Carcass to Sea Lion Island, by FIGAS, The Falklands, Saturday 29th October 

Our flight was not due to land on the next island until early afternoon. We had heard our names announced on Falklands Radio at 6.15pm the night before. All Falkland Island Government Air Service (FIGAS) flights have the route, departure time from Stanley and the passengers names of where they are boarding and alighting announced over the radio the day before. There is no way that anyone can go anywhere without the whole island knowing about it!

We had the rest of the morning to fill. I had missed out on getting good shots of certain birds so I was on a mission to get good photos of;

Crested Caracara

Crested Duck

Falklands Steamer Duck

Tussac Bird

We walked along the shore line towards the landing stage. In quick succession I had photos of;

Tussac Bird

 Falklands Thrush

Speckled Teal

Crested Duck

Crested Caracara, even more rare than the Striated Caracara, the first shot was against the sky and not very good and we needed to want an hour before the birds felt bold enough to return nd then gave a great display.

An unidentified egg in a nest...we never saw the bird fly off as it must have seen us before we saw it.

A Shag at sea

Black Throated Canary Winged Finch which is also called the White Bridle Finch which is a long given its actual small size.

Falklands Steamer Duck…so called as it spends a lot of its time splashing in the water to preen its feathers as if it was a paddle steamer throwing water from its paddles / wings and hence the name. And of course mission accomplished to get photos of the hitherto missed birds.

It was a forty minute flight to Sea Lion Island and we were taken on a tour by the ranger in his vehicle as soon as we arrived.The views out of the aircraft were great as we only flew at three hundred feet off the ground.

 Me in the aircraft

 A view of a sand spit

 Some of the kelp beds just offshore

A pair of Upland geese and goslings

Monument to HMS Sheffield which was attacked forty miles off the coast of the island.

 Some Rock Shags nesting on the cliffs below the monument.

A shag colony

It was only after that our guide, Mickey told us that we had crossed a stone arch.

ASs the sun was getting low in the sky. our last stop was to see the elephant seal colony. This was much bigger than the one we had seen earlier and we decided to return first thing at dawn the next day.