Port Stanley, The Falkland Islands – 19 December 2015
We were almost an hour late meeting our guide at Mount Pleasant Airport as it took ages to get our bags and queue to get through immigration and customs. There’s one flight a week from Punto Arenas here each Saturday plus an airforce place from the UK via Ascension Island.
Our Guide was Tony Smith from Discovery Falklands who was really knowledgeable about the island and its birds and wildlife. He certainly knew where to go for the birds and wide notifying them.
With only an hour of birding time, we dashed to Port Stanley, to try for some birds at Gypsy Cove and along the coast. We were lucky as we saw most of the birds that would have been new for us that you get on the Falklands.
Magellanic Penguin burrow
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig
Falkland Island Steamer Duck is endemic but was very common. The islands were pretty barren and large areas were still covered in unexploded land mines.
Falkland Steamer Duck
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig
Falklands Thrush
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig
After our birding, we had a little tour of Port Stanley including the places that were memorable from the Falklands conflict with Argentina.
Port Stanley
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig
Tony Smith of Discovery Falklands, Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Chris Craig
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
The Vavilov
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig
There were birds we still wanted to see but hoped to catch up with tomorrow at Sea Lion Island, a Falklands off-Island to the southwest.
The best birds from Mainland Falkland:
Falklands Steamer-Duck
Crested Duck
Upland Goose
Kelp Goose
Ruddy-headed Goose
Crested Duck
Black-crowned Night Heron
Magellanic Penguin
Falklands Thrush (a subspecies of Austral Thrush)
Dark-faced Ground-Tyrant
Black-browed Albatross
Magellanic Cormorant
Magellanic Oyestercatcher
Two-banded Plover
Baird’s Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
Dolphin Gull
Kelp Gull
White-bridled Finch
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.