This summer season sees me back on Antipodes Island, back with the glorious albatrosses who call this place home. It’s a thrill and an absolute privilege to spend a few months here, working through the end of the season that began when I was here in January last year. Nests with eggs are now large, fledge-ready chicks with their last tufts of down slowly being whisked away by the wind. Next season’s eggs have just started to appear. Sitting at the dinner table in the hut, watching the last fiery light of 2024 fade, I realised that I started and ended the year here, on this island. I have been to many places in between these two times, but the albatross chicks have hatched, sat tight to their nests, and spent the dark hours of winter waiting for meals from mum and dad. They have watched the grey petrels spin overhead in winter, and then leave the island at the end of their breeding season. Soon these chicks will leave the island themselves. They may not return for a decade. Some may not return at all.

It is both odd and wonderful to feel a familiarity with this place, so far from home. I’m delighting in the differences this season, and the similarities. The pipits seem much more territorial, and there are a lot of them around. The megaherbs aren’t flowering as much this season, but the tiny white Odd-leaved orchids are prolific. We have had a string of strange easterly winds that have wrapped us in thick fog for weeks at a time, and gusty southerlies that bring antarctic air and clear bright light.

I can’t promise more regular updates, but keep an eye out for more.