2014/02 Falklands trip - Pebble Island tour |
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Thursday February 6th
There was fresh snow on the mountains to the south of us, on West Falkland. But the day looked to be improving and we met Cat after breakfast for our tour. Jean and Dennis joined us in the Pajero: this would be a 4wd tour with some walking.
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Pebble Island ponds (2.37) |
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We drove through the dunes and along the sands of Elephant Beach, through wetland and past freshwater ponds to the rocky cliffs of Cape Tamar. We made our way along the coast to the Tamar Peninsula and Cape Evans and then back across the wetlands to the settlement, about 15 miles covered in eight hours. There was wildlife everywhere
all the time, so this is just a list of the highlights.
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Pebble Island Beach (3.06) |
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The beach was littered with bones, including the large vertebrae of whales and maybe elephant seals, which breed there in early spring. There was even a cow skull.
At Cape Tamar some of us inched out onto a ledge to get directly above a group of young sealions, which took one look at these tottery pensioners and moved out of harm’s 
way. That is Dennis in the cliff picture, first onto the ledge. Down below the rim, we were out of the wind, a nice spot for Cat to serve a morning snack, so when a couple of sei whales came swimming past our hands were full of cake, not cameras.
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Cape Tamar (6.13) |
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There were Magellanic penguins everywhere. We’d been warned to watch out for their burrows as they’re close to the surface and easy to fall into. The burrows are full of fleas that are happy to lunch on humans.
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Cape Evans shags (3.07) |
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Near Cape Evans we found a colony of imperial shags. The shags look like pied cormorants wearing orange pince-nez. They zoom back from the sea full of food, soar in elegantly, and then crash into the crowded neighbourhood. This is a large colony and the area is noisy and somewhat smelly.
Cat was continually reminding us not to stand close to the cliff edges. The wind was constant but prone to gusting. These cliffs were too sheer for penguins but in other places the shags shared nesting space with rockhopper penguins.
The rockhoppers are the smallest penguins in the area, and maybe the cutest with their yellow eyebrows and plumes. They don’t have burrows, just a pile of dirt and twigs, which they tend often, getting covered in mud and worse. Only the ones fresh from the sea look clean.
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Cape Evans rockhoppers (10.16) |
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They get around by hopping with both feet, making their way up and down some scary cliffs. The picture at the bottom is my only one of a flying penguin.
The rockhoppers come up the cliffs in hopping gangs and look to be chatting to each other.
There was one quiet area; these seemed to be the rockhoppers who were molting, looking scruffy and somewhat dejected.
There were supposed to be some macaroni penguins in the group but we didn’t find them. The macaronis are larger with even more elaborate plumes. Why “macaroni”? In the 1700s it was a term for the “dedicated follower of fashion”, a dandy who wore a plumed hat.
Our last colony was the Gentoo. Their chicks were up and active, and the adults put them through fitness training, coming back with food but making the chicks chase them for it. So it was noisy there too, with screaming chicks racing after their parents, as well as the hallelujah calls.
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Gentoo penguins (6.27) |
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The Gentoos are perhaps the most inquisitive. Jean sat down and was trying to use her long lens but the Gentoos got much too close for her to focus.
At all of these sites there were skuas gliding over looking for any opportunity: dropped food or a sick chick
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Cat did a great job, a good day out. We saw many more birds than I’ve shown; most too far for pictures.
This is a ground tyrant, the South American equivalent to a flycatcher. The flowers are Falkland lavender, not related to the European plant.
Back at the lodge we heard that we four would be on the noon plane for our next trip. There were new faces at dinner, a couple from the UK.
Sandie and I took an evening walk to Toby Cove on the other coast. This took us through the settlement with a few occupied houses and some warehouses and sheds around 
a substantial pier. Lots of ancient corrugated iron, the building block of the British Empire.
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Pebble Island last morning |
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Pebble Island beach (2.07) |
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Friday February 7th
We had a beautiful morning with little wind and, sure enough, there was fog again at our destination on Sealion Island. The delay gave me time to take 
Sandie to see the penguin burrows above Elephant Beach’s cliffs. These sheep were in a nearby farm’s pigpen. We saw a helicopter come in and leave some passengers; personnel from the Mount Pleasant military base have their own transport. Back on the trail where I’d met the squalls, hundreds of sheep were being driven 
in by bikes and dogs, probably on their way to a shearing.