Penguins In The Snow.

 As we arrived at the edge of Antarctica, the snow started, which gave us some wonderful landings, with epic landscapes and encounters with the penguins.

Penguin Island certainly lived up to its name with plenty of both Gentoo and Chinstrap Penguins. We also had some great views of the Leopard and Weddel Seals. This even included a Leopard Seal catching a Penguin. As the Leopard Seal is not too keen on eating the feathers on the penguin, they literally throw it powerfully around, which strips the feathers from it. Lisa spotted this bit of action from the Zodiac, and our driver quickly got us in position so we could photograph the grisly action.

Leopard Seal stripping a Penguin.

Following this encounter we landed at Penguin Island and immediately started to see the lovely Gentoo Penguins, shortly followed by the Chinstraps.

Gentoo Penguin looking up at the snow.

Chinstrap Penguin.

Chinstrap Penguin turning left.

Mating Chinstrap Penguins. (no privacy here)!!

As well as the hunting Leopard Seal, Lisa also spotted another Leopard Seal resting on a small floating  iceberg. This was on another Zodiac cruise. By now the snow was falling quite heavily, so it was pot luck if the photos through the snow were clear enough.

Leopard Seal on Ice.

Leopard Seal showing its teeth.

We also had a couple of Weddel Seals with their pups. The pups of this species are adorable and one of them was super sweet with its Mum.

Weddel Seal.

Weddel Seal with Pup.

The skies were also very atmospheric with a fog bank floating about in the distance.

Antarctic Scenery.

Macaroni Penguin.

 Our final Zodiac cruise before the sailing further south gave us our best glimpse of the Macaroni Penguin. This species was only just arriving at their breeding grounds, as our cruise was a really early one in the Antarctic 'Spring'. Our earlier sightings had just been a distant one on the Falkland Islands, and a small group hiding in heavy scrub from an earlier Zodiac cruise.

We were therefore delighted when a Macaroni Penguin was spotted standing on top of a very small island that we could sail close to. It certainly isn't easy taking photos from a floating Zodiac, but fortunately, a few of the images I took turned out okay.

Macaroni Penguin.

As we started to head south we saw the odd penguin porpoising through the water. These included Chinstrap, King and Gentoo. It's never easy photographing this action, as you have to 2nd guess where the penguin is going to appear, but eventually I did get a shot.

Chinstrap Penguin.

Another difficult bird to photograph were the Prion species. Several types were possibly seen, but they are extremely difficult to separate. The birds we saw early in the cruise would have been Narrow-billed Prions. The majority of the rest were almost certainly Antarctic Prions. That at least is what I am assuming here. Every day we saw many of these small birds. They flew extremely fast and the camera and myself were not generally quick enough to get shots. Eventually, towards the end of the cruise I did get better, but the following few were the first earlier successes.

Probable Antarctic Prion.

Brown Skua and Snow Petrel.

 As our time on South Georgia was coming to an end, it was time to ponder what had been such a magical experience.

As well as the enormous numbers of King Penguins, we had also had several lovely encounters with the Gentoo Penguins. A species we would be seeing many more of as we went around parts of Antarctica. We had a lovely moment watching a mating pair of Gentoo at Godthul. Unlike most birds, that just mate in a very quick hop on, hop off kind of thing, the penguins took their time, and during mating, lots of neck pecking went on. A lovely gentle moment for them, and also us just watching them.

Mating Gentoo Penguins.

During most landings we saw plenty of Brown Skua. These are very similar to the Great Skua, or Bonxie, as they are often known, from around Britain and most of the northern hemisphere. Here, the Brown Skua was quite approachable, and at times extremely tolerant of humans.

A Pair of Brown Skua.

The Brown Skua.

Another bird that we had seen very large numbers of, was the Giant Petrel. These birds are massive, and feed on any dead animal that they come across. With their 'straw bill' they are able to detect any decaying animal from many miles away.

Giant Petrel.

As we left South Georgia, we headed well into the Drygalski Fjord. This is an eight mile cruise along the Fjord with amazing scenery, and spectacular glaciers, some of which were thawing during our visit, sending large lumps of ice thundering into the sea below. This was also a superb area for the gorgeous Snow Petrels. We had already seen several Snow Petrels over the past few days, but in the Fjord, the Petrels are known to nest, so we had several groups of them flying quite near the ship, which gave us our best photographic opportunities. We also had a close fly-by of a South Georgia Shag.

South Georgia Shag.

The stunning Snow Petrel in the Drygalski Fjord, with it's blue water from the melting glaciers and floating ice as a wonderful backdrop to the birds.

Next stop, Elephant Island in Antarctica.

South Georgia Mammals.

 On all our landings on South Georgia we saw plenty of mammals. However, all mammals on the islands are marine animals. The most obvious were the Southern Elephant Seals. The dominant males were setting up territory, and the biggest of these were battling for the right to mate with the females that were also already on the beaches, having recently given birth to their pups. Younger males were practising these fights, getting ready for the day when they would be giving it their all for the right to mate.

Some of the fights were pretty gruesome. Although we only saw one full bodied battle, we did see the result on one poor old boy, with his extended proboscis, the reason they are called 'elephant seals', badly damaged after an obviously viscous battle.

Male Southern Elephant Seal, with battle scars.

 (There were no volunteers to stitch him up).

Scars all over him.

This guy had perhaps had one battle too many!!

Often on the visits we heard the bellow of the dominant males, or 'beachmaster' as they announced that they owned that part of the beach, and all the females on it.

Male Southern Elephant Seal bellowing.

A nearly fully grown male. The proboscis extends as they reach sexual maturity.

A fully grown male, complete with battle scars.

Two young males practising.

The pups of the Southern Elephant Seals are gorgeous.

Those big eyes!!

A very large male Southern Elephant Seal.

One of my favourite photos from the trip of a female with her pup.

The females will feed their pups for just a few weeks before the pups can fend for themselves. The females then mate again, and will give birth the following season.

As well as the Elephant Seals there were also plenty of the Antarctic Fur Seal. These have now recovered their numbers well, from the time that they were hunted for their fur. The youngsters were quite boisterous with mock fights, with the slightly older males being a bit more protective of their territories.

A dominant male Antarctic Fur Seal.

Some were very inquisitive.

Mock fight between two juveniles.

Antarctic Fur Seals.

We also had a couple of sightings of Orca's, or Killer Whale. The only one we managed to get decent photos of was of a female with her calf. The calf was following close behind the mum, but unfortunately I missed the shot with both of them showing.

Female Orca complete with Giant Petrels and Cape Petrel.