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:
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.