Prion Island & Elsehul, South Georgia Island
It was the day of the albatross. These birds invite superlatives. Wandering albatrosses, with their cousins the Royal albatrosses, have the longest wingspan (to 11 feet) of any birds. We see them over the Southern Ocean, soaring seemingly without effort, wings fixed, using the energy of the wind. If only we could do the same. Wanderers breed on subantarctic islands. Few people have the opportunity to see them on their breeding ground. Before the scourge of rats reached South Georgia, they must have bred widely over the island. Now there are about 4,000 pairs breeding on rat-free areas of the main island and a few off shore islands. Prion Island is one of these. The South Georgia authority has constructed a boardwalk to provide us access to the nesting areas on the windswept top of the island, and there we found the young. They come from eggs that were laid last December and January, a single egg in each nest. They have survived the subantarctic winter, most of it spent waiting for a parent to return with food. Now, they are nearing their full size, with long, ungainly wings to be exercised in anticipation of their departure from the breeding site. If our young albatross is fortunate enough to survive the onslaught of the open-ocean, unregulated long-line fishery, it will return to the island in five years or so to become a member of the breeding population. Let us hope.
And then, sadly but triumphantly, came our final outing of this most amazing trip. The National Geographic Explorer took us to Elsehul, near the northwest end of South Georgia. It was a three-penguin (king, gentoo, and macaroni) and three albatross (black-browed, grey-headed, and light-mantled sooty) excursion, by Zodiac and hiking ashore, as we packed it all in, recording images that will last us a lifetime. South Georgia Island has lived up to its promise.
