Blog from Antarctic Regions
Read news and safari highlights from Doug, Gail, and Ted Cheeseman, plus memorable experiences from our fantastic travelmates!
Ted Lectures!
Penguins and Albatross: The World Through the Eyes of a Seabird
Gentoo Penguin
© Ted Cheeseman
A Lecture by Ted Cheeseman Presented in two locations:
7:30 PM on Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society
Palo Alto Arts Center, 1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto, California
7:00 PM on Thursday, February 19, 2009
Golden Gate Audubon Society
in San Francisco, location TBD
Join naturalist and popular expedition leader, Ted Cheeseman, for a lecture exploring what it is to be a seabird in the vast unforgiving desert of the open ocean. How is it that albatross can fly 14,000 miles on a single feeding trip to bring home just one meal for a chick? How can penguins thrive and raise chicks in the world's harshest environments, but yet not populate the mild tropics? Illustrated with images from Ted's worldwide travels with Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris, he will tell stories of the new insight we have into the lives of seabirds through GPS-telemetry. We are only now learning about the truly magnificent lives of these penguins and albatross, just as they face sharp declines at the hands of industrial fishing and climate change. Ted frequently travels across the Southern Ocean to Antarctica and to its sub-Antarctic islands, the heart of penguin and albatross habitat. It is there that he will take you, on an entertaining and educational journey diving with penguins and soaring with albatross, the world's greatest mariners.
Ted's abiding love of penguins and albatross stems from a lifetime of guiding travelers to remote seabird breeding colonies. He grew up traveling extensively with Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris, and began studying and photographing wildlife very early. After completing a master’s degree in tropical conservation biology at Duke University, Ted returned to California to lead and organize expeditions. These voyages take him around the globe several times each year, sharing his love for the natural world with travelers. Through voyages to Antarctica Ted has witnessed the decline of his favorite of all birds, the Wandering Albatross, inspiring him to keep abreast of the most recent bird science and to become involved with conservation efforts to protect these magnificent birds.
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Discovering Royalty in the Weddell Sea
Juvenile Emporer and Chinstrap Penguins on Sea Ice
© Ted Cheeseman
January 14, 2007
An excerpt from the voyage log
On Location in the Weddell Sea
The ice threw us a change of plans, but with this challenge came an opportunity. Traveling through the ice this evening before exiting the pack we beheld our voyage’s most impressive scenery yet complete with a rare sighting of a juvenile emperor penguin on an ice floe. The young emperor put on a wonderful show for us. It stood up as the ship slowed, stretched, waived his flippers in the air, vocalized several times, walked around, then slid on his belly and paddled to the edge of the floe. Then, two chinstrap penguins joined the emperor on the ice floe. The three penguins waddled around, as if they were uncertain what to do all together. Then the emperor slid off the ice into the water, followed by the two smaller chinstraps. The three could be seen swimming together, alternately porpoising, for quite some time. What a special sighting!
What does it take to find the regal Emperor Penguin? Of the 17 species, the emperor is one of the most elusive, yet we’ve managed to find two each on every expedition in the last three years. Now, we’re not about to promise - we know of expeditions that advertise that advertise Emperor Penguins, and continue to do so even when they fail to find them - but we like this track record of recent years! But if we travel to the right places and have a willingness to travel through the particular kind of pack ice they are most likely to be found in (and a vessel capable of doing so), if we have the sharpest eyed ornithologists out on deck no matter what the hour, and a captain willing to work to get close to a dot on the horizon until we bring this beautiful elusive creature alongside, and a little luck besides, we have a recipe for success. Cheeseman expeditions have a way with bringing in good luck when it comes to wildlife. Join us on our next voyage to the Antarctic in 2009, where we will continue our search for royalty.
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Albatross Ecstasy at the Nest
Light-mantled Sooty Albatross Bond at their Nest
© Doug Cheeseman
January 9, 2008
by Gail Cheeseman
On Location on South Georgia Island: Fortuna Bay
Even at South Georgia, the best place on Earth to find Light-mantled Sooty Albatross, it's always a challenge to locate a pair at their nest. One reason why we are always excited to land at Fortuna Bay is to look for this spectacular species on the accessible cliffs surrounding the very long beach. Even before we left the ship this morning, we spotted a pair soaring over the bay in synchronized flight. Our eyes and ears were treated to a beautiful recital as the albatross glided in harmony, side by side, singing their eerie unforgettable mating song. Most albatross species are silent on the wing, but not the Light-mantled Sooty! This morning was already perfect for me once that electrifying call reached my ears. After we all landed on the beach, several of our staff naturalists sought and then found a pair performing a mating ritual at their nest on the cliff and made the announcement on the radio. My day became even more perfect as I had the priviledge of watching this albatross ecstacy at the nest! Each time we return to South Georgia I yearn to hear these beautiful albatross once again, becoming disappointed when I don't find a pair performing in every protected bay.
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Flying Penguins
Rockhopper Penguins "Fly" onto the Rocks © Doug Cheeseman
January 2, 2008
by Doug Cheeseman
On Location in the Falkland Islands: New Island
Have you ever seen flying penguins? Those that travel with us to the super Falkland Islands have! It is here that we observe "flying" Rockhopper Penguins as they return to shore with food for their mates or young. True to their name, Rockhoppers nest near rocky cliffs surrounded by violent seas and must hop among boulders to climb up the cliff.
Compact spindle-shaped bodies and solid bones allow them to withstand the forceful waves.
Strong flight muscles connected to short wings help paddle them through the air with just enough lift to land them higher on the slippery rocks avoiding the next set of waves.
Penguins have all the flight muscles of normal flying birds, but they have evolved to power them through the water instead of air – the supracoracoideus muscle raise the wings and the pectoralis major and minor muscles lower the wings.
See flying Rockhoppers along with Magellan, Gentoo, Chinstrap, King, Macaroni, and Adelie Penguins on our Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and Falkland Islands expedition in December 2009. While other tour companies have shortened their voyages, with less and less time ashore, we hold fast to our original long expedition; allowing us to spend as much time as possible among the penguins.
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To Circumnavigate or Not?
Pintado Flies Over Iceberg © Ted Cheeseman
November 9, 2007
by Ted Cheeseman
On Location in South Georgia: Sailing the West Coast
As expedition leader I anguished over the decision, should we sail up the northeast coast and try to fit in another landing somewhere around the Bay of Isles or should we take advantage of a weather window that showed the barometer holding high and calm conditions to the southwest of this magnificent island? Over charts Captain Jorge, Tim, Pauline, Hugh and I debated. It was to be our last day in South Georgia, and it had been so fantastic already, day after day of incredible experience, enough that I was tempted to play it safe, take the easy route home. But to travel along the remote empty dramatic seldom visited southwest coast of South Georgia, to circumnavigate the island in perfect glassy calm conditions?! We could not resist. After a blessedly calm morning under blue skies among the Cooper Bay macaroni penguins we sailed southwest around Cape Disappointment (where Captain Cook realized he hadn’t found the fabled southern continent 330-some years ago) and traveled northwest up this rugged coast. Near Annenkov Island we recounted the history of Shackleton’s epic, caught in a storm, so close to salvation and almost dashed to pieces on the rugged coastline; Pauline Carr read from Worsley’s, “Shackleton’s Boat Journey”. And as night fell, we came abreast of Undine Harbour, our first landing on South Georgia ten days before, completing our glorious circumnavigation.
In this incomparable time on South Georgia we made landings for as much as 14 hours at a time, deliciously extended stretches of time in the field for everyone who wanted to be ashore. But for me, after twelve voyages to South Georgia, this last bit, this shipboard circumnavigation with fantastic views of an incomparably wild coast was a rich bonus. We never advertised this voyage as a circumnavigation, weather here in the southwest being so fickle, but this is the joy of an expedition with enough time to truly explore. Conditions were right, and we had the time of our lives!
Discover more magic moments in the log ( in PDF format) from the 2007 voyage to this pristine island. Join us on our next expedition to South Gerogia and Falkland Islands in October 2009.
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Serenity in the Fjords
Drygalski Fjord © Heather McFarland
November 5, 2007
by Heather McFarland
On Location in South Georgia: Drygalski Fjord
Sitting at the bow of the ship, the distant glacier looks minuscule compared to the cliffs that tower above. Yet it gradually rises to massive proportions as we draw near. The silence and calmness of the early morning are broken only by the gentle hum of the engine and an occasional bird in flight. Out of the hushed water below, a new sound compliments the ship’s humming – snap, pop, snap snap – the bobbing bits of ice add rhythm. I am chilled to the bone yet completely content. In awe, wonder, amazement.
Peace. Tranquility. Heaven.
Drygalski Fjord is just one of many possibilities for you to experience sincere serenity on the extensive 25-day exedition to South Gerogia and Falkland Islands in October 2009. No other tour companies offers ten to eleven days sailing South Georgia Island, the jewel of the Antarctic region. We also visit Drygalski Fjord on our Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and Falkland Islands expedition in December 2009.
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Insatiable Appetite
November 1, 2007
by Debbie Thompson
On Location in South Georgia: Salisbury Plain
Skua Steals Milk as Elephant Seal Pup Nurses
© Debbie Thompson
We once again bundled up in our warm clothes, packed up our camera gear, and rode the zodiacs to famous Salisbury Plain. Since it was early in the season, we found Elephant Seal harems covering the beach and navigated our way around. Luckily, the giants ignored our presence as long as we didn’t violate their space. One harem containing about forty females, many pups, and one huge beach-master bull in the center held our attention. Many of the females were about to give birth and some already did. The beach-master’s objective is to mate with all his females after they give birth. He continuously guarded his collection of females against male challengers lurking at the perimeter. Being a beach-master is a 24/7 job, with no rest, his vigilance shortening his stressful life. If he spied a suspicious bull getting too close, sometimes he charged after the challenger, trampling females and pups; and at other times he only needed to glare or roar to halt the interloper. We had to be diligent watchers, not getting between a beach-master and an interloper, lest we be trampled too. One female slowly gave birth, evidenced by baby flippers hanging out. She seemed to be having trouble, but none of us were sure how fast a birth was supposed to progress. Skuas (predatory gull-type birds) stood by like mid-wives watching the birth very close, since the placenta will provide a nutritious meal. Other Skuas were stealing high-fat milk from a nursing pup – catching drips from the nipple and also scooping it right out of the pup’s mouth as it protested. The Skuas learned to take advantage of every meal opportunity, after all, they have young to feed also. We were mesmerized by all the interactions and behaviors so we had to tear ourselves away from the harem-watch to take our attentions to the equally interesting massive colony of King Penguins down the beach. Oh, we could easily spend a week on this one patch of magnificent South Georgia Island, watching all the action around us and still not be satiated.
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