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| Spirit of Enderby |
After our trip to Stewart Island we embarked on an eight day trip to the sub-Antarctic islands. These islands lie between New Zealand and Antarctica and are home to unique birds and
plants. First up was the North East Island in the Snares Islands group (The Snares). At the port south of Invercargill we joined the Heritage Expeditions "Spirit of Enderby" expedition ship.
After cruising
overnight, we awoke on the sheltered east side of North East Island, home to the endemic Snares Penguin, a uniquely
colored form of Tomtit (this one is all black), and a unique form of the
Fernbird, plus breeding Buller’s Albatross, Sooty Shearwaters, Common Diving
Petrels, Antarctic Tern, Giant Petrels, New Zealand Fur Seals, and forests of
the large tree daisy.
There are no visitor landings allowed on The Snares (they are riddled with breeding seabird burrows) to protect the birds and seals. The seals are in trouble and experienced a steep population decline due to introduced diseases back in the 1990s. We were lucky the
weather was calm enough for us to do a zodiac cruise. This isn’t always
possible as these islands are in the roaring fourties, where the wind is a
constant and storms roar around the globe north of Antarctica.
The birds didn't
disappoint though, and we saw all our target birds while we cruised along the
shore in zodiacs. We especially enjoyed watching the penguins scrambling onto
the shore and scaling what looked like cliffs to us. They do this as they
can nest far from the shore and need to get back to feed their chicks. It was a special morning in a fantastic place. Then back to the ship for the long cruise to the Auckland Islands.
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| Our home for 8 days |
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| Lifeboat drills. It's amazing how many humans you can jam in one of these things. I hope never to try one for real. |
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| Zodiac cruising |
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| The zodiacs were able to get very close to shore |
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| Adult Antarctic Tern |
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| Immature Antarctic Tern |
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| Buller's Albatross on nest |
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| Common Diving Petrel |
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| Fernbird |
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| Fernbird |
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| Snares Penguin |
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| Snares Penguin |
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| Snares Penguin |
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| Snares Penguin |
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| Snares Penguins climbing the cliffs to nest sites |
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| Snares Penguins climbing the cliffs to nest sites |
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| White-fronted Tern |
Fantastic!
ReplyDeleteLooks like perfect weather! What great pictures of such beautiful birds.
ReplyDeletePenguins climbing Always amazes me!! An added layer of hard work to raise their chicks. So glad that you were able to be so close to the different birds. The Fernbird is new to me. Wondering about their lifestyle... (will look it up) Reminds, me - didn't the fern Trees elsewhere amaze you at their size? I really like all the photos of another world and it's fantastic birds braving a very harsh climate.
ReplyDeleteThe island
Some of the fern trees on the mainland islands were enormous and amazing!
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