Sea Lion Island

Sea Lion island is an island to the south of East Falkland. There is a lodge for visitors and that’s about it in terms of human occupation. It used to be a sheep farm but the sheep have recently been removed in an effort to conserve the tussock which is an important habitat for native birds. It’s one of the islands I’ve been most interested in visiting and I decided that as a birthday present to myself I’d take the long weekend to finally stay there.

It’s a short (40 minute) flight from Stanley and was much smoother than I was expecting (gale force winds had been predicted but didn’t seem to materialise). The lodge was fantastic and after tea, biscuits and a quick talk about the islands I headed out. My main experience of that afternoon is detailed in the next post but I did see other things, amongst which were this striated caracara (Phalcoboenus australis):

and this black-throated finch (Melanodera melandera melanodera):

The striated caracara is also known as a ‘johnny rook’ but I have no idea why.

I had a fantastic time on Sea Lion and will definitely try to go back. It was a great weekend despite the weather being decidedly Antarctic at times!

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