27 Jan 23 - The Antarctica Trip - Endearing Adelie Penguins

Our first Antarctic Peninsula landing was on Paulet Island, albeit this volcanic island is about thirty miles offshore from the actual Antarctic mainland. But it's a great place to start the Antarctic landings as the island is home to around one hundred thousand pairs of Adelie Penguins.

Paulet Island: With this shape, it clearly had a volcanic origin

Antarctic Shag: This individual popped up around the Plancius as they were lowering the zodiacs. This monotypic species breeds on the Antarctic Peninsula, the South Shetland Islands & Elephant Island

We were soon ashore on Paulet Island and greeted by hundreds of endearing Adelie Penguins.

Adelie Penguins on the beach with a Southern Giant Petrel

Adelie Penguin: Looking right along the beach

Adelie Penguin: Everywhere we looked there were Adelie Penguins. But this isn't surprising given the island is home to about one hundred thousand pairs

The first Adelie Penguins were described by Jacques Hombron and Honore Jacquinot, two French surgeons and naturalists, on a French Expedition to Antarctica in the late 1830s and early 1840s, led by Jules Dumont d'Urville. They first specimens were collected from part of the continent which had been called Terre Adelie, which was named after Dumont d'Urville's wife, Adele.

Adelie Penguin: They do a lot of standing around. But I guess, it must be hard for an adult Adelie Penguin to figure out where to start looking for their full-sized and mobile youngsters

There were plenty of Adelie Penguins to watch and photograph. It's always important to lower the camera and just enjoy everything that is going on when you are near a Penguin colony.

Adelie Penguin: The advantage of going late in the Antarctic Summer is there are plenty of large youngsters around

Adelie Penguin: This one is starting to lose its downy fluff

Adelie Penguin: Adult found, now it's time to persuade it to part with its last meal

Adelie Penguin

With so many distracting Adelie Penguins, it would be easy to walk past the history of the 1903 Swedish Antarctic Expedition on Paulet Island. But there is another survival story here. The Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901 – 03 was the first Swedish Antarctic Expedition. It was led by Otto Nordenskjold and Carl Anton Larsen. Their ship, Antarctic, became stuck in the ice in Feb 1903 and was wrecked on 12 Feb. A photo of the ship stuck in the ice can be found here. The crew of twenty-one dragged the ship's boats about twenty-five miles over the ice and after sixteen days they reached Paulet Island. They built this stone hut to shelter in during the bleak Antarctic winter. Additionally, they built a cairn on the highest point to attract the attention of passing ships. But it would be hard to imagine how this cairn would have been seen by a passing ship, without a fire. Over that Antarctic Winter, sailor Ole Christian Wennersgaard died and his grave is part on the Paulet Island historic site and it is now fenced in to keep the Adelie Penguins off it. Their survival on, and rescue from, Paulet Island is described by Carl Skottsberg and Carl Larsen in the book Antarctic published in 1904.

The remains of the 1903 Expedition: Ole Christian Wennersgaard grave and the remains of the stone hut. There is an Adelie Penguin pathway past these historic sites

Ole Christian Wennersgaard grave: Wennersgaard was a Norwegian sailor who died of heart failure at the age of twenty-two while the Expedition was stranded on Paulet Island

This metal plaque commemorates the grave and the 1903 Swedish Antarctic Expedition

The Argentine Navy left this metal plaque on the 50th anniversary of the rescue of the 1903 Swedish Antarctic Expedition in Dec 1953

This metal plaque was left by the grandson of Carl Larsen with a brief history and the names of the twenty survivors

Larsen's Stone Hut: This young Adelie Penguin isn't respecting the history of this hut

The remains of a doorway in Larsen's Stone Hut

The contrast showing how times have changed. One hundred and twenty years on from when Nordenskjold, Larsen and their crew pulled their boats onto the island and built this stone hut to survive the Antarctic Winter, we arrive in a comfortable expedition ship for the morning. We know we will be off the island by 12:30. The Nordenskjold, Larsen and their crew didn't know if they would be found alive.

The contrast showing how times have changed

The main path continued away from the beach to above the beach part of the Adelie Penguin colony. However, there was a strict policy of giving way to any passing Adelie Penguins.

The main path past the historic area

Adelie Penguin: This one was heading back to the beach

Adelie Penguin: Another part of the colony on the distant hillside to the right of the main track from the beach

Antarctic Fur Seals: With a hillside of Adelie Penguins behind

Antarctic Fur Seal

Continuing up the path lead to a relatively flat area above the beach part of the colony.

A panoramic view looking back on the beach

Once we were above the beach part of the Adelie Penguin colony, we could safely walk across to the base of the hillside, which hosted another part of the colony. This was as far as we could go.

The pink areas are the areas where the colony is the most dense

There was also a reasonable-sized Antarctic Shag colony on the hillside.

Antarctic Shag: Part of the sizeable Antarctic Shag colony. Spot the Snowy Sheathbill

Antarctic Shag: A close up of the colony with a couple of photo-bombing Adelie Penguins

Antarctic Shag

Antarctic Shag

Adelie Penguin: Penguins like to follow well-worn paths. This one passes on the edge of the Antarctic Shag colony

I decided to slowly head back to the beach to take some more Adelie Penguin photos.

Adelie Penguin: Just stopping to admire me

Adelie Penguin: Another youngster after food, despite looking tubbier than its parent

Adelie Penguin: Looks like a couple of siblings have either found their parent or are just trying to mug a passing adult

Adelie Penguin: A different youngster begging for food

Adelie Penguin: After enough pestering, the youngster gets fed

Adelie Penguin: Penguins aren't the best-shaped or have the best weight-distribution to be hopping over rough ground. But they are remarkable good at keeping their balance

Adelie Penguin: Their wings are really useful for balance

Snowy Sheathbill: I'm surprised how few Snowy Sheathbills we saw at the big Penguin colonies, given the potential amount of food from dead Penguins

Snowy Sheathbill: They must have excellent constitutions given their diet

Snowy Sheathbill: I don't think they can be considered to be attractive, but they are an important part of the Antarctic and Subantarctic ecosystems

Kelp Gull: This is the austrinus subspecies which is restricted to the Antarctica & Antarctic islands. I had seen the dominicanus subspecies around Ushuaia, the Falklands and South Georgia, but none ended up getting photographed at those locations

Eventually, I was back on the beach. There were plenty of Adelie Penguins porpoising just off the beach, so I tried to get some photos.

Adelie Penguin

Adelie Penguin

Adelie Penguin

Adelie Penguin

It had been a fantastic start to our visit to Antarctica and it wasn't even lunchtime on the first day. There was still plenty of potential as we departed from Paulet Island and headed to Brown Bluff for an afternoon landing on the Antarctic Peninsula. But things too an unexpected turn in a positive direction which resulted in our arrival at Brown Bluff being delayed a bit. More on that in the next Blog Post.

27 Jan 23 - The Antarctica Trip - Approaching Paulet Island, Antarctica

I was up soon after dawn. But I still wasn't early enough to see the sunrise, which was just before 04:00. Now the Plancius was close to the Antarctic Peninsula, the sea was nice and calm, with a number of icebergs of varying sizes. I was quickly seeing Adelie Penguins on the icebergs and in the water. The first priority was to check every close iceberg on the unlikely off-chance that there would be an Emperor Penguin on one of them. I photographed a number of more distant icebergs to check for a larger Penguin on one of them. Sadly, after two days of checking, we remained unsatisfied.

The black dots are all Adelie Penguins

Another iceberg & more Adelie Penguins

Adelie Penguin: There breed around the edge of the pack ice on Antarctic, as well as, the South Shetland Islands and South Orkney Islands

Adelie Penguin: With Adelie Penguin firmly on the list, I just need to see Emperor Penguins and Galapagos Penguins to have seen all of the Penguins

Snow Petrel

Brown Skua: This is the lonnbergi subspecies which breeds on the Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia & circumpolar Subantarctic Islands, apart from the Falklands where it is replaced by the nominate antarcticus subspecies

Brown Skua: note, the heavy build, the strong white wing flashes on the upper and under wings, the capped appearance, the short & stout bill

Antarctic Fur Seal: Despite their name, they aren't as common in the Antarctic as in South Georgia, where ninety-five percent of the world population breeds

With the calmer seas, it was possible to get better views of the Humpback Whales around the coastline. On the final leg of our cruise to Paulet Island, we saw ten Humpback Whales.

Humpback Whale: The first individual that I saw. Unfortunately, like all the photos taken in the pre-breakfast light, I was on a high ISO and the photos are grainy

Humpback Whale: Soon a second Humpback Whale appeared

Humpback Whale: A closer view of the two Humpback Whales, showing the difference in their dorsal fin shapes. There is a lot of variability in the shape of the hump and the small dorsal fin on the hump, to the extent that scientists can use the combined shape to identify individuals

Two hours later, another couple of Humpback Whales put on a nice display in better light.

Humpback Whale: I wasn't sure which species of Whale this was on this first photo. It didn't have a long body and the dorsal fin wasn't right for a Fin Whale or Sei Whale, but it doesn't have an obvious hump either

Humpback Whale: The big kink in the body is starting to suggest a Humpback Whale, but the dorsal fin doesn't have the typical Humpback hump

Humpback Whale

Humpback Whale: When I saw this photo it was clear that I was watching a couple of Humpback Whales. The knobby upper jaw on the back individual and the raised tail with its white underside both confirm the identification

Humpback Whale

Humpback Whale: A final view of the undertail of the first individual. Note, the second individual hasn't got an obvious hump below the dorsal fin

Just to increase the competition for the most showy Humpback Whale of the morning, this one showed off its distinctive tail pattern about forty minutes later. The undertail patterns are distinctive and provide the best way to identify individuals, especially as it's the photograph that everybody wants to take.

Humpback Whale: Another fluking large Whale, but the knobbly body suggests it's a Humpback Whale

Humpback Whale: The classic T shape of the tail

Humpback Whale: A good view of the undertail

Humpback Whale: A final Humpback Whale with a classic dorsal fin profile on a Humpback Whale that appeared about twenty minutes later

After about three or four hours on deck, the restaurant finally opened for breakfast. That's the downside of the very early morning starts, albeit there is usually a stash of biscuits and coffee and tea to start the day off in the lounge.

Breakfast time: It was no coincidence that our table was nearest to the restaurant door. If there had of been a shout for a decent Whale or an Emperor Penguin, I wanted to be quickly out of the restaurant & heading to the top deck. Left to right, Berit, Bill, Ship's Doc Marieke, Steve Preddy, Me, Seigfried's wife, Seigfried & Caroline

Approaching Paulet Island: Breakfast over and it was time to get back on deck

Paulet Island is just under a mile across and on the first sighting, it is clearly a volcanic island. Fortunately, it is thought that it last erupted about one thousand years ago. Shackleton was originally aiming for Paulet Island when his crew left their ice floe when it broke up. Shackleton knew there would be food stores there from an 1903 Swedish Antarctic Expedition that were stranded on the island for nine months. Their ship, the Antarctic, was crushed and sunk by the ice twenty-five miles from Paulet Island. The crew build a stone hut and a stone cairn on the highest point of the island to draw the attention of rescuers. They were finally rescued in Nov 1903. Unfortunately, for Shackleton and his crew, the pack ice they were stuck on drifted too far East and the pack ice was too dense to make reaching Paulet Island a possibility.

Jake: There is an unwritten scientific law that there will always be at least one loud American on any organised foreign trip. Steve Preddy & I were lucky that we were sharing a cabin with Bill, who was easily the nicest of all the Americans on the Plancius. Fortunately, we didn't have Jake in our cabin. Jake had some odd ideas, including packing up his job New York job to become a full-time influencer. He clearly needed to work much harder at the influencing game, as nobody else was seen pretending to be Kate Winslet. He did provide a lot of laughs for Steve & I at his expense

Finally, we arrived at Paulet Island and the Expedition team prepared to get the Zodiacs in the water for our first Antarctic landing. I will cover the landing in the next Blog Post.