Light-mantled Sooty Albatross!

Hi All

Yesterday (the 1st of July) we had a very good day of birding, Alastair and Alex were with a BBC film crew who were filming albatross for an upcoming documentary about the wildlife of the South Pacific. The cameraman was filming albatross feeding and we had a good variety of species around the boat (Gibson's, antipodean, southern royal, black-browed, Buller's and Salvin's) when Al spotted a Light-mantled sooty flying at the back of the feeding group, the rest of the boat looked up to see the albatross do another fly-by at the back of the group and then it was off again, not before we had a good look at its very distinctive plumage. It is only the second time we have seen a Light-mantled sooty on our albatross encounter

Whilst this was happening Gary was about 5miles south on a different tour and he spotted an entire flock of antarctic fulmars about 25-30 birds, a very rare sighting here where we usually see the species in ones or twos.

A good day birding and as both vessels were a little further offshore than usual, hopefully an indication of what we can expect to see on our longer explorer tours.

Until then, good birding...........