Gentoo and Magellanic Penguins, Bleaker Island
The Falkland Islands regularly host the largest breeding population of Gentoo Penguins in the world, averaging more than 100,000 pairs. They are the second largest Falkland penguin, standing about 30 inches tall. They are the fastest underwater swimmers of all penguins, with measured speeds of up to 22 miles per hour.
Magellanic Penguins are only found in South America and the Falkland Islands where there are more than 100,000 breeding pairs. They generally nest in burrows spaced much further apart than surface-nesting penguins. The burrows provide protection from both cold weather and predators so Magellanic Penguins do not form crèches. Populations declined severely beginning in the 1980's with the rise of commercial squid and finfish fishing in the region. They are also highly susceptible to oil pollution, which is increasing in the region and suffer from the loss of protective Tussock grass due to overgrazing.
A Million Penguins
Three hundred and eleven miles east of the southern coast of Argentina (7,632 miles southwest of the United Kingdom) lay the 4,700 square mile British Overseas Territory known as the Falkland Islands archipelago, home to 3,354 resident islanders, most of who identify as "Falkland Islanders." They share the 778 islands with more than a million penguins and half a million sheep.
Less than a dozen of the islands accommodate overnight tourism and most of those are privately owned. Some have been owned by the same families for generations and one, Pebble Island, was recently sold for the first time since Merchant John Markham Dean bought it from the British government in 1869. I’ve been to the Falklands twice and would happily go again as there are numerous islands I’ve yet to visit.
Accommodations range from small modern lodges with gourmet chefs to self-catering refurbished military portakabins. There's never a crowd, no lines and no opening and closing times. There are set meal times at the lodges, but in late December, sunrise is around 4:45 a.m. and sunset is around 9:20 p.m., so meals rarely overlap with golden hour light.
You'll be walking on, sitting in and a constant target for guano droppings, so a washable hooded windbreaker and rain pants are the best protection. Since it's always windy, it makes sense anyway. The weather can be sunny one minute, followed by a squall of horizontal rain the next and that assumes you arrived on schedule and your flight from Punta Arenas wasn't cancelled. On our second trip, ours was, so we lost a day on the islands.
It’s a bucolic sort of place once you depart Stanley, the capital, and even that is pleasant enough once you escape RAF Mount Pleasant, the island’s international airport. Since it doubles as a military base, security is tight and unyielding. They confiscated two Allen wrenches from my camera bag as you are not allowed to bring “tools” onto the island. They didn’t care in the least that my camera tripod brackets attach to my cameras using Allen screws. At least they let me attach them before confiscating the wrenches. There are numerous places to buy Allen wrenches in Stanley, so it must not be a crime to own Allen wrenches, just for foreigners to bring them onto the island.
The capital city was named for Lord Stanley, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in the 1840s. That seemed somehow appropriate as the beaches surrounding the airport were off limits due to landmines set by the Argentines during the 1982 Falklands War when Argentine forces occupied the airport. It wasn’t until November, 2020 that the island was finally cleared of landmines.
Five species of penguins, King, Rockhopper, Gentoo, Magellanic and Macaroni, breed on the islands and are the main attraction, unless you are a sheep shearer. There are also Imperial Shag and Black-browed Albatross colonies and Striated Caracaras and Falkland Skuas in abundance when there are hatchlings to prey upon. Southern Sea Lions and Elephant Seals also breed on some of the islands. Access to most wildlife is within walking distance from accommodations and, when not, there are transports available. There’s little reason to go to the Falklands if you don’t like to sit from dawn to dusk and watch penguins and albatrosses go about their lives. It’s really the only show in town.
