Southern Royal Happy Hour at Campbell Island, 3:30pm

Our ship is dwarfed by the magnitude of Perseverance Harbour.

I'm so envious of the researchers I met who are studying the several albatross species nesting on Campbell Island. This couple was putting on a great show for all of us, overlooking Northeast Harbour.

Geared up! That's my Canon 60D with an EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L lens (heavy but worth it), and tucked into each side under my jacket pockets are my Leica binoculars and my Canon EOS Rebel T3 with an 18-55mm lens. And a dry bag on my back with more warm clothes and rain gear.

We had the better part of a day ashore on Campbell Island after our run with the heavy swell at 11 knots for 34 hours. We approached our anchorage for the day through Perseverance Harbour, the name suggesting the key characteristic early explorers of the Southern Ocean shared. We began the day with a Zodiac cruise to Tucker and Garden Coves, searching successfully for the endemic Campbell Island Flightless Teal and the Campbell Island Shag. Since neither of these species goes far from the island (with the teal always within a quick scurry/swim of land), they differ modestly from the teal and shags on other subantarctic islands so the trip checklist quickly filled with each island’s version of not only teal and shag, but also pipit, tomtit, penguin, parakeet, etc. Even for the species that can fly from island to island with ease, such as the albatrosses, petrels, storm-petrels, and prions, each species tends to breed on a specific island or set of islands.

Our ship anchored near the base of Beeman Hill at the head of Perseverance Harbour on Campbell Island. We walked on the duckboard (boardwalk) up the ridge to the north of Beeman Hill and west of Mt Lyall, continuing west from there to the “view” from the west coast cliffs. Although others who went straight for the view actually had one, I only saw fog and nearly got blown away by the wind at the top of the western cliffs. Time to retreat quickly back to the megaherbs and albatrosses. 
Map: Subantarctic New Zealand, A Rare Heritage by Neville Peat, copyright 2003 Department of Conservation Te Papa Atawhai.

Megaherbs in bloom near the top of the western cliffs in heavy fog.

Lovely lichen in the mini-forest near the scientific station. On our way up the narrow path, this is about the spot where  a male New Zealand Fur Seal decided we were intruding and he'd have none of it. Our guide Adam valiantly fenced with him for awhile with a rotten stick he found by the trail, keeping the fur seal at bay just long enough for the string of 30+ people to get by safely. Normally they're all bluff and no bite but I wasn't convinced that was the case with this guy so I was relieved when we didn't see him on the way down (others greeted us closer to shore but we had space to give them a wide berth). 

Campbell Island is the breeding site of the endemic Campbell Island Albatross, differing from the similar Black-browed Albatross by having a yellow iris instead of a black iris. Having a camera with a zoom lens was essential for me to identify some species in flight as is evident in several of these pictures.

Note the yellow iris of the Campbell Island Albatross.

I grabbed this picture from my Falklands Island post last year - these are Black-browed Albatrosses (which were also present on our trip but I didn't get a picture of one!). Note the dark iris but otherwise similar appearance to the Campbell Island Albatross. 

This Broad-billed Prion (flying) has a larger bill than the slim-billed Antarctic Prion below. The floating bird is a juvenile Southern Bullers Albatross, photographed between the Bounty Islands and Chatham Islands.

This is an Antarctic Prion, observed as we neared Macquarie Island. 

The highlight of our Campbell Island trip was a walk up to a Southern Royal Albatross colony. The expedition leader timed our walk for happy hour – it turns out albatrosses have about the same happy hour schedule as I do back in Portland (which goes something like this: "How early can you – friend – get done with work? 3:30? Por Que No? or Henry’s. 4:00? Oba. 4:30? Blue Hour or Clarklewis. 5:00? Nuestra Cocina or Nostrana)." Guess who’s missing happy hour with her friends.

The albatross’ version of happy hour involves more dancing and less tapas and tequila than my version, but we both share a fondness for gabbing with occasional funny gestures to accentuate our stories.

This male Southern Royal Albatross was moving pretty quickly to go visit with his friend.  The duckboard trail kept the rest of us from getting soggy feet or twisting ankles on our hike.

His display impressed her. And me. And all of the paparazzi lined up on the trail watching.

Kiss please!

I reluctantly started walking back to the ship, wanting happy hour with the Royals to extend in to the wee hours, but alas, dusk was spent cruising through peaceful and magical Perseverance Harbour. I watched the islands fade away in the distance as darkness fell, reflecting on the entertaining times I had with my shipmates on the trail as we experienced this incredibly special place. 

Link to YouTube Video of the Two Royals Pictured Above Flirting

Link to YouTube Video of Four Albatrosses Displaying and Bill Clicking