Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

A short walk down the road led us to the beach at the north side of
Rookery Bay. This was of rounded pebbles covered with kelp hold-fasts and
leaves and with various shells, washed up - ascidians, crabs, octopus eggs and
other. The grass was springy sea turf and came right down to the pebble beach.
The sky was grey but luminous and for 400 yards out to sea the water was calm
due to the presence of vast kelp beds damping down the waves. Over it flew
piping oyster-catchers, smaller grey waders and rock-shags in small parties. We
pressed on over some sand dunes of very fine blown grey sand to the rocks at
Hooker's Point and on rounding a corner we saw a small starling (?) with bright
crimson patch on its breast and white superciliary stripe. This bird was perched
a few yards ahead of us and kept company while we were on the rocks of the
point. Ahead were a number of blue-eyed, or king, shags perched on the rocks
of a ridge running eastwards into the sea. They were very attractive birds, with
cobalt blue-circled eyes, white breast and abdomen, glossy black upper parts
and orange feet. On moving on again I saw a large male sea lion lying on the
pebbles of the next rocky cove, having been so engrossed in the shags that I
completely missed seeing it until I was almost on top of it. It was about eight
feet in length and had been dead for perhaps a day. Its face was badly
lacerated, but the cause of death was not obvious. This was the first time I saw
one close-up, a powerful beast.
North of Hooker's Point lay Surf Bay, which was very similar to Rookery
Bay - the kelp beds beginning about 200 yards from the shore, in a continuous
band stretching out to sea. In the free water between this encircling band and
the shore, three beautiful black and white Commerson's dolphins were
disporting themselves. Possibly, we thought, they were trapped inside the
bunched kelp until the rising tide released them? We wandered on along the
shore seeing various interesting plants and wading birds, including a black
oyster-catcher. In one crack was a young rock-shag with a parent flying nearby
as we passed. The nature of the shore changed and, as time was getting on, we
struck inland across the tussocky sand dunes, which made the going difficult.
At 1.30 pm we reached Cape Pembroke lighthouse and had lunch on the shore
to the east of the buildings. While seated there we saw a night heron, oyster
catchers, one black oyster-catcher, shags, giant petrels, Dominican gulls,
(another gull species with red legs), black-browed albatross and black-capped
petrels.
After lunch the keeper showed us around. The lighthouse was maintained
by Trinity House, London, and was essentially no different from other
lighthouses I had seen, but one did get a unique view from the platform. We
pressed on along the north shore seeing terns, black-oystercatchers, small
phalaropes and steamer-ducks in small parties on the incredibly sea-green sea.
The fauna of the rock pools was immensely interesting to me and very rich. In a
very few minutes I saw in the clear water spider-crabs, a pink rough-surfaced
crab, isopods like Sphaeroma swimming upside down with pleopods beating
wildly. There were various amphipods, colourful chitons, Fissurella - like
limpets, sea anemones of diverse colouring, starfish and brittle-stars, worms,
two types of tubicolous worm - one colonial like Sabellaria, with brown
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