South Georgia - Falklands Expedition Report - Part 11 - Mostly Seals

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The 2018 South Georgia/Falkland beat goes on - only 2000 images in the folder now! I am in the process of selecting ones that may eventually go into a photobook.

Southern Elephant Seal
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera
300mm f/4 IS Pro Lens
1/2500 sec at f/5 ISO 1250

More information about Elephant Seals was presented in part 4 of this series (link).

Southern Elephant Seal
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera
300mm f/4 IS Pro Lens
1/1000 sec at f/8 ISO 1250

Mock battle of Juvenile Southern Elephant Seals
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera
300mm f/4 IS Pro Lens
1/1250 sec at f/7.1 ISO 1250

Antarctica Pipit
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera
300mm f/4 IS Pro Lens
1/2000 sec at f/7.1 ISO 640

From Wikipedia (link) - “The South Georgia pipit (Anthus antarcticus) is a sparrow-sized bird only found on the South Georgia archipelago off the Antarctic Peninsula. It is the only song bird in Antarctica, South Georgia's only passerine, and one of the few non-seabirds of the region. It builds nests from dried grass, usually within tussac grass, and lays four eggs a year. It feeds on small insects and spiders, and beach debris. It has been threatened by the human introduction to the islands of rats, and also by environmental damage caused by humans themselves. It has been chosen as the poster bird of the South Georgia Heritage Trust's Habitat Restoration (Rat Eradication) project, which started eradicating rats on South Georgia in 2011. The project's baiting phase ended in early 2015, and success was confirmed in 2018. Visitors can see the bird on Prion Island, and on almost any beach on South Georgia since the eradication project took hold.”

Polar Conservationist Denise Landau, one of the ship's expeditions leaders, was one of the organizers of the eradication project.

Antarctic Fur Seal (Arctocephalus gazella)
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera
300mm f/4 IS Pro Lens
1/1000 sec at f/6.3 ISO 640

Antarctic fur seals, hunted commercially for their dense underfur until 1907, almost became extinct. It was estimated that only a few hundred of the seals remained alive. The total population size of the species, now protected by the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals (CCAS)and the Antarctic Treaty, was estimated as 1.5 million in 1990 but it is thought that the population may have since increased to over 4 million. Information from the Seal Conservation Society web site (link).

Antarctic Fur Seal
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera
110mm, 40-150mm f/2.8 IS Pro Lens
1/400 sec at f/5.6 ISO 160

While we were in South Georgia, the adult Elephant Seals were docile, but some of the Fur Seals were aggressive. We spent a couple of hours cruising the shore at Cooper Bay because the expedition leaders decided there were too many aggressive Fur Seals there to make a landing.

Antarctic Fur Seal
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera
300mm f/4 IS Pro Lens
1/1000 sec at f/6.3 ISO 1000

Antarctic Fur Seal
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera
300mm f/4 IS Pro Lens
1/400 sec at f/7.1 ISO 1000

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David Sparks

I retired in 2005 after 40 years of research and teaching at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (24 years), the University of Pennsylvania (8 years) and the Baylor College of Medicine (8 years). Photography is my retirement hobby.

Nature photography, especially bird photography, combines a number of things that I really enjoy: bird-watching, being outdoors, photography, travel, messing about with computers, and learning new skills and concepts.  I now spend much of my time engaged in these activities.

David Sibley in the preface to The Sibley Guide to Birds wrote "Birds are beautiful, in spectacular as well as subtle ways; their colors, shapes, actions, and sounds are among the most aesthetically pleasing in nature."  My goal is to acquire images that capture the beauty and uniqueness of selected species as well as images that highlight the engaging behaviors the birds exhibit.