car parks, the Redwings eating the berries and the salt on the road must mean it is time to go away and let my bike chain rust into uselessness.

The plan, though in places that is quite a strong word, is to: fly to the Falklands tomorrow, get on the ship, go to Rothera (Antarctic Peninsula, west side) via the South Orkneys (where we will spend Christmas dropping people off on uninhabited islands), stay at Rothera flying remote controlled submarines until early March, get back on the ship, go up to Punta Arenas in southern Chile, leave Punta and do a lap of the Scotia Sea, wave at the South Orkneys and South Georgia as we go past, get to the Falklands in late April, fly home, sleep.

Will post photos at irregular intervals during this process if they are either worth sharing or I feel I need to prove I'm still alive (and there is a working internet connection). For now though a suitably blowy and suitably snowy photo from April:

Butt of Lewis, Outer Hebrides

Cairngorms

Humpbacks

Some photos of the Humpback whales in late January. Humpbacks were seen most days since these, including two breaching outside the office windows on my last day (when the camera was back in my romm unfortunately!)