2023 Return to Antarctica - Day 13 Volunteer Point, Falkland Islands - and Penguins!

We docked off shore from Stanley, the Falklands capital, this morning, and took a tender to the pier. The town is a few blocks deep, colorful roofs scattered along the shoreline. There was a National Geographic ship in the harbor, but we didn’t run into anyone from there.

Seals and gulls catching rays on a rare sunny day.

Hurtigruten included a walking tour of Stanley for all passengers, but we elected to pay for an optional excursion to Volunteer Point, the northeast corner of East Falkland. The first 30 minutes were on a 2-lane paved highway. The next 45 minutes were on a well-tended gravel road. The last hour was off-road over turf and peat fields. We traveled in 4X4s, which were absolutely necessary. We were warned it would be a jolting ride, and indeed it was. 

The vehicles traveled in convoys of 6-8 cars, and were equipped with winches to pull out anyone who got stuck (three vehicles got stuck, luckily ours was not amongst the casualties). When we reached Volunteer Point, everyone had to step in a chemical bath to assure we weren’t bringing pathogens to the penguin colonies. 

Three types of penguins nest here. The Gentoo penguins kept pretty much to themselves. They lay on nests scooped out of the turf, which look a lot more comfortable than the nests of pebbles I’ve seen in Antarctica. 

As in Antarctica, skuas swept over the nests trying to find an untended egg. This one succeeded, carrying the egg to just outside the nesting range where he proceeded to chip a hole in it and eat it.

Volunteer Point hosts the largest King Penguin colony in the Falklands, about 2,000 pairs. This is the northernmost point in their range. Our first encounter was this group of dignified, stolid specimens. The one of the right is molting into her Big Girl feathers.

Then we noticed the rotund brown puffballs.

They are 10-month old chicks. They are still being fed by their parents, and accordingly some walk around with an entourage of adults. 

Surveying the landscape we were serenaded by the kazoo like calls of the adults while the higher pitched whistles of the chicks created a true cacophony of sound.

What looks like flowers scattered upon the ground are actually feathers. The adult penguins molt every year, fasting for a month as they synthesize new feathers. During the molt, they aren’t waterproof so they stay ashore until the new plumage has grown in. By the time they finish, they can lose up to 44% of their body weight. This quartet is busy plucking out feathers. 

The third penguin species, Magellanic, were nesting in burrows on the beach. The males stand solitary guard.

A courting pair of king penguins enjoy a romantic moment on the beach.