Far and Away

By Keith Michael

“Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I highly recommend that you get outside on the decks portside. We’re passing an impressive iceberg graveyard.”

Most likely you stopped paging through the paper because of the Penguin pictures and wondered, “What are they doing here?” Well, it’s the same “me,” but here I am, onboard the ship Ortelius crossing the Drake Strait on my way back to Ushuaia, Argentina after ten days in the Weddell Sea of Antarctica.

Honestly, I haven’t been out of the West Village for this long in nearly three decades. I’ve traded NYC Robins, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Sparrows, and Pigeons for Petrels, Fulmars, Albatrosses, Prions, and Penguins. The saying here goes, “If you sleep, you cheat.” Every time I’ve closed my eyes, I’ve felt guilty that I might miss yet another unexpected wonder to behold.

And wonders there have been: Humpback and Fin Whales spouting from the depths; mottled Weddell Seals slumbering on the coast; ice in every shade of white, gray, and blue spreading out in vast volatile landscapes, complaining against the ship’s hull, or towering formidably before distant ice capped peaks; extraordinarily agile seabirds windsurfing the updraft from the ship’s passing; and, of course, the penguins, penguins, penguins.

Five species of penguins were on the itinerary. First, petite burrow-nesting Magellanic Penguins were seen on an island off the mainland. Then, huge colonies of nesting white-ear-muffed Gentoo and namesake Chinstrap Penguins were visited by Zodiac boats. Wide-eyed erratic Adelie Penguins were frequently spotted cruising by on icebergs. But the true royalty were the “March of the Penguins” Emperor Penguins with their springtime powder puff chicks. I’m tearing up just typing that I saw them in person.

The more than 40,000 photos of Antarctic sights that I’ll come home with barely scratch the surface of this vast unknowable continent. For now, I’ll leave room for the photos to begin telling the tale. Catch me over a martini sometime and just TRY to shut me up from talking about all that I’ve seen.

 

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Keith Michael is a West Villager, birder, urban naturalist, photographer, writer, and ballet choreographer, and leads nature walks throughout the NYC area.
Visit www.keithmichaelnyc.com or follow @newyorkcitywild on Instagram.

All Photos by Keith Michael.