A rather quiet day as we continued our slow sailing towards the Argentinian coast and Puerto Madryn. The undoubted highlight being our 3 Grey Petrels seen at various stages throughout the day.
Today’s Totals:
5 Southern Royal Albatross
20 Black-browed Albatross
3 Grey Petrel
7 Southern Giant Petrel
9 White-chinned Petrel
8 Great Shearwater
12 Sooty Shearwater
4 Brown Skua
Yes, we should have been in the Falkland Islands ticking Falkland Steamer-Ducks, visiting the penguin colony at Volunteer Point etc etc. But our captain in his infinite wisdom decided the weather was too rough to dock, even without consulting the port authorities in Port Stanley. So he informed us that we would sail towards our next port of call at Puerto Madryn very slowly. Anyway, what can you do apart from carry on sea-watching and it did prove to be rather productive with a count of 55+ Soft-plumaged Petrels today.
 |
| Soft-plumaged Petrel |
In August 1988 as a 20 year old manic twitcher I was sea-watching at Porthgwarra when Peter Harrison uttered those immortal words “SOFT-PLUMAGED PETREL” and this was, at that time, possibly my most exciting moment as a birder. Subsequently this Pterodroma complex has been split into several species and I’ve been fortunate to see Desertas Petrel & Zino’s Petrel over the past few years. And so Soft-plumaged Petrel remained a mythical being for me as it inhabited the far away South Atlantic Ocean. That was until today when this species was our constant companion all day as we sailed north towards the Argentinian coast.
 |
| Slender-billed Prion |
 |
| Subantarctic Shearwater |
 |
| Peale's Dolphin |
Other keynote species from today were a single Subantarctic Shearwater that just Dan and I saw, 1 probable and 1 confirmed Blue Petrel, 8 Slender-billed Prions, and some extremely acrobatic Peale's Dolphins.
Todays count:
3 Southern Royal Albatross
12 Great Shearwater
1 Subantarctic Shearwater
1 Blue Petrel
55 Soft-plumaged Petrel
15 Southern Giant Petrel
8 Slender-billed Prion
3 Brown Skua
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
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!
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.
