Campbell Is and Albatrosses

Day 26. Wednesday 5 February – Campbell Island at last 

Noon position: Latitude 52^o32.991’South; Longitude 169^o09.577’East

Air temperature: 9^oC, Water temperature: 9.8^oC

Most of us had an excellent sleep on calmer waters. It had rained a little in the night and we got up to a generally fine day, with scattered cloud and the sun appearing from time to time.  At 7.15 am we Rodney gave us a well-illustrated introduction to Campbell Island and we were instructed to adhere strictly to quarantine requirements with special emphasis on cleaning (vacuuming) our clothing, including footwear and back packs, to prevent movement of weeds and disease onto or off the island. We had a choice of day activities: 14 hardy souls opted to do the ‘Samuel Safari’- a 14 km all-day walk from Camp Cove, with an ascent of 200 m, then across the island to Capstan Cove, followed by the inevitable 200 m descent and return to the ship. Passengers on the long walk were the first away and reported seeing five Campbell Island Snipe, two Antipodean Albatross with low flights of about 300m, an amazing field of purple Pleurophyllum speciosum along with other vegetation on the glaciated landscape.

The remainder of us chose the half-day Zodiac cruise to Tucker and Camp Cove. This focused on their history, with the rusting Shacklock Orion stove the only visible remnant from the farm homestead, attracting most attention. 

Birds seen included a Giant Petrel (which has conspicuous external nostrils on its bill),  and Kelp gulls.

The flightless Campbell Island Teal were seen near Tucker Cove. Our guide Rodney had been the ranger to rediscover them after they were thought to be extinct.

We returned via Garden and Venus Coves, with an huge, wind-pruned old spruce tree that has survived since early settlement.

A few seals were seen on the beach and among the tussocks.

 .. and Campbell Island cormorants.

After lunch, we then hiked along the boardwalk to view nesting Southern Royal Albatrosses and mega herbs This was to be the highlight of Campbell Island.

The hike up the board walk started from the former meteorological station began with us being confronted by an arrogant bull Sea Lion who was jealously guarding his harem of three cows. A former met man on our trip explained what the various buildings had been used for.

Katya trying her persuasion skills, and nearly landed in the water!

Rodney was firmer with the bull seal

The general landscape (and weather) reminded me of SW Tasmania, complete with cushion plants and Dracophyllum, but buttongrass was replaced with large tussock grass, and the megaherbs (giant daisies etc) are unique to the sub-Antarctic Islands including Macquarie Is. 

 It was very windy, so windy in places that it was hard to stand upright, let alone hold the camera steady.We were still in the furious fifties.

Scrub with lichen-encrusted trunks

After passing through flowering dwarf Dracophyllum scoparium (also a Tasmanian genus) scrub in the Sub-alpine Vegetation Zone below Beeman Hill (187m),... 

we entered the Lower Alpine Zone with interesting ground cover, including some greenhood orchids ...

 cushion plants. 

and the megaherb, purple  flowering Pleurophyllum daisy. 

From Col Lyall (named after Lyall on Ross’s expedition) we looked across to Northeast Bay (site of earlier whaling) and back to Perseverance Harbour.

The highlight of the day was lots of nesting Southern Royal Albatross which we soon spotted on the hillside, including some paired birds among the tussocks. 

We spent a lot of the time sitting quietly on the boardwalk watching the albatrosses interacting with their partners, with elaborate grooming, greeting and pairing rituals whenever one of the pair returned to the nest. 

 Old nest

One bird landed some distance from his/her nest (both sexes look alike and both tend the chicks) and walked within about 1 m away past us while we sat on the boardwalk (too close to focus the camera!). They look eye to eye with us when seated so are quite intimidating with their long bills but they showed no sign of aggression or disturbance by us. Researchers apparently can reach underneath a brooding bird to fetch out an egg or chick for marking/weighing.

 We noticing that they had only to unfold their wings (they fold into three) and let the strong wind lift them aloft. Here they did not need runways to take off, as we saw in some places. Some birds actually had trouble landing in the strong wind.  

For those of us who battled the gusting nor-west wind (having to crawl the last few meters and then lie flat on the herbs), we had a wonderful lookout over the precipitous cliffs into Northwest Bay and the wild westerly ocean.  That was what we would be sailing into when we left the shelter of our harbour!

Heading back down the valley to the ship - very reminiscent of Tasmania (Macquarie Island with its megaherbs).