Carcass Island – 13 Mar 11

Port Pattison

Carcass Island is off the northwest tip of West Falkland. It’s a very small island and is about 5miles long and just over a mile wide at the widest point. It was named after the HMS Carcass which patrolled the waters in early 1767, and the Port Pattison named after the Captain. Port Pattison is the island’s sheltered bay and sits in front of the settlement which, surprisingly for the Falklands, is surrounded by trees.

The island is free of cats and rats which has allowed the small birds to breed. I was surprised just how unafraid the little brown tussock birds were, and on a couple of occasions I didn’t notice them against the rocks, until they flew at me!

As our visit time was short, we were driven cross-country to the airstrip by Shedder Pond and from here we walked down to see the elephant seals on the shoreline and walked towards North West Point. The elephant seals were lying quite high up on the beach so there were times where we had to nip in to the tussock grass to bypass them. The trouble is you can still smell them, so you don’t know if you are going to stumble across one in the grass or whether it is the smell coming off the beach. Guess I am too much of a scaredy cat to be a wildlife reporter!

Shedder Pond

The shoreline is very rocky and the sun caught the sea making it look like silver paper. Beautiful.

But wait, how rude of me! I didn’t tell you about the cakes that were laid on for us by Lorraine. Plates of homemade cakes and cookies, the best being the scones with jam and cream on them that were bite sized – I didn’t show you up Mum, I used a plate! (even if was to stand my coffee cup on).