Penguin Arrival Day

By Safina Center Fellow Katlyn Taylor

Gentoo penguin running on snow ©Katlyn Taylor

During the austral spring many birds in the Southern Ocean are preparing for breeding season. Penguins are no exception. Birds operate on a specific schedule slightly outside our human perception. Over the course of my first trip of the Antarctic season, we saw clues of the penguin schedule as we traveled in South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula. Macaroni penguins had arrived and climbed up to their colonies in South Georgia within the past few days. Gentoo and chinstrap penguins had already filled in their colonies in the South Shetland Islands.

When we got to the Peninsula, we witnessed something unexpected: A mass arrival of gentoo penguins to the colonies on Danco Island.

Gentoo penguins settling in a colony ©Katlyn Taylor

We started our landing operation and scouting just before high tide on November 4th. The usual landing spot had six or seven penguins laying on the snow-covered beach, so we forged a path through the ice lining the beach to a secondary location. As we surveyed the scene there were a few penguins and patches of pink snow up on the hill, signs that the penguins had been there recently.

We cut steps in the snow and ice for the guests to scramble up the shore on from the zodiac and hauled all the landing gear to a flat area for staging. By the time we had everything on shore, over 100 penguins had climbed up the shore right next to the zodiac. We all looked at each other, unsure how to proceed. Surely this would be all the penguins that use this path—once we brought the guests on shore, they would use the other beach.

Penguins arriving to the ashore before the guests ©Katlyn Taylor

I took off my zodiac gear and donned my snowshoes to help break a path in the snow for the guests to get the top of the hill during the landing. For fun, I had put on my penguin costume over the top of my waders, but it was hidden under my rain jacket and life vest. But now I was wearing my penguin onesie, my stocking cap, gloves, and snowshoes to trek up the hill. I looked back down to the landing site from about a third of the way up and noticed rafts of hundreds of penguins swimming around the beach as more penguins arrived on shore.

Katlyn in her penguin outfit and snowshoes ©Katlyn Taylor

We had been wrong about the beach. The snow was suddenly discolored by dark spots in a tear drop shape leading up hill. By the time we brought guests onto land 20 minutes later, hundreds of penguins had come ashore and a line of them were marching up hill to their usual colonies.

Penguins arriving as guests watch at the landing site ©Katlyn Taylor

The penguins rushed and leapt to the shore like salmon jumping a waterfall. They did not care that we had crew standing in the water holding zodiacs—they swam right by them on their way to the colony. By the end of our landing, thousands of penguins had come to shore.

Today at high tide was arrival day, and it was magical to witness.

Gentoo penguins marching up to their colony ©Katlyn Taylor