Antarctica Birding & Wildlife Expedition
November 2025
Guide: Nick Buys
Our Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica trip started with a couple of days of birding around Ushuaia looking for Patagonian specialities.
After arrival in Ushuaia we looked at the stormy weather and decided to head into the mountains away from the city where it might be drier. It was pretty cold in the mountains but well worth it as we found our main target, the Yellow-bridled Finch before it started snowing to heavily. Other great birds seen here include Ashy-headed Goose, Crested Duck, Rufous-chested Dotterel, Magellanic Snipe, White-throated Treerunner, Thorn-tailed Rayadito, White-crested Elaenia, Ochre-naped Ground-Tyrant, Fire-eyed Deacon, Chilean Swallow, Austral Thrush, Patagonian Sierra Finch and Black-chinned Siskin. Around town we found Upland Goose, Flying Streamer Duck, Baird’s Sandpiper, Dolphin Gull, South American Tern, Magellanic Cormorant, dusky form of Black-crowned Night Heron, Dark-bellied Cincoldes, Tufted Tit-Tyrant, Long-tailed Meadowlark and many Chimango Caracara.
We did have time to visit Tierra del Fuego National Park the following morning where we found our main target, Magellanic Woodpecker as well as Black-necked Swan, Black-faced Ibis, Austral Pygmy-Owl, Great Grebe, Magellanic and Blackish Oystercatcher, Yellow-billed Teal, Flightless Streamer Duck, Kelp Goose, White-throated Caracara and Austral Parakeet plus species seen yesterday.
After a seamless and very warm welcome by our expedition team we quickly settled in to our cabins and headed to the viewing deck to catch up with some seabirds in the Beagle Channel. We had a few South American Terns flying by and soon had Southern Giant Petrels escorting us. Magellanic Cormorants and Chilean Skua could still be seen until we left the mainland.
We had a full day at sea as we headed North-west towards the Falkland and had a good showing pelagic species today with Black-browed Albatross, Southern Giant Petrel, Pintado Petrel, Wilson’s Storm-Petrel. Slender-billed Prion, Sooty Shearwater, White-chinned Petrel and the biggest surprise of all a Snowy Sheathbill flying over. We had our mandatory Zodiac safety session, biosecurity protocol and cleaning of clothing and we received our kayaking equipment which we would keep until the end of the trip. There were several interesting lectures offered including one of the breeding birds of the Falklands which really got our exciting levels rising.
The next morning we were at the Falkland Islands and our first planned stop was West Point Island. The weather was calm enough to allow Kayaking so we had our first session and it is incredible to get so close to the local wildlife.
We had a small colony of South American Sea Lion as well as Falkland Streamer Duck, Crested Duck, Upland Goose, Kelp Goose, Magellanic and Rock Cormorant, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Brown Skua and both Magellanic and Blackish Oystercatcher. The main highlight however was when we walked to a Black-browed Albatross and Southern Rockhopper Penguin breeding colony and wow definitely one of the highlights of my birding life. Being so close to these magnificent birds and them not paying any attention to us was spectacular and I could have stayed there the whole day.
On our walk around back to the zodiac launching jetty we also had Long-tailed Meadowlark, Correndera Pipit, Turkey Vulture, Austral Thrush and the highlight a Striated Caracara.
Unfortunately the sea was too rough to land at Saunders Island but we got close enough to see the massive Gentoo and Rockhopper Penguin and Black-browed Albatross colonies as well as the small group of King Penguin. We had several South American Fur Seals in the water and one Humpback Whale while heading towards Stanley.
The mammal highlight was a large group of Commerson’s Dolphin playing around the ship.
We had time to explore Stanley its surroundings for full day the following day which was enjoyed by all. We did do a nature walk at Gypsy Cove in the morning where we had great views of Black-chinned Siskin, Falkland Streamer Duck, Dark-faced Ground-Tyrant, Turkey Vulture, Blackish and Magellanic Oystercatchers and the highlight Magellanic Penguins in their burrows.
As we headed out to see we had a Sei Whale close to the boat as well as Black-browed Albatross, Southern Giant Petrel, Sooty Shearwater, Southern Fulmar and Wilson’s Storm Petrel. We had two days at sea with pretty rough winds and swell which made whale spotting tricky but was good for pelagic birds and we saw Southern Royal and Wandering (Snowy) Albatross, Light-mantled Albatross, Grey-headed Albatross, Grey-backed Storm Petrel, Black-bellied Storm Petrel, Pintado Petrel, Southern Giant Petrel, Blue Petrel, Antarctic Prion, Slender-billed Prion, White-chinned Petrel, Sooty Shearwater, Southern Fulmar, South Georgia Diving Petrel and the highlight a Atlantic Petrel.
As we neared South Georgia the anticipation grew and once we saw our first iceberg and Snow Petrel we really could not wait to spend time on and around South Georgia. These incredible islands is also known as the “Serengeti of the Southern Ocean” and rightly so as we had an incredible 5 days here with pretty decent weather and we managed to land at most of the planned places. Our first landing at Salisbury Plain will be one of the highlights of my life as we were greeted by the incredible spectacle of hundreds of thousands of King Penguins, Antarctic Fur Seal, massive bull Southern Elephant Seals fighting over territory and just been so close to these magnificent animals without them paying any attention to us is something that I truly hope to experience again. What an incredible sight and few hours that was. This was off course not the only landing as pretty much every beach area had a massive King Penguin colony and the Fur Seals and Elephant Seals always present. We were lucky to do the kayaking as well which I highly recommend as we get to go away from the landing areas and explore quiet areas with no-one around and got so close to the wildlife.
Another memorable experience was landing at Grytviken and visiting the grave of Shackleton with the customary toast at his grave. Definitely a good idea to read the book “Endurance” about there incredible journey and fight for survival before coming on this trip.
We did see Gentoo Penguin colonies as well and did a kayak and cruise in Hercules Bay where we saw the Macaroni Penguin colony and a South Georgia Pipit, the world’s southernmost breeding songbird.
There were plenty of Subantarctic or Brown Skua around as well as Kelp Gulls.
We started seeing the first of our many Antarctic Terns. The Cormorants have been lumped into one species but we made sure to see the South Georgia subspecies of the Imperial Cormorant. Snowy Sheathbills also started to make an appearance. Yellow-billed Pintail is another endemic that we saw very well on South Georgia. As we left for Antarctica we started seeing Northern Giant Petrel and we had one Soft-plumaged Petrel as well. Antarctic Prion, Southern Fulmar, Southern Giant Petrel, Black-browed Albatross, Blue Petrel and Pintado Petrel were all pretty common on this stretch of open ocean. The Whales started to increase and we had a number of Fin Whales and Humpback Whales often in pretty large groups but the highlight was a group 0f 10 type D Orcas which is incredibly rare and not much is known about this type of Orca. Another highlight!!
We finally got to Antarctic and the South Shetland Islands which is a dream come true for most of the group. The scenery is truly spectacular and for pretty much the duration of the next few days every direction we looked it was breathtakingly beautiful with massive ice fields, icebergs, snow covered islands and mountains on the mainland. The wildlife did not stop and we started seeing colonies of Chinstrap Penguins while we continued to see Gentoo Penguins as well. Snow Petrels started becoming more numerous and was great see the Storm Petrels flying over land towards their nesting sights. Both Subantarctic and Sub Polar Skuas were seen on nests and we had a massive flock of both Artic and Antarctic Terns. The austrinus subspecies of Kelp Gull were common and we saw the Antarctic subspecies of the Imperial Cormorant. Snowy Sheathbills patrolled the Gentoo and Chinstrap Colonies. We started seeing Weddell and Crab-eater Seals and the whales continued to be numerous. We had one particularly amazing day with first two male type B Orcas and then later while on the kayaks a pod of Humpback Whales feeding on Krill very close to the kayaks.
On the Drake passage we were lucky with pretty calm seas on the first day and then a rough storm on the second but did see similar species to what we saw on previous sea days as well as Common Diving Petrel and the highlight 3 sightings of Antarctic Petrel including a flock of 20 of them.
What an incredible trip and experience. Words and even photos cannot do it justice and this is definitely a trip that should be on the bucket list of every serious naturalist. Cannot wait to go back.
