For the longest time, I tried to get a shot of a single, lone King, in front of this gorgeous mountain range and glacier. When you come onto the beachhead at St. Andrew’s Bay, there are penguins, seals and whole host of other marine and bird life scattered in the thousands across a densely packed landscape. The King Penguin colony alone was close to 300,000. Down near the beachhead, it is especially crowded, with most of the Kings in groups of ten to twenty or more. So when this adorable King waddled ahead of his group by about ten feet or so, I scrambled into place. And being that I had to scramble quickly, had my exposure setting way too hot, but luckily was able to recover all the details. What was a mistake on my part, turned into one of my favorite photos from the whole trip. St. Andrew’s Bay, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Google Maps Location photo was taken from: Click Here
This was a rare sighting down in South Georgia, for Weddell Seals live in a circumpolar distribution around Antarctica. Our One Ocean expedition guides told us there has been a small population of Weddells observed year-round here in Larsen Harbor, along with some others who have been seen in South America, New Zealand and south of Australia. There was only this one lying on the small spit of flat land, in what is mostly sheer cliffs of the fjord and no flat shoreline. Our expedition guide got our Zodiac to about 20 or so feet and turned off the motor, as to not disturb it. As we clicked away grabbing shots like this, it just sat there on its side looking at us, never moving, with not a care in the world. Drygalski Fjord & Larsen Harbour, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands GPS Coordinates: 54°50'10.032" S 36°2'35.892" W
