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.

 

Inaccessible Island - 14th April

April 14th

The sea state was excellent this morning and the British officials were able to come aboard and they quickly completed the required formalities enabling the expedition to continue onto Inaccessible Island.

Map data: Google, Maxar Techologies

With the ship anchored off Inaccessible Island, we were informed that a landing was going to be attempted on one of the only two possible landing locations. Members of the expedition team managed to land and a handful of guests from a zodiac also managed to get ashore but were almost immediately told to return to their zodiac as despite the calm conditions, the height of the surf hitting the landing beach was assessed as too dangerous for a landing. This meant that the chances of seeing Inaccessible Island Rail, the endemic flightless rail that inhabits the island were extremely slim. Three members of the expedition team who  managed to land saw one and grippingly, obtained photos. One guest who was on the lucky zodiac that also landed was within feet of the bird before being called back! Eventually the news got back to the ship that in order to get off the zodiac and onto the beach we would be jumping in to surf that would have been up to our chests in height. Some of the bird guides suggested that we swam from the zodiacs to shore but needless to say that idea was not taken further.

So the next best option was a zodiac cruise which itself is something that cannot always be achieved when visiting this island. It took over two hours for the first zodiacs to start the cruising and after the long wait to see if we were going ashore I had been feeling progressively ill and had to return to the cabin to rest. I just didn't feel well enough to attempt even a zodiac cruise. I fell asleep and awoke to a final announcement for the last zodiac cruise. I felt so much better and gathered all the gear I needed and made it to the last zodiac.

Inaccessible Island

Zodiac cruise, looking for the Rail, Thrush and the Finch

The Finch and Thrush were quite hard to find from a rocking zodiac as they foraged amongst the rocks on the shoreline, let alone photograph. There is one Inaccessible Island Finch in this photo

Two Inaccessible Island finches

Subantarctic Fur Seal

Tristan Da Cunha - 13th April

April 13th

We were approaching Tristan Da Cunha early morning, and the weather conditions were not great with a heavy sea. Flocks of prions were passing the ship early morning along with Spectacled and White-chinned Petrels.

Prions

Spectacled and White-chinned Petrels

Approaching Tristan Da Cunha

As we approached Tristan we started to get fabulous views of Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross.

Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross. There's always one going the wrong way!

Our approach to Tristan meant we sailed past coastal locations holding Northern Rockhopper Penguin colonies except that the colonies had finished breeding and we couldn't find any.

Gough Storm-Petrel

We anchored offshore beyond the harbour at Tristan Da Cunha awaiting the arrival of island officials to conduct the required initial formalities for the dead passenger. However, the sea state was too rough for them to make the crossing to the ship. We remained anchored overnight, hopefully, tomorrow the sea state might be better allowing them to make the crossing. That evenings de-brief in the lounge by the captain and the expedition leader informed us that the weather was due to be good enough to attempt a landing on Inaccessible Island on April 14th after the officials had completed their business but it was not known how long that would take.

Atlantic Odyssey - At sea to Tristan Da Cunha - 12th April

April 12th

We were due to end the day positioned in the lee of Gough Island hopefully hiding and riding out the worst of the weather system that so far we had been avoiding. It was a certainty that we would not be able to undertake any zodiac cruises whilst there due to the worsening weather and once the storm had passed we would continue on our way to  Tristan Da Cunha. However, this didn't happen as overnight one of the male passengers had died and the captain had taken the decision to head straight to Tristan Da Cunha and sort of skirting the worst part of the storm. We learned of what had happened early on the morning of the 12th April as we were all called into the lounge and given a de-brief of the situation and decision by the captain and the expedition leader. The main reason for heading straight to Tristan was to commence the formalities required for the death on-board making use of the British authority present on Tristan. It was a bit of a shock but to be honest given the age of some of the passengers not an entirely unexpected thing to happen on a cruise ship. Obviously we felt sorry for the mans partner and some of the exped crew stayed with her and provided consoling support. 

The sea state was heavy both during the night and day and it seemed that many of the birds we had seen on the 11th were staying with the ship. 

Spectacled Petrel

Grey-headed Albatross

Subantarctic Shearwater

The weather conditions were variable throughout the day with this Snowy Albatross easily riding out the incoming squall and heavy sea.

Great-winged Petrel

This 1986 ringed Snowy Albatross is K46 and a female from Marion Island

Sooty Albatross

Atlantic Odyssey - At sea to Gough Island - 11th April

April 11th

The day for trying to find a MacGillivray's Prion, mainly by trying to photograph every Prion!!! Took loads of photos and i'm pretty certain I didn't see one but fabulous views of Broad-billed Prion and Antarctic Prions. Great views of Spectacled Petrels and also Skuas attacking Albatross!

Spectacled Petrel

Broad-billed Prion

Great Shearwater

Subantarctic Shearwater (Puffinus elegans)

Antarctic Prion

Gough Storm Petrel

Spectacled and White-chinned Petrels

Shy Albatross

Snowy Albatross

Brown Skua (Subantarctic Skua Stercorarius [antarcticus] hamiltoni)in attack mode towards a Snowy Albatross

The Snowy Albatross is forced to stall and clearly doesn't like the Skua

There was a small army of nine Brown Skuas around the ship ganging up on the Albatross.

Gough (Tristan) Wandering Albatross (Diomedea dabbenena)

Gough (Tristan) Wandering Albatross and Broad-billed Prion

Spectacled Petrel

At the time there was some discussion that this might be an Antipodes Wandering Albatross (Diomedea [exulans] antipodensis) however, after further analysis of photos and discussion the opinion was that it more likely a Gough or Snowy Wandering Albatross.

Whatever species it was it did not escape the unwanted attention of the vectoring Brown Skuas

Even Sooty Albatross was attacked. The Brown Skua eventually grabbing the tail of the Sooty Albatross forcing it to crash in to the sea.

Soft-plumaged Petrel

Atlantic Petrel

Great-winged Petrel