Kidney Island - 14 January 2021 - No 20
Last night a group of 10 of us took a 40 minute boat trip on the 'Darwin' from Stanley to Kidney Island. Most tours in the Falkland Islands (note the use of the word 'in' - the preferred local way of describing such matters) are to see wildlife - this was no exception.
Kidney Islands is covered in tussock grass. This grass grows like pampas grass - and when mature grows to around 2m high. As the 10 of us and our guide walked from the western side (where we landed) to the cliffs on the eastern side we had to navigate through it. We had to make sure we could always see our colleagues in front of us. If you dived off to one side you'd be lost within a couple of strides. It was like a scene from Peter Pan with the lost-boys in the Jungle! Apparently tussock grass makes excellent grazing and used to cover most of the Falkland Islands - it has largely been grazed away. Tussock grass also makes excellent cover for nesting birds such as Sooty Shearwaters and Southern giant petrels. Virtually every tussock had a nesting site at its base. There was an evident different in temperature at the sheltered lower level - when compared to higher up. Your feet and legs were warm - when your face and hands were cold.
We reached the sea cliffs on the eastern side and came across Rockhopper Penguins nesting. You could watch them all day. Amongst them was a family of Rock Shags also nesting.
On the way down we disturbed a bull sea lion - a huge beast. He harrumphed off the island and into the water.
It was becoming dark as we left and the Sooty Shearwaters were gathering on and above the water. This was a spectacular scene.
The weather had been grey and overcast - but just as the sun was setting the clouds parted and gave us a spectacular sky over Stanley.
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