Circumnavigating South Georgia – Part 5

Cape Rosa, King Haakon Bay

King Haakon Bay is well known because Shackleton and his five shipmates landed the lifeboat James Caird here on their epic sea crossing from Elephant Island. Cape Rosa is at the entrance to the Bay and Dion has often assisted with bird counts in this area. He was confident we could find some Wandering Albatross nests. He thought there might be some chicks and this prospect was exciting to all of us. We had sailed during the night from Elsehul Bay and dropped anchor about 4:30 am. We were in the Zodiacs by 5:30 and motoring through the ever-present cold wind toward a familiar landing spot. This south and westerly side of South Georgia catches most of the Antarctica weather and is usually colder, windier and much more inhospitable than any other portion of the island.

Albatrosses always prefer to nest high up to take advantage of prevailing winds. Wandering Albatrosses, and their cousins, spend most of their lives soaring and gliding over the waves of the Southern Ocean. They usually only come ashore to breed and raise a chick. The Wandering Albatross matures somewhere at about 9 years of age and have stayed most of these 9 first years gliding the waves dependent on strong winds to provide the energy for their seemingly unending flight. They have the widest wingspan, with nine feet not being uncommon. Sometimes when there is a dead calm they will land on the water and await the wind to provide them with lift again. Other albatrosses mature a little earlier, around 6 or 7 years of age. Wanders breed every other year as it takes about 9 months for a chick to fledge and leave the nest.

We had another hike across fur seal crowded beaches, up steep tussac slopes, always it seemed exceeding 45 degrees. There were many Giant Petrels nesting everywhere along with Light-Mantled Sooty Albatrosses before we came to four Wandering Albatross nests. Three of the nests had chicks and adults together and such big chicks. I mean huge. As adults they are the largest seabird in the world. I was especially pleased that the adults were there as they are often out fishing to feed the chick. Both parents share in incubation of the egg and feeding of the chick during its maturation. Taking photographs on these steep slopes in such windy and wild, cold weather is challenging for this photographer, but what a great challenge.

As noted there were many Light-Mantled Sooty Albatross nests in the area. To my eye they tended to gather in small groups and did not just place their nests randomly. They are a medium-sized albatross compared to the Wanderers and instead of being white they have slender grey bodies with sooty brown heads and wings. I was drawn to their eyes that have a partial grey-white ring, very noticeable and quite attractive. While we were there many of them returned from fishing and we attempted to photograph them in the wind.

Sometimes the climb down is more harrowing than the trudge up. We were pretty tired by the time we arrived at the beach, loaded up and returned to the Golden Fleece for a late lunch. Over lunch we discussed the next leg of our journey and decided to head along to Holmestrand and King Penguins, inspecting the coastline with hot cups of tea to beat off some of the chill on the way.