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Day 6: Macquarie Island

Author: Shraddha

Wow! What a place and what an abundance of penguins!!

The day did not start on the most promising note as our landing at Isthmus Bay was cancelled as the only possible landing site got blocked by two giant seals. So, the expedition team made a call to move to the second landing site of Sandy Bay. We spent that time watching the island from the ship and the hundreds of King Penguins in the water.

When penguins are in group and are in the water, they are called raft
Difficult to capture a penguin jump in and out of water. King penguin activity was finally caught in Shraddha’s camera

Sandy Bay worked out for us and went ashore to see the Royal Penguin and King Penguin colonies. There were so many penguins so close to us that we had wonderful time just watching their antics.

Some of the royal penguins were molting and looked comical

Royal Penguin with his identifiable yellow feathers on the head that looks like penguin with tiara 👑
Many of the Royal penguins were molting and look little off color
The nesting group of penguins are called rookery. So this is Royal Penguin rookery

The King Penguins were beautiful and very curious about us. They would come right up to us and watch us back. Wonder what they thought of us.

Absolutely lovely and aristocratic King Penguins
Another King Penguin couple- all kinds of antics
Valentine’s date – King and Queen Penguins!
Chicks are protected close to their feet by their dads
Penguin chicks taken care by their dads usually
Dancing King penguins
Poor skua is being bullied by Kings

We also saw Skuas and Giant Petrels. These birds basically clean the surroundings and go after the dead animals on the beach.

Giant Petrels with wings spread and waiting for a wave to get into water. This helps them with stability and buoyancy
Also giant petrels here with wings spread when fighting over food and territory

And of course fur seals.

After Sandy bay, the expedition team gave a choice of zodiac scenic cruise or ship based scenic cruise of Lusitania Bay. We wimped out as the weather was iffy with cold and rain. We watched other brave souls take on the elements in the comfort of the ship.

King penguin raft following these zodiacs as zodiacs head to look at rookery at the coastline

But we had one final surprise as we stood watching the scenery pass by. We had our very first Orca sighting!! What a day 😁.

Finally first orca family

It’s Valentine’s ❤️ Day today and we will finish it with a nice dinner at the Hut restaurant on the ship.

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