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January 28, 2000 |
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deception island & hannah point |
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Position: Deception Island Hannah Point Today's Bird Sightings: Mammal Sightings: Today's Reading: The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
Copyright © 2000, Janet I. Egan |
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I'm actually feeling kind of low this morning because I have a cold and my throat was particularly sore when I woke up. I was drowsing in the lounge trying to get it together to write a few things down when I heard Pete say "Antarctic petrel". I started for my binoculars and jacket just as the announcement came over the PA system. I got up on deck just in time to see an Antarctic petrel pass close to the rail. As I stood on deck watching the pintados and looking for more Antarctic petrels, two Antarctic petrels flew so close in front of me that I had to put down the binoculars to get a good look! My binoculars don't focus that close. What a beautiful bird - very elegant deep brown (almost black) and white, a little bigger than a Cape petrel.
Deception Island looks like just a big lump of rock until you sail through Neptune's Bellows, which opens out into a perfect harbor. It was a whaling center until whale oil prices collapsed in 1931. It's been varioulsy claimed by Argentina, Chile, and Britain who all had research stations there. Deception Island is still an active volcano, which erupted in 1967 right in front of the Chilean station. The Chileans had to run for it, over to the British station, covered with ash. Both Chileans and Brits were evacuated by helicopter. It erupted again in 1969 and 1970.
Hannah Point, Livingston Island is one of the most diverse wildlife sites: chinstrap and gentoo penguin colonies, one stray macaroni penguin, elephant seals piled up on the black sand beach molting, a fur seal, loads of sheathbills, plenty of kelp gulls. Hannah Point is practically exploding with life. Both chinstraps and gentoos nest here. The nesting area is a riot of older gentoo chicks chasing their parents trying to get them to feed 'em. I guess that helps them build strength. The food chase just goes on and on. Many chinstrap chicks huddle together in a pile in the center of the nesting area, sort of a day care center for baby chinstraps while their parents are out getting more krill for them. They penguin experts refer to this as a creche. I saw one chinstrap incubating an egg. That seems kind of late in the season. All the chicks are so old you gotta wonder if the chick in that egg will survive beyond the day it hatches.
The smell and sound of the colony is overwhelming. Fishy smell. Raucous sound - when one gets going others join in stretching their necks up and flapping their wings and squawking at the top of their lungs. I keep dozing off to sleep as I try to write this. I guess watching penguins feed their chicks is hard work. Of course, the zodiac ride over there was rough and windy and wet. Getting out of the Zodiac at Hannah Point was not bad. I managed to do it gracefully, stepping into calf-deep water on the pebbly beach. Getting back into the Zodiac was a whole 'nother thing. Bob Burton says to me just sit on the edge and throw your legs up - well I was standing in the water against the Zodiac which came to about the middle of my back. I couldn't scoot my butt up that far on a wet rubber boat. Bob bent over and told me to boost myself up by leaning on his back. I was afraid of knocking him over. I got one lone left up over the side and somebody already on board pulled me in. I was maybe a little embarrassed but so relieved. |
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I'm
starting to believe I'm really here. The ship sailed through
the most beautiful scenery today: towering cliffs, icebergs,
huge clouds of Cape petrels, penguins swimming alongside the
boat, humpback whales flashing their flukes, a beach full of
seals in the distance...
They
made an announcement for humpback whales and ice cliffs and
I started getting tired of the word "fantastic". Isn't there
another adjective she could use? However, Bailey Head
actually was fantastic. There's no other way to describe it.
It was teeming with life. The petrels were so thick they
looked like a snow squall. 
Deception
Island is also home to Pendulum Cove, number 5 on the top
ten most visited sites list, where geothermal activity
provides the opportunity to bathe in hot water. I rather
like the idea of getting into my bathing suit and soaking in
the hot water amidst ice, but the captain says the winds
aren't right for a landing at Pendulum Cove. No big loss
though, because it means more time at Hannah Point (number 9
on the top ten list). 
Saw
one confused adult chinstrap offering a pebble to a chick.
They make their nests out of pebbles and giving and
receiving pebbles is a big part of the pair bonding ritual
for the parents. The chick seemed to be expecting food, not
a pebble. The poor guy seemed really distressed that the
chick wasn't greeting him and responding to the display.
Where was the mate?