20.02.2025 - Indoor Meeting : Antarctica

Speaker: Steve Cale
Reporter: Sue Gale

In 2019 Steve Cale took a boat trip to Antarctica, very much inspired by the stories his grandfather used to tell him about the famous Antarctic explorers. In particular, the bird drawings and research of Wilson, one of the last men with Scott on the ill-fated expedition, stimulated the young Steve to study and to draw birds. The tour started in Southern Argentina, where some unexpected spare time allowed a visit to the Black Lagoon, a sewage works, where Steve saw Chilean Flamingos and rafts of Red Shoveler drakes. Silvery and White-tufted Grebes were on the lake in town. Next day they embarked from Puerto Madrid, heading for the Falkland Islands. Giant Petrels kept them company for the two days at sea, and as they neared the Falklands, Albatrosses began to appear - mainly the Black-browed Albatross at this point. Also the first of many species of Prions were seen – a group of birds many of us had never heard of but which featured large in this voyage.

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