[Leica] Sea Birds

[Jayanand Govindaraj]

The next installment of photographs from my South Georgia trip is of birds,
mostly sea birds, to be exact, the Albatross and Petrels that roam our
oceans. Most of the photographs, except for the last four, have been taken
from the boat.

Let us start with the king of the oceans, the Wandering Albatross. These
are quite remarkable birds, they have been known to fly over 100k km in a
year, they seldom touch the ground except to breed, and they have the
longest wingspan of any bird - 2.5 to 3.5 metres, as can be seen from this
photograph (natural sky, not replaced!!!😊)

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/SGF/South+Georgia/South+Georgia-20191012-16833.jpg.html

The most common albatross in this region is the Black-browed Albatross,
which can be seen quite easily, and nest in large numbers both in South
Georgia and more so in the Falklands:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/SGF/South+Georgia/South+Georgia-20191013-124.jpg.html

Petrels are the scavengers of the oceans. Here are two of the smaller ones:

Cape Petrel:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/SGF/South+Georgia/South+Georgia-20191012-16700.jpg.html

Snowy Petrel:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/SGF/South+Georgia/South+Georgia-20191023-6831.jpg.html

The most common large bird that we encounter in the open ocean, and on
shore in South Georgia is the Giant Petrel, a formidable and rapacious
predator and scavenger, so it is not unusual to have more interesting
photographs of this species over any other:

Metallic Seas:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/SGF/South+Georgia/South+Georgia-20191022-5620.jpg.html

Sunset:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/SGF/South+Georgia/South+Georgia-20191022-5876.jpg.html

High Seas:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/SGF/South+Georgia/South+Georgia-20191012-106.jpg.html

Take Off:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/SGF/South+Georgia/South+Georgia-20191022-5221.jpg.html

Wingspan:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/SGF/South+Georgia/South+Georgia-20191015-450.jpg.html

Bath Time:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/SGF/South+Georgia/South+Georgia-20191024-10345.jpg.html

The last two photographs are of common species on shore:

Kelp Gull:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/SGF/South+Georgia/South+Georgia-20191022-4905.jpg.html

Skua:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/SGF/South+Georgia/South+Georgia-20191022-5293.jpg.html

Please see LARGE.

Comments and criticism, as ever, welcome.

Cheers
Jayanand