Penguins on Bertha's Beach

Bertha's beach

Dolphins in the surf

Gentoo penguins

Penguin colony on Bertha's beach

While the ship was still berthed in port we had some more time to explore the Falkland Islands. Some scientists opted to go to town to Stanley for shopping, phone calls or other engagements with the outside world. Some of our science party decided instead to explore the corner of the island around Mare Harbour, about 40 miles south of Stanley. The port is a military installation - no photography is allowed and everything is fenced off with rolls of barbed wire. We found a break in the barbed wire and hopped over it to get out onto the path to Bertha's Beach. The beach is named after the wreck of the "Bertha" which foundered nearby in 1892. Nowadays the beach is more famous for its wetlands and a Gentoo penguin colony.

Walking along the beach I kept a lookout to sea. It was stormy, rain lashed us sideways and the sea was whipped up into a boiling broth. Suddenly a couple dorsal fins arched amongst the waves, and soon enough we spotted the black and white sides markings of a couple of Commerson's dolphins. The appeared to be surfing in the surf zone. Whenever a particularly large wave was about to roll in (the dolphins always knew which one) they would gather in formation and 2 to 4 dolphins charged towards the beach, riding the wave into the shallows. It was amazing to watch the skill with which these animals surfed the waves.

At first I was convinced that the dolphins are doing this for fun - well, that's what it looked like. It looked like a lot of fun to play in the surf, and I thought about my surfboard back home and how I'd have liked to have it with me. Hugh took a couple of photos with a long zoom lens which I inspected a little closer later on. It turns out that they weren't just playing around for fun but the dolphins were actually fishing. The photo zoom revealed a swarm of tiny fish leaping out of the water when the dolphins drove them inshore. To the fish the water surface is as much a barrier as the bottom, so with nowhere to go they become easy prey for the dolphins. Eventually the rain stopped and we continued our walk towards the north end of Bertha's Beach to find the penguin colony.

Before even reaching the colony, I already saw the penguins in the water. I imagined they'd be fishing too. Every so often a group of about 5-10 penguins emerged from the water, hopped out of the swash zone and waddled onto the beach. We stopped and kept a low profile as not to disturb them. The penguins did a lot more waddling, shaking off their feathers and started heading up towards the dunes - very orderly and in single file!

The full scale of the numbers of penguins on this beach became apparent when we peered over the dunes. In the peaty, grassy slopes of the islands stood hundreds of them. The hillside was covered in several very large groups, and I estimated there to be about 300 animals. Gentoo penguins don't seem to make a lot of noise, apart from the occasional squawking, so the scene was rather quiet and serene.

Hiding behind a small bluff overlooking the colony I watched them for a good while. Most people would associate penguins with ice floes, but here there was lots of them wadling around in the grass. They might not hve been doing much, as breeding season was over, but for me as a first-timer to the South Atlantic it was enough to just see them there. And in such large numbers. Who wouldn't smile when seeing them waddle along. So crouched on the ground on all fours I was a very happy man.