Day 4
We did not see too many birds on last nights evening walk and this morning we get up early to survey the birds at the morning high tide. It is difficult to adjust to the daylight hours, this close to Antarctica and we have daylight from about 5:30 am until 10:00 at night. Today starts out very windy and I am a little concerned about my tent but am hopeful that the additional reinforcing we did yesterday will hold up (what would we do without duct tape?). The wind is at our backs on the way out to the shoreline and I think our tide charts might be a little off since the tide is already going out and according to the chart, high tide is still a half hour away. We do see a group of birds at the shoreline and set up our scopes but only see Husdonian Godwits and no Red Knots. The trip back to the camp takes about twice as long as the trip out since we are working against the wind in this direction.
Back at camp and the wind has done its job again, this time breaking a pole on the cook tent. Again we fight the wind to repair the pole and hope it holds for a while longer. After a quick lunch, we drive out to Punta Espora, not far from the ferry dock since Dan has seen Red Knots here in past years but no luck. We do see our first crested ducks which is very exciting until we realize they are about as common as mallards.
We head out after dinner for our evening survey and see a group of about 2,000 birds made up of Hudsonian godwits and red knots. The majority of the group are godwits with only about 200 or so of the Red knots and we are wondering if the birds have simply found another place to go or if these low numbers reflect a real decline in the population.