February - When nice weather brought a leopard seal and new-born wandering albatross chicks to Bird Island

The weather over the last few months has been rather nasty, apparently even by Bird Island standards for the summer. This month however we've been blessed with a few lovely days of sunshine and little wind. I'll make up for the lack of photos in my last entry by letting the photos do most of the talking this month.

A female wandering albatross practices nest building

A wandering albatross, still waiting to fledge at this late date.

A giant petrel gulps down the remains of a seal flipper after a few attempts.

A lovely chinstrap penguin who visited the macaroni penguins at 'big mac'.

Earlier this month we had our first leopard seal sighting. A young male made a very early appearance, as they are normally winter visitors.

It did provide a good training opportunity for me to learn how to photo-identify leopard seals however, and a rare opportunity to see young fur seal pups alongside this top predator.

A fur seal pup with a ginger mustache and shrek ears.

A moody moulting gentoo penguin with a feather caught on his beak.

Wandering albatross display to each other on the meadows

Is three a crowd?

One of my favourite wanderer photos

A male wandering albatross looks down to check underneath him

Yup, the chick is still there! One of the first hatched on Bird Island.

A wanderer takes flight.

Prion pond, with tonk in the background.

An albatross flies between Bird Island and Willis Island

A moulting pup has gone for the aging man look.

The view from atop Gazella on a lovely day.