Volunteer Point, Falkland Islands

February 22, 2015

In the morning after the wait to get off the boat and a half hour ride on the tender, our group arrived at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands and met four four-wheel-drive pickups.  We were in the middle of a convoy of such pickups all transporting cruise passengers to Volunteer Point.  The driver was an very interesting British-Falklander.  He told us that he and the four other drivers in our group were all backup drivers with their own vehicles who worked when the transport company needed more vehicles, such as, when a cruise ship came in. Without a cruise ship, he said, there might only be one or two vehicles that go out there on an occasional day.

After about an hour on paved road, we were another hour plus on rough non-paved non-roads. Though we were not in the front of the pack, we found that our group had an advantage over the other vehicles. The driver in the lead car was the farmer who leased the land we were driving on, knew the property very well, and was determined that we would be the first to get to Volunteer Point. And, we were.

We parked, grabbed our binoculars and cameras, and just wandered around for a few hours.  From the parking lot we saw Gentoo Penguins.  We could hear the chorus of the King Penguins in the near distance.

We had the place to ourselves for about half an hour, then the other passengers came to enjoy the show.

We wandered and took photos in the grassy area for over an hour, then went over to survey the scene at the beach.

It was a cool, cloudy day at a place that is often cold and windy.

We had made a few birding stops on the way to Volunteer Point and did again on the way back to the ship.  We got back to the boat about 4:00 and birded from the deck in the evening as we went back out to sea.

Species List:

Upland Goose
Kelp Goose
Ruddy-headed Goose
Falkland Steamer-Duck
Crested Duck
King Penguin
Gentoo Penguin
Magellanic Penguin
Black-browed Albatross
Southern Giant-Petrel
Slender-billed Prion (released 40 from deck)
Sooty Shearwater
Great Shearwater
Grey-backed Storm Petrel (in hand)
Turkey Vulture
Rufous-chested Dotterel
Blackish Oystercatcherr
Brown Skua
Kelp Gull
Dark-faced Ground-Tyrant
Chilean Swallow
Austral Thrush
Long-tailed Meadowlark

Others saw: Yellow-billed/Speckled Teal, Soft-plumaged Petrel, Magellan/Rock Cormorant, Imperial Cormorant, Variable Hawk, Southern Caracara, Two-banded Plover, Magellanic Oystercatcher, Snowy Sheathbill, Dolphin Gull, Correndera Pippit, White-bridled Finch, House Sparrow