Cape Town Pelagics guide Dalton Gibbs is assisting with invasive plant control at the world's most remote inhabited piece of land: Gough Island. Join in and read his exciting accounts on this unique ecosystem...

Gough Island didn’t so much as start and appear on the horizon as I imagined it would, but rather rose out of the Atlantic Ocean like some new land mass thrust up in front of our ship as it appeared through the mist. The ship is the SA Agulhas, which is visiting Gough Island to resupply the weather station and drop off the relief crew for the coming year. Said to be the world's most remote permanently inhabitant piece of land, the South African weather and research station has a staff compliment of 8 who are self sufficient for a year. I am here to assist with efforts to control an invasive plant species that could threaten much of the islands plant communities.

Gough Island is 6400ha; measuring some 13km by 5km, which may sound large, but is an insignificant speck within the vast southern ocean that surrounds us. It is part of the United Kingdoms’ Overseas Territories, with South Africa operating its weather station under agreement with the Tristan Island Government. The weather changes abruptly here, with low pressure weather systems carried on the westerly winds that blow almost constantly. A whooping 3500 mm of rain falls each year, creating a green island with vegetation stunted by the wind. Highest plants are the Phylica trees (Phylica arborea) growing to a maximum of 2m; with an extensive covering of moss and old mans beard lichens they look all the world like props from some exotic movie which involves a teenage camera crew, a shaky home camera and a haunted forest … Miniature tree ferns (Blechnum palmiforme) are beautifully proportioned as small versions of tree ferns that are so popular as garden plants. Various sedges and ferns fill in the bits in between, creating a vegetation community that is up to waist height in most places on the coastal plain and gets shorter as one approaches the 910m summit.

Sea birds start arriving from the end of winter, with an estimated 2 million birds using this as their breeding ground. At the moment there are Sooty Albatross in their dozens, hovering above the steep sea cliffs as they effortlessly ride the up draughts of wind. Their constant “aaargh” cries sound like something between a respectable bird contact call and the cries of a person in distress. Of course they are calling to the birds that have begun to complete their nests on narrow inaccessible cliffs. There they hunker down against the wind, rising every now and then to call back to a bird that presumably has some connection to them. They sky point and clatter their bill in return and get back to the serious business of heaping mud and grass onto their beautifully constructed nest mounds or hunkering down against the next gust of wind. When a mate lands next to them, a stamping foot dance occurs; with birds alternatively lifting large their huge padded feet and bill fencing.

The huge Tristan Albatross (Wandering) are seen out to sea, seldom close to shore and flying to the top of the mountain, where some 1900 nests are on the island this year. This is one the species hardest hit by long line fishing and other fishing practices and sadly now endangered, being restricted to the breed in the Tristan Island group of Gough, Tristan, Nightingale and Inaccessible Island.

Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross, the smallest of the world’s albatross fly in and make nest mounds along the coastal plains, often the Phylica trees where they look out of place with their large clumsy feet. They stand out as white dots scattered across the coastal plain as they sit on their nests. They allow approach right up to the nest, standing up to call to other birds with a bill clicking, sky pointing and a call that sounds somewhat like an energetic Clicking Stream Frog. During these displays they reveal a deep orange stripe of skin that extends from their gap along the sides of their head. This flushes with their display and then disappears into their feathers as if it was never there. Occasionally one finds a pair on these nests, with the birds appearing besotted on one another, bill touching and fencing with calls. The first eggs for this season were laid three days ago and we are hoping for a bumper crop.

Every now and then a screech goes up from the Sub-antarctic Skuas, who have spread themselves out across the island and defend the centre of their territory. Any Skua flying over gets the full treatment of the male and female screaming a warning with raised wings. Another group of 20 or so of these birds sit dejectedly around the helicopter landing pad; these are the bachelors who seem to do less fighting when it suites them. Northern Rockhopper Penguins line the shore in big breeding colonies where the cliffs are not too steep, venturing some 200 m from the sea. Here they mix with Sub-antarctic Fur Seals who have come ashore to pup.

Because of the predatory Skua’s, most of the breeding seabirds wait until nightfall before venturing onto the island where they excavate burrows or raise chicks. Soft-plumaged Petrels, Broad-billed Prions, Atlantic Petrels, Common Diving Petrels and White-faced Storm Petrels are the birds around the research station, with Great-winged and Grey Petrels at different altitudes. The night is full of bird calls; strange yelps and cries like packs of hyenas in the distance. Great Shearwaters are still on their way and are expected in the next few weeks from their over wintering grounds in the Northern Hemisphere. One of the staff here is a Canadian scientist who has satellite tags on birds, and we often watch their tracks on the internet as they make their way southward. We are presently discussing a betting pool for the first bird home!

Gough Island Buntings are an endemic passerine, occurring in pairs or threes. Like most other birds on the island they have been heavily impacted by introduced mice on the island. As a result they are now sadly restricted to steep cliffs where they are free from predation by mice. On this island, mice, free of the constraints of predators have overrun all habitats and prey on seabirds. Today’s team returning from a Tristan Albatross count once more have photos of these chicks being eaten by mice. This was documented some time ago on film and plans are being drawn up for the eradication of these rodents from the island.