Cormorants of the Falkland Islands

2021-03-27T21:15:57-07:00May 18th, 2020|Wildlife Photography Blog|

These birds go by several names: Imperial Shag, Imperial Cormorant, King Cormorants, Blue-eyed shag, Blue-eyed Cormorant. They are graceful fliers, but ungainly on land due to the position of their legs. They streak past as they pursue a diet of fish and squid It's a different story when they come in for a landing. As they get near the colony they put on the brakes, flop their wings, and drop unceremoniously in the middle of the flock, sometimes knocking other birds over. Its quite entertaining as you will see from the following photos. Once they are done crashing into each other they

Falklands Elephant Seals

2021-03-27T21:36:00-07:00May 18th, 2020|Wildlife Photography Blog|

On Sea Lion Island we came across groups of juvenile male elephant seals that were resting and molting. They had been feeding out in the open ocean for several months, and were resting up for their next journey into the sea. These juveniles are big boys, weighing up to 2,000 pounds. After seeing how big these juveniles are, it's hard to imagine the size of the mature male elephant seals that are up to 4x larger. The big guys come to this beach in October and November each year to gather their harems and mate. At the same time, the

Magellanic Penguins of the Falkland Islands

2021-03-27T21:12:19-07:00May 18th, 2020|Wildlife Photography Blog|

These guys are characters, and are sometimes called Jackass penguins due to the braying sound they make and their silly antics. Unlike the rookeries where the Gentoo, Rockhopper and King penguins raise their chicks, the Magellanic penguins raise their chicks in burrows. Our first encounter with them was while walking towards the the beach where the juvenile male elephant seals lounged around. Their chicks were several months old, and would soon be leaving the burrow to go off on their own. When we got to the beach some of the adults were going out for their morning fishing expedition They

Falkland Islands Gentoo Penguins

2021-03-27T21:34:20-07:00May 18th, 2020|Wildlife Photography Blog|

We left Los Angeles on a Wednesday night, and finally got to see penguins on Sunday when we took our first trip out to the Gentoo penguin rookery, a 5 minute walk from the Sea Lion Lodge. Our crew, ready for our first encounter with the Gentoo penguins There was a mixture of adults and molting chicks that were three months old The adults were quite vocal as they interacted with their chicks As the sun set a nice pink sky appeared They did their final vocalization before it got dark In the morning they would walk the one mile to the

Sailing to New Island with Jerome Poncet

2021-03-27T21:23:06-07:00May 18th, 2020|Wildlife Photography Blog|

Jerome Poncet is the man when it comes to the waters of the south Atlantic. He is 72 years young, and has been taking researchers, tourists, and film crews to the Falklands for decades. In 1973 Jerome and a friend were the first people to sail a yacht into Antarctica. Jerome is French, and as such, has what you might call an irreverent approach to his work, making sure his guests completely enjoy themselves. So this is our captain and his first mate for our boat ride! Where do I get off? Jerome is quite the character. He made us

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