My Blog - Jeff Clarke

Sky Full of Egrets All the images in this blog were taken during the trip. Click on an image to display at full size. In the early hours of the 10th January I stepped aboard MV Boudicca, one of my favourite ships, in the Queensland city of Cairns. It would be the start of an adventure to explore a part of the world with a special appeal. The ship would be making 3 stops in one of the remotest parts of the planet, Papua New Guinea, it would also call in at the equally magical island of Komodo on route to Bali. As usual I was able to bring a companion along for the ride and on this occasion it was my good friend Laura Dennis, a fellow Ecologist and birder. We had a few hours ashore in Cairns before the usual speaker responsibi...

All images are orignal images from the trip. Click on image to view at full size. We began in Buenos Aires on the 14th Feb. I was accompanied by my fellow Wildlife Speaker and buddy Anthony (Anno) Brandreth. We would join Cunard’s Queen Victoria on the 15th to begin a journey around the southern half of South America, taking in the iconic locations of Peninsula Valdes, Cape Horn and the Beagle Channel along the way.   Jeff Clarke (Left) & Anthony Brandreth at Costanera Sur, Buenos Aires © Jeff Clarke 2020 Limited time and the extra-ordinary complexity of getting hold of Argentinian currency meant we restricted our birding explorations to Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve on the coastal edge of the city. Despite th...

Northern Waters - Isles of Scotland 20th - 28th of June 2019 All images are subject to copyright of the photographer and taken during the tour. Click images to enlarge. The opinions and views expressed in my blogs are personal to me and should not be regarded as necessarily reflecting those of the individuals, or organisations with which I collaborate, or work for. On the 20th June, I joined one of my favourite ships, Fred Olsen’s ‘Black Watch’ for their ‘Isles of Scotland’ tour, accompanied by my good friend and fellow naturalist, Clare Gower. I’d invited Clare along for a specific reason, she had never seen a whale and I guaranteed her that we would break her whale ‘duck’. No pressure then. We set off from Liverpool, with ...

MV Saga Sapphire - 13th - 26th May  Emerging Canada 'Dover - Montreal leg' All images are taken on the tour. Copyright Jeff Clarke Ecology Ltd  unless otherwise stated. Click on images to enlarge. I count myself very lucky to have the opportunity to join cruise ships as a guest speaker, it means I visit amazing places and encounter extraordinary wildlife. My latest trip was no different, this time accompanied by my wife Adele, aboard Saga Sapphire for an Atlantic crossing trip to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Quebec.  Normally I’m assisting the passengers to spot the cetaceans and seabirds on my own, but this time I would have the company of Orca Surveyors, Cassie, Lorraine, Paul and Tony. We made a great complim...

MV Balmoral - Barbados to San Diego - 31st January to 19th February Central American Pacific to San Diego All images are taken on the tour. Copyright Jeff Clarke Ecology Ltd  unless otherwise stated. Click on images to enlarge. 9th  - 12th January – steaming toward Puerta Vallarta Back out at sea heading up the pacific coast of Central America. We once again gathered a horde of Boobys around the ship, with most again concentrating their feeding efforts on the starboard side of the ship. Much of the time this involved several species, though the composition would change subtly as we steamed northward toward Mexico. Brown Boobys were by far the most abundant species, but they were periodically joined by Red-...