Today is the 30^th anniversary of the Task Force landing here in the Falkland Islands. After a very well attended Rememberance Ceremony at  San Carlos, Trish and I went down to Bertha’s Beach ponds to have a look for Coscoroba Swans. There was a pair of Coscoroba Swans on the pond along with 16 Black Necked Swans.

After a while a large flock of Chiloe Wigeon flew in with a few Yellow Billed Pintail amongst them.

Also on the pond there was a single pair of Flying Steamer Duck, Speckled Teal, Silver Teal, Crested Duck, Silvery Grebe & White Tufted Grebe.

I had yesterday afternoon off work so I headed out to Cape Pembroke to have a look around. When I parked my car on the north side near the ligthouse a flock of about 13 Tussucbirds flew up from the beach, there were about 7+ more Tussucbirds still feeding on the beach. This is the largest number of Tussucbirds that I have seen on Cape Pembroke Peninsula.

This afternoon I went around to Berkeley Sound to give clearance to a fuel tanker and a couple of reefer vessels. There was very little bird life apart from King Cormorants, Antarctic Fulmar and Gentoo Penguins. On the way back we came across a small flock of Southern Giant Petrels near Kidney Island that were feeding on something on the surface, The flock took off as we approached and in amongst them were two white Southern Giant Petrels.

This morning when I was passing Victory Green I noticed there were 5 Cattle Egrets along with the 30+ Upland Geese. There was a group of 4 and a single bird.

On the way to Goose Green on Friday I can across a hare that had been killed by a vehicle. I moved the dead hare from the road to a quiet corner of a field in the territory of a pair of Red Backed hawks. The next morning I went back to see if anything had found the carcass, as I approached the area I could see there was a juvenile Red Backed Hawk at the carcass.

Later that afternoon I went back again and both the male and female of the pair were hanging around the area.

I sat down near the hare carcass and eventually both the pair visited the carcass and gave me incredible views of them feeding.

On Sunday morning I noticed 3 Turkey Vultures trying to get at something in the water on Burnside beach, I went down to the tide line where the birds were and was surprised to see a very large Octopus. It had one of its tenticles missing but was still alive so I moved it out into much deeper water and hoped for the best.

Unfortunatley a couple of hours later it was stranded on the beach and the Turkey Vultures were busy feeding on it.

While out birding on Friday afternoon at Burnside near Goose Green I could see a Southern Sea Lion trying to catch some mullet in the shallows near the beach. I managed to get quite close without being seen or disturbing the Sea Lion. I then settle down to watch the action as it drove the fish into the beach and then attempted to catch them before they could swim away.

After quite a few attempts the Sea Lion finally managed to catch a quite large Mullet, It then had to eat it as quick as it could as a much larger male was heading in its direction.

There are a few more Cattle Egrets about now, the largest flock I have seen is 8 Birds at the Market Garden fields last week. On the wat back home this afternoon there was a single bird by the side of the road near Government House.

This afternoon I went to Government House gardens to have a look to see if the Southern House Wren was still about. After about 10 minutes I could hear it calling in amongst some gooseberry bushes and then was very pleased to hear it start singing.

It was very active and feeding on small grubs and other insects on the ground at the base of the bushes. I also watched it turn over a small stone searching for grubs.

A sure sign of the approach of winter in the Falkland Islands is when Snowy Sheathbills start to appear on the jettys and docks around the settlements of the Falklands . Today at Goose Green I saw 5 birds.