Monday, February 26, 2024

Stateroom 11082 on the Norwegian Star

 


The Norwegian Star is no longer our most favorite cruise ship

My first clue our cruise to Antarctica might be fraught with frustration was the immigration line that seemed a mile long in the Buenos Aires, Argentina, airport on February 3, 2024.

We had flown from Sarasota to Charlotte, North Carolina, then JFK to catch an 11-hour overnight flight to the opposite side of the world. Booked in domestic First Class and International Business Class with its lay-flat seats, we were treated like royalty on American Airlines. We even arrived in Buenos Aires early!

That feeling of royalty evaporated when we saw that only 4 Argentina immigration officers were working to handle the influx of 9 jets ranging in mega-size from a Lufthansa 747 to several Boeing 777’s to Boeing 787s. In the end, we stood in line, moving at a snail’s pace, and after three hours of shuffling forward finally were able to talk to an immigration officer.

Retrieving our luggage, we stepped into the receiving area outside of Customs where we expected to see my name on a placard for our pre-arranged ride to the Buenos Aires Marriott. We used Reservas Quickcar in 2023, and found them punctual and highly professional. Not so in 2024. After walking around the hordes of people waiting for passengers to arrive we never found Reservas Quickcar. They didn’t show up! Instead, we found a local transport company, paid them $88 USD for a 30-minute ride into town, and checked into the Buenos Aires Marriott.

On arrival at the hotel, I received a message from Reservas Quickcar informing me that they gave up waiting for us at 8:00 a.m. and left the airport. I responded with a copy of the confirmation letter showing we had requested a 12:00 noon pick up. Reservas Quickcar screwed up, not us.

Sunday morning, Reservas Quickcar met us at the hotel exactly on time at 11:00 and drove us to the cruise terminal. A recent violent thunderstorm tore the roof off the regular terminal building so in response, all cruises now drop off luggage at a “shed” near the Jorge Newberry domestic airport. From there passengers are transferred to the original terminal whose roof was supposedly ripped off where you pass through security, then check in, then clear Argentina Immigration before being loaded on another bus and driven to the cruise ship.

If only it was this easy.

We entered the terminal “shed” at 11:10 a.m. where, because Norwegian Cruise Line forgot to send everyone luggage tags, we stood in line to have our bags marked for our stateroom. After dropping them off we were given a number and told to wait until it was called before we could board a bus to drive us several miles to the original cruise terminal.  Our number was “White 12” and when it was finally called we darted to the bus before anyone could say “You have to wait for the next bus.”

At the old terminal we repeated the dance we performed in 2023, jumped through the hoops, and finally stepped on the ship at 3:10 pm – a full four hours after beginning this merry-go-round ride. In 2023 it took us 3 hours to get on the ship. In 2024 it took us 4 hours. Curiously in April 2023, in Honolulu, it took us 16 MINUTES from the time we entered the cruise terminal until we were standing inside the confines of the Norwegian Spirit. As much as we love traveling to Antarctica we will NOT do this cruise again on Norwegian or any other cruise line until the pandemonium of check in and ship boarding in Buenos Aires becomes more civilized! I don’t expect much improvement any time soon. In 2025 Norwegian will be sailing to Antarctica from Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina. Maybe that will be less chaotic than Buenos Aires. It couldn’t be worse.

The original itinerary we were supposed to follow was not the one we followed

Hungry, tired, and frustrated with the craziness of boarding the ship we sought out the Garden Café on Deck 12 for a late lunch and a much-needed glass of Pinot Noir. While seated, I saw Dan Bauer walking through the café. Long ago in graduate school (Biology) I taught a lab in Historical Geology for my former Paleontology professor. Dan Bauer was one of my students in that class. Like me, Dan had a double major in Biology and Geology for his undergraduate degree. I chose the Biology route for my career and Dan chose Geology. After graduation in a series of scenarios where he was in the right place at the right time, Dan worked as a geologist in Antarctica during the Austral summer (our winter). When he wasn’t walking among Penguins on the Antarctic Peninsula, he was prospecting for precious metals in Alaska, or working on the Barnes Ice Cap near Pond Inlet in Nunavut, Canada. We hadn’t seen each other in nearly 50 years but the reconnection was almost immediate.

About 4:00 pm we received word that all staterooms were now available and we walked (slowly because of my knee) down one deck and opened the door of Stateroom 11082, a Club Balcony Suite starboard and mid-ship. We had sailed on the Star twice before. First on a 14-day Transatlantic repositioning cruise from Copenhagen, Denmark, to Miami. It was on this cruise we decided that Norwegian was out preferred cruise line and the Star was our preferred ship. Later, in January 2023, we sailed again on the Star during Norwegian’s inaugural cruise from Buenos Aires to Antarctica.

On entering Stateroom 11082 we found a message on our bed. It was from Norwegian informing us of an itinerary change. This quickly became the second omen that our cruise was not going to be a happy one.

Our original itinerary took us from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, Uruguay, to Puerto Madryn in Chubut Province, Argentina, to Punta Arenas, Chile, to Ushuaia, Argentina. After passing through the Beagle Channel and crossing the dreaded Drake Passage we were supposed to spend one day in Paradise Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula before traveling overnight to Elephant Island, made famous by the Shackelton Expedition. From Elephant Island, we were to re-cross the Drake Passage for one day to the Falkland Islands, then a two-day sail back to Buenos Aires. The message on our bed told a different story.

For no clear reason Norwegian had altered the itinerary to remove Paradise Bay. We would now spend one day in Admiralty Bay on King George Island and then dash up to Elephant Island in the latter part of the day. We would still spend a day crossing the Drake Passage to the Falkland Islands and after leaving them we would spend THREE days crawling at 13 nautical miles per hour back to Buenos Aires. Frustration was quickly replaced by disappointment when 2,000 or so passengers learned that our time in Antarctica was cut in half and in place of it we would crawl like a slow-moving snail back to Buenos Aires!

A quick check with the Customer Service desk on Deck 7 revealed a game of cat and mouse with the itinerary change. Customer Service claimed it was a “management” decision to make the change. I asked to speak with an officer and soon the Director of Operations for the cruise was standing in front of me. I asked him to explain the management decision to change the itinerary. He quickly recited the words on every cruise confirmation that the cruise line reserves the right to change the itinerary as needed. I asked for clarification of why it had to be changed. He said, “It was a corporate decision made in Miami.”  I worked for the Federal government long enough to recognize when smoke was being blown up my ass and told the Director of Operations how I felt. He offered platitudes and thoughts and prayers and walked away. Perhaps he needs some additional training in customer service because he received an F from me.

Where I accepted the fact that we were being screwed out of a day in Antarctica on a cruise billed and marketed as “Antarctica” many others on the ship were not so complacent. Three days after sailing out of Buenos Aires word spread among passengers that “Good Morning America” on the ABC Network was seeking passengers  to speak on the record about losing a day in Antarctica and not receiving a straight answer. Soon emails from friends arrived with links to stories in the Washington Post and the Business Insider (among others) about the media attention the itinerary change was receiving. Norwegian Cruise Line stepped on its corporate dick big time and didn’t have the common sense needed to quell the uprising of anger over what they did.

That first night we had dinner in the Versailles Dining Room then settled in for a much-needed night of rest after a hectic day. We were jolted awake at 4:45 a.m. when crew members on the Deck 12 by the pool, a few inches above us, began rearranging lounge chairs. It seemed that they had to drag every deck chair on Deck 12 from one end of the pool deck to the other and each step they took made the sound louder. The night before, as we tried to get to sleep, we heard the deep bass of music being played on the pool deck for the “sail away” party. This continued until 11:00 pm under various names throughout the cruise. We assumed, incorrectly, that the noise was a one-time inconvenience. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

For the first 10 days of the cruise, every morning at 4:45, the dedicated staff was on the pool deck rearranging the deck chairs even though it was 1) still dark, and after several days we were in 2) air temperatures of 36 degrees F that precluded anyone laying out on the pool deck on the recently moved chairs. Not to be outdone, once the deck chairs were moved waking up everyone on the Starboard side of the ship under the pool deck, the Chinese couple in Stateroom 11080 started hacking up their lungs and sneezing. They had COVID or RSV or the Hong Kong Fong and they spent every waking moment from the second day of the cruise coughing and sneezing. This wasn’t normal sneezing or coughing. This was deep and hard coughing that sounded like a cat being strangled.  Every day this went on from the moment we were jolted awake until the end of the cruise.

On the 10th day of being blasted out of bed by deck chairs being moved at 4:45 a.m. I trotted down to Customer Service and said, “I don’t want to seem trite, but is it really necessary for the crew to be moving deck chairs on the pool deck at 4:45 every morning?”  Customer Service apologized and sent a Housekeeping Department manager to our room at 5:00 a.m. to continue apologizing. Eventually he told me that the unwanted 4:45 a.m. wake up calls from moving deck chairs would stop. And it did. For the rest of the cruise the crew moved them at 3:30 a.m.

Concerned about the hacking and sneezing from Stateroom 11080 we told our room steward about our concerns for the people in the room and for him having to clean their room. Our room steward admitted that the occupants of 11080 refused to let him in the room to clean it! They would bring a garbage can to the door and hand it to him then quickly close the door and lock it. We suggested that the room needed to be fumigated at the end of the cruise. Thankfully, our room steward wore a mask each time he opened their door to take the garbage. I feel sorry for the passengers who were stuck in 11080 after this cruise.

Replica of the James Caird, the 22 foot sailboat that Sir Ernest Shackleton and 5 crew members sailed 800 miles from Elephant Island to South Georgia on the start of their quest to save the remainder of Shackleton's crew

Other than these annoyances the cruise was enjoyable and educational. When we anchored in Punta Arenas, Chile we took part in a shore excursion to the Museo Nao Victoria where we examined replicas of the ship Magellan sailed when he discovered the Straits of Magellan. Also here was a replica of the HMS Beagle that Charles Darwin sailed through here on his way to the Galapagos. Most importantly was a replica of the James Caird, the 22-foot boat that Sir Ernest Shackelton and 5 of his crew sailed in for more than 800 miles to South Georgia Island where they started the effort to rescue the remainder of the crew of the Endurance camped on Point Wild on Elephant Island. 

Point Wild, Elephant Island, Antarctica.  Imagine 22 humans "living" on this narrow stretch of beach for 4 1/2 months during the Antarctic winter eating penguins and seaweed and burning seal blubber for food.  The next time you think you have it rough just think back to the Shackelton crew and what they endured, and your concerns will disappear

After looking at the Caird I have even more respect for Shackelton and his crew. Sailing over 800 miles across the Drake Passage with no modern navigational aids. Their only instruments were a sextant and dead reckoning. How they made it over the treacherous seas of the Drake remains a mystery but they did it. Upon his return to Elephant Island four months later, none of Shackelton’s 28-member crew had perished including the 22 who remained on Point Wild eating seaweed, Chinstrap Penguins, Southern Elephant Seals and burning blubber for heat.

Actual photo of Shackleton and crew departing Elephant Island bound for South Georgia 800 miles away

Our hurried itinerary through the South Shetland Islands archipelago allowed us time to explore Admiralty Bay with its large concentration of Chinstrap Penguins. 

Ancient ice fields were a prominent part of the King George Island landscape

At one point not far from Elephant Island we encountered a feeding frenzy of whales of several species and observed more than 30 spouts over the ocean at the same time! Then not to be outdone, while eating dinner off Elephant Island a flock of 300 Cape Petrels, my most favorite Antarctic bird, appeared as the sun was fading for the day.

Icebergs were abundant off the South Shetland Islands in February

Return northward over the Drake Passage began about 10:00 p.m. and was uneventful. The wind was only about 20 mph and wave height was 8 feet.

Several days earlier when we arrived in Punta Arenas, we learned that ours was only the second Norwegian Cruise Line ship since November to be able to anchor and bring passengers ashore in tender boats. Luck also was with us at Stanley, Falkland Islands where our ship and a Viking Cruise Line ship anchored 25 minutes from shore.

Our objective in Stanley was to visit the penguin colony at Bluff Cove, a 24-minute drive from the cruise terminal. There we were told to expect King Penguins, Gentoo Penguins and maybe Magellanic Penguins. We found all three species plus a Southern Rockhopper Penguin that had swam to the cove to molt. Adding to the excitement was several hundred Upland Geese and offshore from the cove was a similar number of Southern Giant-Petrel.

When I first saw this Gentoo Penguin I thought it was a decoy!


The appropriately named King Penguin

We spent three days at sea moving at 13 nautical miles per hour to kill time on the return to Buenos Aires. On arrival on February 18, we disembarked at 5:30 a.m., took a bus to Jorge Newberry domestic airport then flew on American Jet (Argentina) a life airline to Iguazu Falls for a long day trip visiting the spectacular waterfalls on the border of Brazil and Argentina.

When she first saw Iguazu Falls, Eleanor Roosevelt said "Poor Niagara".  Why these falls are not considered the 8th wonder of the world remains a mystery

I slept in on Monday while Cathy walked to Ricoletta to visit the famous grave of Eva Perone then on Tuesday we caught an American Airlines flight to Miami, then Charlotte and after 21 hours of travel arrived in Sarasota.

Despite the disappointment of losing a day in Antarctica our trip results in 2024 were similar to 2023. Last year we saw 5 species of whales including Blue Whale. This year we saw 6 species of whales missing Blue Whale but seeing Pilot Whale. Last year we saw 5 species of Albatross and in 2024 saw 6 species. We had the same number of Penguin species both years. One obvious difference this year was the huge number of icebergs that we did not see in 2023. This year we were there in February (our equivalent of August) after three months of melting so it was expected there would be more icebergs. They were fun to watch and many of them had Penguins or Leopard Seals hitching a ride. However, I could not help but think about the movie “Titanic” as we weaved among the floating mountains of ice.

The mechanics of this trip were disappointing and Norwegian needs to do some damage control because there were many irate passengers. Norwegian also has to do something about the musical chairs in the middle of the night on the pool deck. We are booked on another cruise on the Star in July 2024 from Reykjavik Iceland to New York City. As bad luck would have it we are again in a Stateroom on Deck 11 but theoretically forward of the pool deck. Regardless, the Iceland trip will be our final jaunt aboard the Norwegian Star.


Marine Mammals Seen from the Norwegian Star in the Atlantic Ocean, Straits of Magellan, Beagle Channel, and the Southern Ocean, February 4 to 17, 2024

Southern Elephant Seal

Antarctic Fur Seal

South American Fur Seal

Leopard Seal

Weddell Seal

Atlantic Minke Whale

Fin Whale

Southern Humpback Whale

Orca

Southern Right Whale

 

Bird Species Seen in Uruguay, Chubut Province Argentina, Punta Arenas Chile, Ushuaia Argentina, the Drake Passage, Antarctica, the Falkland Islands and the Atlantic Ocean, February 4 to February 17, 2024

 

DUCKS, GEESE, AND WATERFOWL

Upland Goose

Kelp Goose

Flying Steamer-Duck

Flightless Steamer-Duck

Falkland Steamer-Duck

White-headed Steamer-Duck

Crested Duck

Spectacled Duck

Silver Teal

Chiloe Wigeon

Yellow-billed Pintail

 

GREBES

White-tufted Grebe

Great Grebe

Silvery Grebe

 

PIGEONS AND DOVES

Rock Pigeon

 

SHEATHBILLS

Snowy Sheathbill

OYSTERCATCHERS

Magellanic Oystercatcher

 

PLOVERS AND LAPWINGS

American Golden-Plover

Rufous-chested Dotterel

Southern Lapwing

 

SANDPIPERS AND ALLIES

Red Phalarope

Baird's Sandpiper

White-rumped Sandpiper

 

SKUAS AND JAEGERS

Long-tailed Jaeger

Pomarine Jaeger

Chilean Skua

Brown Skua

South Polar Skua

 

GULLS, TERNS, AND SKIMMERS

Brown-hooded Gull

Dolphin Gull

Olrog's Gull

Kelp Gull

Snowy-crowned Tern

Arctic Tern

South American Tern

Antarctic Tern

 

PENGUINS

King Penguin

Emperor Penguin

Adelie Penguin

Gentoo Penguin

Chinstrap Penguin

Magellanic Penguin

Macaroni Penguin

Southern Rockhopper Penguin

 

ALBATROSSES

Northern Royal Albatross

Southern Royal Albatross

Snowy Albatross

Light-mantled Albatross

Gray-headed Albatross

Black-browed Albatross

 

SOUTHERN STORM-PETRELS

Wilson's Storm-Petrel

Gray-backed Storm-Petrel

Black-bellied Storm-Petrel

 

SHEARWATERS AND PETRELS

Southern Giant-Petrel

Northern Giant-Petrel

Southern Fulmar

Antarctic Petrel

Cape Petrel

Snow Petrel

Kerguelen Petrel

Soft-plumaged Petrel

Atlantic Petrel

Blue Petrel

Antarctic Prion

Gray Petrel

White-chinned Petrel

Spectacled Petrel

Great Shearwater

Sooty Shearwater

Manx Shearwater

Subantarctic Shearwater

Magellanic Diving-Petrel

 

CORMORANTS AND SHAGS

Magellanic Cormorant

Imperial Cormorant

Antarctic Shag

 

NEW WORLD VULTURES

Turkey Vulture

 

FALCONS AND CARACARAS

Striated Caracara

 

TYRANT FLYCATCHERS

Dark-faced Ground-Tyrant

 

SWALLOWS

Southern Martin

Brown-chested Martin

Blue-and-white Swallow

Barn Swallow

 

MOCKINGBIRDS AND THRASHERS

Patagonian Mockingbird

 

THRUSHES AND ALLIES

Austral Thrush

Chiguanco Thrush

 

OLD WORLD SPARROWS

House Sparrow

 

NEW WORLD SPARROWS

Rufous-collared Sparrow

 

TROUPIALS AND ALLIES

Long-tailed Meadowlark

Austral Blackbird

 

-------- STATISTICS --------

Species seen - 89


Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Antarctica Bound - Again

 

The itinerary of the Norwegian Star sailing from Buenos Aires to Antarctica, February 4 - 18, 2024


When American Airlines flight 997, a fully loaded Boeing 787 lifted off from the Dallas-Fort Worth airport on January 13, 2023, bound for Buenos Aires, Argentina, we thought we were departing on the trip of a lifetime. Once in Buenos Aires we would board the Norwegian Star cruise ship (our most favorite Norwegian ship) on a 14-day adventure to the littlest of latitudes – just a few miles from the Antarctic Circle.  We were seated in first/business class with the much needed lay-flat seats - a requirement for a nearly 11 hour flight!  As usual on American we were treated like royalty in First Class.

The Star is by far our most favorite ship in the Norwegian Cruise Line fleet.  We first sailed her on a 14 day Transatlantic cruise from Copenhagen to Miami.  Then there was 14 days to Antarctica in 2023 followed by 14 days in February 2024.  We will meet up again with her in Reykjavik, Iceland on July 1, 2024 for a short 12 day trip to Greenland, Maritime Canada, and docking in New York City.

Our itinerary took us first to Montevideo, the colonial capital of Uruguay then on to Puerto Madryn in the Chubut province of Argentina (which just so happens to be the only known home of the White-headed Steamer-Duck). After a day at sea, we were in Punta Arenas, Chile (my third time there), then through the crushingly beautiful Chilean fjords to Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world and the southernmost commercial airport in the world. It was in Ushuaia in 2003 that I was banned for life from ever again renting a car from Hertz Rent-a-Car but that is a different story.


The beauty of the Chilean Fjords along the Beagle Channel and the Straits of Magellan will bring tears to your eyes  Photo by Dan Bauer in 1985

We spent a day crossing the infamous Drake Passage, home of some of the most wicked sea currents and massive waves on the planet before spending two days in and around the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. We didn’t step on the Antarctic continent (that would cost about $20,000 USD for 8 days) but we didn’t need too. From the comfort of our suite on Deck 9 aft we saw 5 species of Penguin (including thousands of Chinstrap Penguins doing their signature porosing “flight” through the water), 5 species of Albatross and 5 species of whales. At one point we sailed into a whale feeding frenzy and saw 20 whale spouts at the same time – they reminded me of miniature tornadoes on the Nebraska prairie.


Experienced travelers will tell you that the Drake Passage between southernmost Argentina and Antarctica comes in two forms.  Its either the "Drake Lake" when its calm or the "Drake Quake" when the seas are a bit nasty producing waves to 60 feet high.  This photo of the Drake Quake was taken by Dan Bauer from a ship much smaller than the 965 foot long Norwegian Star we will be on.

The owner of a bookstore in Anchorage Alaska once told me you should only see Alaska as an old person because if you see it when you are young “you have nothing left to look forward to.”  He had obviously never seen Antarctica!

Mile thick glaciers. Unscaled and unnamed mountains. Whales everywhere you look. Cape Petrels by the hundreds surrounding the ship. It was and remains unforgettable.


It is shocking how stunningly beautiful a completely black and white bird can be but that is the story of the Cape Petrel (also known as the Pintado Petrel).  Cape Petrels love to follow ships. In January 2023 we had a flock of 60 following our ship and one came so close I could reach out and touch it!  Penguins and Albatross aside, Cape Petrel is my most favorite Antarctica bird.

Those interested in Antarctic history know the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his harrowing escape from the ice of the Weddell Sea. This was followed by most of his crew surviving on the shore of Elephant Island (where they ate seal and penguin and used their fat for heat) more than a year, followed by Shackleton’s courageous transit of the Drake Passage in a 22-foot boat to a whaling station on South Georgia from which plans were eventually made to return to Elephant Island to rescue his crew.


Sir Ernest Shackleton and 5 of his crew members sailed in this 22 foot boat from Elephant Island 800 miles to South Georgia island where they began arrangements (eventually concluded in Punta Arenas Chile) to return to Elephant Island to rescue his crew.  A replica of this 22 foot boat is on display at a museum in Punta Arenas and we plan to visit it.

Luckily for us, Norwegian Cruise Line spent the better part of a morning cruising around the beach on Elephant Island where Shackleton’s crew miraculously survived. The temperature was 36 degrees F, there was a light mist falling, and we were in the comfort of a 965-foot ship. It was almost impossible to imagine the misery Shackleton’s crew endured on that beach for over a year. Surprisingly, not one of his crew perished during their year-long wait for Shackleton’s return.

Reluctantly leaving Antarctica we steamed north for a day to the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas if you are from Argentina) which reminded me of North Dakota because of all the wind. While I took off looking for Cobb’s Wren, a single-country endemic, Cathy hiked 11 miles to Gypsy Cove where she found and photographed a colony of King Penguins. Just like with Antarctica at the end of the day we did not want to leave the fantastic Falkland Islands. I fell in love with the Falkland Islands and joined the Falklands Islands Conservation Trust while there.  You should also!

Cathy Hayslett walked 11 miles roundtrip from the cruise terminal to Gypsy Cove on the Falkland Islands where she photographed this King Penguin.  In 2024 we are taking a shore excursion in a Land Rover to go look at Penguins.

We sailed north for two days from the Falklands and reluctantly returned to Buenos Aires. When we returned to Buenos Aires (the cruise terminal there is an absolute zoo!) Cathy said, “I want to do this cruise again.”  A week later I was on the phone with Norwegian Cruise Line booking a return trip to Antarctica on February 4, 2024. So much for it being a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

On February 2, 2024, we depart Sarasota bound first for Charlotte North Carolina and then to JFK for an 11-hour overnight flight back to Buenos Aires. This will be my 7th and hopefully not final trip to my most favorite South American country.

After a day of recuperation, we board the Norwegian Star again and depart on the same itinerary we followed in 2023. This will be the first time in 22 cruises together that we are following the same itinerary as any previous cruise. That should tell you a bit about how fantastic Norwegian Cruise Line, the Norwegian Star, and Antarctica are! Our itinerary includes:

February 4 – Depart Buenos Aires

February 5 – Day in Montevideo, Uruguay (pairing Uruguayan beef with Uruguayan craft beer)

February 6 – At sea

February 7 – Puerto Madryn, Argentina (after an abysmal shore excursion there in 2023 we are staying near the pier drinking Malbec rather than wasting money on a totally unprofessional excursion)

February 8 – At sea

February 9 – Punta Arenas, Chile. We will visit a museum housing a replica of the 22-foot boat Shackleton escaped from Antarctica in and a replica of the HMS Beagle that housed Charles Darwin on his expedition to South America. Chuck’s birthday will be on February 12. We might have to drink a beer for him while looking at his ship.

February 10 – Ushuaia Argentina – a city that reminds me of Anchorage, Alaska, so much I think I am looking at the Chugach Mountains as I walk among the Kelp Geese and Southern Giant Petrels cruising the waterfront.

February 11 – Crossing the Drake Passage

February 12 – Paradise Bay, Antarctica

February 13 – Elephant Island, Antarctica

February 14 – At sea

February 15 – Falkland Islands (with an excursion to a penguin colony supporting 3 species of penguin)

February 16 – At sea

February 17 – At sea

February 18 – Reluctantly return to Buenos Aires. But quickly transfer to the nearby domestic airport for a 90-minute flight north on a day trip to Iguazu Falls on the Argentina-Brazil-Paraguay border.


Iguazu Falls on the border with Brazil and Paraguay, is one of the most spectacular sights you will witness in the natural world.  On my second trip to Argentina I flew up to Iguazu Falls and spent several days hiking the forests and looking at birds.  This trip we will only have a few hours there but it will be worth every second.

February 19 – Chill out in soccer-crazed Buenos Aires, described by many as “The Paris of South America.

Driving from the International Airport to the domestic airport in August 2001 I commented to the driver that Avenida 9 de Julio reminded me of the Champs-Elysees.  The driver said "Sir, did you not know that Buenos Aires is the Paris of South America?"  It certainly is!

February 20 – Reluctantly leave Buenos Aires late in the evening first to Miami, then Charlotte and on February 21 arriving in Sarasota. Friends from Rhode Island will be staying at our house while we are gone so don’t think about stopping by to rip us off. Plus, our neighbor has a gun.

We already have two more cruises planned for 2024 (Iceland and Greenland in July and Rome to Miami in November). Plus 2025 is filled up with Puerto Rico to Lisbon, Portugal in April 2025, the Greek Islands and Malta in July 2025 and a spin around the Caribbean from San Jaun to Bonaire in December 2025.

Maybe if my heart hasn’t given out by then and my ashes aren’t spread over the Amazon, we will try Antarctica in 2026. I’ll be getting quite feeble by then but it will be worth the effort to see it again.



Friday, January 5, 2024

The One Place I Was Happy

 


The "World's Largest Buffalo" is impossible to miss, even at night, as you travel Interstate 94 through Jamestown, North Dakota

A road sign flashed by us in the middle of an October night in North Dakota. It was 1957 and we were traveling west to Montana for my dad’s annual deer hunting trip with his uncle. The sign I saw said “James River” and seconds later, on the same side of the road, was a giant statue of an American bison referred to by the city father’s as “The World’s Largest Buffalo.”

This was my instantaneous introduction to Jamestown, North Dakota, that with 17,000 residents, was the fifth largest city in the Peace Garden State. Among its many claims to fame, Jamestown is the home of the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center which, in my biased opinion, was the finest wildlife research center in the world.

 

Northern Prairie was a dream duty station for anyone who loves wildlife

At six years old, thanks to a walk in the forest with my grandfather, I knew that I wanted to be a biologist when I grew up. At nine years old, a female mallard I shot on the Brill River in Barron County Wisconsin, carried a band on her leg. I sent the band to the address on it, and several months later a “Certificate of Appreciation” arrived from the US Fish and Wildlife Service informing me where, when and by whom the female mallard had been banded. It occurred to me that if there was an organization putting bands on bird legs I would want to work for that organization. At 9 years old my goal became the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Throughout graduate school I sat in the library reading volume after volume of the Journal of Wildlife Management (later I called it the Journal of Metaphysical Wildlife). The Journal was filled with papers written by people named Cowardin and Johnson and Kantrud and Stewart and Lokemoen and Duebbert and others. They were each stationed at the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center in Jamestown, North Dakota – the very same city with the world’s largest buffalo. One night in the library I made it a goal to be a biologist at Northern Prairie.

Summer 1976 with a brand-new Master’s Degree I was working for $3.00 an hour with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. A car driven by my supervisor Bruce Moss found me counting ducks at East Twin Lake in St. Croix County. Once the car stopped, David L. Trauger, the bombastic and egotistical Deputy Director of Northern Prairie rolled out of the car and began trying to awe us with his vast knowledge of everything. Something I said or did caught Dave's attention and two years later, when I was now a wildlife biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Minneapolis, Trauger brought me to Northern Prairie on loan for the summer.

My task was to work with world-famous wildlife biologist Harold Kantrud on an extensive research project he was conducting in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana to develop a grassland classification system based on breeding bird abundance. For two months Hal and I traveled together counting birds and recording plant species over the heart of the Northern Great Plains. In mid-July 1978 when my detail to Northern Prairie was complete I didn’t want to leave. As Jimmy Buffett sings in a song about Key West, Florida, “I have found me a home.”

Later that summer, through the machinations of how government works, a position fitting my exact expertise became available at Northern Prairie and not by surprise I was selected.

January 20, 1979, with my Chesapeake Bay Retriever seated next to me in a U-Haul, and my then-wife and 2-year-old daughter leading the way in our Ford Escort, we left Hudson, Wisconsin, on the 7-hour drive to Jamestown. When we arrived in the late afternoon, the high temperature for the day was -24 degrees F. It was an auspicious start to a new chapter in my life.

After two weeks in the Ramada Inn, we found and purchased a home at 1410 11th Street Southeast, not far from the James River sign I had seen in 1957. My goal of being stationed at Northern Prairie was complete.

Over the next four years I conducted research on sandhill cranes in Nebraska, and breeding birds along the Platte River. We did a study of bird abundance and diversity that helped bring a proposed damn on the Pembina River to its deathbed. Another study examined the abundance of diversity of breeding songbird using unique woody habitats in western North Dakota that were scheduled to be consumed by coal production.  Probably my most valuable contribution was a study of the behavior and mortality of birds at powerlines in central North Dakota. Despite the study area, the research had implications for protecting birds from collisions with man-made structures from  Switzerland, to Fairbanks, Alaska.

When I wasn’t working we were out exploring. Another daughter arrived in June 1980 and 6 weeks after her birth we were on a train to Churchill Manitoba in Canada’s Arctic. A year later we were camping in southeast Arizona. There were trips to the Turtle Mountains and to Teddy Roosevelt National Park and not-often-enough returns to Wisconsin. Mid-September brought the beginning of hunting season. First it was mourning doves and then sharp-tailed grouse and on October 1, ducks and geese became fair game. My Chesapeake Bay Retriever was ecstatic because nearly every day he was tromping across a prairie or swimming in freezing water retrieving something we had harvested. It was impossible to be happier than I was in Jamestown, North Dakota.

There are many things to hunt in North Dakota. None, however, was finer than Sharp-tailed Grouse

It was an idyllic life. I was happy as the proverbial clam then on March 5, 1983 it all came crashing down. Two months to the day after “it” happened a Stutsman County Sheriff Deputy showed up at Northern Prairie and in front of all my colleagues served me with divorce papers. Four months later we sat in the divorce court in the Stutsman County Courthouse where I learned firsthand how much “justice” there is in the justice system.

To say I was rudderless was an understatement. Because of new living arrangements I had to take my Chesapeake Bay Retriever back to my parents farm in Wisconsin and leave him there. I still dream about that dog every week. Not only had I lost a family but I lost my best friend, a curly-haired dog who lived to hunt.

Jamestown, North Dakota, with its 17,000 people, was too small a town to live in without running into a former wife who took great pleasure in reminding me often that we were no longer married. Thanks once again to bombastic David L. Trauger, now director of the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Maryland, I transferred from Jamestown to a field station of Patuxent in Athens, Georgia.  There for 3 years I spent my summers in northern Michigan and my winters in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands studying Kirtland’s Warbler.  After three years of nearly constant travel (it was more running away than travel) I moved to Grand Island Nebraska, the Florida Keys, Ventura, California, and eventually Washington DC. 

None of those places were ever where I wanted to be. None of them were ever “home.”  I lived in many houses but not one of them has been home.  My home was on the pass at Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge in North Dakota with my daughters watching ducks and geese pass 50 feet over our heads. Home was the forest of McElroy Park along the James River dripping with warblers in the middle of May, home was a near collision with a startled moose in the Pembina River valley, and home was a camping trip to the Turtle Mountains.

Since leaving my home on the prairie, the only other place I have been happy is at Barrow, Alaska, at 71 degrees North latitude, on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. There I am on my own, counting birds, looking for polar bears and 500 miles away from the nearest road. The habitat, when the snow finally melts in June, looks surprisingly similar to the Missouri Coteau of North Dakota.  As with North Dakota, those Arctic wetlands are teeming with birds. The sad thing about Barrow is that I am only there for a few days and then have to leave.

 

Palustrine emergent wetlands like this one are almost too numerous to count at Barrow Alaska.  Their abundance reminds me of North Dakota's Missouri Coteau 45 years ago

Dorothy, in the “Wizard of Oz” transported herself to where she was happy by clicking the heels of her ruby slippers and saying “There’s no place like home” until she was home. I don’t have that luxury and quite honestly after living under a Florida palm tree for 16 years I could never live in North Dakota again.  However, just like wolves and fishers in northern Wisconsin I may never see one, but a glimmer of joy overcomes me when I remember that the North Dakota I loved was once there providing me with happiness.

 


Saturday, December 30, 2023

My Sector of the Sarasota Christmas Bird Count December 30 2023

 


Totally by surprise was a Royal Tern flying overhead 6 miles from the ocean!  A first for my sector of the Christmas Bird Count

By Nicholas Atamas - Photograph taken with EF 70-200mm F/4 L on a Canon EOS300D at 200mm, F/6.3 exposed for 1/1600sec, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=678974


Here are the results from this morning's run of my 2 square mile chunk of suburbia inside the Sarasota Christmas Bird Count circle. 70 species plus the confusing Mallard/Mottled (here called Muddled Duck) Duck complex makes this the best year by 5 species for my count.  I now have 86 species plus the hybrid duck in my sector over 5 years.

New species for my sector included Pied billed Grebe, American Coot, Royal Tern  (complete surprise inland) Black-crowned Night-Heron, Red-headed Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatch (at the southern limit of its range here) Eastern Towhee, Orange-crowned Warbler and Summer Tanager (heard first using its classic "pick-it-up" call)

Oh, yes, and the annual Cottonmouth with a shitty attitude was curled up by his favorite wetland in Deer Hollow.  I think that snake waits there all year long for me to show up so he can scare the trump out of me.

Major misses include Common Ground-Dove -- they nest in our development just haven't started to call yet.  White-winged Dove - there is usually one or two by Gecko's Restaurant wetland but nobody showed up today, and Glossy Ibis!! There were more than 100 of them in the area 1-2 weeks ago but they all disappeared today.

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

21

Blue-winged Teal

3

Mottled Duck

8

Ring-necked Duck

1

Hooded Merganser

1

Pied-billed Grebe

1

Rock Pigeon

81

Eurasian Collared-Dove

6

Mourning Dove

8

Common Gallinule

9

American Coot

1

Limpkin

4

Sandhill Crane

2

Laughing Gull

1

Royal Tern

1

Wood Stork

2

Anhinga

3

Double-crested Cormorant

7

Black-crowned Night-Heron

1

Little Blue Heron

3

Tricolored Heron

1

Snowy Egret

1

Green Heron

1

Western Cattle Egret

11

Great Egret

2

Great Blue Heron

2

White Ibis

147

Roseate Spoonbill

1

Black Vulture

1

Turkey Vulture

18

Osprey

2

Cooper's Hawk

1

Bald Eagle (Subadult/Adults)

2/1

Red-shouldered Hawk

3

Belted Kingfisher

3

Red-headed Woodpecker

1

Red-bellied Woodpecker

7

Downy Woodpecker

2

Pileated Woodpecker

1

American Kestrel

1

Nandy Parakeet

2

Eastern Phoebe

2

Blue-headed Vireo

3

Loggerhead Shrike

2

Blue Jay

37

Fish Crow

30

Tufted Titmouse

3

Tree Swallow

84

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

1

Brown-headed Nuthatch

3

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

5

Carolina Wren

2

European Starling

23

Gray Catbird

1

Brown Thrasher

1

Northern Mockingbird

11

Eastern Bluebird

1

House Finch

3

Eastern Towhee

1

Red-winged Blackbird

19

Brown-headed Cowbird

7

Common Grackle

37

Boat-tailed Grackle

117

Orange-crowned Warbler

1

Common Yellowthroat

4

Palm Warbler

44

Pine Warbler

2

Yellow-rumped Warbler

31

Summer Tanager

1

Northern Cardinal

3

Total Individuals

854

Total Species

70

Total Party Hours

5.5

Party hours on foot

2

Party Miles on foot

2.7

Party hours by car

3.5

Party miles by car

11.7

Start time

655

End time

1230