Trollhul - Blog 10

We were up at dawn and I wanted to return to the beach early so I could retrace my steps back to the Wandering Albatross Chick for different light based on the day.  As usual I carried my still cameras and lenses while Hunter carried the other fifty pounds of gear: tripod, video camera and lenses.  The day was lightly overcast but still calm and warm.  We work up a lot of body heat making these climbs and are always happy to achieve our goal, set up to observe and shoot for an hour or two.  I kept thinking that this might be my last Wandering Albatross Chick for this trip or maybe forever.  The breeding reports for the last few years are not horrible, but the new chick numbers are so small as to be very worrisome to people who specialize in albatrosses and know about these things.

When we got back to the beach I was very tired from the morning climb.  We set up our cameras in an appropriate place to observe the Elephant Seals.  I like to watch them for active behaviors.  Usually we pass through the harems or collections of males on our way somewhere else.  This results in seeing Elephant Seals as often sleeping or only coming to or from the water.  Taking more time I hoped to get a richer set of impressions.  A pup was born and Skuas showed up along with Sheathbills to clean up the afterbirth.  Mom sat up and watched the area around the new pup.  Another arriving Elephant Seal reared up and spied around the beach.  There was more rolling about by a few females and more calling and barking than I thought usual.  This could be an all summer long project.  It was turning out to be the kind of day I would like to experience every day on South Georgia Island.

Jerome was coming toward us at a quick walk with a broad smile.  Under the circumstances I thought something must be up.  He was always purposeful in his movements and I found him full of joy for a serious sea captain type, but he was definitely coming with some good news.  He explained that he had been watching several Wandering Albatross adults soaring and landing on another part of the cliffs to the north of where we had been climbing.  He had also seen a number of Giant Petrels landing and taking off from the same locale.  He said he was fairly certain if we climbed up there we would find additional Wandering Albatross chicks!  

A second climb up a new facing slope seemed achievable but we decided to carry a little less gear and left the tripod behind.  Into the snow and tussock tangles we went and I did not even ask myself if this was crazy or not.  After all there might be an additional new chick to be observed and that would be a very rare thing.  By the time we got to the nest area of the Giant Petrels we were several hundred feet higher than the first site of yesterday and this morning.  Jerome’s observation proved his long experience and expertise…there was a Wandering Albatross nest and chick!  Even though it was thinly overcast we did select a spot to take advantage of the light, sat down and began shooting.  Again this was the only Wanderer in this area so we stayed longer than intended and soon became a little concerned that the sun might set before we got off the mountain.  I was more reluctant than this morning to leave because I was now sure this was going to be my last Wanderer Chick on this trip…how symbolic and sad the feeling that the setting sun was driving us to safety while there may never be another chick here in the future.  Each time I am close to the next generation of this Endangered Bird I cannot suppress the fear that this could be “one of the last ones.”  I have always been able to find them but who knows the future.

We got back to the Golden Fleece just as the setting sun broke below the overcast sky and the horizon and flooded all of Trollhul and its mountains in a glorious, golden light.  I began shooting the bay with the mountains and thinking of the two Wandering Albatross Chicks on their nests high up.  It was getting much colder and the winds were rising.  Jerome was not sure when we would leave in the morning but I was too tired to care tonight.

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