Day 3 - In Falkland Islands - Exploring Carcass and Westpoint Islands.

Today was another amazing and exciting day. Got to see Penguins…..three species and quite a few other bird species too. Also, it was the first zodiac ride to the shore! The day began early for me at 5AM. Put all my winter clothes on, took my cameras and headed to the bow of the ship and take sunrise pictures but missed it by 15 minutes. After a while trying to capture the after-sunrise pictures got a chance to capture Dolphins, Albatrosses - they literally walk on water before taking to the air…pretty incredible seeing this from the bow of the ship. We anchored down in the morning near Carcass Island on West Falkland and did a long walk which began at 8am. It was also the first of the many wet landings using a zodiac. Pretty exciting! The moment we landed on the shore we saw a group of Magellanic Penguins, that pretty much disappeared into the bushes. They are the shy ones, you will see how different the penguin species behave as we come across the others.

Magellanic Penguins

We spotted other birds too, the military starlings, ground tyrants, upland goose. I will not be posting any pictures at the moment because of the pathetic satellite internet I have. After about a mile and a half I saw a big nesting colony of Gentoo Penguins! The nesting ground was about a quarter mile away from the beach, the feeding ground for the penguins. The interesting observation was that you could not see the beach from the nesting group! And there they were, about a couple of hundred penguins nesting with their eggs! Incredible sight!

Gentoo Penguin Colony

Gentoo Penguin with an egg!

Gentoo Penguins on the beach.

We then walked back to another part of the island from where the zodiacs picked us up and took us back to the ship where we had our lunch while the ship made it to another island, Westpoint Island not too far away. Once anchored we were taken in zodiacs on shore. After a 2 mile walk up the hill (its not easy to walk with about 20Lbs of camera gear and rain!) Once on the hill we saw the largest black browed Albatross colony along with the Rockhopper Penguin colony. with nesting grounds over the edge of the cliff. It was raining and windy. Good for the Albatrosses since they love to glide and bad for us since it makes it challenge to take pictures.

Rockhopper Penguins and Albatross Colony - they are actually nesting!

After this it was a long walk back to the zodiac where we were transported back to the ship. What an incredible day!

Me at the penguin colony