FALKLAND ISLANDS

Traveling to the Falkland Islands from Europe is quite time consuming. First leg was to fly to Santiago, Chile and spend one night here. Going back also requires a stay over in this city.

While at Falkland it was communicated that it now is possible to fly via Sao Paulo; a relatively easier travel. In addition it is possible to book flight from UK to the Falklands by Royal Air Force (RAF).

Despite the long travel it is definitely worth it - the Falkland Islands are amazing.

The collage below also show a map of the Falkland Islands and marked with small circles the places that was visited on this trip.

Typical Falkland landscape seen in panorama picture below. There are no trees here except those planted around the settlements.

Penguins are definitely quite abundant on the islands. Different species can be seen. They are     normally not afraid of people and therefore possible to get close to them. Always keep in mind not to go to close but let them walk their way. 

Gentoo Penguin

A group of King penguins are gathered to check the conditions at sea - is it safe out there?

King Penguin

Some Sea Lions have specialized in killing King penguins. Normally they are attacked on the beach. The Sea Lion come in on a wave and in a way surfing to the beach where it starts "running" quite fast for a short distance. The King penguins are slow and clumsy on the sand and are easily outrun by the Sea Lion.

Sea Lion

Unfortunately the Falkland Islands are not protected from the plastic garbage coming the seaway. It is very disturbing to see that the pollution is present everywhere on this planet.

The Rockhopper is a tough little penguin. Fighting the big waves both to get to sea and also returning from the sea. Often they are thrown against the rock but they do not seem to care. They just carry on with their business.

Rochopper Penguin

Beautiful beach at Sounders island on the north western part of the islands. The wind is blowing most of the time here. 

The Neck

The famous Rockhopper shower at the Rockery at Soundres Island. A little stream of water is coming down the cliff side creating a small shower below this overhang of a rock.

Rockhopper

The Giant Petrel can weight up to 8kg and up to 210cm wingspan. They are known to be opportunistic feeders. These Petrels are very aggressive and can attach other birds - specially penguins.

Giant Petrel

This Giant Petrel seemed to have specialized in catching and killing adult rockhoppers. The tactic here was to wait for the low tide when the beach was exposed and the penguins had to cross some distance on sand before reading the sea. The Petrel was hiding in the rocks on the beach waiting for the pray. 

This fight lasted approximately 20 minutes before the penguin was killed. The Rockhopper was grabbed by the neck and was partly shaken or held under water.

Giant Petrel killing Rockhopper

The Elephant seal is huge - can weigh up to 4000kg. They come on shore here at Sea Lion Island to breed. Rest of the year they stay at sea hunting for skates, rays, octopuses, small sharks and fish.

They can dive down to approximately 2000 meters and stay under water for 1 hour (males).

Elephant seal

Typically the male elephant seals have a lot of skars and wounds due to fighting. Some wounds can be quite large and create some pain. It definitely looked very painful when a little bird picked his wound on the back. Very strange to see how flexible the Elephant seal is when turning his head backwards trying to chase away the bird.

Elephant seal

The Black-browed albatross can have a wingspan up to 2.4 meters. They can have a long lifetime, up to 70 years.

Black.browed albatross

The Megallanic penguin lives in caves in the ground. These penguins are not easy to come close as they will run away when they see people approaching.

Megallanic Penguin

Penguin surfing on the wave on this stormy day