Surfing Penguins, Natural History Photography Blog

Surfing Penguins

Filed under: Falklands, Penguin, Southern Ocean on 4/27/2011

Last year I got to cross off one of my bucket list items: surfing penguins. I was fortunate to see surfing gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) on New Island in the Falkland Islands. After hiking around some of New Island for most of the afternoon, visiting a couple of penguin and cormorant rookeries, I found myself at sunset on a gorgeous, long flat sand beach. The light was warm and gold, there was no wind and it was warm enough to wear just a light sweatshirt. All the others on the M/V Polar Star had left to return to the ship and I had the beach to myself, with penguins coming ashore from their foraging excursions in small groups. The gentoo penguins would ride the waves in at top speed, skizzing** across the shallow water and quickly flipping upright to land on their feet. Quickly they would shuffle across the beach and walk up onto the adjacent hills to find their nests and settle in for the evening.

Gentoo penguin coming ashore, after foraging at sea, walking through ocean water as it wades onto a sand beach. Adult gentoo penguins grow to be 30" and 19lb in size. They feed on fish and crustaceans. Gentoo penguins reside in colonies well inland from the ocean, often formed of a circular collection of stones gathered by the penguins, Pygoscelis papua, New Island
Gentoo penguin coming ashore, after foraging at sea, walking through ocean water as it wades onto a sand beach. Adult gentoo penguins grow to be 30″ and 19lb in size. They feed on fish and crustaceans. Gentoo penguins reside in colonies well inland from the ocean, often formed of a circular collection of stones gathered by the penguins.
Image ID: 23830  
Species: Gentoo penguin, Pygoscelis papua
Location: New Island, Falkland Islands, United Kingdom
 

**another invented word, my third this year. Skizzing is like “skimming” only much better.

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6 Comments »

  1. What a great behavioral capture! This must have been so much fun to watch!

    Comment by Pat Ulrich — 4/27/2011 @ 8:53 pm

  2. Many thanks Pat, yes it was a lot of fun, I’m a big fan of penguins now after having seen them in the wild. I really hope to return there someday…

    Comment by Phil — 4/27/2011 @ 9:40 pm

  3. I like the word “skizzing”

    Comment by Tony — 4/27/2011 @ 11:35 pm

  4. Thanks Tony!

    Comment by Phil — 4/28/2011 @ 6:57 am

  5. Great pic Phil, really catches the personality (if that’s not too anthropomorphic) of these birds. I like ’skizzing’; very intuitive. Not sure what search engines will make of it though.

    Comment by Colin Munro — 5/29/2011 @ 4:26 am

  6. Thanks Colin!

    Comment by Phil — 5/29/2011 @ 5:28 am



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