Gentoo Penguin

Giant Step Onto The Seventh Continent

In my head, I heard the music from 2010 a space odyssey as I finally stepped onto the Antarctic continent.

Brown’s Bluff is a tuya on the northeast side of the Tabarin  peninsula jutting out of the top of the Antarctic Continent. ‘Tuya’ is today’s fun word for the day. Here from Wiki is the definition: “a distinctive, flat-topped steep-sided volcano formed when lava erupts through a thick glacier or ice sheet. They are somewhat rare worldwide….” Gracias Wikipedia!

When there’s a glacier, the lava bursting through can’t travel far, building up to form tall cliffs. There are all kinds of yummy volcano things happening here: Basalt, volcanic pillows, and rock bombs standing on the beach like sentinels.

We had a wild zodiac cruise (please don’t ask me to repeat this part of the trip) before landing and climbing up to see a couple of precious snow petrels sitting on nests under a huge boulder.IMG_2515

Adele penguins and their babies crowded the lower slope. It’s interesting to see the overall psychology of penguins on each landing. Some groups are fairly quiet with occasional trumpeting and squawking. This crowded beach was one for anger management counselors and perhaps jail. Adult penguins would harass babies with their mothers. Other birds ran around, carelessly pushing and jumping over others. Fights broke out with two or three chasing each other up and down the slopes.

My heart felt sad for one Adele parent. That poor bird tried over, and over again, to pick that big egg up in it’s  small beak. Each time  she tried a rescue attempt, the bloody thing rolled downhill even more. I watched as the adult shifted around, studying the situation, but unable to correct the problem. IMG_2533

Gentoo penguins are also on this beach in large numbers. Big fluffy babies waddled about after their parents, begging for more and more food.

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The Adele babies (below left) are just so darn cute but check out weird penguin tongues on the Gentoo!

That hook with backward barbs is perfect for snagging slippery krill or other fish. In the meantime, on this active beach, penguins continually march to the sea in groups. IMG_2565

Circling overhead the predators fly silent. Waiting. Watching.

Immense Tabular Icebergs, Kinnes Cove

Located on the SW end of Joinville Island, just off the Antarctic Peninsula, Kinnes Cove is named for the owner of an 1892 whaling expedition. Look at the beauty of these icebergs the ship had to carefully navigate through:

Our morning zodiac cruise was an exciting look at masses of blue ice in geometric formations.  Curious Adele penguins gathered on the floes, pausing to watch us as we watched them.

We passed what appears to be a rare albino whale. Not quite Moby Dick, which was a sperm whale, and this guy was traveling fast in the opposite direction of the ship. The albino condition can affect any mammal and a tell-tale sign is pink eyes. Albino Right Whales were filmed off the coast of Chile and South Africa last year, which theoretically isn’t far away from here.  We also saw Crabeater and Weddell Seals napping on the ice.

along a steep hill, penguins climbed as far as the eye could see. Nesting here are Gentoo, Chinstrap and Adele penguins.

Gentoo penguin and chicks
Adele penguin
adele penguin and chicks

Glowing Gold Harbor

Located on the Southeast side of South Georgia with the Bertrab Glacier hanging over soaring cliffs,img_1287 Gold Harbor is as beautiful as the metal, but not named for it. Instead, the moniker originated from sentimental sealers for the brilliant aura the sun casts on the cliffs in the morning and at sunset.img_1412

Waddling about in the bright green tussock grass are male Gentoo penguins searching for just the right color or shape of rock to offer his beloved(s). Some lonely females swoon with pleasure, when baby penguin daddy takes his turn to feed at sea. Pretty rocks are very tempting.

Drag your eyes from this telenovela, and listen to the crescendo of trumpeting King Penguins . Many stand tipped back on their heels with fur poofing over the egg balanced on their feet. Parents hatch one chick. It takes over a year (14 months) from egg to fledge, that’s a long time for a bird to be a parent. Usually long-lived animals are monogamous, but divorce for King Penguins is high. Time is of the essence when they return to breed. The survival rate for chicks is higher for early hatches. If last years mate is late–there ain’t no date.

Brown, fluffy juveniles hound their parents for food. Another interesting fact: in winter the juveniles live in “creches” and don’t eat when food is scarce, relying on their fat reserves. In spring, the parents resume feeding their young.

Molting makes the kid penguins look a wee rough. Too grungy. Strung out and seeking solace. Many act kind of goofy, running around in circles. Adolescence is hard on everyone, but flipper-flapping is exercise for when they can finally swim.

Closer to the beach, “weaner” elephant seals roar and wrestle, becoming strong too. They’ll be mature in four years, but it takes six to eight before they can fight hard enough to become beachmasters, and control an average harem of 70 cows. Being a ladies man requires hard work, resulting in a short life.

Patrolling the beach are bird predators: Skua (related to gulls) and Giant Petrals, with the illustrious reputation of  ‘vultures of the Antarctic’ for how they gorge on dead carrion.

 

 

Westpoint and Saunders Island Landings

Two days out of Ushuaia, Argentina enroute to the West Falkland weren’t spent sleeping, starting with 7:45 a.m. wake-up calls. The Marine animal specialist, Annie, did presentations on seals and whales while our ornithologist, Adrian, helped us identify birds of the Falklands and South Georgia Islands. Acacia, our photography guide taught us how to capture the perfect photo. Woody presented the history of the Falkland islands.

They tried to prepare us for the amazing experience on our morning landing at Westpoint Island and the afternoon landing at Saunders, which was quite the task. Westpoint has a booming summer population of four people and black-browed nesting Albatross and Rockhopper penguins by the thousands along the cliffs. We had to be careful walking to not step on these smallest (but most noisy) penguins or the endangered albatross that mate for life with their partners.

In the afternoon, the ship sailed to Saunders Island, site of the first English settlement in 1765. It is now home to 11,000 breeding pairs of black-browed albatross and five penguin species. The way I keep them straight:

Rockhopper–noisy and yellow brows

Gentoo–look like they have red lipstick and they are quite funny to watch as they steal rocks from other nests. They are quite animated.

Megellanic–live in burrows and bray like a donkey

Macaroni–Have a Donald Trump hairstyle and other mannerisms of the Trumpster.

King–tallest penguin in the Falklands (only the emperor is bigger) with orange markings. Juveniles are fluffy brown and must molt before they can enter the water to eat. Some of them are larger than their parents. Apparently, molting is a miserable experience as they seem to be shunned or perhaps depressed.

 

We also saw whale bones above the beach and two predators–the Skua looking so sweet with the baby chick (but they are quite vicious) and the Striated Caracara just waiting for a baby penguin left alone.