Antarctica Voyage Day 10 – 28 December 2015, Hope Bay

This morning we awoke to lots of icebergs and ice.

After breakfast we arrived in a really beautiful bay, called Hope Bay. Here we had a Zodiac cruise around, which is the site of a large Argentinian research station, which is run as a military base, with scientists, their families, medical facilities and a school.  

Here there were 100,000 penguin pairs, many of them out of view! Mainly Adeile but some Gentoo. 

Adeile Penguin colony,  Hope Bay

Adeile Penguin colony,  Hope Bay

Adeile Penguin colony,  Hope Bay

We first saw a Weddell Seal, new for the trip and after a while we saw a Leopard Seal in the water, going up and down the edge of the land looking for a seal.  Not long afterwards, it caught a seal and the slapped it against the water, to skin it.  It was incredible watching this and apparently a very rare site.

Back at the ship, we had a rage group of Orca stay close around the ship for about 1 ½ hours, a fantastic sight.  One of the females had a young with them.  The Orca we had been seeing before were type B but this group were type A, which is very rare.

2 adults and a young Orca

Orca

In the evening we had the Captain’s dinner, which was a nice end to the trip.  There have been nine of us who are between 12 and 15 years old and we have had lots of fun hanging out together. I really hope that we all stay in touch. Apart from me, there was one girl from Canada and everyone else living in America.

Best birds and animals of the day:

Adeile Penguin

Gentoo Penguin

Wilson’s Storm Petrel

Antarctic Cormorant

Kelp Gull

Antarctic Ten

Brown Skua

Snowy Sheafbill

Leopard Seal

Weddell Seal

Humpback Whale

Orca

About the Writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly

Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent. 

Mya-Rose is a Bristol European Green Capital 2015 Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol 2015 Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter