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"Dropping anchor in the shelter of Campbell Island's Perseverance Harbour last night, Spirit of Enderby's In the Wake of Scott & Shackleton expeditioners woke this morning to enjoy a full day exploring this Subantarctic wonderland. Starting the day with a Zodiac cruise of the coastline we spotted Campbell Island Shag, Teal and Snipe, Arctic Terns, Light-mantled Sooty Albatross and Sea Lions as well as taking in the sights of the Loneliest Tree, Venus Cove and Terror Shoal. Following a hearty lunch back on board our expedition vessel, it was a short Zodiac ride over to the island's old weather station and start of the Col Lyall boardwalk where we were greeted by Hooker's/New Zealand Sea Lions. Making our way over the island we passed nesting Southern Royal Albatross and, further on, enjoyed spending time observing groups of young birds gamming it up during their intimate and rarely seen dance amid the purple/blue bloom of megaherbs Pleurophyllum speciosum."
Our time on the island was rather short, and I decided to concentrate on photographing the southern royal albatross - a species I had not seen before and which is found in appreciable numbers only on Campbell Island. On the way up to the high land where the albatross nest the boardwalk threads a path through very distinct zones of unique vegetation. I would have liked to spend more time with the exotic megaherbs, but passed them by unseen in my hurry to get to the birds. But there would be more opportunities when we visited other subantarctic islands on our way back from the Ross Sea.
Boardwalk path on Campbell islands past the albatross nesting sites to a high viewpoint
"Royal albatross are huge birds standing about 1 m tall and with a wingspan up to 3.5 m. Breeding colonies are spread over a large area of the uplands on Campbell Island, with nests every 20-50 m. Birds first return to colonies as pre-breeders aged 4-8 years where they find a mate, form a monogamous bond, and usually breed the following year. Pre-breeders fly into the colony in the late afternoon and advertise for a partner using a complex repertoire of signals and displays known as 'gaming'. Gaming includes aerial displays with birds continually landing, taking off and calling down to birds on the ground; return sky-calling by birds on the ground; bill yapping; bill clapping; head shakes and wing stretches. While gaming, the birds make loud whining calls and croaks that can be heard at a great distance. When an unattached female comes in to land there is a great deal of noise and respectful manoeuvering by the males to make a favourable impression." [Ian Wilson; Birdphotographersnet]
Campbell Island / Motu Ihupuku is an uninhabited subantarctic island of New Zealand. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the closest piece of land to the antipodal point of Ireland, meaning that the furthest away city is Limerick, Ireland. Campbell Island was discovered in 1810 by Captain Frederick Hasselborough of the sealing brig Perseverance, and named for the shipowner Robert Campbell. it too was soon occupied by sealers who introduced rats and cats which have since been eradicated. The vegetation which the great English botanist, Sir Joseph Hooker described in 1841 as having a “Flora display second to none outside the tropics” is now flourishing and is nothing short of spectacular.
Our visit to Campbell Island began with a morning Zodiac cruise along the cliffs and rocky coastline.
The Campbell island teal was long thought to have been driven to extinction when rats were introduced to the island. In 1975 it was rediscovered on a small islet near Campbell that had remained rat-free. The population was so small that a single event could have driven it to complete extinction To prevent this from happening, 11 individuals were taken into captivity. Captive breeding was initially very difficult to achieve, but uccess came in 1994 when Daisy, the only wild origin female to ever lay eggs in captivity, finally accepted a mate. Subsequently, breeding has occurred every year. In the final phase of the ecological restoration of Campbell Island the world's largest rat eradication campaign was undertaken in 2001. Fifty Campbell teal were reintroduced to Campbell Island in 2004, and after an absence of more than a century the birds are now thriving in their ancestral homeland..
After returning to the Heritage Adventurer for lunch lunch in we headed back to the island by Zodiac, landing at the old meterological station. This was replaced by an automated weather station, but the buildings later served as a base for the rat eradication program.
A boardwalk ascends from the met station to the Mt Lyall col, initially through dense raita forest then emerging onto open tussak grassland where the royal albatrosses nest.
