South Georgia - Falklands Expedition Report - Part 13 - South Georgia Pintail & South Georgia Pipit

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South Georgia Pintail, Saunders Island, Falklands, Nov. 2018
Olympus E-MI Mark II camera with 300mm f/4 lens
1/3200 sec at f/4.5, ISO 320

The South Georgia pintail (Anas georgica georgica), endemic to the South Georgia island, is a sub-species of the yellow-billed pintail. The plumage of this dabbling duck is nondescript - brown head, neck and tail, and greyish brown wings. It has a pointed tail and a yellow bill.

South Georgia Pintail, Saunders Island, Falklands, Nov. 2018
Olympus E-MI Mark II camera with 300mm f/4 lens
1/1000 sec at f/5, ISO 500

Antarctic Pipit, Moltke Harbour, South Georgia, Nov. 2018
Olympus E-MI Mark II camera with 300mm f/4 lens
1/2000 sec at f/7.1, ISO 640

The sparrow sized South Georgia Pipit (Anthus antarcticus), the only song bird in Antarctica, is only found on the South Georgia archipelago. It is South Georgia's only passerine, and one of the few non-seabirds of the region. After decades of its eggs and young being eaten by rats introduced to the island by seafarers over the centuries, this most southerly songbird nested in South Georgia in 2015 for the first time in living memory. The South Georgia Pipit and the South Georgia Pintail, found nowhere else in the world, were threatened with extinction. In a massive, arduous undertaking, costing more than $13 million and taking nearly a decade, the South Georgia Heritage Trust eradicated all the rats on South Georgia. More than 300 metric tons of poison bait was dropped on the island by helicopter in three separate trips during the Austral Summers of 2010-2011, 2012-2013, and 2014-2015. One description of what was involved in the eradication can be found at this LINK.

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David Sparks

I retired in 2005 after 40 years of research and teaching at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (24 years), the University of Pennsylvania (8 years) and the Baylor College of Medicine (8 years). Photography is my retirement hobby.

Nature photography, especially bird photography, combines a number of things that I really enjoy: bird-watching, being outdoors, photography, travel, messing about with computers, and learning new skills and concepts.  I now spend much of my time engaged in these activities.

David Sibley in the preface to The Sibley Guide to Birds wrote "Birds are beautiful, in spectacular as well as subtle ways; their colors, shapes, actions, and sounds are among the most aesthetically pleasing in nature."  My goal is to acquire images that capture the beauty and uniqueness of selected species as well as images that highlight the engaging behaviors the birds exhibit.