Birds that Fly

This post is dedicated to all the serious "birders" on our Antarctic expedition (among whom I cannot count myself).  They were all out there with powerful telephoto lenses and their lists (to be honest, I really didn't see anyone with a list) taking incredible photos of birds in flight -- while I was just trying to get a flying bird on my little Canon PowerShot's LCD screen.  The few times I succeeded I would run to them with "Look at this!!!  What is it?"  They were very patient and kind -- and refrained from pointing out that I was an idiot (even the British Antarctic Survey scientists that joined us mid-way through the voyage).  

Anyway these are my photos of birds that fly.  Since penguins make up 80% of all birds in Antarctica I don't feel too bad that I have so few photos of these "other birds", and I feel very fortunate that the Polar Star's management and expedition staff provided a brilliant DVD with great pictures of the birds that I not only missed getting photos of,  but some of which I didn't even see.  The same was true for whales, by the way, but that is another story.  I thought I would post this quickly as it is of necessity very brief.

The lead photo is of mixed colonies of rockhopper penguins, imperial cormorants, and black-browed albatross at New Island, West Falklands.  

 

A pair of nesting imperial cormorants (Phalacrocorax atriceps bransfieldensis)

Portrait of imperial cormorant, also called an Antarctic shag, on the rocks

Black-browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophrys) sitting on egg

Pale-faced sheathbills (Chionis alba) on an iceberg

Southern giant petrel (Macronectes  giganteus)

Southern giant petrels and sheathbills feeding on a dead seal.

Cormorants on a bluff

Cape petrels known as "pintados" (Daption capense) and a southern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialoides)  following the ship