Antarctica Voyage Day 10 – 28th December 2015 – Hope Bay
This morning we awoke to lots of icebergs and ice.
After breakfast, we arrived at a really beautiful bay, called Hope Bay. Here we had a Zodiac cruise around, which is the site of a large Argentinian research station, which is run as a military base, with scientists, their families, medical facilities and a school.
Here there were 100,000 penguin pairs, many of them out of view! Mainly Adele but some Gentoo.
Adelie Penguin colony, Hope Bay
Adelie Penguin colony, Hope Bay
Adelie Penguin colony, Hope Bay
We first saw a Weddell Seal, new for the trip and after a while we saw a Leopard Seal in the water, going up and down the edge of the land looking for a seal. Not long afterwards, it caught a seal and slapped it against the water, to skin it. It was incredible watching this and apparently a very rare sight.
Back at the ship, we had a raging group of Orca stay close around the ship for about 1 and a half hours, a fantastic sight. One of the females had a young one with them. The Orca we had been seeing before were type B but this group were type A, which is very rare.
2 adults and a young Orca
Orca
In the evening we had the Captain’s dinner, which was a nice end to the trip. There have been nine of us who are between 12 and 15 years old and we have had lots of fun hanging out together. I really hope that we all stay in touch. Apart from me, there was one girl from Canada and everyone else living in America.
Best birds and animals of the day:
Adelie Penguin
Gentoo Penguin
Wilson’s Storm Petrel
Antarctic Cormorant
Kelp Gull
Antarctic Ten
Brown Skua
Snowy Sheafbill
Leopard Seal
Weddell Seal
Humpback Whale
Orca
About The Author
Hi, I’m Dr. Mya-Rose Craig. I am a 19-year-old prominent British-Bangladeshi ornithologist, environmentalist, diversity activist as well as an author, speaker and broadcaster. At age 11 I started the popular blog Birdgirl, and at age 17 I became the youngest person to see half of the birds in the world.
Lyrical, poignant and insightful.’ - Margaret Atwood
This is my story; a journey defined by my love for these extraordinary creatures. Because large or small, brown, patterned or jewelled, there is something about birds that makes us, even for just moments at a time, lift our eyes away from our lives and up to the skies.
Lyrical, poignant and insightful.’ - Margaret Atwood
This is my story; a journey defined by my love for these extraordinary creatures. Because large or small, brown, patterned or jewelled, there is something about birds that makes us, even for just moments at a time, lift our eyes away from our lives and up to the skies.