Antarctica Voyage Day 1 - 19 December 2015 Falkland Main Island

Antarctica Voyage Day 1 – 19 December 2015

Port Stanley from the ship
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

After boarding our ship, The Vavilov, we met Simon Boyd our on-board bird guide.  Simon immediately recognised me from the OBC Magazine article about Spoon-billed Sandpiper and my trip to Bangladesh.  Our company was One Ocean and the staff seemed to love what they were doing.  There were 78 passengers on board out of a maximum of just over 90 passengers.

We dumped our bags and after looking around the boat, we went straight to The Bridge to see what birds we could see as the boat pulled out of Port Stanley Harbour.  The commonest birds were Black-browed Albatross.

Black-Browed Albatross

We had a life boat drill which was fun but serious, thinking of the boat that Bob Flood WA on that had a ship fire and had to be evacuated in the night.  Mum said she would keep our SD cards with our photos in her pocket at night as apart from lives and health, photos were the only things not replaceable!  Mum made some passing comment/joke to one of the other passengers about sinking ships, stressing the poor lady completely out, so mum had to keep reassuring her that she was sure our boat would be fine and even if we got evacuated in the night, she was sure there would be lots of other boats around to rescue us...making her feel worse.

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig inside a covered lifeboat on Vavilov
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

It was amazing that we were finally on our way to Antarctica, my big dream for so long.

Falklands sunset from ship
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Mya-Rose Craig

Overnight, our ship was steaming around the Falkland Islands, to be at Sealion Island for morning.

Best birds from ship:

Black-Browed Albatross

Southern Giant Petrel

Sooty Shearwater

Magellanic Cormorant

About the Writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on ScillyPhotograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and is looking forward to watching Penguins in Antarctica in a week (arriving on 22 December 2015), which will be her 7th continent. 

Mya-Rose is a Bristol European Green Capital 2015 Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol 2015 Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter

Port Stanley, The Falkland Islands - 19 December 2015

We were almost an hour late meeting our guide at Mount Pleasant Airport as it took ages to get our bags and queue to get through immigration and customs.  There’s one flight a week from Punto Arenas here each Saturday plus an airforce place from the UK via Ascension Island.

Our Guide was Tony Smith from Discovery Falklands who was really knowledgeable about the Island and its birds and wildlife.  He certainly knew where to go for the birds and wide notifying them.

With only an hour of birding time, we dashed to Port Stanley, to try for some birds at Gypsy Cove and along the coast.  We were lucky as we saw most of the birds that would have been new for us that you get on the Falklands. 

Magellanic Penguin burrow
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Falkland Island Steamer Duck is an endemic but was very common. The islands were pretty barren and large areas were still covered in unexploded land mines.

Falkland Steamer Duck

Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Falklands Thrush

Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

After our birding, we had a little tour of Port Stanley including the places that were memorable from the Falklands conflict with Argentina.  

Port Stanley

Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Tony Smith of Discovery Falklands, Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Chris Craig

Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig boarding The Vavilov
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

The Vavilov

Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

There were birds we still wanted to see, but hoped to catch up with tomorrow at Sea Lion Island, a Falklands off Island to the south west.

The best birds from Mainland Falkland:

Falklands Steamer-Duck

Crested Duck

Upland Goose

Kelp Goose

Ruddy-headed Goose

Crested Duck

Black-crowned Night Heron

Megellanic Penguin

Falklands Thrush (a subspecies of Austral Thrush)

Dark-faced Ground-Tyrant

Black-browed Albatross

Megellanic Cormorant

Megellanic Oyestercatcher

Two-banded Plover

Baird's Sandpiper

White-rumped Sandpiper

Dolphin Gull

Kelp Gull

White-bridled Finch

About the Writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and is looking forward to watching Penguins in Antarctica in a week (arriving on 22 December 2015), which will be her 7th continent. 

Mya-Rose is a Bristol European Green Capital 2015 Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol 2015 Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter