The Snares to Enderby Island leg of our journey gave us an afternoon at sea. I had been looking forward to more daylight deck time so enjoyed the time outside tracking pelagic birds, despite the rolling seas. There were good numbers of Bullers Albatross around the Snares but they were by no means the only subjects. Many times when tracking a bird others were also present in the frame, simply due to the numbers in flight around the ship. The following two images illustrate this well.

Southern Royal Albatross were plentiful and hard to ignore with their great size and graceful flight but we had numerous White-capped Albatross and Giant Petrels to focus on, as well as the ubiquitous Cape Petrels and Black-bellied Storm Petrels.

Lovely overcast conditions gave perfect conditions to collect a few more images for my Birds on White series too. The sea conditions ended up keeping many in their cabins for dinner which was a pity as we enjoyed a delicious steak meal. The final note in my journal for the day was “the meals are amazing” which was partially a tribute to the success of our motion sickness prevention cocktail that had served us well across the Drake Passage too. Next week will introduce Enderby Island, the jewel of the Auckland Island group, and one of the special places on earth.

All photos with Nikon D810 and Nikon 200-400 f4 VR