Surf Bay

It rained most of the day yesterday but late in the afternoon the sun came out and we decided to go for a walk at Surf Bay which is a couple of miles outside Stanley. It is one of the few local beaches you can access as most have minefields on or behind them remaining from the 1982 conflict.

It is a beautiful sandy beach and the waves usually break and surfers sometimes go there. Towards the top of the beach there is a shallow lagoon where a lot of birds were feeding. There were several Magellanic oystercatchers and two banded plovers and a large flock of white-rumped sandpipers. We had not seen these little birds before. I was amazed to discover when I looked them up in the bird book that they breed in the Arctic and then migrate here for our summer, making an annual round trip of 16,000 miles!


We walked along the promontary at one end of the beach and as the tide was low scrambled out along the rocks at the end. I was surprised to see lots of small red sea anemones in some of the rock pools as I didn't realise they lived in such cold waters.


There were some giant petrels flying around, some rock shags perched on the higher rocks and a pair of kelp geese feeding near the water's edge. We also saw a flightless steamer duck having a snooze on a mussel-covered rock. These large ducks are endemic to the Falklands and are unable to fly. When disturbed or having an altercation with another one they move over the surface of the water flapping their wings and paddling their feet on the surface - steaming along - and making loud noises at the same time.