During our stay at the first two islands-Bleaker and Sea Lion, we saw five penguin species and we had the opportunity to see lots of chicks- mostly Gentoo chicks and most were recently hatched as few were standing steady yet. We did see loads and loads of eggs at both the Rockhopper and Gentoo colonies on those islands. Here is the count of chicks on Bleaker and Sea Lion during our stay. I also included any rare sightings.
Rockhopper chicks- over two dozen, we saw one hatching.
Gentoo chicks - well over one hundred (we could not see all, especially the ones in the interior of the colonies.
One King penguin adult on Beaker, one molting adult on Sea Lion
One Macaroni (hold the cheese) penguin, adult on Bleaker. It was said to be with a female Rockhopper on an egg. We did not see either of them on an egg. We did see a broken egg just outside of their nesting site. The owner of the island said that these mixed species look more like Rockhoppers than Macaronis in case you were wondering.
Magellanic penguins- no count on chicks as they are in burrows and none have peeked out, but plenty of adults.
My group and I spent most of our time on Bleaker between the beach and the gulch. We also visited the Gentoo penguin colonies, Imperial cormorant colony- now officially referred to as the Falklands cormorant but we never made it to the sea lions or the pond areas for ducks. On my last visit to Bleaker (2019- pre-Covid) the cormorant colony that used to be extremely large with over eight thousand breeding pair had been dwindled down significantly. The island underwent a rat eradication, and the colony has now bounced back— it is impressive to see.
On Sea Lion we spent our time between the North Beach area (fondly referred to as North Shore) with porpoising penguins, the over-wash pond just outside of the beach, South Beach, and the Orca pool. On two separate occasions we did see Orcas at a close distance with two coming into the pool. The Orcas we saw were a family unit (not a pod) we spotted around 6-7 but we were told that there are nine in that family unit.
We also photographed the Rockhopper colony one day. There used to be a large colony of cormorants there, but they have moved on, despite the islands efforts to attract them back with life-sized decoys.
On Sea Lion there were several areas with nesting Gentoo penguins. Several years back, the main colony was devastated with avian pox and lots of predation. I saw dead chicks everywhere just lining the colony. This year the colonies were doing good, and I did not spot one dead chick laying on the sidelines. I did see predators and they were picking off the eggs and chicks but not at a higher-than-normal rate.
This reminded me of a scene from South Georgia.
On our last outing at Sea Lion Island, we finally got a chance to photograph Sea Lions. Actually, one male in particular that was bathing in the surf held our attention.
Commerson’s dolphin- at “The Neck”
Next, we headed to “The Neck” on Saunders Island. There we saw two King penguins with eggs, two mating pairs of King penguins and about 6-8 Oakum boys (young King penguins with their brown fur-like feathers). We also saw about twenty adult King penguins. The Black-browned albatross colony looked good, numbers are about the same as my last visit, there were no chicks yet but plenty of eggs. Predation seemed a bit higher than normal for the Rockhopper and Gentoo penguins. I’m not sure why. We were told, that at one point the Skuas and Caracara were picking off the rockhopper and gentoo chicks at a rate of eight per day… ugh.
We were treated to a gale-force windstorm while staying in the military container on the beach at Saunders. The sand on the beach was blowin’ hard and we all photographed the penguins trying to walk from the beach area back to their colonies. Everyone loved the experience and their photos.
Our very last outing was at Volunteer Point. I arranged for (two) day trips which worked out well. Our first day was sunny on the cove, we had difficult lighting. The lighting, though challenging, still offered us some good opportunities. Sometimes, you need to work with the available light that you are given. On our second morning we got lucky with a nice mixture of sun and clouds. We also had a lot of King penguins lining up at the beach. There was also a large Sea Lion surfing the waves along the shoreline. It was lots of fun. I spent some time at the main colony doing in-camera motion blurs and pattern shots. I really enjoyed creating some abstracts; one of the images I captured will hang on my wall, soooo happy.
Making the most of tough lighting (above)
A FEW OF THE MANY PENGUIN ABSTRACTS AND BLURS THAT I CAPTURED (ABOVE).
SOME HIGH-KEY SELECTIONS BELOW. CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO SEE A LARGER, SHARPER VIEW.
I am heading home for Christmas with my family and shortly thereafter I will return to the Falklands with another group. Overall, it was a very productive and enjoyable photography trip. So glad I went…
I had a very talented group of photographers with me and in the near future hope to post some of their top images.
Donna Bourdon, who was on the trip, generously shared her knowledge with the group. She also helped some Canon users set up their R5’s for flight shots and creative blurs. She also presented her informative slideshow presentation that she has been giving to local camera clubs. Thank you Donna.
Some miscellaneous images from the trip below. I have 100’s more to sort through and I processed 82 images so far! Please click on the images to see the entire photo. Thanks for viewing.
