An early morning wake-up call had us breakfasted, bussed to Aeroparque Internacional Jorge Newbery  and onboard our 4 hour flight en route to Ushuaia before the heat of the Buenos Aires day had set in. Finally, it seemed, our Antarctic adventure was really under way. From the window we looked down and saw a new perspective of the city and picked out the Recoleta Cemetery close to where we had stayed, and the Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve where we had enjoyed a morning of birding. As we climbed, the sprawl of Buenos Aires seemed to extend almost as far as the eye could see but eventually gave way to grasslands before we left the coast and aimed for Tierra del Fuego. In time the snow covered peaks of the southern Andes appeared and we descended to Ushuaia airport getting spectacular views of mountains, valleys and beech forests.

From my reading, I had expected a cool, grey and possibly wet day and was happily disappointed to find beautiful, calm, sunny weather for our trip into Tierra del Fuego National Park. The scenery was stunning with snowy peaks, beech forest, lakes and rivers that reminded me so much of our New Zealand South Island. A short walk saw us boarding the catamaran, Ushuaia Explorer, for lunch and a wildlife cruise on the Beagle Channel. Sitting inside eating lunch I saw Black-browed Albatross flying past so it set the tone for the rest of the trip with a quick meal so that we could get out and see the wildlife and aim for some photos.

The Black-browed Albatross were quite plentiful but none approached terribly close as there was little wind. There was a steady traffic of Imperial Shags and we approached a number of small islands with breeding colonies. The most picturesque was the one in the photo heading this post. This was the first of many times during our Antarctica trip that I was left speechless and shaking my head in disbelief at the sheer beauty of the scene unfolding through my viewfinder.

Next we stopped at a colony of South American Sealions which was again another first of many experiences where the sheer number of animals left you feeling almost overwhelmed and battling to isolate something within the crowds. The attendant Dolphin Gulls were very pretty with their lovely grey plumage and scarlet lipsticked bills.

There were plentiful Imperial Shags, a blue-eyed Shag very similar to the Blue-eyed Shags we would see in Antarctica. Ornithologically they are mostly considered separate species but some taxonomical lumpers consider them the same. Splitters consider two possible species of Imperial Shag in the Beagle Channel.

The other shag we saw was the Rock Shag with their distinctive red face patch

Another new bird for us were the Steamer Ducks known for their habit of flapping across the surface of the water with their wings giving the impression of an old-fashioned paddle steamer. There are two species (Flightless Steamer Ducks and Flying Steamer Ducks) and we managed photos of the Flightless with ducklings.

Chilean Skuas were plentiful and quite sweet looking being quite dumpy and cute in comparison to the Brown and South Polar Skua further south. I managed to isolate one against a patch of dull grey sky for my Birds on White series

Finally a Black and White landscape of one one of the Shag colonies on a rocky island with a small lighthouse. We had an incredible day and by all accounts were very lucky with the weather. It was an amazing start to our Antarctica trip and after boarding our ship, National Geographic Explorer, we departed late afternoon and cruised down the Beagle Channel heading for the Drake Passage with a positive forecast for a “moderate” crossing.