All,
I asked for advice & received lots of good info from various listserv members about planning a trip to Antarctica. I have now taken 2 trips to that area (our ship had engine problems after arriving in South Georgia last fall, so we had to return to port & miss Antarctica. In exchange, we had a “free” trip (not including air travel) to Antarctica alone, completed March 4th. Based on this, the birds are much better in the Falklands & South Georgia. More numerous, more variety. The penguin colonies were also bigger. However, the one view we had of Chinstrap penguins in the fall was so far away most people didn’t even see them. We only saw 3, however, on our “Uncharted Islands of the Deep South” Feb/Mar Oceanwide cruise.
We did manage to get good sightings of at least 6 Emperor penguins. And an EBird reviewer assures me that almost all of the skuas south of the Antarctic Circle are either South Polar or hybrids.
The gentoo penguin colonies in Antarctica were pretty hilarious. The King penguin colonies in S Georgia had a lot of action. The Rockhoppers & Magellanic in the Falklands were mainly sitting on eggs or chicks. Between both trips, we saw all the penguins. There were more whales on the southern trip. We saw 6 types of albatross, more variety on the northern trip. No prions at all on the southern trip. Sorry to take up others time, but I can’t remember who I promised to provide feedback to.
Warmly,
Sheryl
