The Black-bellied Storm Petrel is a tiny dancer on the rough seas of the southern oceans. This one was seen in the infamous Drake Passage on the way to Antarctica. I thought it strange that the second half of the latin binomial is tropica given where I saw it, so I looked it up. They apparently do migrate to tropical waters in the summer (northern summer).
Although this was the most consistently seen species on our Antarctica trip with hundreds of them visible at some points, they still made my jaw drop up until the last day of the trip. Like all Albatrosses, they are amazing to watch as they glide effortlessly over the southern oceans. We have had a few records of them up in North Carolina but I haven't seen one yet. Hoping this is the year!
This was perhaps my favorite of all the Albatross species we saw on our Antarctica trip. The color scheme along with the yellow nose is just perfect. They were abundant and sometimes outnumbered the Black-browed Albatross in places. Just like the other Albatross species we saw, they have a truly circumpolar distribution, meaning they patrol the southern oceans clear around the globe.
This beautiful species of the circumpolar pelagic waters around Antarctica almost slipped by without me seeing it. I was mostly hanging out in the back of the boat while Matt was up front. We were taking a divide and conquer strategy. Most of the Albatrosses seemed to be coming up the wake of the boat, checking us out and then veering off to the sides. However, I was checking the guidebook and it said that Light-mantled Albatross always seems to come in from the front of the boat, so I repositioned myself for a bit and this beauty showed up just like the guidebook said.
On the way down to Antarctica across the infamous Drake, we saw many Albatross including two of the largest in the world, the Southern Royal Albatross and Wandering type Albatrosses. The former can be IDed to the species. The latter unfortunately cannot. The Wandering Albatross was split into Snowy, Tristan, Antipodian and Amsterdam Albatrosses. I have good pictures of one but who knows which one it is. Luckily for me the Southern Royal is a bit easier to ID based on the amount of black in the wings. This one has almost all black wings with a white leading edge and some splotches in the middle. Speaking of the wings, this bird has an average wingspan of 9.8 feet!
Magellanic Penguins range all over coastal Patagonia including Argentina, Chile and the Falklands. They have many different plumages depending on age. They were in breeding condition when we were there with many chicks and young birds.
If Adelie's are cute, and Gentoos are goofy, then Chinstraps are the old curmudgeons of the Pygoscelis genus. They have a braying song/call that sounds like a donkey. Wiki has some interesting facts about them:
"Chinstrap penguins are generally considered to be the most aggressive and ill-tempered species of penguin.[8]
Chinstrap penguins microsleep over 10,000 times a day and accomplish this in 4 second bouts of sleep. The sleep can be both bihemispheric and unihemispheric slow-wave sleep. The penguins accumulate over 11 hours of sleep for each hemisphere daily"
The Colony we visited was massive.
If Adelie is the cute one of the Pygoscelis genus, the Gentoo is the jester of the bunch. They are hilarious to watch waddling from the sea to their rocky colonies in single file on well worn snow highways. However, once they get in the sea they are sleek and graceful like little torpedos. We sometimes saw massive groups porpoising ahead of the boat. All pictures taken in Antarctica.
The cutest of all Penguins is the Adelie. We saw many of them in Antarctica including some really big colonies. These colonies are amazing to see but also kind of heart breaking because they are surrounded by all kinds of predators picking off the young and old birds one by one. We approached one breeding colony in a Zodiac only to watch Leopard Seals picking them off and sometimes separating the head, leaving a bunch of headless bodies floating around which in turn fed Kelp Gulls, Skuas and Giant Petrels. Life is hard.
This largest and most sought after of the Penguin species is usually very difficult to see for most birders because they only breed in the austral winter which makes visiting them a dicey proposition. Most boat tours of Antarctica understandably only visit in the austral summer. Emperor Penguins disperse in the austral summer and the only way to find them is to have a chance encounter either on the sea or if you are even more lucky on an ice berg. When Matt and I took our trip to Antarctica, we did not expect to get this bird. What is even more remarkable is that Matt, Steve B and I happened to be standing at the front of the boat when this bird appeared on the surface of the water. I think we were the only ones on the boat that got to see it. Not seeing the Snow Petrel hurt pretty bad but this beauty softened the blow.
This spectacular bird is found throughout the northern half of South America and Central America. It has an ancient lineage and is most closely related to the Kagu of New Caledonia which shows that the common ancestor dates back to Gondwana Land. Both these species have an amazing wing display which I didn't witness, but I did catch one landing after a short flight so you can get an idea of the wing patterns. I saw these in the Pantanal in Brazil which is actually the southern limit of their range.
One frustrating thing about finding Antarctic Terns in Antarctica is that Arctic Terns can also be found there in the austral summer when most people visit Antarctica. That was a mouthful. The good news is that Arctic Terns at that time of year would always be in non-breeding plumage. So I can be sure that the first couple photos are Antarctic Terns. The last photo could potentially be a non-breeding Arctic, but it's not likely considering the Antarctic ones outnumber Arctics in that area. All photos taken in Antarctica.
This species is similar to Common and Arctic Terns in appearance, but they are the most common species on the shores of Argentina and Chile where I saw these ones. We saw large breeding colonies with individuals in many different stages of development. These pictures are from Ushuaia where we took a scenic boat tour the day before we set sail for Antarctica. They are slightly larger than Common or Arctic Terns.
Adult breeding bird.
This was probably the best bird of the year for 2020, for me at least. The species is far ranging in the eastern hemisphere, but records to the western hemisphere are few and far between. In North Carolina, I think there was only one record in 1994 before this one was found in 2020 at Salt Pond on the outer banks. This species blends the black-and-white color scheme perfectly with its dark head and body contrasting in a very elegant way with the white wings.
Although I have seen this species several times in Europe, it was not until my trip to the South of France this year where I could really study them in detail. They are the most prevalent species there except maybe Black-headed Gull. These ones were photographed at Cap d'Antibes on the famous Le Sentier du Littoral hiking trail.
In 2024 the Herring Gull was split into four species: American, European, Vega and Mongolian Gull. Luckily I took some pictures on my last trip to London. This one was happily floating on a lake in Hyde Park in the center of the city. I recently bought the Gull Guide and plan to study it so I can potentially find North Carolina's first European Herring or Vega. Apparently telling the early cycle birds is easier than the adults. This one is an adult bird.
The Kelp Gull is in the news right now as I write this because one of them is breeding with an American Herring Gull in Wisconsin. This is highly unusual and in fact this bird mostly sticks to very southern South America in Argentina, Chile but also as far as Antarctica where they are the only regular gull species. That is where I saw and photographed these. They are most closely resembling our Black-backed Gulls and somewhat intermediate between the two in size and some other traits.
A first winter bird.
