EPIC CAPE HORN CRUISE: DAY 8 CAPE HORN

We left Ushuaia port well after midnight due to high winds and several hours later than scheduled and we woke around 3 hours north of Cape Horn, our destination this morning. Unbelievably this normally rough Southern Ocean was extremely calm and unfortunately rather quiet with just a few Black-browed Albatross and Sooty Shearwaters for company. 

Cape Horn...

As we neared the Cape more and more of the same two species appeared before we began the journey north-east towards The Falklands. This is very deep water and not conducive to good seabird movements or observations, so we all took plenty of ‘time off’ up until around 5pm when things really kicked off. First of all we had a superb Black-bellied Storm-Petrel along the starboard side of the boat, which not everyone managed to get on. But we had a better and much closer individual a bit later that even lingered long enough for a couple quick record shots. And a little while later a couple Cape Petrels flew by.

Black-bellied Storm-Petrel

But the most amazing sighting was of a Sooty Albatross that flew 200m from right to left and right across in front of us. 

The best pics I have of Sooty Albatross

And this most extraordinary sighting pre-empted an absolute albatross-fest, with maybe over 150 individuals of mainly Southern Royal Albatross, but with the some Snowy Wanderers and the extremely common Black-browed Albatross in amongst them all in view at one time. It was a fantastic experience to see the sea alive with these magnificent birds, undoubtedly drawn in by a nearby fishing vessel. Add to that a couple pods of Pilot Whales as well....

Black-browed Albatross

Fuegian Storm-Petrels

Snowy Wandering Albatross

Southern Royal Albatross

 

So today’s totals:

210 Black-browed Albatross

19 Snowy Wandering Albatross

95 Southern Royal Albatross

1 Grey-headed Albatross

1 Sooty Albatross

110 Fuegian/Wilson’s Storm Petrel

2 Black-bellied Storm Petrel

45 Southern Giant Petrel

6 Northern Giant Petrel

2 Cape Petrel

575 Sooty Shearwater

75 White-chinned Petrel

4 Westland Petrel

200+ White-chinned/Westland Petrel

1 Brown Skua

4 Chilean Skua

100+ Imperial Cormorant 

EPIC CAPE HORN CRUISE: DAY 7 USHUAIA

We sailed through the Beagle Channel to the most southerly town in the world of Ushuaia, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and looking as beautiful as I remembered it form my first visit in 2009. Along the Beagle Channel to the west of Ushuaia Michel picked up a group of Andean Condors perched by the shoreline on a small island and the views through scopes were very nice indeed! There was also Magellanic Oystercatcher, Kelp Goose, Magellanic Diving Petrels, Magellanic Penguins, even a couple distant Snowy Sheathbills, and a few Chilean Skuas. 

Ushuaia is surrounded by beautiful mountains

Scenery was pretty spectacular as we sailed to Ushuaia

Ushuaia

The sailing in to the port was very scenic and as we neared the town we were very fortunate to spot a King Penguin on a rocky beach absolutely dwarfing the Imperial Cormorants and Dolphin Gulls alongside it. With members of the group dispersed and preparing for our next shore excursion our WhatsApp group announcements certainly helped and eventually everyone saw it and enjoyed decent scope views from the front deck. With that excitement boding well for a good day ashore in Tierra del Fuego National Park we met up with our local guide and set off in a minibus into the national park. Our first stop was at a forest trail where we walked for around a kilometre hoping to find Magellanic Woodpecker….. but we didn’t. On return to the minibus we met a Danish birder who had seen a pair of woodpeckers along the same trail but a little further on, so we walked back up the hill and down the other side. Well, we met at least 3 other groups of walkers who had all seen woodpeckers and we staked out the area for a good while, but it was apparent that the birds had moved on. Unbelievable! 

Tierra del Fuego National Park

So we walked a different trail, drove to a lake and walked a bit more, drove to another spot and walked some more. All futile! I may well be the only birder to visit here on two separate occasions and dip the woodpecker! I cannot explain our miss except to say we were extremely unlucky. 

Thorn-tailed Rayadito

A soggy Tufted Tit-Tyrant

We did see some Chiloe Wigeon, Thorn-tailed Rayadito, White-throated Treerunner, Flightless Steamer-Duck, Upland Goose, Blackish Oystercatchers, Great Grebe, Chilean Elaenia, Tufted Tit-Tyrant, Fire-eyed Diucon, Austral Thrush, Patagonian Sierra-Finch, and even a Culpeo Fox. So we ended our birding at the nearby landfill site and ticked the localised White-throated Caracara, which was a nice way to end our time in Ushuaia.

Chile Wigeon

Upland Goose - male

Back on board Sapphire Princess, the usual procedure of getting a bite to eat and a coffee pre-empted our anticipated departure from port and everyone was on deck. The captain then made an announcement that high winds would delay our departure, so that meant we had some down time to enjoy onboard facilities, visit a few bars onboard and generally relax! 

EPIC CAPE HORN CRUISE: DAY 6 PUNTA ARENAS

Arriving in Punta Arenas at 7am we were on the first tender and landing at the dock by 8am where our first Dolphin Gulls lounged on the quay. A Dark-bellied Cinclodes was also seen under our minibus when we met our excellent local guide Claudio Vidal. Heading along the coastal road we stopped at some pools where Chilean Flamingo’s, Chiloe Wigeon and Red Shovelers were seen. 

Chilean Flamingo's

Red Shoveler

Many Upland Geese were dotted around the area, along with a few Black-faced Ibis and a couple of Coscoroba Swans. 

Upland Goose

After a short drive further along the coastal road we stopped to view a gathering of Flying Steamer-Ducks and we were lucky to spot a pair of Flightless Steamer-Ducks perched on a rock together. There was also a Rock Shag, many Imperial (King) Cormorants here as well, along with a pair of Crested Ducks and even a few Peale’s Dolphins. 

Flightless Steamer-Duck

Flying Steamer-Duck

We then headed inland, seeing lots of Lesser (Darwin’s) Rhea’s and drove to a large lake. Here we found the key species of our day, Magellanic Plover, although it took some searching in the strong winds. Also here were a few Two-banded Plovers, a flock of Patagonian Yellow-Finch, Austral Negrito and several White-rumped Sandpipers and Chilean Skuas gave close views. 

Chilean Skuas

Two-banded Plover

Heading further inland for around 90kms we found 100’s of Least Seedsnipe, over 50 Tawny-throated Dotterels, Common Miner, Scale-throated Earthcreeper, Correndera Pipit, more Two-banded Plovers and eventually a couple Rufous-chested Dotterels. 

Least Seedsnipe were so common today

Rufous-chested Dotterel

Tawny-throated Dotterel in habitat...

Tawny-throated Dotterel

A small wetland held a few Ashy-headed Geese, Chiloe Wigeon, as well as numerous Upland Geese. Leaving here we saw many more Lesser Rhea’s and Guanacos, some fox thing as well before heading back to the port and our cruise ship. 

Guanaco

 Once aboard, we had time to get some food from the buffet restaurant and grab a nice coffee before meeting on deck. Our view from the very front of the ship is superb and as we sailed along the Magellan Straits we enjoyed pretty decent views of a few Magellanic Diving Petrels, 23 Black-browed Albatross, 2 Southern Giant Petrels and a couple of Magellanic Penguins to round off a brilliant day. Oh and we had some distant views of another wacky pteradroma species as well….. And so ends another cracking day.

EPIC CAPE HORN CRUISE: DAY 5 AMALIA GLACIER & AT SEA

We woke this morning in another scenic wonderland at the Amalia Glacier, surrounding by mountains covered in forest. It was light just after 7.15am and we were out on deck in the cool early morning air. 

There's some amazing scenery today...

This Fuegian Storm-Petrel hitched a ride as we sailed towards the ocean

You get some idea of the scale of the mountains compared to this cruise ship...

The ship remained at the glacier for 90 minutes before heading back out towards the open ocean. It took until 2pm to reach the Pacific Ocean but along the way we found 5 Flightless Steamer-Ducks, 4 Magellanic Penguins, 15 Magellanic Diving-Petrels, 250 Fuegian Storm-Petrels (with one on deck) and 4 Chilean Skuas. 

We had only been in the ocean for a few minutes before we found an absolutely awesome White-headed Petrel that gave a couple of passes in front of the ship. Wow! 

WHITE-HEADED PETREL - 1st for Chile

The rest of our journey until we finished was in a really rough sea which produced our first Slender-billed Prions right in front of the ship. Numerous Fuegian Storm-Petrels were passing, there was a single Snowy Wandering Albatross and Southern Royal Albatross, 102 Black-browed Albatross, lots of Sooty Shearwaters, many Southern Giant Petrels, over 30 White-chinned Petrels and 7 Grey Phalaropes.