About a year and a half ago I returned home from Bird Island, a place and experience that will always stay with me as an incredible time. The whole experience around working with such fantastic wildlife in a location like Bird Island with the people I met there was something I have hoped to recreate ever since but was never sure if the opportunity would arise. Fortunately, the opportunity has come long and I am now starting a new adventure... 6 months on Signy!
But to get back to the South and working for the British Antarctic Survey again that means there must be a trip through the Falklands and another opportunity to see the impressive sights of these islands.
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| The whalebone arches at Stanley are a sign of the town being twinned with Whitby, the only UK town to have a similar whalebone structure |
Even though I have spent some time in the Falkland during my previous time South there is always more to see and on this occasion that meant a trip to Volunteer Point and the colonies there of Gentoo, Magellanic and King Penguins.
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| Volunteer Point, home to three species of penguin including Gentoo (foreground) and King (background) |
What struck me most of all to begin with was the realization that species I had worked closely with for so long, such as the Gentoo Penguins, could instantly make me feel like it was all new again. Then with Giant Petrels flying past and Brown Skuas raiding the colony for an egg or two it all felt so familiar and still so exciting again.
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| A Brown Skua checks out the Gentoo colony for potential eggs to prey upon whilst a sheep grazes in the background! |
It was fantastic to see the familiar species again, but with my time on Signy set to be filled with Gentoos, Giant Petrels and Skuas (among many others!) I spent more time at Volunteer Point with those species that cannot be seen at Signy.
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| Magellanic Penguin |
It was brilliant to see a few Magellanic Penguins again but the highlight for me was the King Penguin colony. This is a species I only saw in small numbers on Bird Island, had a brief view of a small number during my visit to King Edward Point and that will not be seen on Signy. So to see a good-sized population with a lot of chicks nearing the time to moult and fledge was an entirely new experience for me.
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| This chick may look a bit sad, but I was certainly excited... |
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| ...the chick perked up after a feed and started calling away! |
There were a few hundred chicks at least in residence at the colony and they were spreading out across the field, but many of them were very curious and gave us some amazing views.
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| The King chicks were originally thought to be a separate species due to their very different brown and fluffy look! |
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| Very striking, but they will soon moult and look like the King adults. |
King penguins take around a year to go through their full breeding cycle, from courtship to chick fledging and as such are not ready to breed again the following year. This means the adults only breed once every other year and have the longest chick rearing of any other bird.
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| This chick is almost fully moulted but is hanging on to the brown feathers around the head for a bit longer. |
To access the colony the adults have to cross white sand beaches and fields of sheep, neither of which are what you expect to see with penguins but are regularly all together on the Falklands.
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| Making their way to the colony. |
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| The colour on a King Penguin is very striking! |
Of course the Falklands is home to more than penguins. With plenty of other species to see there is a lot for any naturalist to be excited about.
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| A Dolphin Gull on the periphery of the King Penguin colony. |
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| Turkey Vulture |
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| Ruddy-Headed Goose |
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| Upland Goose (male) |
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| South American Snipe |
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With another trip through the Falklands to be enjoyed it was the perfect start to my second stint with BAS. Onwards to Signy!
