Sea Lion Island Monochromes

Apr9

5th to 8th November 2015. Sea Lion Island, Falkland Islands.

The entrance to Port Howard inlet in West Falkland and the mountains beyond.

It was wild weather on Sea Lion Island, particularly to the south of the island.

A silvery grebe in a sheltered pond.

The king cormorants were washed out of their earlier roost and had to decamp to higher ground.

Now at the quieter end of the island where some were oblivious, including this bull elephant seal.

Kelp geese.

The beachmaster arrives…

… and heads for a female…

Back in the south of the island, with king cormorants and wild weather.

Ole Jørgen Liodden cleaning his lens in the wild wind and spray.

North end of the island again. Elephant seal portrait.

An encounter on a beach…

Kelp and sand.

A dash of a gentoo penguin…

A cruise ship in Stanley harbour.

Rockhopper penguins.

Last Day at Sea Lion Island

Mar12

5th to 6th November 2015. Sea Lion Island, Falkland Islands.

On my last day in Sea Lion Island, I wandered around in the middle of the island, where there is a variety of wildlife, then returned to the Northern end.

Speckled Teal.

Upland Goose.

Flightless Steamer Duck (Male).

Kelp Geese.

Patagonian Crested Duck.

Kelp and rocks.

The waves were still breaking through the tunnel in the rocks though the sea was much quieter than the first two days.

Patagonian Crested Ducks.

Kelp Goose.

Elephant Seal.

Kelp Goose.

Gentoo penguins on the northern beach.

Flightless Steamer Ducks.

Elephant Seal with scars.

Getting up close…

Sand blowing along the beach.

Elephant Seals.

Sand and Kelp.

Looking towards the Lodge.

Flying Steamer Ducks.

Gentoo Penguin Road including a water crossing.

They’d bank up at the edge of the water and when there was enough numbers, they’d dash across as quickly as possible.

After all, you never know when there might be an orca or a leopard seal.

And there was at least two inches of water….

This is now the morning of the next day. There was a little extra time before we were due to fly out.

Return to the Wild South of Sea Lion Island

Mar5

4th November 2015. Sea Lion Island, Falkland Islands.

On Sea Lion Island I met up with a small group of Norwegian Photographers led by Ole Jørgen Liodden of Wildphoto. I had previously met Ole on the plane from Santiago to Mount Pleasant Airport (East Falkland) and we were all due to join the ship on the voyage to South Georgia Island in a few days.

Ole asked me if I had seen anything interesting in my quick tour of the island and I told him of the wild conditions at the south end of the island so we all headed off there in two or three four wheel drives.

Juvenile King Cormorant.

The sea was thundering into an inlet and throwing up spray high into the air as well as a rainbow.

And here is the King Cormorant colony in a rare moment with little spray, though the wind was no doubt unabated.

The sea was wild in the background, the spray carried for a long way and you had to be careful not to be blown over by the wind.

The birds in the sky are a mixture of the more drab juvenile King Cormorants and adults in their magnificent finery.

A lone dolphin gull over the colony. The birds stand with their heads tucked away due to the force of the winds.

And the force of the waves is amazing. The ocean is a long way down.

Not a good place for swimming. Awesome power in the waves.

There were a few rockhopper penguins there too.

A challenging environment for photography. Cleaning of the front element would be happening here.

This is Ole Jørgen Liodden.

I must have walked a bit further north from Rockhopper Point and the HMS Sheffield Memorial (HMS Sheffield was a destroyer sunk near here by an Exocet missile in the Falklands War). The point in middle distance is part of Sea lion Island but it must be Rum Island in the background.

Striated cara cara in the spray.

Dolphin gulls over the cormorants and photographers in the background.

Ole was using two Nikon D5s with Beta firmware during this trip and there is a review of the D5 on his blog which includes images from the Falklands and South Georgia.

Elephant Seal Romance and Combat

Feb27

4th November 2015. Sea Lion Island, Falkland Islands.

The beachmaster arrives.

Southern elephant seals can dive for more than twenty minutes and have been recorded more than 2,000 metres down.

I found a remote sheltered stony cove populated by elephant seals. From my vantage point maybe ten feet above them, I was able to observe their interactions much more successfully than had I been at the same level.

Here he is, fresh from an elephant seal beauty contest in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

Whether his overtures are appreciated is not perhaps the point as far as he is concerned.

The pup looks on seemingly with curiosity and concern.

An illusory moment of domestic bliss, perhaps.

As one can see here, the beachmaster and a female are very different in size. Adult male southern elephant seals weigh up to five tonnes and are up to seven metres long.

Hmm. I had assumed those wounds on his nose were scars of combat. Maybe there’s another explanation.

Two’s company…

I will resist the temptation to add an anthropomorphic label on this occasion.

… but maybe not this one: “Always look on the bright side of life”…

One may indeed contend whether “romance” and elephant seals should be mentioned in the same sentence.

It’s possible that Donald Trump aspires to be a male elephant seal, though that’s perhaps being unfair to the elephant seals.

Beachmasters control a harem of up to several dozen females but need to be constantly on the lookout for interlopers trying to muscle in.

Being big is an advantage.

These contests are serious and they can carry many scars.

The interloper retreats.

And the contest continues in the sea.

But eventually he gives up and leaves the harem to the beachmaster.

Sea Lion Island – Quick Tour

Feb20

3rd November 2015. Sea Lion Island, Falkland Islands.

On arriving at Sea Lion Island, I opted for a quick tour of the island in a four-wheel vehicle. There was just myself and a couple as well as the driver.

There were some wild seas.

… and they were washing in and out of the hole in the cliff.

Silvery Grebe.

The south end of the island was receiving the brunt of the storm.

The King Cormorants had been washed out of their lower roosting position and had to take refuge further up.

There was a wild wind but I was able to photograph from the quiet and comfort of the passenger seat of the four wheel drive.

Back at the Lodge in the east part of the island, I went for as walk before dinner. This is an elephant seal arriving on the beach.

The seas were a bit wild at this end of the island too.

Magellanic Penguin.

This is the Gentoo Penguin Road. Stretching from the beach in the far left distance…

… past where I was standing to their colony.

Here is the far point and the Penguin Road in the middle foreground.

And a bit further on they cross some shallow water to get to the beach.

Dominican Gull in front of the wild sea.

Flightless steamer ducks.

Gulls wheeling in the air.

An elephant seal coming in to shore and announcing his arrival.

Probably the same one. There were lots of elephant seals on Sea Lion Island but no sea lions at this time.

A harem of elephant seals stretched out on the beach.

A couple of young ones practicing for their adult contests.

Snuggling in the seaweed.

Peacefully sleeping on the beach. Note the traces of blood though on the neck. There have been some territorial contests going on.

Pebble Island to Sea Lion Island

Jan29

3rd November 2015. Falkland Islands.

At 11am I flew from Pebble Island to Sea Lion Island in the same light plane that previously took me to Pebble Island.

If you look carefully you may be able to see the airfield, both along the isthmus and across it. This is where a SAS raid destroyed the Argentine aircraft on the ground in 1982.

Moving a bit to the right, there is the edge of the settlement at bottom right under the watermark.

The large building is the main house where I stayed.

Moving further along, this is the wharf and the old farm buildings.

The following five images are islets between Pebble Island and West Falkland.

Brocken Island and subsidiary islets.

At the east end of East Island.

Same location, different view.

Small islands off River Island.

Probably the east coast of River Island.

Flying over the barren hinterlands of West Falkland.

On the east coast of West Falkland, this is Port Howard, the most massive metropolis in West Falkland, with twenty inhabitants and centre of a farm with over 40,000 sheep.

Still Port Howard, from a different perspective as we fly south west.

Falkland Sound in the foreground and the cliffs that protest Port Howard from the East.

Further back and now we can see the Hornby Mountains behind and the weather is closing in.

Now we can see the entrance to Port Howard Inlet.

This is now the west coast of East Falkland, Long Point from over Egg Harbour.

A bit further on, looking back towards the southern edge of Egg Harbour.

A river in the centre of East Falkland.

There are many small lakes in the centre of East Falkland. I know where this is, but can’t supply a name.

At the far end of Adventure Sound.

This is at the Bay of Harbours, at the south coast of East Falkland, just to the east of Cow Point. I don’t have a shot coming in to Sea Lion Island, further south. It must have been too cloudy there.

Murray Foote

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