20th January 2008 - Ushuaia

Time 18:44, 54 degrees 48.62' South, 68 degrees 17.80' West, Air Temperature 20 oC !!, Water Temperature 9.6 oC, part cloudy, with long sunny spells, dry and warm, Wind Northwest 1, Sunrise 6.30am, Sunset 10.58pm

The Sea Princess with over 4,000 passengers and crew dwarfs the Marco Polo at the quayside in Ushuaia this morning.

We will be starting our last cruise tomorrow and the team are going out tinight for our last meal together as a team. It is a sad occasion but I have been very luck to be able to work with such a professional group of people who have done their job with great care and enthusiasm.

A Dolpin Gull on the back deck of the Marco Polo hoping to snatch lunch from an unsuspecting passenger.

I spent the morning catching up with some routine jobs and then walked with Tom Sharpe (Expedition Geologist) to the west side of Ushuaia, beyond the airport, where there is a beautiful strand.

Expedition Geologist Tom Sharpe studying the rocks along the shores of the Beagle Channel.

The tide line was strewn with the shells of thousands of small Sea Urchins as well as many mussels and clams. Some of the clam shells had holes in them made by predatory gastropods.

A crab shell on the shore of the Beagle Channel.

A Clam shell with the tell tale hole of an attack by a gastropod such as a whelk.

Mammals
None

Birds
Giant Petrel 2
Great Grebe 1
Imperial Shag 20+
Kelp Goose 10+
Flying Steamer Duck 15+
Crested Duck 80+
Chimango Caracara 9
American Kestrel 1
Southern Lapwing 10
Blackish Oystercatcher 42
Magellanic Oystercatcher 5
Chilean Skua 10+
Kelp Gull 50+
Dolphin Gull 20+
Brown-hooded Gull 3
South American Tern 30+
Feral Pigeon 1
Common Miner 1
Dark-bellied Cinclodes 4
Bar-winged Cinclodes 2
Austral Negrito 1
Chilean Swallow 10+
Rufous-collared Sparrow 6
House Sparrow 40+

Note: A + sign after the counts indicates that we saw at least that number but more may have been present.