After two days at sea (one with a giant iceberg) we arrived in South Georgia. This was a big reason
I joined the workshop, the four days in South Georgia, which is known for the abundant wildlife.
Especially thousands or hundreds of thousands of penguins.
There is a large group of Southern Elephant seals creating quite a commotion on the beach. They are huge, the males weighing up to 7,000 pounds. They cannot use their front flippers on land so are very odd moving along in a rolling movement. They spend 80% of their time in the water.
By the early 1920s, the king penguin population in South Georgia and the Falklands was nearly wiped out by whalers on these islands. There are no trees so the whalers used penguin blubber for fires.
During breeding, king penguins do not build nests, although they show strong territorial behavior and keep a pecking distance to neighboring penguins.
Because of their large size, King penguin chicks take 14–16 months before they are ready to go to sea.
Besides the thousands of King penguins, there were many (hundreds) of Fur seals. This is a young seal.
The females would charge the humans who came close. They were pretty fast, so you were to stand your ground and make noise to scare them, if that did not work, you were to gently prod them with the handle of a walking stick. Since I was using two cameras, I tried to stay near someone with a walking stick.
In the distance you can see Cook Glacier, which once terminated in the bay, has retreated from the current beach since the 1970s, leaving a lake and gravel beach in its wake.
A King penguin walks along the beach.
