Later in the afternoon when there was still no sign of the Leucistic bird, I spent a couple of hours on the sand beach where the returning birds come ashore, hoping for it to come back to the colony, but again no sign, but I did have a great time photographing the returning Gentoo Penguins.
We went down to Bull Point yesterday in search of a leucistic Gentoo Penguin that is breeding with a normal bird in one of the colonys there, unfortunately no sign of it but we did see a partial leucistic bird.
One of the hardest species of birds to photograph in the Falkland Islands is Falkland Pipit, I have over the years got a few decent images but tonight I got the best shot to date.
This evening I went and had a look for White Rumped Sandpipers at Stanley airport to see if I could get some flight shots, unfortunately I did not manage any flight shot but got some nice close up shots. There was also a couple of Baird’s Sandpiper which was a bonus.
Above and below White Rumped Sandpiper
Above and below Baird’s Sandpiper
White Rumped Sandpiper on the left and Baird’s Sandpiper on the right
At Kidney Island there is normally a large number of Southern Sea Lions, yesterday there was 40+ on the landing beach and 10+ at Dix’s Cove.
I went out to Kidney Island this afternoon as a guide to a small group. The main target was to see the Macaroni Penguin that is in the small Rockhopper Penguin colony. I was also hoping to see the hybrid Macaroni X Rockhopper Penguin that had been see earlier in the season. I am happy to say that we all had an excellent afternoon and saw both the Macaroni and the hybrid bird.
The hybrid Macaroni X Rockhopper Penguin is paired with a Rockhopper Pemguin and has two small chicks.
Saw these two strange ducks in my garden this morning, they seem very settled but I have not seen them feeding yet thou. I am hoping that they stay around until my birding mate Steve Copsey get here so he can gets some photo’s.
