First Landing

The first land we came to was the Falkland Islands, and specifically Saunders Island. This guy seemed to give us the side-eye as we walked by:

This is a Gentoo penguin, and there were hundreds of them scattered on a wide sandy beach –

As we walked on, we encountered King penguins…

…and they were kept busy trying to keep their nearly grown chicks fed. The chicks would follow closely behind their parent, usually chirping incessantly – (remember to view the video, open this email in your browser by clicking the link at the bottom of this post)

I liked the story…

… that this told.

On up the hill, we were greeted by hundreds (thousands?) of Rockhopper penguins…

…that definitely lived up to their name –

They were also sitting on eggs…

… as were the Black-browed Albatrosses –

(the one on the left seems to be saying, “Where’s mine?”)

They had a pretty big colony that had a great landing spot for incoming –

Out in the surf, the Commerson’s Dolphins were having a blast…

…while the albatrosses were protecting their small patch of hillside –

The poor King Penguin chicks…

… were just so overheated, on what we considered a gorgeous sunny day –

The Gentoos were cool in their sand nests…

…as they also sat on their eggs –

So…that was just our morning landing! 

We then moved over to Westpoint Island where we hiked across the island, like these Kelp Geese…

…to visit a mixed colony of Rockhoppers and Black-browed Albatrosses –

They were amazingly high up a cliff (especially for the Rockhoppers!) –

I’ll close with this little guy, who sums it up…

“Thank you very much!”