Monday 13 April 2020

Cape Horn & Straits of Magellan Pelagic Cruise - Seabird Bonanza!!

This is what it's all about! We are going to be sea-watching from a stable, comfortable fully working cruise ship where all the food and beverages are included and we'll be staying in comfortable cabins for 14 nights. And your non-birding partners can come along and only pay for the cost of the cabin (there's no Zoothera fee for non-birding partners). And currently it only costs a £50 deposit per person to secure your cabin and there's a sale so inside cabins are approx £1300 per person - and that includes meals and some drinks such as tea, coffee, water, lemonade etc.

But back to the birds. Just look at this mouth-watering list of potential species and i've got some photos from a while ago when I was lucky enough to be on a ship crossing the Drake Passage between Ushuaia and the Antarctic Peninsula..........


Northern Royal Albatross
Southern Royal Albatross
Yellow-nosed Albatross
Black-browed Albatross
Light-mantled Albatross (rare)
Wandering (Snowy) Albatross
Wandering (Antipodes) Albatross
Chatham Albatross
Salvin’s Albatross
Buller's Albatross
Grey-headed Albatross
Southern Fulmar
Cape Petrel
Northern Giant Petrel
Southern Giant Petrel
Soft-plumaged Petrel
Cape Petrel
Masatierra Petel
Juan Fernandez Petrel
Stejneger’s Petrel
Kerguelen Petrel (rare)
Slender-billed Prion
Westland Petrel
White-chinned Petrel
Subantarctic Little Shearwater
Cape Verde Shearwater
Pink-footed Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
Great Shearwater
Grey-backed Storm-Petrel
Black-bellied Storm-Petrel
White-faced Storm-Petrel
Fuegian (Wilson's) Storm-Petrel
Pincoya Storm-Petrel
Magellanic Diving-Petrel
Common Diving-Petrel
Peruvian Diving-Petrel
Brown Skua
Chilean Skua
Long-tailed Skua

It's a great list of possibilities and hard to imagine seeing thousand upon thousand of Sooty Shearwaters and sailing past an island where 90% of the world population of Pink-footed Shearwaters breed, or seeing hundreds of albatross every day!

See the day-by-day itinerary here - Cruise Daily Itinerary
See the Princess Cruises tour info - Coral Princess Info


Black-browed Albatross is common

Black-browed Albatross

A Giant Petrel sp with a backdrop of snow-covered mountains in the Beagle Channel

South American Tern

There's fabulous scenery as well

Cape Petrel


Gentoo Penguins can be seen at Volunteer Point nr Port Stanley

A number of cetaceans are possible. This is Humpback Whale but Sei Whale is also possible.

A Light-mantled Albatross being photo-bombed by a Black-browed Albatross


We will count ourselves very fortunate to see a Light-mantled Albatross

A flurry of South American Terns in the Beagle Channel

Southern Giant Petrel


More impressive scenery around Tierra del Fuego

This is what we want... Wandering Albatross

Northern Giant Petrel

Southern Giant Petrel

Southern Royal Albatross

Snowy (Wandering) Albatross

All photos copyright Nick Bray/Zoothera Birding unless otherwise stated.

If you have any questions or need clarification on this tour please email the Zoothera Birding office on: info@zootherabirding.com 

We currently have 5 spaces left, but at present you don't need to pay a deposit to Zoothera, just register your interest with the Zoothera office.

Let's go birding!


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