Brown Bluff and Hannah Point, Antarctic Peninsula, January 15, 2003
Instead of Seymour Island or Snowhill Island we face Brown Bluff, the first
real part of the Antarctic mainland. As we intend to reach Hannah Point by the
end of the day, we've only a limited amount of time here. It's a nice day.
The rays of the sun illuminate a large glacier to the right of Brown Bluff.
To the left there's a similar glacier. A large pointed iceberg lies in front
of the ship and the rest of the bay is covered with floes of ice.
On the beach Adélies are busy going in and out of the sea. Sometimes a gentoo
penguin joins them. The sheer cliffs of Brown Bluff are towering high above us.
While the Adélies are occupying the lower slopes of Brown Bluff, gentoos seem
to prefer a somewhat higher altitude. Another striking difference is the
cleanliness of the gentoo chicks compared to the Adélie chicks. Also gentoos seem
to prefer more spacious nesting areas than Adélies do. Too soon we have to leave again.
The amount of icebergs decreases considerably as we travel through the Antarctic
Sound into Branfield Strait. Every now and then we spot a humpback whale but they're
never close to the ship. By the end of the afternoon we reach Hannah Point and a
late landing is scheduled after dinner. This will be our only chance to see macaroni
penguins. As there are only a few breeding pairs between thousands of chinstrap,
gentoo and Adélie penguins it won't be easy to find them.
Ashore we see many groups of chinstrap penguins. Each group consists of about 20 - 25
adults and their young. Frequently a lot of noise indicates that a penguin has come
too close to one of its neighbors. In the meantime the temperature has dropped
significantly and snowflakes start falling. After a while we start looking for the macaronis.
We walk a few hundred meters until we reach a group of sea elephants. Then we turn
around and start walking back. Almost back at our landing site it turns out that
we've overlooked what we were looking for. A single macaroni and chick stand out
inside a chinstrap colony. Its yellow feathers are more colorful than those of the
rockhoppers of the Falklands and it seems a bit taller as well. It isn't easy to
make a picture of it as the light is dim.
I climb down to the seafront and find four more macaronis. One macaroni is willing
to pose for me with the sea as background and I shoot a number of pictures.
While I'm making pictures I'm being watched by a curious sea elephant. As it's
already 10.30 PM and with a scheduled landing at 5 tomorrow morning in mind,
it's a nice time to go back to the ship and get some good night's rest.