Half Moon Island

In the afternoon, we had our final shore landing on Half Moon Island.  This is a lovely island, with a great colony of chinstraps as well as some adelies and gentoos.

There is a science station, but we decided to spend our time at the other end of the island with the feathered inhabitants.

We landed in a nice spot and trudged up the slope, passing a few stray penguins as we went.  The walk along to the colony was on the side of the slope, and it did feel a bit hairy at times.

The pathway was quite slippery and there was quite a wind blowing at the time, so it did feel that you could lose your footing and end up rolling down the hill.  Thankfully we didn't.

We passed a bit of rock within a gull nesting on it, and stopped to take a few photos there and look out across the sea.  By this time, although the wind was a bit chilly, it was a nice day, and the sea looked a lovely blue against the snowy island scenery.

Further along the way a seal had hauled out onto the beach.  It cast a wary eye our way, but carried on sunning itself.

A couple of penguins came walking along and seemed a bit perturbed to see this enormous creature blocking their way.

They waddled around for a while, but then decided that it wasn't going anywhere, so they would just have to make their way around it.

As we continued to the colony, we found ourselves in a lot of deep snow again, and we were frequently up to our knees.

Thankfully unlike the Devils Island day, here we knew we were on an island, so we weren't going to suddenly drop into freezing seas.  It still made it hard work walking though.  But we got there.

We watched the penguins for a while and then decided to go on to where some other seals had been spotted.  Except here the snow was even worse, with every step landing us knee deep or worse.

We ploughed on for a while before deciding that we were going so slowly that we would probably not make it there and then get back in time for the zodiac, so we turned around and plodded our way back to the landing site instead.

Oh and this is our last landing in Antarctica, so we have to say a fond farewell to the penguins.

Gourdin Island

From the zodiac cruise, we went straight to a landing on Gourdin Island.  With the land being a metre or two above the sea level, the crew had helpfully cut some rough steps into the ice to help us in getting out of the zodiac.


 Of course ice is slippery, so there was some trepidation about whether we were about to take a cold plunge.  Thankfully, unlike some of those penguins, we all made it safely ashore at the first attempt.

After spending a few moments watching the adelies and gentoos around the shoreline, we set off slightly further up the island to find our first chinstraps.  As we walked along, we were careful to follow the rules of not moving too close to a penguin and always giving them the right of way.

Of course the penguin doesn't actually know that they have the right of way, and more than once we had a pause while both we and the penguin were waiting for the other to pass by.


We eventually discovered that if we took one step backwards, that was enough to encourage them to go, and we could all get on our way.

When we reached the chinstrap nesting area, I sat down on a rock to watch them. After a few moments I heard a slight noise and looked around to find that I had sat next to a couple of resting adelie penguins. They looked at me, but seemed quite content that I wasn't going to do anything, so we all stayed put.


The chinstrap apparently can be quite a vicious penguin at times, and very territorial, but we didn't see any real aggression from the today, just the usual seeing off another penguin walking too close to their nest, or a quick spat over what presumably must be an especially good stone.

We headed back to the shore area to watch the penguins there a little more. They seemed in good spirits in the water and were porpoising nicely on their way in to land.









It was quite amusing to watch them trying to make it onshore in one leap.

One that I watched for a while had failed a few times so it jumped onto a bit of ice next to the ledge and wandered around that for a while, apparently looking for an easier step up onto the land. But there was none to be found.

It is actually quite a big leap that they have to make; you can see from the photo that it is higher than they are tall and they don't exactly have long legs to spring with.  Eventually the penguin made a leap for it and, after another couple of failed attempts, came sliding onto the snow near my feet, where it seemed quite surprised to see me, quickly jumped up and waddled off.


They do at least look beautifully clean when they come out of the water with their white stomachs gleaming, which is more than can be said for some of those who have been on land for a while.  One group of adelies in particular was especially filthy. 

It is unclear quite what the penguins think of people appearing on their islands.  They don't seem to get stressed about it as long as you give them their space and don't go in to their nesting areas.

But they do clearly find people, and the things that we bring with us, of interest.  Whenever we were at a site that had been inhabited before, you could guarantee that the penguins would be around any old structures, machinery and so forth.

And they like to check out the new things we bring too.  This is particularly true of the youngsters, but the adults can get quite curious too.  You will always find one having a quick nose at your backpack if you leave it on the ground.

But a couple of penguins here were quite interested at seeing a little camera set up in the snow, just at their level.  It was a small go pro or similar, that had been left on a mini tripod by one of the passengers to film or take regular photos.

The penguins walked past it a few times, having a little look, obviously not sure what to make of it.  Then they presumably must have decided that they weren't keen on it, as the next time they walked up to it, one of them quite deliberately kicked it over.

It was soon time to head back to the zodiacs and the ship, and I think that we were all quite pleased to get out of the cold.


I will leave you today with one of my own favourite chinstrap photos.

Brown Bluff Island

Having moved the ship back up the peninsula, we could break out the zodiacs for our next landing.  Brown Bluff Island, home to colonies of Gentoos and Adelies against a huge backdrop of brown volcanic rock.

The dark rocks always look quite dramatic against the white snow and ice, and often have other colours running through them.  The big boulders also make good shelter for the penguins - and sometimes for us too.
 

With plenty of ice along the shore line, it made for quite a nice island to sit and watch the penguins coming and going.

With the way that the colony was gathered, we were a little limited to where we could go without disturbing the penguins.

We tended to try to find places away from the main group and settle to watch the penguins and let them come past us without worry.
 

But we did find a few of our fellow guests a bit irritating here.  I would have been sat on a rock somewhere for a while, and the penguins would have just got used to my being there and start to come nearer.


Someone else would then spot that the penguin was close, and come over to try to get close to it too.  Of course as soon as this new person arrived, that the penguin had not yet got used to, it made a run for it.

Some people do have a tendency to just ignore the impact that they have on those around them - birds or people - and just do exactly as they please.  This appears to be especially the case when they have a camera in their hand.
 

For some reason those people seem to think that if they have a big camera - and it does particularly seem to be those people with the biggest cameras, especially if they regard themselves as something of a professional, then that somehow entitles them to do whatever they want in order to get their photos, even if that means upsetting the subject, or simply standing directly in front of someone who is already taking a photo.

OK, gripe over.  That kind of ignorance aside, this was not the best landing that we have done in Antarctica, but it was still very enjoyable.

Once I found a few more secluded places amongst the ice on the beach, I was able to watch the penguins porpoising through the water, and taking a break on the bergy bits, as well as those making their way up to the colony.
 

I spent quite some time watching a few penguins that were on the ice.



One in particular wandered up and down and around the berg it was on, not seeming sure whether it wanted to stay on the ice or get in the water. Eventually it made up its mind and dived in, but even then it quickly got back out onto some rocks nearby.

I concluded that it hadn't wanted to stay alone on the ice, but took a while to pluck up the nerve to get into the icy water.




It may sound strange, given that these birds spend their lives in the snow, ice and freezing temperatures of Antarctica, and now is their warmth of summer, but they do sometimes look as if they are reluctant to get in those cold waters.