Gypsy Cove is a beautiful, secluded cove 4 miles from Port Stanley that is a well-known wildlife site that is easily reached from the capital, either by walking around the eastern side of the harbour or taking one of the local taxis. It is next to the sweeping Yorke Bay that we found to still be inaccessible in 2015 because of the many mines laid by the Argentine forces following their invasion in 1982.
A month or two later Gypsy Cove would have been full of Magellanic Penguins walking between the ocean and their nests in burrows at the base of the cliffs. However, in September there wasn’t one penguin in the cove and we had to content ourselves with photographing other birds. But these proved to be good, with the highlight being the White-bridled Finch, which is only found on the Falkland Islands and the eastern side of southern South America. In the cove we found male and female White-bridled Finches eating diddle-dee berries – the berry found throughout the Falkland Islands.
Another good bird and lifer for us was the Grass Wren, which was in the scrub and grasses near the base of the cliff. As well as in the Falkland Islands, the Grass Wren is found across much of southern South America and in the paramo of Colombia and Ecuador. Other birds we saw at Gypsy Cove were Falkland Steamer Duck, Upland Goose, Austral Thrush, Blackish Cinclodes, Magellanic Cormorant, Dark-faced Ground-tyrant and Long-tailed Meadowlark.
