We had excellent weather early today, but after last night’s outing Jerome could not be roused until well after 9:00 so it was a bit of a late start. He more than made it up to us by taking us to Ocean Harbour where we were able to board a one hundred year old shipwreck that is now home to a blue-eyed shag colony. Normally visiting an old shipwreck would be a highlight, but with so many beautiful and relatively fearless birds aboard hardly anyone was paying much attention to the boat. A huge herd of reindeer was roaming the shoreline, so it was definitely a great wildlife spot.
After cruising through more icebergs we arrived at St. Andrews Bay, which is probably the premier wildlife spot on South Georgia. At the moment there are approximately 7,000 elephant seals ashore, in addition to the (at least) half million king penguins that are here. Mike pretty much summed it up when he first came on deck and inadvertently muttered “Holy shit” upon seeing the shoreline.
After coming ashore at St. Andrews another giant petrel took a liking to me, and this one was actually so playful that we ended up practically wrestling in the sand. Later a group of a dozen or so king penguin chicks wandered within a few feet of me, and when I walked away I discovered that they were following behind. Perhaps a half dozen of the birds came with me a good ways up the river before I finally picked up the pace and they dissolved back into the colony. The other highlight here was the elephant seals, who are at the height of their season. The big bulls are constantly bellowing out, and some vicious fights break out occasionally — we saw one big male the other day with his nose half torn off, hanging only by a few bits of skin. Almost all of the bulls have numerous deep gashes over their chests and backs — their fights are a bloody occurrence, but quite impressive to watch. They are surprisingly tolerant of us, although everyone except for Jerome is still giving them a fairly wide berth.