Lots of Penguins

Jan. 12, 2011

Hello to everyone following my blog!  Today we visited the Falkland Islands which are a few hundred miles east of the coast of Argentina.  We all got into a Land Rover (like a jeep) and traveled over wet, boggy land.  Talk about off roading!  I've never done anything like that before!  This went on for literally miles while we were thrown around the vehicle.  We finally got to Volunteer Point where the King Penguins have a colony.

There is no ice or snow here. In fact, you'll see grass!  (remember, it's their summer) The penguins have been nesting and breeding here as long as the locals can remember (our guide was born and raised in the Falklands as were his parents and grandparents).

The majority of the penguins were gathered together in a circle, and many of them were sitting on eggs.  There was a white rock border around them.  We could freely walk among the penguins that were outside the rock barrier as long as we didn't touch them.  Over the hill from their nesting grounds is the ocean.  The mama and papa penguins take turns going into the ocean to eat.  They are gone anywhere from days to several weeks.

The noises you hear on the videos are: 1) rain (it was raining fairly hard which is why the pictures are a little grey); and 2) the "trumpeting" noise the male penguins make to announce their availability to the females.

The majority of the penguins in the pictures are King Penguins.  They have orange feathers and are the second biggest penguin next to the Emperor.  King penguins are 2 - 3 feet tall.  They sit on their eggs until they hatch which is 54 days.  Some were "molting" and growing new feathers.

There were also several magellanic penguins in the area.  They nest underground in burrows.  We almost stepped on a couple of burrows as we walked around.  It was interesting to us that the tourists can walk so close to them, and that they weren't as protected as the King Penguins.  We observed the penguins for about an hour and headed back to the ship on another rough ride in the Land Rover. 

About the Falklands:  The Falklands are a colony of Britain (look on a map; it's very far away).  In 1982 there was a war between Argentina and Britain over the islands.  From that there are a number of unexploded land mines left on the islands in the open spaces of land.  The people can't find them because they are made from plastic and metal detectors won't work.  The mine fields are marked "danger mines"

so people won 't go there.  The roaming sheep are too light to set them off; but cows can and have. Apparently there aren't any where we went off-roading, but like our guide said, if there is one, "we'll never know!"



Grandma and Papa C.Jay

 

This little guy is sitting on an egg!