Wings wide, head back and screaming to the sky. The ecstatic displays of courting Antipodean albatrosses are full noise and dramatic. Even on a windy day, you can hear their high screams drifting across the plains, and look over to find a pair of wings held wide open, showing off their span. Occasionally, being right next to a bird that starts to display, you can get caught up in the quieter preliminary noises, rattling and heavy breathing, something quite guttural and resonant. A choreographed sequence built by years of evolution. It is breathtaking to watch.

I am home now and back to city and office life, although I’ll be doing odd fieldwork trips until the start of May. It’s nice to be back and to take some time looking through images now, remembering all the sights and sounds of a subantarctic summer. It’s also nice to be back somewhere that I can swim in the sea! There are still the dregs of summer around to enjoy, so between getting back to work that’s what I’ll be doing for the next wee while.