A cookie is just a cookie, but a Newton is fruit and cake (Carcass and Westpoint Islands) - 10 February 2009

There are a number of private islands near the Falklands, and today we got to visit two of them. On the first, Carcass Island, we took a nice walk visiting a couple of beaches and trying to avoid Magellanic Penguin burrows:






Unlike the Gentoo, Adelie, and King penguins we've seen so far the Magellanics keep their distance.  They're not curious about us, and would just as soon that we left them alone.  After our walk we were treated to a traditional tea, complete with a lot of baked treats.  Of course I gorged myself.

Which I regretted during the second tea of the day on Westpoint Island. Here we got our first view of Rockhopper penguins, sharing a rookery with Albatrosses. The Rockhoppers are funny to watch, since they really do hop all over the place, but their red eyes lend them an air of menace:



The Albatrosses are truly spectacular, swooping overhead so close that you hear the wind whistle through their feathers. The image of grace is shattered, though, when they come in for a clumsy landing. Here are three of them in flight: