Kentish Plover

A great find by Jacob of a male Kentish Plover at Lade Sands/Greatstone Bay this afternoon. 

Scotney and ARC

In addition to twitching the Kentish Plover, earlier in the day I had cycled to Scotney to hopefully hear Quail that had been singing there over the past couple of days. I stopped at Pigwell as two lumps caught my eye on the ridge of the barn roof. The barn had been recently repaired and it was good to see the lumps turn in to the pair of Little Owls that live in the barn as I was concerned that maybe the work had caused them to leave. As usual one of the two made a hasty exit on seeing me but not before I managed to get a shot of them both.

Little Owls

A Spoonbill had been found by Martin a couple of days ago and had stuck around but as usual it spent most of the time fast asleep on Scotney main pit so it was welcome to actually see it feeding on Scotney West pit. Good numbers of Tree Sparrows were at the back of Scotney and breeding Yellow Wagtails seemed to be doing well around the arable fields.

At ARC returning breeding waders comprised five Redshank (juv and four adults) were new in that day and the female Garganey was at the back of the pit from Hanson hide.

Juvenile and adult Redshank

A trio of Oystercatchers were making a lot of noise with a head down piping display. This was presumably a pair attempting to see off an intruder.

 

Atlantic Odyssey - Coopers Island and Drygalski Fjiord

7th April 2026

Heading in to Drygalski Fjiord with penguin rookeries of Chinstrap, Macaroni and Gentoo. A colony of Snow Petrels occur within the Fjiord which is unusual given it's distance from the Antarctic Peninsula. We managed to get great views of a pod of Orca's including a cute small calf. It was sad to say goodbye to South Georgia.

Macaroni Penguin rookery

Southern Giant Petrel

Northern Giant Petrel

Pintado Petrel

Patterns in the ice

Looking for Orca in the Fjiord

Orca mother and calf

Snow Petrel

The head of the Drygalski Fjiord

A small section of the Chinstrap Penguin rookery

Chinstrap Penguin porpoising 

Coopers Island

Leaving South Georgia

Atlantic Odyssey - Gold Harbour

7th April

Gold Harbour is so called because the sun's rays make the cliffs yellow with their light in the morning and evening. However, we had overcast skies in the morning on arrival but the hanging ice cliffs and the Bertrab Glacier were impressive.

Between the King Penguin rookery and the hanging glacier there is a lagoon which you can't see in the photos.

There was a rough surf crashing on to the steep beach and a bumpy swell causing any attempts at photography and video to be tricky. However, the King Penguins took it all in their stride with small flocks seeming to handle the rough looking conditions with ease.

As well as Antarcrtic Fur Seals a number of Southern Elephant Seals were also hauled out on the beach.

Cute Antarctic Fur Seals just mucking about

Atlantic Odyssey - St Andrews Bay - Part 2

6th April 2026

The awesome sight of the King Penguin rookery at St Andrews Bay is just sensory overload.

The main part of the King Penguin rookery

Flipper fights look bruising

Orderly queue returning to the zodiac

As the weather started to close in and thanks to Josh one of the Ornis guides, I managed to get on the last zodiac offering a coastal cruise past the rookery.

Brown Skua (Subantarctic Skua) Stercorarius [antarcticus] lonbergi

Antarctic Fur Seal, they look very cute (and are at this age and younger) but.....

Bandit country, the Antarctic Fur Seals always won, at least they thought they had. This couple survived.

Too close!

Atlantic Odyssey - St Andrews Bay - Part 1

6th April 2026

Having spent a superb morning at Grytviken we cruised to St Andrews Bay and hopefully a zodiac landing at a King Penguin colony.

The scenery en-route to St Andrews Bay was spectacular

Black-browed Albatross

Antarctic Tern

Southern Right Whale

King Penguins

Southern Elephant Seals

King Penguin