Friday 28 February 2020

Falkland Island, 24th December 2019

Second post covering the Falkland Islands. We spent the rest of the day visiting sites near Stanley the capital of the Falklands. I was struck at how similar a lot of the landscape was to west Galway and north Mayo. There are large areas of windswept treeless blanket bog on the island. Similar to Ireland most of these are damaged due to historical peat extraction, drainage and by over-grazing by the dreaded curse of the sheep.

There were still plenty of signs from the 1982 war. Some areas are still out of bounds thanks to the Argies who invaded the islands and indiscriminately laid land mines across the islands before being rightly kicked off the islands. 

It was the height of the austral summer here and most birds seemed to have chicks in tow. It took a little a bit of looking but we managed to find a few Ruddy-headed Geese which are now rather difficult to find in Patagonian (we didn't see any after the Falklands). The Falklands have amazingly few native passerines with only eleven regular species being found there. We did well to see 40 species during the entire day which isn't half bad for the island. After the Falklands we were
Ruddy-headed Goose
Ruddy-headed Goose
Ruddy-headed Goose
Ruddy-headed Goose
Ruddy-headed Goose
Upland Goose
Upland Goose
Upland Goose
Upland Goose
Upland Goose
Upland Goose
Yellow-billed Teal
Yellow-billed Teal
Yellow-billed Teal
Crested Duck
Crested Duck
Falkland Steamer Duck
Chiloe Wigeon
Chiloe Wigeon
Chiloe Wigeon
Rufous-chested Dotterel
Rufous-chested Dotterel
Rufous-chested Dotterel
Rufous-chested Dotterel
Rufous-chested Dotterel

Rufous-chested Dotterel

Two-banded Plover

Two-banded Plover

Two-banded Plover

Two-banded Plover

Two-banded Plover

Two-banded Plover

Two-banded Plover
Whie-rumped Sandpiper

Whie-rumped Sandpiper

Magellanic Oystercatcher

Magellanic Oystercatcher
Brown Skua

Brown Skua
Black-crowned Night Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron

Southern Caracara

Silvery Grebe

Silvery Grebe

Silvery Grebe

Correndera Pipit

White-bridled Finch
Southern Elephant Seal

Turkey Vulture

Long-tailed Meadowlark

Long-tailed Meadowlark

Grass Wren

Grass Wren
Grass Wren

Stanley

East Falkland landscape

Turf banks near Stanley.

East Falkland landscape

Phillips Point

Cape Pembroke

Memorial to the Atlantic Conveyor which was sunk off Cape Pembroke during the 1982 war.

Moonscape near the airport.


Government House, Stanley.