Antarctic Adventure - Day 6

In the morning of day 6 (Nov. 12), the ship docked in the town of Stanley, which is the capital of the Falkland Islands.  Most of the population of the Falkland Islands live in Stanley, with the rest scattered thinly across the remainder of the islands.

For the morning, we opted to take a tour out into the countryside to visit a typical Falkland Islands sheep farm.

Along the way we saw many of these "stone rivers".  These are an interesting geological weathering feature that is very common on the Falkland Islands.

Since the Falkland Islands have no native trees, the farmers have taken to burning peat for fuel.  This is a picture of a peat bed on the farm where the peat is dug out in blocks of roughly a one foot cube and allowed to dry before being burned.

Being a sheep farm, we were given a demonstration of shearing a sheep to harvest its wool.

During the afternoon we took a tour of Stanley.

A private open-air whaling museum was one of the things we saw.

We also toured a small historical museum.

That evening the ship left Stanley to begin the voyage from the South Atlantic Ocean into the Scotia Sea and our next stop, South Georgia Island.

Antarctic Adventure - Day 5 Afternoon

After spending the morning at New Island in the Falkland Islands, the ship moved on to visit Carcass Island.

Our excursion on Carcass Island started with hikes of various lengths.  I opted for a photography stroll.

The ship at anchor

Another Johnny Rook (Striated Caracara)

A pair of Upland Geese on the beach

A female Kelp Goose

A pair of Kelp Geese

Another female Kelp Goose

A couple of Magellanic Penguins

The island is owned by the McGill family.  This is a view of their farm.

The McGills provided us with a wonderful afternoon tea.  The table was absolutely covered with a fabulous assortment of cookies and cakes.

This Johnny Rook may have been looking for leftovers.

Antarctic Adventure - Day 5 Morning

On day 5 we reached the Falkland Islands.  Our first activity here was an excursion to see a mixed colony of seabirds on New Island.  This colony contains Rock-hopper Penguins, Black-browed Albatross and Imperial Cormorants.

Zodiac boats were our primary mode of transportation to and from the ship.

On the Falkland Islands we saw many patches of gorse, which is a non-native plant introduced by the settlers.

During the hike to the seabird colony we saw many Upland Geese.
This is a female with goslings.

Male Upland Goose
Notice how the female has colors to blend into the terrain, but the male is very noticeable.  It's the male's job to lure predators away.

This is a stitched panorama of the seabird colony.  It is mostly Rock-hopper Penguins, Black-browed Albatross mostly around to the far left, with some Imperial Cormorants scattered throughout.
(be sure to click on it for the larger version)

Rock-hopper Penguin pairs

An unimpressed Imperial Cormorant

Black-browed Albatross
This variety of albatross have wingspans of around 7 feet.

Always hanging around the seabird colonies are predators watching for unattended eggs or young chicks.

Striated Caracara (a.k.a. Johnny Rook in the Falklands)

Southern Skua

On our hike to and from the landing spot, we would occasionally see these Long-tailed Meadowlarks.

Abandoned boat at our landing spot.

Looking back at the ship from New Island.