(always) Learning to See ...

SOUTH 20 Black-browed albatross in flight. This is the last in the SOUTH series for now and the last of the week of CLOSE as well.

I too fly off soon for 3 weeks in India. I expect posting will be sporadic though I will try and leave the auto poster with something for you folk. But tumblers auto poster has a mind of its own so who knows..?

 SOUTH Series Link (CC-BY-NC-ND) Please do not reblog without these links.

SOUTH 19 Albatross beak CLOSE up. Ok its dead but it does let you see how wonderful the beak is as well as the tube that is used to dispose of excess salt from a special gland, necessary if you spend most of your life over the oceans.

 SOUTH Series Link (CC-BY-NC-ND) Please do not reblog without these links.

SOUTH 18 King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) up CLOSE. He/she is grooming their feathers which famously have a remarkable feather density (I think 14/cm) 

 SOUTH Series Link (CC-BY-NC-ND) Please do not reblog without these links.

SOUTH 17 Elephant Seal (M. leonine) On the beach. Just sitt’n and moult’n. Thats his friend’s arm: they like to cosy up. (300mm)

 SOUTH Series Link (CC-BY-NC-ND) Please do not reblog without these links.

SOUTH 16  Striated Caracara (Johnny Rook) (Phalcoboenus australis) up CLOSE enough for a 300mm lens (plus2x) to show lots of detail. Great that he sat still for his portrait.

SOUTH Series Link (CC-BY-NC-ND) Please do not reblog without these links.

SOUTH 15  This a close view of one of the whale oil tanks at Grytviken in South Georgia. I’ve touched on the history before so won’t again. Paradixically the old buildings have great beauty and will slowly trickle into my this blog. Possibly as a series of their own.

SOUTH 14 Continuing my  ’stuck on whales week’ (only one more day) here are two Orcas from several pods we encountered in one area in Antarctica. There were somewhere between 50 and 70. I am not sure because its really hard to count when they are all around you, diving surfacing, near and far plus you are so excited and on a moving ship. I also have many many poor images since one just grabs a camera and works with the lens one has which means it is too long for the close ones and to short for the far ones. Plus since they are diving and surfacing one never knows where they will be next. Still I have some snaps to remember the occasion. I gather from information from researchers that these are the fish eating tribe rather than those who hunt larger prey and that there is some suggestion there are really three subspecies rather than two. Goes to show how little is known about those we share the planet with.

SOUTH 13 Since I seem to be concentrating on whale matters this week, here is another abandoned whaling station. This is on Deception Island (in South Shetland) where we sailed into the inside of the caldera.A great harbour if the volcano isn’t being active. What you see is the impact of lava flowing through your living room. The whaling station saw new life as a british base until things got very active volcanically in the sixties.

SOUTH Series Link (CC-BY-NC-ND) Please do not reblog without these links.

SOUTH 12 I doubt an image can ever really do justice to the experience of meeting Whales. These were some of many humpbacks that we encountered at close range around the antarctic peninsula. Their numbers are building slowly but the Blue whales are very, very rarely seen in these waters where once there were maybe 300,000. 

 I guess this is turning into a week of whale related images from my SOUTH series

SOUTH Series Link (CC-BY-NC-ND) Please do not reblog without these links.

South 11 The buildings of the whaling station of Grytviken on South Georgia.It was founded in 1904 and played no small part in the destruction of so many whales. Grytviken is also associated with Shackleton, since it was on another associated whaling station that he ended his heroic trek to rescue his men and itself the place from which he organised their rescue. It is also where he is buried.