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 The
Antarctic skua (Catharacta maccormicki) is the size of a largish
gull. They nest all around continental Antarctica and breed into the deep
south. They are excellent fliers and have occasionally been sighted
deep in the interior hundreds of miles from anything other than ice. One
of their feeding techniques is to chase and bully other birds into
regurgitating the contents of their crop, a strategy successful with some
species that are in themselves excellent fliers.
They tend to have a reputation as being fierce and
aggressive birds, which is somewhat unfair. I see them more as characters
who stick up for their own corner and look after their own - no more or
less than humans do.
Often a visitors first sight of a skua is at a penguin
colony where they usually are nesting nearby. They hang around as a dark
presence looking for unguarded eggs or weak or isolated chicks to prey on,
which is a very productive means of finding food, but does their
reputations no good at all.
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 This
is a displaying skua. They display to, or for a mate or to other skuas to
establish their territory. Sometimes the birds can be seen to do this
as a pair, it is quite an impressive sight and the squawking can be heard
some considerable distance away. Skuas will also do this if their nest is
being approached by an unwanted visitor.
More often though the first sign that a visitor gets of
being near to a skuas nest is of a sudden heart-stopping rush of air
through the wing feathers of the parent bird flying at speed past your
head from behind, much too close for comfort. If you're particularly
unlucky or if its very unhappy at you being so close, then rarely a whack
at the back of the head by the front of the wing may result. This is
actually quite a good way of finding skua chicks - when the parents start
getting upset you know you're very close to the excellently camouflaged
chick.
This bird however was semi-tame and was calling to his
mate to come quick as there may well be some give-away food. The biggest
problem I had taking this shot was getting the bird far enough away as he
kept sticking his beak about 10cm from my lens.
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 These
birds are on the specially made skua landing platform (also used by
occasional Dominican gulls and sheathbills) outside the kitchen window of
the scientific station on Signy island in the South Orkneys. There
were two pairs of skuas that used it regularly (never at the same time
though), the "Reds" and the "Blues" they lived
respectively to the sides of the platform of their colours. This is Mr.
and Mrs. Blue. Their nest was about 250m away downhill of this rooftop
platform and occasionally when feeling lazy, they would walk up rather
than fly and then glide downhill back home.
If you were out nearby they would sometimes come to see
if they could get any free food (see above) squawking and hovering above
you. If you lent over forwards, then sometimes one would land on your back
and look quizzically sideways at you as if to say "Now what?". I
also had one of them once try to land on my back-pack as I was walking
along. Unfortunately it was a purpose made back pack that consisted of a
frame with two large open top cans attached. The first I knew what was
happening was when Mrs. Blue fell into one and with much scrabbling and
panic managed to get out of it before settling nearby and giving me a
haughty stare.
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 This
is a Cape pigeon or Pintado a pigeon sized petrel common around sub
Antarctic islands and peninsula. They nest on rocky ledges and usually
rear a single chick which looks particularly shape-less until it fledges.
It used to remind me of a fluffy ball with a head just stuck on the front.
The birds tend to feed in flocks on krill and small fish but also will
scavenge on scraps discarded by skuas and giant petrels when feasting on
floating seal carcasses. |
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These are sheathbills (also
sometimes referred to as "Mutts" - it just seems appropriate)
and they're the "dust men" (garbage disposers) of the Antarctic.
They will eat just about anything that they can lay their beaks on, the
one in the lower picture had been feeding on (in) a dead seal. They
frequently scavenge penguin colonies for eggs, dead chicks, even penguin
faeces - there's occasionally some not fully digested food there. The only
Antarctic bird species that don't have webbed feet and so are not able to
fish for food like the others.
They usually stay out of the path of the sea-ice and
move north in the winter when the worst weather comes. The top picture however
was taken in mid-winter at a temperature of minus 30 centigrade of one of
a small colony of sheathbills that lived around the base on Signy island.
Whereas most of the other sheathbills would move north, this hardy group
evidently thought that there were enough scraps available from the base to
make staying worthwhile. Surprisingly hardy creatures, the bird in the
picture has its feathers fluffed out as far as it can and is considerably
skinnier than this picture shows.
In an attempt to try to
reduce heat loss mutts will hop around on
one leg rather than risk getting two cold.
This made landing rather exciting as they
found out the hard way that this is really a
two legged activity. Frequent falls down
small holes were another hazard as their one
leg went between slats on wooden decking. In
fact so determined were they to not use both
legs and so clumsy in the process, that for
a while I was convinced that there were
actually several unfortunate individuals
that really only had a single leg, as they
would hop away rather frenziedly if they
were in your path rather than put the other
leg down or fly.
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6/ Sheathbills
- waiting for kitchen scraps |
 Sheathbills "Mutts"
waiting outside the kitchen window in winter.
With no skuas around in the winter months, these
birds that live around an Antarctic scientific
base can actually get to the best supply of food
around at this time. They accumulate around meal
times drawn to the smells coming from the
kitchen waiting for the "gashman" to start
clearing up and hopefully throw some tasty
morsels in their direction.
Not exactly a good looking bird
and very nervous and skittish as befits a small
and vulnerable creature that makes its living by
scavenging, it was difficult not to have some
respect at least for Mutts as they braved the
harshest of conditions and seemed to know their
place in the hierarchy - right down at the
bottom.
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7/ Why
does this bird suddenly dive bomb? |
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Antarctic terns nest on the
Antarctic peninsula and also particularly on antarctic islands. It
lays it's eggs in small quite widely spread out colonies, i.e. low density
of birds in the colony. The nests are made on the ground in places that
tend to be isolated but quite exposed. The eggs and the chicks are
excellently camouflaged and the birds defend them from a distance so as
not to draw attention to where the nest is.
The upper picture shows a tern hovering at the
"nervous" stage when its nest is being approached maybe by a
skua or other scavenger. Once the intruder gets too close for comfort then
it dive-bombs as in the lower picture. No apologies for a lack of
sharpness in this picture, this is exactly what it seems like. The term
dives and builds up great speed before letting out an ear-piercing call
that is perfectly timed to cause maximum panic and consternation. No
matter how prepared you think you are, the first "attack" feels
like it's removed some time from your life.
Terns feed on small fish and plankton, such as the
ubiquitous krill |
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Antarctica Fact File Index
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