Nature's Freedom: Arrival at Bird Island, South Georgia

I am writing this blog a month after arriving on Bird Island, South Georgia, where I am living and working until April 2017. It has been a full-on, but very enjoyable first exposure to the island and it’s wildlife. Bear with me whilst I try to remember what happened before my sudden and awe-inspiring introduction to this little grassy and boggy rock and it’s angry inhabitants (the animals, not the previous winterers!). We arrived on the JCR several days later than scheduled due to the thick sea ice spreading north of Signy. We came to Bird Island first before King Edward Point (KEP – the base on mainland South Georgia) to see if the weather would allow us to land. We arrived to heavy winds whipping water off the surface of the ocean, and driving snow.

We waited throughout the day for a weather window, which we thought had materialized before dinner so we gathered our bags and cleaned our rooms, only to be told that we would be staying another night. In the few hours I had been waiting on deck, my room had become occupied by a cruise scientist, so I spent the night sharing with Ian, the tech joining us for a year on BI. We woke up at 4am the next day, donned dry suits and life jackets, and went ashore.

The view of base with La Roche behind, taken from the jetty.

We were greeted warmly by the winterers, and had a few hours to orientate ourselves whilst the ship decided whether the weather was good enough to send a cargo tender out to us with cargo. After a quick tour of base, we were taken on a walk around the area near base. We went over the hill to SSB (Special Study Beach – where I spend the majority of my time in the summer, working with the seals from a raised gantry), across landing beach where gentoos were nesting, and up to wanderer ridge to see the wandering albatross chicks that were about to fledge.

A sleek wanderer chick, almost ready to fledge.

A downy wanderer chick, with a bit longer to wait.

The tender made it in for a few runs that evening, bringing the cruise scientists ashore to help unpack and to see the island, and our personal gear. We finished the days landing operations at 11.30pm, just in-time for a quick gin and tonic (with ice from an iceberg, crackling as it melts) on the jetty with our summer team before a late dinner and a much needed sleep.

The JCR went around to KEP for several days, and returned to give us some fresh and frozen food. In the days in-between, I started to learn my job from Sian, and got to see a bit more of the island. It took a while to get used to the fur seals, which are a lot more aggressive and faster than the elephant seals which I worked with on the farallones. Once you get used to how much space they like, and how they behave in different situations, they are really quite nice! They do have a tendency to be exactly where you need to go though, such as this male sitting at the top of the rope that we use to climb down to SSB.