ZECO TRAVEL TALK

At 5 a.m., under leaden skies and a lazy, rolling sea, our vessel, the Island Sky, made its way into Village Bay at Hirta, the largest of the seven islets that make up the archipelago of St. Kilda—Britain’s most remote group of islands. No amount of reading could have prepared us for this dramatic scene; sheer mountains that explode from the sea, launched from the ocean depths by wild volcanic explosions, its peaks draped in a soft, gray fog. Read more

View a photo gallery of the White-necked, Vanuatu, Beck’s petrels and New Zealand Storm-Petrel!

The recent Zegrahm Expeditions New Zealand to New Guinea program provided a cornucopia of rare and little known seabird species. It all began with wonderful sightings and photographic opportunities of the recently rediscovered New Zealand Storm-petrel and ended with a Beck’s Petrel, the fifth of the voyage, as the expedition vessel, the M.V. Clipper Odyssey approached the Laughlan Islands in Papua New Guinea. Along the way there were also such species as Heinroth’s and Tropical shearwaters, Collared, Black-winged, Tahiti and White-necked Petrels.

The most significant sightings and photographs, however, were of Vanuatu Petrels, a species that has not been seen at sea for over 80 years and never before photographed over the ocean. Previously known only from seven museum skins, this rare and virtually unknown seabird has now only been seen twice, since it was originally collected in January of 1927. The Zegrahm team, led by seabird expert Peter Harrison, observed this rare species in the northern Vanuatu Islands just 60 miles from where the original type specimen was collected by Rollo Beck during the Whitney South Seas Expedition. Read more

Zegrahm Expeditions’ New Zealand to New Guinea 20th Anniversary voyage got off to a resounding start thanks to the cooperation of a bird that was considered extinct for over 100 years.

Battling near-gale force winds, 18 intrepid birders, led by Peter Harrison, boarded two small boats and spent seven hours in bumpy and lumpy seas that sent waves crashing over the small vessels as they headed for Little Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf, north of Auckland. Read more

This species has, quite literally, come “back from the dead.” Considered to be extinct for over 150 years this species was recently rediscovered. This gives the New Zealand storm petrel iconic status in the bird world. People are well familiar with the hunt for the ivory-billed woodpecker and recent claims for its continued survival are now thought very doubtful. A happier story is that of the Bermuda (or cahow) petrel, once thought to be extinct but now rescued from the abyss of extinction by the work of David Wingate. Interestingly, in recent years, three birds—all seabird species—have reappeared from the black hole of extinction. The New Zealand storm petrel is one of them. The other two, Beck’s petrel and Fiji petrel, were photographed just weeks ago off Vanuatu and Fiji.

The upcoming Zegrahm expeditions—Wild Edge of the Pacific and New Zealand to New Guinea—give potential opportunity for seeing all three of these “back from the dead” species. Stay tuned for updates on the Zegrahm blog.

Click here to read a first-hand account of the New Zealand petrel’s rediscovery.

March with the Penguins

We’ve just returned from what can only be described as a pilgrimage to see “chicks on feet,” the minute, most picturesque, avian youngster of all – the Emperor Penguin. Yes, it was cold. Yes, it was hard. It was also Antarctica in its purest and most elemental form. Temperatures and sea ice this year were the coldest and most extensive since records began in the early 1970s. Even for our 23,000 hp Russian icebreaker, the Kapitan Kblevnikov, getting so far south so early was a huge challenge. The ice eventually stopped us some 40 miles from the colony. During the next two days our helos flew over 2,800 miles to take everyone to the colony and back safely. Considering the distances involved it was the most ambitious and audacious expedition made in recent times to see a bird that is justly named, the “Impossible Penguin.” We spent two days at the penguin colony witnessing one of the greatest spectacles on Earth – Emperor Penguins, “Lords of the Antarctic,” in their icy and ethereal domain. We witnessed firsthand the “March of the Penguins,” the steady stream of adult Emperors making their way from the sea edge to the colony to feed their youngsters, many of whom were still on the feet of adults and provided incredible photo opportunities. Even for those of us who have been to “the deep South” before this will long be remembered as one of the most challenging, yet rewarding, of all Antarctic voyages.

It is now official, a recently published paper in the journal Polar Biology, confirms what many of us have long suspected, there is more than one species of Rockhopper penguin out there!

For many years debates have raged with many an ornithologist having his feathers ruffled on the topic to split or not to split. The recent paper, by Banks et al. compared the genetic distances between the three Rockhopper subspecies and compared them with such sister species as Macaroni penguins. The results left Banks and his colleagues in no doubt, the three putative Rockhopper subspecies, currently living far apart in different areas of the Southern oceans, should be split into the following three species;

Rockhopper Penguin, Eudyptes chrysocome

Northern Rockhopper, Eudyptes moseleyi

Eastern Rockhopper, Eudyptes filhoi

This change in penguin taxonomy will now increase the number of penguin species from 17 to 19. For all of you that have traveled to Antarctica you will have seen Rockhopper Penguin as this is the species that is now restricted, as a breeding species, to islands off South America and the Falkland Islands. For those of you lucky enough to have traveled with Zegrahm on our historical Steppingstones of the Atlantic voyage, several years ago, you will now be able to check off Northern Rockhopper Penguin, as this was the species that we all saw so wonderfully well on Inaccessible Island. This species is now restricted to the islands of Tristan da Cunha, Gough Island, and St. Paul and Amsterdam Islands in the Indian Ocean. Finally we have the Eastern Rockhopper Penguin which is restricted as a breeding species to Crozet, Kerguelan, Heard, Macquarie, Auckland, Campbell, Bounty, Antipodes, Marion, and Prince Edward Islands. Read more

Is it a loon or a diver? The United States and Britain had different names for the same bird which a new book, 16 years in the making, now standardizes. Until recently it all depended on which side of the pond you were from. A birder from Britain on our current Spitzbergen and White Sea trips would call the duck-like bird paddling around in front of him a Red-throated Diver. To the birder from New York standing at his side however, the same bird would be a Red-throated Loon.

The correct English name for any of the world’s currently recognized species has been the topic of heated debates for many years and has caused much confusion for the entry-level birder. All that has recently changed however with the publication of BIRDS OF THE WORLD, a 272 page compendium that now gives the correct English name to every bird species in existence–10,068, give or take a few, depending on your taxonomic bias. In the case of diver versus loon alas, the English lost out. There are no divers anymore, they are now currently referred to as loons. The Brits also lost out on those Common and Brunnich’s Guillemots some of our travelers were looking at on a recent Fire and Ice Expeditions in Russia. They are now known by their American names Common and Thick-billed Murre. But the American birders also had to make some concessions. Gone for instance is your American Dovekie, it is now known by its British name the Little Auk. Also, your Common Gallinule, as you Americans call the plump, chicken-like swampland bird, is now the Moorhen, a name that we Brits held onto tenaciously. Read more

As the ornithologist and birding leader for Zegrahm Expeditions, one of my greatest joys is the start of a trip. The air is charged with anticipation with people arriving from all corners of the globe. There are smiles, handshakes, and humorous banter as you meet previous traveling companions and relive previous adventures shared together. However, despite all this fanfare, what you really are eagerly awaiting is the start of the next great adventure.For one couple, Don and Donna, the start of our recent Azores to Gibraltar expedition was filled with even more excitement and anticipation than usual. Keen birders, they have traveled the world in search of birds and had arrived at São Miguel in the Azores on April 13th, 2007, poised to break the 5,000 barrier. For the uninitiated, the 5,000 barrier may not mean that much. However, to a birder it is one of life’s mega-events. Managing to see your 5,000th bird species puts you in a class all on your own. With 10,068 known species that means that you have seen just about half of all of the bird species that inhabit our planet. Read more