The Furious Fifties

Day 5: 19th November

Awoke early as the waves rolled the ship round and round, and headed up to the bridge with some lemon tea to begin ticking off species as we entered the Aus. EEZ. However as we crossed the line, I was standing over the side "painting the ocean" as Rob put it. However I felt better right afterwards and after a dry breakfast consisting of bread, continued a good day's birding. Compared the the previous day out of the Auckland Islands, the birding was poor, with very low numbers of species, however the same diversity allowed me to rack up a number of Australia ticks. Birds observed over these two days included Southern Royal, Grey-headed, Salvin's, Light-mantled Sooty Albatross, Mottled and White-headed Petrel, Sooty and Short-tailed Shearwaters, Antarctic Prions and both Grey-backed and Black-bellied Storm Petrels.

Antarctic Prion in the Southern Ocean

The conditions during the passage to Macca we were told was "average", however the direction of the swell caused an average roll of 20deg throughout the day, with a couple reaching more than 45 as the day progressed and the wind picked up. On one particularly memorable 42deg roll (I was watching the gauge), Xenia lost her footing and broke a rib or two, which was obviously not good, however luckily for her we saw no major pelagic rarities which would have been new for her Aus. list! As we approached Macquarie in the evening (still out birding at 10:00pm), the persistent efforts of Rob, Dani and myself were finally rewarded with 3 Blue Petrels showing well very close to the boat, associating with prions.

Day 6: 20th November

One does not simply recount their first day on Macquarie Island amongst the masses of curious penguins and seals - never have I had such an intimate encounter with animals which are so unafraid and inquisitive, and it will probably be a long time before (if ever) I experience something comparable to the next two days.

After picking up the rangers from the station (and identifying all the major resident breeding species from an excessive distance, including Antarctic Tern and differentiation of three penguin species, just in case we couldn't land the next day at the base), we motored south to Sandy Bay. 

Wow. 

Dani and I hardly noticed the penguins as we left the zodiac and our eyes locked on the male elephant seal sleeping in front of us. We were bewildered at the true size of the beast! Elephant seal pups littered the beach, one of the main sounds of the day being their comical burps and farts (no kidding, evolution dished out some terrible digestive issues to this species - see video).

Slumbering Beachmaster - a well deserved rest after months of mating!

Elephant Seal Weaners are cute, even when moulting

(don't try to tell me he isn't adorable)

Burping Elephant Seal Weaner

"The Burp"

This photo doesn't emphasise how big Elephant Seals are

Neither does this video, but...
"How Big is an Elephant Seal?"

I was just getting into the zone of penguin fanaticism when Dani came up and asked me if I'd seen the Chinstrap. I laughed him off as I had the other jibes at the Antarctic or Snow Petrels every time one of us took a bathroom break at sea. But lo and behold, what bird stood just up the beach but Australia's 3rd (if accepted) Chinstrap Penguin!!! It was quite feisty, and didn't get one well with the surrounding Royals if they got too close.

Chinstrap Penguin - I need to figure out how to rotate these on blogger later...

Although we looked consistently throughout the day, and one bird tried hard to trick us at the breeding colony up the hill, we could not pull out a repeat of last year's Macaroni Penguin.

"Small" Royal Penguin breeding colony

Dark Royal - not quite a Macaroni Penguin

Rob and I

I finally was able to focus on Macca's star attraction penguins - the true Royal Kings of the Southern Ocean (#birdpun). You can never be prepared for an experience such as this. The weather was perfect in the morning, with a brisk wind and clear blue sky. I spent hours lying down in the midst of penguins, having my gloved fingers nibbled at, my stone offerings accepted (and denied) by interested penguins. On a quick return to the ship for lunch we had a pod of 8 Orcas cruise slowly past, before we got back down to the beach for the rest of the afternoon, and more hours of penguin-filled amazingness, taking selfies and other gripping photos, all the while enjoying the company of (conservatively) 10,000 Kings and 2000 Royals.

(PS: Will add photos of myself with the birds when I get them off Dani in a few days)

Macquarie Island: With Kings and Royalty

Of course I also saw some Lesser Redpolls (identified from Mealy, which in theory could also occur). We also met the rabbit mop-up team and some of their dogs - still no rabbit sightings after two years, it's looking good!

This rabbit dog hasn't actually seen a rabbit on Macca

Content Elephant Seal Weaner

Slight male Elephant Seal tussle, but there's no 

point getting into it when all the girls have gone! 

Back onboard this evening we had a few more Orcas pass in front of the anchored ship, a number of  distant Soft-plumages Petrels, and fantastic views of a single Blue Petrel. A 5-minute-instant-blizzard covered the tops of he mountains in snow just before a picturesque sunset. I'll not be forgetting this day in a hurry!

Fire and Ice at Macquarie Island

Day 7: 21st November

Woke up a bit late and missed Southern Fulmar, which put myself and Rob in a foul mood. Conditions were a bit windy (and snowy) so we did not zodiac to the King Penguin colony at Lusitania Bay, however viewing the immense (50,000) colony from the ship breeding amongst the rusted penguin boilers was impressive enough! We motored up the coast back towards Buckles Bay and the research station, Rob and I skipping breakfast, hoping to repeat the earlier Fulmar.

 Snow in Summer

We zodiaced ashore fulmarless, and our group's ranger guide David showed us around. Gentoo Penguins and their large chicks were abundant, as were the ever-present elephant seal weeners. As LMSAlbys wheeled in the sky, we were notified that the third zodiac from the ship had had SF fly past.

"Young" male Elephant Seal

Gentoo Penguin greeting partner

Gentoo and chick

In the mess hall we had some tea and cake, and access to internet. Being hardcore birders, the first thing we all did was check our respective rare bird websites (with exclamations from Dani after reading of a first for Spain not far from his house). Rob and I submitted a brief report of the Chinstrap to Birdline before heading back outside.

"Lesser" Redpoll

After completing a tour of the station, we were on the westward side of the island when a call came through the radio of SF circling the ship. We raced over but alas only saw a distant grey blob wheeling away. Good views of Macquarie Shag and white morph Southern Giant Petrel made up for it.

Overexposed White Southern Giant Petrel

Macquarie Island Shag

We returned to the ship in the hope the SF would return, and a quick stop off at the Rockhopper Penguin colony netted us our 5th penguin species for Macca (however bumpy and blurry our binocular views were from the zodiac). Luckily we finally spotted a SF just before lunch, so we were able to go down and eat in peace.

Bumpy Distant Southern Rockhopper Penguins

It is now 5:30 and we are cruising away from Macquarie. Since leaving, we have had no less than 11 Blue Petrels, 8 Soft-plumages Petrels, 2 more Southern Fulmars and many other goodies such as our first Wilson's Storm-petrels.

Make that 12 Blue Petrels. 13. 14. 17. 22. 27. 31. It is now 10:00 and we have estimated 50-70 (repeat counts likely of course).

Blue Petrel - one of the best seabirds

Also went up to 13 Southern Fulmars (both these and BP coming within metres of us as we leant over the bow, views can't get any better than that when you're almost able to reach out and touch them!!!). A number of Arctic-type terns were flying about too, with 3 definite Arctic and at least 4 more almost-certains. Although this birding involved skipping the Thanksgiving Dinner and standing for 3 hours on the bow in close to negative temperatures and snow, Rob, Dani and myself are all happy with our decision as we eat some satisfying powdered soup and biscuits! 

Sunset Stormie (Black-bellied)

We were happy to learn that, despite Xenia being confined to her cabin with a broken rib and Sue watching over her, they both managed to tick off Southern Fulmar through their porthole! And of course Xenia did get ashore with care, seeing her much needed Redpoll today and of course the Chinstrap Penguin yesterday!

Black-bellied Storm Petrel Jesusing

PS: It wasn't actually thanksgiving, the Macca staff gave the ship's cooks the wrong date!

Day 8: 22nd November
Almost an exact replica day of yesterday after leaving Macca, with almost exactly the same birds, but in much smaller numbers (despite our constant, tiring vigil!).

White-headed Petrel