After leaving Deception Island we headed south and the following morning had arrived at Cuverville Island which was to be our landing for the morning. Cuverville Island has been identified as an Important Bird Area by Birdlife International as it has a breeding colony of approximately 6500 pairs of Gentoo Penguins, the largest on the Antarctic Peninsula for this species. The breeding Gentoos were thus one of the main features of the landing but as always there were the attendant Skuas, some dramatic icebergs and some large whale vertebrae on the shore. This landing was more in keeping with preconceptions of Antarctica with a lot more snow which was interestingly coloured red and green in areas due to algal growth in the summer. The penguin guano added to the reddish colouration of the snow and rocks and made their trails up to the nesting sites stand out against the cleaner snow.
Photos with Nikon D810 and 200-400mm f4, except for whale vertebra and beach images which were taken with D3s and 18-35mm f3.5-4.5 and the Zodiac photo taken with Fuji x100s. We had nice flat light and a little snow at times. After returning to the ship we went kayaking and the snow really started to come down which was fun and will be the subject of another post.
Laird Parry
3 May 2015Hi, Tony! We four Idahoans are honored to be mentioned on your blog! We all love your and Edin’s photos and look forward to your weekly postings. It lets us relive our Antarctic adventure all over. It was indeed an incredible trip and we enjoyed your company.
Come on up (and over) and visit us sometime!
Laird and Shawna Parry
tony
3 May 2015Glad you’re enjoying reliving the trip with us – going through the images for each post brings back many happy memories for me and Edin too. Would love to visit your part of the world sometime.
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Beverley Guy
17 May 2015superb photography, subjects, scenery, close ups, “commentary” Thank You Tony for sharing, enjoyed immensely
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