Falkland Flight Training – bird style
19/08/2014
King Cormorants in flight
While travelling in the Falkland Islands a little while ago, we had the privilege of staying for three days in a cottage on the island of Bleaker to the southwest of East Falkland. The name came from it having been considered a ‘bleaker’ island than the one the finders had just visited, which could well be the case given the very sculpted vegetation that we could see from the air. We came down to land on a grass runway in the small red airplane that operates as a sort of inter-island bus. We had had to be weighed prior to entering so that the fuel levels could be calculated.
On the way to the island we were pretty much on our own apart from the pilot and it was quite something to be so up close and personal with all that was going on. On our arrival we had a lumpy bounce across to the terminal shed and waiting fire appliance. The fire appliance (aka landrover) was also our transport to our accommodation, driven by our host. He told us that, with our arrival, the island population had just multiplied considerably. Before we arrived there was him, his wife and two sheep shearers!
The air terminal and fire appliance
Once introduced to the central district of the centre of population (the middle of the homestead) we were left to our own devices with maps and plenty of paths for walking around the island. We had no idea of the joys we were going to experience, but were full of anticipation because it was all so new. For the three days we were blessed with weather that for the Falklands was a heatwave and could hardly be described as bleak. As always, it was very windy and my hair stayed firmly under the snood that I had worn almost continuously since arriving 2 weeks earlier. However, the sun shone and the light was amazing.
The wide skies and light on Bleaker Island
The first afternoon we first went up to a colony of Rockhopper Penguins that were just over the brow of the hill. On the way up we passed a large colony of King Cormorants. The sensation was extraordinarily like being on the edge of Salisbury Plain or one of the other areas with airforce personnel. The flights were in groups and low and swooped past us as though we were trees or bushes. The quality of flying was economical and very smooth. Our hosts had put in a fence that initially went around the colony, to protect these vulnerable birds from any of their guests who might wander past too closely. By the time we were there, a few years after the fence had gone in, the whole colony had moved towards it!
The King Cormorant colony encompasses the fence
This meant that to walk towards the Rockies, we were going right through the colony. Nature being rough in tooth and claw, the birds were far more concerned about the Falkland Skuas that lived the other side of the path and the fence made it difficult for the skuas to fly to fast at the cormorants and they had a better chance of getting away. It was very sad to see the bodies of many who had not been lucky. The skuas have a very nasty habit of just going for the soft organs and leaving the rest of the bird and the bodies were primarily of adolescent birds. Some that had not suffered wandered amiably around us as we walked past.
The Rockies were feisty and marvellous. We arrived when the older birds were, in combined forces with the moulting ones, running crèches to protect the youngsters from the same skuas we had just met. They didn’t bat an eyelid or beak at our presence, but as soon as the squawk went up that has to be translated as ‘Skua!’ they rapidly got into a rugby scrum with the grown-ups as sentries. Shortly after this the parent birds started to come home from their day’s fishing out to sea, bounding up the rocks and along the top. Straight past us.
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Huddled youngster Rockhoppers in their crèche and feeding the youngsters after a day fishing at sea
We stayed for a bit and then went back to cook a splendid meal in our cabin. On the following morning we did some more exploring and came across colonies of Gentoo and Magellanic Penguins. The light was amazing and it was very peaceful when out of the breeze.
On the day we were due to leave, things were a tad different. There was a strange light whooshing noise, that although intermittent was continuous for several hours from dawn. There were also some little honking noises like distant childrens’ toys. We carried on packing, looking out of the windows to see if we could see anything to cause it. In the end, curiosity and the desire for another idyllic walk became dominant. Opening the door was to open onto an unexpected world. The sky was full of irregular lines of birds. Thousands of them. In lines made up of 4 or 5 birds, the King Cormorants were flying down to the sea, with the adolescent birds also ‘flying’. For the entire width of the homestead, the sky was full of parent cormorants leading their youngsters on a flight training programme down to the shore and breakfast which was then brunch as the hours passed.
Flight training for King Cormorants
Those youngsters who flew over the cabin were behaving like cartoon birds, which was a big surprise. Their flight was gangly and completely different to the fluidity of the grown-ups. When they saw the roof below them it was as if they literally jammed on the brakes and they dropped to the ground!
Slamming on the brakes in mid-air
If they couldn’t see any other birds they got hugely flustered and wandered in circles. I started to walk gently round the side I wanted them to move away from and coax them so they could see their chums, which was lovely because it worked every time.
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Confused youngster King Cormorants
As the hours passed it became apparent that there was an energy issue with some of the birds. Over about 50 metres away a path was being trodden, not only by young birds avoiding flying and walking back home, but also – no certificates could be given for this – walking DOWN to the shore.
Walking back up wasn't all the youngsters were doing
It wasn’t clear how many times they were being expected to make this journey, but many keenies were still in the sky honing their craft. It has to be one of the most magical events I have ever witnessed, the sheer beauty of the adult flight and the gawky angularity of the adolescents adding a touch of delicious humour to the whole proceedings.
When our host picked us up to take us to the plane, we asked him about this flight training and he said that it only ever happens on one day each year and they can never predict when it will be. We were so incredibly privileged and full of it as we climbed back into the skies ourselves and flew the other way round to get back to Stanley. Those three days were short but packed with experiences and many of them incredibly memorable.
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Thank you .....