Day 9) Monday March 2nd, Danger Islands - first landing

Monday, March 2, 2020

After breakfast we were transported with zodiacs to the shore of Heroina island, part of the archipelago of Danger islands. There has been a small bay, in which it was possible to land easily. The beach was a mixture of granite rocks, ice pieces, and of skeletons of penguins - truely. Penguins (Adelie, Gento, Chinstrip) lay eggs on shore and at this time of the year they are mostly gone to spend their time in sea. From the colony of about 20 milion of Adelie penguins home on this island, there are left just some late individuals, while the island is covered by guano. Apart Adelie, there are some Gento penguins. On the shore there is a chick of Adelie penguin, not having yet the characteristic white rim around the eye. It takes about two years to develop it.  There are giant skuas eating carcasses of penguin, that are plentiful around. The guano is red in colour from krill on which penguins feed. On some places one can see green “penguin vomit” in size of few cm. Remaining penguins are still maulting, that is their winter feathers are growing and are replacing the summer outfit. The resulting effect is pretty funny. Snowy Sheathbills, white birds are eating carcasses too.  On the shore is lying a Weddel seal, feading on deep water fish, that they hunt during their night dives up to about 800 m. We descend to a bay on another side of the island, where on an iceberg is lying a leopard seal, local predator that can bite even a zodiac. I spent time to wait if he will get in a mood to show us his face… but he didn’t. I hurry up to catch others and climb up the hill, from where there is a great view of the sea around, full of icebergs of all sizes, one can see the bay where we landed and also our Bark Europa. After that I descend on a slippery mixture of guano and rocks and we return on the boat for lunch. We wash everything first on shore and then on board with brushes + we disinfect the boots. After lunch at 2:30 PM we go for about 1.5 hour tour on zodiacs and one “kanojka”, in which am I. We see individual penguin on an iceberg next to Europa - quite a sight. After that we see several Weddel seals and at the end a wonderful natural pool above the submerged part of an iceberg, where two leopard seals are curiously playing. It looks like a pool in an ocean park - surreal luck! When we leave, they go with us, up to a point where we stumble on another lonely penguin on a growler, that shortly becomes a meal for the seal. I am happy I managed to capture the moment of attack. We return to the boat enthusiastic for a great steak and even a glass of wine. Evening spent in library to order photos.