These King Cormorants were absolutely hilarious! Just like the penguins who steal rocks from each other, these guys steal each others twigs and brush from nests. Some even got in tug of war fights with each other. I wanted to grab a head on shot of one, with their unique and colorful color. And add in that it was sprinkling a touch, so I wanted to also capture the rain in the shot. Not wanting to lower my shutter speed too much to keep the cormorant in focus, I lowered it just enough to capture the rain and achieve perfect focus. Bleaker Island, FIQQ 1ZZ, Falkland Islands/Isla Malvinas Google Maps Location photo was taken from: http://goo.gl/cSLq6i
I just love these little king penguin chicks. They are so the polar opposite in behavior compared to most of the adult kings, for it is just like what you would expect from a 2 year old human kid. Not only are they the loudest ones on this plain, squawking left and right as if “Look at me mom and dad!! Look what I can do!! I can flap my wings!!” to running around like crazed lunatics, amped up on sugar, again, like a 2 year old kid. Most of the adults, when a chick was doing something annoying or running into them, had this exasperated look on their faces like “Hey George, is this your kid? Can you tell him to knock it off?" Salisbury Plain, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands Google Maps Location photo was taken from: https://goo.gl/mzwM67
This is but a small slice of what we saw that day on Salisbury Plain, the largest King Penguin colony, with around 500,000. And add in the baby chicks who hatched a month ago, those little brown furballs also known as oakum boys. Take this picture and multiply it by about 20 wide and 4 high and that's how large this massive field of penguins was. Let alone the sheer stunning beauty and size of this, add in the adorable sounds of them cawing and them bumbling around 2 feet from you, some of them nipping at your pant leg or tripod leg, and you were left in awe. Just stunning sights to see here. Salisbury Plain, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands
