Antarctic Prion

Somewhere in the long crossing of the Drake Passage, small grey-and-white shapes start cutting low arcs over the wave troughs, easy to dismiss as gulls until you notice how tightly they bank together. This is usually the Antarctic prion, also known as the dove prion or, in Māori, totorore, and it is the largest species in the prion genus, a family of small petrels built for life on the open Southern Ocean.

The birds keep good company with expedition ships through the Scotia Sea as well, often turning up in numbers well offshore where few other passerine-sized seabirds venture. Around South Georgia sightings tend to cluster closer to the island itself, part of the wider seabird traffic that uses the surrounding waters as a feeding ground.

They rarely sit still for long, which is part of the appeal: rather than a single dramatic photograph, what stays with most travellers is the pattern of a loose flock skimming just above the water, vanishing into a trough and reappearing a wingbeat later, a small constant presence across some of the roughest crossings on the itinerary.