Albatrosses

Greetings from The Otago Peninsula the home of the only land based colony of albatrosses in mainland NZ. We spent an hour watching these amazing birds on a high cliff right at the end of the peninsula and as you can see Fogg has once again captured the moment. For those of you not familiar with the life of the albatross (how do I know you!!), the top photo shows 2 things. First a bird flying, and you must take my word for it that its wing span was over 3 metres!! You will also notice that there is not a feather out of place despite a force gale wind blowing. At the bottom of the picture you can see the 'youth' who have been out all day flying and fishing. They are now back at the end of the day socialising, having a 'party' and beginning to form relationships for later years. The second picture shows 2 birds, a pair and under the front bird is a chick. We watched the parent feed and preen the chick and welcome home her mate. She gave him a few bits of grass which he accepted! He then took over sitting on the chick and feeding it while she literally walked off the edge of the cliff into the wind and flew away.

I will say no more except to say that this was one if not the best thing I have seen so far. I have been looking forward to it so much and it was as good as I hoped. Fogg was pretty impressed too despite being wildlifed out!!

Watch out for a new blog soon on moving house in NZ.

Till then best wishes from me

Phileas

Hi Fogg here. This is going to brief as the site closes in a few minutes. These birds are seriously clever. They go out flying for most of their life. About 90 per cent of it. They go out singly. Not with their life long partner but they all go back to the same colony at about the same time sometimes within hours of each other. How do they know? They cirlcle the southern seas fishing and never touch land for all of that time. Amazing.

The guide we had, Jane was great. We were the only two on our ' tour ' She has a degree in Fine Art. Why did I not think of that as a career move! A lovely girl who really seemed to enjoy her job. It is pretty fantastic. As far as the visuals are concerned theartist who sprang to mind when I watched these magnificent birds soaring above in the sky was Escher. For those of you who do not know his work look him up. He must have known about Albatrosses. Lots of clever tesselations.

Anyway we are being kicked out know, so must quickly go.

Lots of love to you all from

Fogg