Flock to Marion Again, 2025.

Southern Oceans 7: prions and cetaceans

February 9, 2025February 9, 2025

Our final days on the MSC Musica are spent sailing north, towards South Africa, leaving the albatrosses and prions behind. Some 5 million pairs of Salvin’s Prion breed on Prince Edward Islands and Crozet, with 2,000 pairs of Fairy Prions breeding across both Prince Edward Islands. Prions were abundant in the waters around Marion, at times thousands per hour passed the ship:

Prion identification is notoriously difficult. Like the identification of wandering-type albatrosses, birds around known breeding islands are all assumed to be the species that breeds on that island. Away from the breeding islands, such a strategy breaks down. And like the great albatrosses, prions do range widely at sea, in the non-breeding seasons.

Pragmatically, we were told to assume that most prions we saw would be Salvin’s Prions, with smaller numbers of the dark-tailed, paler Fairy Prions present too. The challenge of prion identification is the huge variation between birds of apparently the same species. We thought that we may have photographed a strong candidate for the more uncommon Broad-billed Prion:

This bird has a large bill, a very steep forehead and a long wavy moustache, reaching back from the gape line to join the dark ear coverts.

Compared to the average Salvin’s Prions that we saw in great numbers, we thought that our bird stood out. Compare the head-shape, moustache and bill size to this typical Salvin’s Prion, for example:

But the expert consensus was that our bird had just too much blue on the bill. Ideally, Broad-billed Prions have all black bills, making our bird a large-billed, long-moustached Salvin’s Prion, depsite it’s very different appearance.

Cetaceans and seals

This presumed Subantarctic Fur Seal popped up near the ship as we left the waters near Marion. Despite facing extinction due to hunting by the whaling industry, both Antarctic and Subantarctic Fur Seals are recovering in numbers:

A large number of cetaceans were seen from the ship, but were usually distant. Overall, we tended to prioritise the passing birds. Whale blows were seen very regularly, on one occasion a Sei Whale was photographed close to the ship and a number of beaked whale species were identified. A fabulous black-and-white Hourglass Dolphin playing under the bow for a few seconds was a personal highlight.

As we travelled north, we passed over the Subtropical Convergence once more and, as if by magic, we were back into Great-winged Petrel territory, with few other seabirds, other than Tropical and Cory’s Shearwaters, being seen.

We docked in Durban early on 31st January, waking up to the hot, humid conditions of southern Africa. Birdlife South Africa arranged a group photograph of most of the birders on the top deck on the final afternoon:

It was heartening to hear that Flock to Marion Again had raised over $US250,000 for the Mouse-free Marion Project. To date, about a quarter of the US$30M required to complete the mouse eradication project on Marion Island has been raised, so there is still some way to go. Donations to save the fabulous seabirds of the Southern Oceans can be made here!

The eBird trip list of all the species recorded on Flock to Marion Again (plus a few around the hotel on the first morning) can be found here.

Southern Oceans 6: Pterodroma Tuesday

February 8, 2025February 9, 2025

We awoke off the west side of Marion Island, everyone up at 4am for another seabird spectacle. Dawn did not produce the huge numbers of feeding seabirds that we saw yesterday morning, but the quality of the birds was undeniable:

Everyone’s favourite mollymawk, the fabulous Grey-headed Albatross:

Pterodroma Tuesday

We had seen many Soft-plumaged Petrels as we approached Marion, even though this species always kept some distance from the ship. It was educational to see these Softies, as the South Africans call them, having seen the closely related Desertas and Zino’s Petrels off Madeira:

The challenge of identifying dark pterodroma petrels in these waters is compounded by the presence of the occasional dark morph Soft-plumaged Petrel. We saw half a dozen of these birds during our time around Marion, though they only make a tiny fraction of all Softies:

More than once these dak-morph birds were misidentified as Kerguelen Petrels, a rare local breeder, which we did not see. The announcement of a possible Kerguelen Petrel caused panic amongst the birders on the ship. Everyone on the ship’s opposite side would try to cross the ship to see if they could catch up with the passing bird in question. On a ship of this size, this was nearly impossible. If you didn’t choose your door carefully, you ended up running through a casino, bar or restaurant. Both pale and dark morph Softies are in this picture:

Picking out interesting petrels from the constant mass of flying prions around the islands was not easy. Andy did well to call this Blue Petrel as it passed down the side of the ship. The white tail tip is distinctive, and they have a slightly more dark-capped appearance than prions:

But there are enough similarities to prions to make picking one out from the prion swarm a good call:

Left, **Salvin’s Prion**; right, **Blue Petrel**

One of the highlights of the trip for many were the small number of White-headed Petrels that we saw in Marion waters. Ian called out the first bird, the white head and tail, contrasting with the near black underwing, make this a stunning pterodroma to see:

There was drama mid-morning, when a White-headed Petrel and two Grey Petrels, the only ones of the trip, were found together off the port bow:

By 11am, it was time to begin our two and a half-day journey back to port. The ship, having been cruising as slow as 13kph during our time around the islands, increased its speed back up to over 30kph and we turned towards Durban.

Next: the final instalment, prions and cetaceans.

Southern Oceans 5: Magical Marion, part 2

February 7, 2025February 9, 2025

Hours of Penguin pain

We were sailing down the south-east side of Marion Island at a distance of about 20km, when the shout of “penguin in the water!” began to be heard (although now I reflect back, where else would a penguin be?). Four species of penguin breed on the island, but getting good views of penguins in the sea is the opposite of visiting a breeding colony. As soon as the penguins saw the ship, they bounded away, like mini-dolphins, disappearing into the waves. Most of the time the penguins were underwater, and in the majority of cases only the finder would see the disappearing birds. They were simply too quick for other observers to see them before they disappeared underwater.

In the first two hours of daylight, I failed to see a single penguin, despite multiple birds being called from all around me. As the day wore on, I either got my eye in, or the penguins were more cooperative, as most of us managed to see something of the small flocks of penguins feeding in the sea around the islands.

Macaroni Penguins were by far the most common, with smaller numbers of the iconic King Penguin being seen. A real surprise occurred when a Gentoo Penguin popped up close to the ship, where Andy and I were standing on deck 7. Only about 1,500 pairs of Gentoo breed on the islands and they are inshore feeders, so this was an unexcepted treat. For context, there are 225,000 pairs of King Penguin and 270,000 pairs of Macaroni Penguin breeding on the Prince Edward Islands.

Petrel Pleasure

Another unexcepted surprise was a flypast by a Pintado Petrel. We were told that only four pairs breed on Marion Island, so this bird created some real excitement for the South African birders.

Storm petrels were near constant companions to the ship all day. Grey-backed Storm Petrels feed on larvae found on the patches of kelp that floated past. These tiny seabirds, with a wingspan of only 40cm, were the smallest birds that we saw on the trip:

I never tired of seeing Black-bellied Storm Petrels:

Another small bird that we encountered frequently was Common Diving Petrel. Just slightly larger than a Little Auk, these birds zipped along, just above the waves, often diving directly into the water. 10,000 pairs breed on the Prince Edward Islands, benefitting from the eradication of cats on the island, which was completed by 1991, but still at risk from the seabird-eating house mice that have exploded in numbers since the cat eradication.

What an incredible day around Marion Island: six species of albatross (Snowy, Sooty, Light-mantled, Indian Yellow-nosed, Black-browed and Grey-headed) and three species of penguin (King, Macaroni and Gentoo) made it a really special day.

Next: Pterodroma Tuesday!

Southern Oceans 4: Magical Marion, part 1

February 6, 2025February 9, 2025

Dawn on day four found us just to the east of Prince Edward Island. Today would be the main day that we would experience the seabirds of the southern oceans, with half a day planned around the west side of the islands for the following morning. The ship was very busy with birders from 4am. As the sky lightened, Andy and I went to the back of the ship and were greeted by incredible scenes. There were seabirds covering the entire sea.

Hundreds of albatrosses could be seen in a single 180-degree sweep. Both Northern and Southern Giant Petrels were everywhere, as were both Sooty and Light-mantled Sooty Albatrosses.

Five **Snowy Albatrosses**, an **Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross** (top right), together with **Giant Petrels** and **White-chinned Petrels**. There is even a tiny **Black-belled Storm Petrel** (wingspan 46cm) under the farthest right **Snowy Albatross** (wingspan up to 3.5 meters)!

The number of Snowy Albatrosses was astounding These huge birds drifted around, occasionally gathering in groups to fight over food sources:

An **Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross** and two **White-chinned Petrel**s fly past a feeding group of **Giant Petrels** and **Snowy Albatrosses**. Giant Petrel is more than suitable name. Unless you are floating next to a Snowy Albatross.

But it was not just the sheer number of birds that we could see, it was the quality of some of those views. These huge seabirds would float up to the rear of the ship and pass at eye level, giving astounding views:

A Black-browed Albatross became our seventh species of albatross on the trip and one of six species that we saw in this single day.

From the largest albatrosses to the smallest storm petrels, seabirds were around us all morning:

On the horizon, both Prince Edward and Marion Islands could be seen, the latter with snow coating the higher peaks, even in the middle of the austral summer. The highest point on Marion is Mascarin Peak at 1,230m high, South Africa’s only active volcano, which last erupted in 2004:

It was an incredible morning, one never to be forgotten, despite the sub-zero temperatures on deck all day. The sheer number of seabirds that we saw will remain long in the memory, as will the point-blank views of the albatrosses and giant petrels of the Southern Oceans.

Next: Magical Marion, part 2: Penguin Pain and Petrel Pleasure

Southern Oceans 3: “There’s no way that’s a f*****g Wanderer!”

February 5, 2025February 9, 2025

Having had one of the least productive birding days of our lives yesterday, we awoke on Sunday 26^th January for our third day on the ship. We were just over half way to Marion Island at dawn, but within twenty-four hours would be within 20km of the Prince Edward Islands, the closest that we would be allowed to approach. Overnight we had transitioned into much cooler waters. The air temperature had also dropped, fleeces and jackets replacing the t-shirts of yesterday. Immediately there were birds!

Our first Black-bellied Storm Petrels danced low over the water, and our first Soft-plumaged Petrels sheared past.

Chunky White-chinned Petrels rapidly replaced Great-winged Petrels as the default all-dark seabird accompanying the ship.

And finally there were albatrosses. Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross was the most frequent visitor, some being close enough to pick out the yellow stripe on top of the bill and the orange bill tip:

Fabulous all-dark Sooty Albatrosses began appearing too, though we would see many more of these birds over the next few days:

It was a special moment when our first great albatrosses of the Wandering Albatross complex appeared behind the ship. The local breeders on Marion Island are Snowy Albatrosses, Diomedea exulans. These birds are the largest Wandering-type albatrosses, with some birds having a 3.5m (11 foot) wingspan. A close pass by one of these enormous birds, felt more like being passed by a small fixed-wing aircraft:

Andy and I stood on deck 14, the top deck, watching a huge Wandering-type albatross performing gentle loops over the sea behind the boat. Suddenly and surprisingly, world famous seabird author Peter Harrison was standing next to us. He said “Check out the albatross following the ship, because from the photographs that I’ve seen I don’t think it’s a Wandering”.

We knew that the only other realistic option was that the bird was a Tristan Albatross and that Peter Harrison has devoted much time to distinguishing these two species in the field. According to Harrison’s own work (Seabirds: the new identification guide, 2021) only male Tristan Albatrosses of a certain age can be separated from Snowy Albatrosses. These birds have uniformly dark wings, especially the forewing, with distinct white elbow patches in the mid-wing. Ideally there is little black in the tail too. According to Harrison, no Snowy Albatross shows this exact pattern on the wing and tail and these birds can safely be identified as Tristan Albatrosses.

My first reaction, unvoiced, was that it seemed remarkable coincidence that as soon as we starting seeing great albatrosses, a candidate Tristan Albatross should appear. We walked to the back of the ship with Peter, where he saw and photographed the albatross. He then exclaimed, memorably, “Excuse my language, but there’s no way that’s a f*****g Wanderer!” Peter Harrison was adamant that this bird was a Tristan Albatross and he found pictures of stage 6 Tristan Albatrosses in an A4 folder that he carried that looked very similar.

Over the next few days, we became aware that not everyone was convinced that these birds might be seperable. Indeed, both Peter Ryan (article here) and Hadoram Shirihai appear to doubt that these two species can be reliably separated in the field. We saw candidate Tristan Albatrosses on a number days when we were around Marion Island:

Some of the South African guides expressed the view that bearing in mind the identification difficulties, it just seemed more likely that these birds were Snowy Albatrosses from the local breeding colony on Marion, rather than Tristan Albatrosses, all the way from Tristan da Cunha in the central south Atlantic. We decided to let the experts debate this one and moved on.

As the day wore on and we sailed further south into even cooler waters, we began seeing another bird in the Little Shearwater complex, Subantarctic Shearwaters. These birds were the cold-water compatriot of the Tropical Shearwaters that we were seeing yesterday. The demarcation between where different seabird species were found seemed very precise and yet was completely invisible to human senses.

It had been an incredible day, our first real experience of the seabirds of the Southern Oceans. Our concerns about viewing seabirds from a large ship had been alleviated. There was no seasickness, despite some windy days. Deck 7, and both the bow and the stern, provided excellent viewing. The atmosphere on board was convivial, there was plenty of space for nearly 2,000 birders to spread out, even though deck 7 could get busy in peak periods. We were ready for Marion.

Next: we arrive at Marion Island and nearly loose our minds.

Southern Oceans 2: “Good Morning Flockers!”

February 3, 2025February 9, 2025

Birdlife South Africa brand their pelagic trips as “Flocks”. First, they organised two trips into the deep waters off the southern coast of Africa, Flock to Sea (2013) and Flock to Sea Again (2017). Then in 2022 there was the original Flock to Marion and we were on Flock to Marion Again. There is even a club for those that have been on every Flock, the Four Flocks Sake club!

Each morning, there would be an announcement over the ship’s tannoy. In a thick South Africa accent, making sure that the pronunciation was just on the right side of obscenity, we would be greeted with the words “Good Morning Flockers!” This never failed to raise a smile and quickly became the standard greeting between Ian, Andy and myself.

Ian had come from Abu Dhabi, where he currently works, and had brought along Oscar Campbell (who recently co-authored the latest editon of the Birds of the Middle East), Andrew Ward and friends. It was also great to bump into Fabian Bindrich, a German birder, whom I last saw when I sat next to him for three successive afternoons in July 2019 on pelagic trips off the coast of Madeira. We have never met on land!

The rest of the 2,000 passengers were truly international. As expected, the majority were South African, but we were told that there were over 200 German birders and over 100 Swedes aboard. We also met many American and Dutch birders, but relatively few British. Ian may have been the only Australian on the ship.

Crossing The Tropical Desert

Today was our first full day at sea. The sun was hot, the sea and sky were blue. We were in warm tropical waters influenced by the Agulhas current, that brings warm water from the Indian Ocean sweeping down the east coast of Africa.

Despite all our enthusiasm and anticipation, over ten hours of seawatching produced only three bird species today: Great-winged Petrel were regular; first and last thing there were a few Cory’s Shearwaters and we saw a single Tropical Shearwater, one of the Little Shearwater complex:

Between 10am and 5pm, my eBird checklists show that we only recorded one species, Great-winged Petrel.

**Great-winged Petrel**. One of 63 seen during day two.

We struggled to think of a time when so many hours of birding had only resulted in one species of bird being recorded. We agreed that this was probably the quietest day of birding, in terms of hours put in and reward, that any of us had ever done! We went to bed rather deflated, but hoping for more tomorrow as we approached cooler waters.

Next: Peter Harrison explodes.

Southern Oceans 1: “We’re going to need a bigger boat”

February 2, 2025February 9, 2025

Marion Island is remote. One of the two Prince Edward Islands, Marion lies about half-way between South Africa and Antarctica. From Marion Island, it is just under 2000km north to the coast of South Africa and 2300km south to the coast of Antarctica. It is in the middle of the Southern Oceans and at 46 degrees south, is in the heart of the Roaring Forties.

These oceans are the wildest on the planet. Winds and waves circumnavigate the entire globe around Antarctica, unimpeded by major land masses. As such, some of the planet’s strongest winds and largest waves are recorded here. The winds blow consistently from the west, picking up speed as the latitude increases. In the Age of Sail, the winds at different latitudes became famous as the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties and the Screaming Sixties.

The constant westerly winds fuel the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), the world’s largest ocean current, which mixes warm waters descending south from the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans with northward cold water from Antarctica. The convergence of these waters (the Subtropical Convergence Zone or SCZ) brings food from deep within the oceans up to the surface. The SCZ marks the boundary of some of the best seabirding on the planet and this was our destination:

This combination of abundant food, and rare dry land for nesting, makes the Prince Edward Islands a focus for millions of breeding seabirds in the southern hemisphere summer. Visiting such a location is very difficult and landing on the islands is forbidden.

I read about the first “Flock to Marion” trip in 2022. It was an incredible concept, a cruise ship filled with birders, heading out from South Africa and sailing south to Marion Island. The trip provided a rare opportunity to visit this remote part of the globe and to see some of the incredible seabird species that can be found there. Flock to Marion also functioned as a fund-raising opportunity to help the Mouse-free Marion Project, which aimed to eradicate seabird-eating mice from the islands. It also sounded like a completely mad adventure.

Then, in the summer of 2024, it was announced that there would be another trip, to raise further funds. “Flock to Marion Again” was due to depart in late January 2025. This time, I knew I had to be on that ship.

I spread the news that Flock to Marion Again was planned for January 2025, and Andy Last (from Oxford), Ian Reid (from Abu Dhabi) and I booked our places. Beforehand we admitted that we all had a number of concerns. None of us had ever been on a cruise ship before and none of us ever thought that we would. What would birding from a huge cruise ship be like? Would we be so high up that the smaller prions and storm petrels would be invisible? There was also the matter of being in a confined space with nearly 2,000 other birders for seven days. Would this be heaven or would this be hell?

But at the forefront of my mind was seasickness. As someone who barely survived seasickness on the Scillonian III pelagic in 2001, I had given up hope of seeing the southern seabirds. How could I ever sail across the roughest oceans on the planet and survive on deck long enough to see any birds? There was only one solution, a big boat. Or in the immortal words of Chief Brody in Jaws: “We’re going to need a bigger boat!” In fact, a really big boat. Fortunately, Flock to Marion Again had booked the cruise ship MSC Musica:

Weighing in at 92,409 tonnes, I hoped that she would provide a stable base to ward off my seasickness, even in the Roaring Forties. The trip was superbly organised. Beforehand there were online seabird and cetacean identification sessions, hosted by local experts. During the cruise some 60 guides were positioned around the ship’s viewing stations, between 5am and 5pm, to help with seabird identification. A daily lecture schedule was planned, including talks on seabirds from renowned experts Peter Ryan, Peter Harrison and Hadoram Shirihai, as well as lectures on the Mouse-free Marion Project and the conservation work being carried out on the island.

Now committed to the trip, I decided to fully engage with the experience. I attended the online identification sessions, I bought the t-shirt and even went to a penguin fancy dress party, hosted in one of the bars, the evening before we arrived at Marion. A proportion of the cost of cruise automatically went towards the fund-raising efforts.

We boarded the ship in Durban Harbour in the afternoon of Friday 24^th January. Up close, the MSC Musica was enormous, towering over the dock infrastructure, a 15-storey high floating hotel. Our cabin was on deck 10, our balcony looking out over the port side. The lowest viewing deck for seeing seabirds was deck 7. Even here it still felt like we were a long, long way above the sea.

Durban harbour provided views of a hunting Peregrine, a flyover Osprey and 4 Pink-backed Pelicans thermalling above the ship. Feeding on the dockside grass were Cape Wagtails and Southern Grey-headed Sparrows. Flocks of Egyptian Geese flew around everywhere, perching on the towers and rooftops of the docks.

At 4:30pm we set sail, full of anticipation and excitement. Great Crested Terns flew past the ship and we saw our first Grey-hooded Gulls. We soon got up to our cruising speed of around 30kph. The ship turned south-east and began heading across the southern Indian Ocean, away from the African continent. An hour from the coast, our first pelagic species appeared, a distant Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross, followed by a Great-winged Petrel. Another hour produced another couple of Great-winged Petrels and 3 Cory’s Shearwater. The seabirds near the South African coast had not quite matched our expectations levels, but it was very early days.

Next: the toughest birding day of our lives in the Tropical Desert!