Portraits of penguins

I haven't figured out whether I have more photos of penguins or icebergs, but the penguins are much easier to select. I knew there were different species but I didn't realize they would be so easy to identify -- for me this was not the case with petrels (with the exception of "pintados"), fulmars, skuas, and even albatrosses if they were not sitting on their nests. I guess you can tell I am not a birder.


These Magellanic penguins (Sphenicus magellanicus) looked like a pile of rocks from high up on a bluff on East Falkland Island




Gentoo (Pygoscelis papua) mother and chicks at Brown Bluff in the Antarctic Sound. We were lucky to see everything from very young chicks, to adolescents (king penguins), to Adelies with eggs.

Gentoo provider coming in from the sea

There are times I am really glad I have photos, as memory can be both elusive and illusive. On the other hand it is important not to focus the entire "experience" through the lens of the camera. A lot of the joy involved just being there and present -- in awe and wonder.

Adelies on an iceberg.

Adelies (Pygoscelis adeliae) are brush tail penguins

The Southern Rockhoppers (Eudyptes chrysocome) are very colorful as penguins go and it is fun to watch them "hop" from rock to rock.

Chinstraps (Pygoscelis antarctica) are distinguished looking and comic at the same time.

A Macaroni penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus)

King penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) chick

Colony of king penguins on South Georgia Island