Travels of a Fish Nut

What an absolutely glorious day it has been! Crystal clear blue skies, complete lack of wind, and temperatures just above freezing. What more could you ask for in winter? To celebrate the new year mum and I decided to go to Slimbridge for the day and see the bewick swans that were there in large numbers. There were a surprisingly large number of people around; I think the good weather had brought people outside. As I'm in the UK for the next year (or so!) we decided it would make sense to become members. So we did. I later found out that there's a reserve not far from where I live in London so I'll be visiting as soon as I get the time. We headed first to the 'Back from the Brink' enclosure, which wasn't quite ready when I was last there in the summer. It's now fully functioning, with a beaver damn, otters (North America, I was surprised to find out, rather than European), and cranes. This is a common crane (I think): We then headed towards the hides looking...

We have had a good couple of weeks and have filled the freezers which means we’ve had to come to land to unload. We’re off again later today (Wednesday) and I’m really looking forward to going out again. It feels very strange to be on land, stable, unmoving, land. Coming in to land was really fun. When we left FIPASS (Falkland Islands Port and Storage Services) initially it was the early hours of the morning and I was asleep. We came in early yesterday morning and came in sight of land just after dawn. The weather was gorgeous although it was very cold. It was very nice to see Stanley, and coming in through The Narrows to see the town appear was really cool. Another ship was unloading so we had to wait in Stanley harbour for a few hours. It was quite annoying being so near to land and yet so far. Even if I had the strength to swim to shore I would’nt have tried it as the water was under 4 degrees C! Luckily I was offered the opportunity to come to shore by launch so I got picked up an...

The boat has its clock set one hour ahead of Falklands time, for reasons that elude me. Apparently it’s so that there’s more daylight when people are working, but seeing as they work when there’s work regardless of the hour and most of the work is done in a windowless factory, I can’t see the point other than to cause confusion for me when arranging to talk to people on the radio! However, it does have some benefits. Namely, I get to see the sunrise as well as the sunset, which is quite unusual for me! Sunrise and sunset, dusk and dawn are - there’s no other word for it - magical. There are birds flying around, silhouettes in the pale light, and the sea and sky seem to go on for ever. Here are a few of my favourite photos I thought I’d share with you.

As I’m sure you can imagine, I get to see quite a few seabirds out here in the South Atlantic. I just wasn’t prepared for how many I’d see. There are THOUSANDS. We’re in the Loligo fishing grounds at the moment and it’s pretty much the height of the season so there are quite a few trawlers around, each with their own contingent of seabirds. That makes for a lot of birds. Now, when I say seabirds I don’t mean scrawny seagulls like you get in Weston! Admittedly, there are a few seagulls, but they are vastly outnumbered by the albatrosses. The majority are black-browed albatrosses ( Diomedea melanophris ): but there also northern and southern giant petrels ( Macronctes halli and M. giganteus ) (I can’t tell the difference yet) and cape petrels ( Daption capense ) in abundance. There are also quite a few royal albatrosses ( Diomedea epomophora ) around which amazing and have, according to my bird book, a larger wingspan than wondering albatrosses. Royal albatrosses are huge birds which...

The past couple of days have been absolutely fantastic. On Friday night Pablo, the observer I'm sharing the house with at the moment, showed me the local pubs. The pubs are more English than English pubs, with union jack flags all over the place. The smoking ban has not been put in place here so they are very smoky but the drink is cheap so I don’t mind that much! Early in the morning it rained which melted most of the snow. I had a walk around town and saw the mizzenmast from the SS Great Britain! I also saw some very large seabirds which I later identified as southern giant petrels. Apparently they like congregating around the sewage outlets in the harbour! They are huge, grey birds with a wingspan of a couple of metres, according to my bird book. In the afternoon I went for a walk along the Stanley Bypass, the road behind/above Stanley. There are lots of upland geese around, as well as a species of vulture which is black with a red head. I also these birds. I don’t know what the...

I’m here! It’s been snowing and there’s snow flurries every now and then. The sun set well before 5pm and it’s probably only about 0 degrees C. It’s fantastic! The landscape is stark and completely stunning. It’s very flat with jagged rock outcroppings. There are no trees or even bushes that I could see, only grass. Getting here was pretty uneventful. We started taxiing at midnight, only one minute late, and took off just after ten past. We landed in Ascension around 7 am local time (Ascension is an hour behind the UK at the moment), and were there for about an hour and a half. Coming in to land is most disconcerting as there are no signs of life at all. No boats, no islands, nothing. I could easily imagine that we had run out of fuel looking for this dot in the Atlantic and rather than scare us by telling us he was ditching the plane, the pilot decided to lie that we were landing on dry land. Luckily, this wasn’t the case and land did appear, seconds before we touched down! Ascension ...

I'm starting the countdown to the date when I leave (which is unknown at the moment so the count is somewhat imprecise!). Everything's turning into "the last time I . . .". Today was "the last time I go on the narrowboat". Mum, Steve and I took the narrowboat from its mooring at Sharpness up to Slimbridge where we stopped for lunch, then we went on to Saul. Nothing exciting happened but it gives me the opportunity to attach some photos and see how that works! This is a damselfly - a Common Blue damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) I think. This is a great crested grebe, which is my favourite freshwater bird. I think this is a red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius). Finally, I thought I'd better show at one photo of the actual canal!