Tsunami's and Leopard seals- a dangerous combination

From the beginning of May Hannah (seal scientist) has been on the look out for leopard seals. They only come to Bird Island during the winter season as they prefer cold weather. Every day when I went to colony H Black-browed albatross colony I would scan the beaches to see if I could spot one, but no luck. After spending 6 months on the island it felt strange that a “new” species might turn up, so I was never really expecting to see one. One afternoon I was over at colony E (the other side of the island) weighing some Grey-headed albatross chicks with Jerry when I heard a radio message from Hannah saying that there was a leopard seal on Main Bay, and it was huge! I had a busy day ahead of me checking my various colonies so I was praying that it was a tired leopard seal and would still be napping on the beach a few hours later.

A panoramic view from up the hill, a site I see almost every day

I actually had a really enjoyable day, mainly due to the nice weather, and after visiting the usual colonies headed over to a new part of the island. Every year we have to count the Grey-headed albatross chicks in certain colonies to see how successful a breeding season it has been. One of the colonies I had never been to before so it was a bit of a guessing game trying to figure out which group of chicks I was supposed to be counting. To get there I had to head out onto Johnson point which is not somewhere I usually have to go. I had to walk down the stream (which was useful as I found a couple of ringed Black-brow chicks that hadn’t made it) and up the hill towards the end of the island. It was nice to see the areas I usually spend my time in from a different perspective. 

Wandering albatross family- the chicks are getting big!

From the end of the island I saw lots of different birds including; giant petrels, all four albatross species, Cape Petrels, Skua’s and lots of Blue eyed Shags. It’s nice to see the Wanderers out amongst the waves, gliding effortlessly in between waves, and somehow never managing to get splashed. I had a brief sit down and had a snack whilst taking in the bird life and watching the waves pound the coastline. 

It had been a few hours since I heard about the leopard seal, but luckily for me it was still lying on the beach. From up the hill it looked like a huge smooth grey rock, but when I got a bit closer I could make out some flippers and a head. It was fast asleep lying on its side. I took a few photos but didn’t want to get too close and only had my compact camera with me. Hannah came over to do some more observations so I left her to it, and headed home after a long day. 

Max the leopard seal

The seal already had flipper tags, so we knew it was one that had been at the island previously, and it also had a GLS tracker attached to one of the tags. Hannah managed to get it back, which is very exciting, as it is only the fourth tag retrieved in 10 years. Not much is known about where these seals spend the rest of the year, so every tag retrieved provides valuable data. 

Leopard seals can be identified from the patterns of spots and markings on their skin, so Hannah has to take photographs of all the seals she sees and uploads them to a database to be identified.  The seal seen was identified as Max, a young male leopard seal, who had been seen at the island last year. He didn’t look like a young seal to me as he was huge! Over 3 metres long with a huge powerful head. 

The following day he was spotted out of the water again, so I headed over to take some more photographs, and I got to help Hannah measure him, which you do when he is asleep. He kept waking up because a Sheathbill kept pecking at a big wound on his back (which could have been caused by a male Antarctic Fur seal. It looked very sore, and he was not impressed by the bird, but couldn’t quite manage to grab it before it ran away. 

Max getting annoyed at a Sheathbill that is making a hasty exit

Since then Max has been seen in the water a couple of times feeding. It is obvious when he has made a kill as he is surrounded by a cloud of Giant Petrels and Cape Petrels, looking to grab a piece of his leftovers. It is hard to tell what he is eating as it’s usually below the surface, and leopard seals have a tendency to turn its prey inside out to eat it more easily. It seemed most likely that he had a young fur seal, and possibly a penguin on another occasion. 

Max showing just how big that mouth is- apparently they have a head bigger than a Grizzly bear

A few days after the first sighting of Max, another leopard seal turned up. At first we thought it was Max as it was seen in the same area that he had been feeding in. Looking back at the photos taken Hannah noticed that there was a distinctive S shaped marking on its face. It was definitely not Max. Looking back through the records the seal was identified as Stephanie; a female seal that had first been identified on the island in 2007. I haven’t yet seen her myself but I am hoping to see her soon. 

Leopard seals are not the only exciting species to have been spotted this month. Hannah spotted a Southern Right Whale while doing her daily Leopard seal rounds. It was showing well so I went up to join her and watched it for around half an hour feeding just off the island. Southern Right Whales can be up to 16.4 metres long and can weigh as much as 30 tonnes. I’m not sure how big the one we saw was, as it is hard to estimate but it looked pretty big. Earlier in the season they were spotted regularly around the island, but this was the first individual seen for some time. All records of whales are noted down for our annual report. In other years Killer Whales have been seen off the island, but very rarely.  

South Georgia Pipit

All of the Black-browed Albatross chicks have now fledged, and it is the turn of the Grey-headed Albatrosses. The first chick disappeared on the 14^th May, and I will be checking the study colony every day until the last one goes (which could be as late as the 17^th June). The mortality rate seems to be higher than the Black-browed Albatross chicks, and recently I have been finding dead chicks which when weighed only a few days previously seemed healthy. The only explanation seems to be that Giant Petrels and Skuas are killing chicks, as there is very little food around for them. On the last two occasions that I have been to the colonies I have seen both Giant Petrels and Skuas feeding on dead chicks. Hopefully a good proportion of the remaining chicks will fledge soon, and not become dinner for the other birds. 

Fully grown Giant Petrel chicks- smart birds!

Last week we had an unusual start to the day when the emergency phone started ringing early in the morning. I jumped out of bed to answer it and it was Les back in Cambridge. He was phoning to tell me that there had been a tsunami alert for South Georgia, and it was due to hit in 20 minutes. We had to evacuate the base (which is on the beach) and head to higher ground. I quickly woke everyone up, and we all got kitted up in warm clothes and headed up the hill to wait. It was pitch black outside so we all took torches, and once we had gotten far enough up the hill we sat down in the snow to wait. We had taken an iridium (satellite) phone with us, so we could call Cambridge when we were in a safe place. In the end we stayed up the hill for around an hour before being allowed back down to the base. Luckily the tsunami didn’t materialise, but it was still a scary few minutes when we were getting ready to leave the base. We later learned that there had been an earthquake in the South Sandwich Islands which was fairly shallow, and so could have triggered a tsunami. 

Another task this month was to go and check all of the Light-mantled Sooty Albatross nests that had been found earlier in the season to see if the chicks had survived. It was dire news though, not one chick was found out of an initial 75 nests. It’s hard work to check the nests as they tend to be on cliffs around the coastline which are not easily accessible, and requires you to battle the huge tussac grass. A few months ago I did the same survey with Jenn, to check if the nests had progressed to having chicks. It wasn’t all bad though, as it was a lovely cool frozen day, with nice views of South Georgia. I hadn’t been over to that side of the island for ages, so it made a welcome change. 

View over to South Georgia whilst doing the Sooty census

The number of skuas across the island has been decreasing over the last couple of months. We used to have large numbers of them on the beaches, and you would see them  constantly washing themselves in the streams. They seem to have a serious case of OCD when it comes to bathing! Recently though we only have a few left that hang out around base. One of them is likely to be a permanent resident as he has an injured wing which doesn't seem to be getting any better. He waits outside the door for you and then follows you around hoping to get a bite to eat. Sometimes he's lucky and we are taking the "gash bucket" (slops bucket) out, and he often gets first dibs. We have called him Scratchy, as has very sharp claws. I learnt that when we were examining his injured wing and he managed to slice my finger open.

Scratchy the resident Skua

This month we have been recreating the television programme Come Dine with Me. Each Saturday it is the turn of another Bird Island resident to prepare a three course meal and entertainment for the others. Craig is hoping to make a film out of it once we've finished. The last "episode" is this Saturday, so I'll let you know how it all goes.

Gentoo penguins having a disagreement, the one on the left had walked up and yanked the tail of the other one.