Sealion Islands

After Fox Bay, Dad and I flew out to Sealion Islands, which is to the south east of the main island group. It's a wildlife sanctuary and there is a lodge there. The island has the most amazing array of birds and sealife in a small area, it's famous for its sealions (hence the name... but you probably spotted that) but we were too early for the main sealion season.

The lodge (with turkey vultures and Johnny Rooks on the roof)


We did see one sealion wander up to a beach, take a look then decide is WAS the wrong beach (on account of it being full of elephant seals).


The main thing that WAS going on was that the elephant seals were having pups, fighting and mating on the beaches... and boy are they HUGE.

The big males guard their harems from all comers on land:


and at sea


The winner gets the girls:


And the girls have the pups (some of these guy were very newborn):


When not engaged on the trials of reproduction they sit around and sunbathe, coughing and sneezing and sighing:


And sometimes get their noses picked by tussac birds:


Other highlights on the island include our best bird friends, penguins. At the moment there are Gentoos


And Jackass Penguins (magallenic) all nesting


And further up the beach the giant petrels (locally known as "stinkers") are also nesting... these guys are huge, almost as big as the albatrosses (which don't nest on Sealions).


This place is just gorgeous, and the weather was very kind, on my last day there I was wandering around in a t-shirt.