The Penguins, Great Characters of the Falkland Islands

It is impossible to meet the penguins who spend the summer on the Falkland Islands without being anthropomorphic about them. They are all such characters, displaying human-like behaviour and emotions, and all four species are very different. It is just so fortunate that during the whole of the Falklands conflict, they were far away and at sea. It is also very fortunate that being birds, penguins are light in weight, and are in no danger from land mines.

Gipsy Cove

When my wife and I visited the Falkland Islands, we first met penguins at Gipsy Cove, not far from Stanley. Since the conflict, it has not been possible to enter Gipsy Cove because of the danger of mines. However, a fenced footpath passes above the Cove that has regular posts warning of the danger of the mines (much of this has now been cleared I gather). The path runs straight through a Magellanic Penguin colony, and far from the fence being a protection from humans, several penguins nest within two or three feet of the path. We were introduced to one very special character who is affectionately known as Harold. He has been coming back to the same burrow for several years. He stands proudly at the entrance, perhaps three feet from his human admirers, and periodically announces his presence, and probable importance, with a racket that seems impossible to be produced from such a little fellow. He puts his head back, his flippers out and brays just like a donkey (a close relative of Magellanic Penguins that lives in South Africa is called the Jackass Penguin).

Harold standing proudly in front of
his burrow

Harold braying

That was fun, but haven’t we got dirty tummies
– hope no-one will be cross!

Plants of the Falkland Islands

A group of king penguins in a field of sea cabbage, Senecio candidans

A few years ago, my wife and I visited the Falkland Islands at the beginning of January. Although the human population is extremely British in both origin and speech, there are considerable differences between the way of life in the Falkland Islands and life at home. Although approximately at the same latitude as London, the lack of a Gulf Stream makes the weather much colder. The islands are greatly affected by strong winds coming up from the Antarctic. Quite naturally, the land is treeless out in the country. The Falklands are divided into farms rather than districts or villages. In order to access farmland other than by accepted public footpaths, it is necessary to contact the farmer who owns the land. Casual entry into a piece of countryside that looks interesting for plants is not possible.

Looking at Wildlife Species Worldwide. Tying it in.

It was 1990. The darkness was just beginning to brighten outside. My window was open, and a pleasant, cool breeze redolent with tropical perfumes tantalised my nostrils. It must have been about half past five in the morning, though my body probably registered as much later as I had passed through several time zones in the previous twenty four hours. This was the start of my first day ever in Costa Rica and I was in a hotel room in the capital, San José. A bird began to twitter starting the dawn chorus.

“That has to be a species I have never seen before,” I told myself and in a flash, I was out of bed, and dressed. Soon I was out in the streets that surrounded the hotel. They contained suburban houses with fine gardens ablaze with Bougainvillea and other tropical flowers.

Eyelash Viper - Costa Rica

I tracked down approaching the source of the song of that first bird of the day. It was a Rufous-collared Sparrow, a species that would fill the niche of the house sparrow, if house sparrows were not probably the most cosmopolitan of all birds. I had just made the acquaintance of the Rufous-collared Sparrow or Rufie as they are called by birders in tropical America, when a dark flash passed me like an arrow. Soon, it was stationary, hovering close to the flowers of a Bougainvillea, its wings a greenish blur. This was my first hummingbird. It had an orange brown tail and went onto my lists as a Rufous-tailed Hummingbird. Soon, I was enjoying a tiny owl. This was a Ferruginous Pigmy Owl sitting on a telegraph wire.  Two American warblers joined in, and these were Tennessee and Yellow Warblers. I saw fifteen new birds before breakfast and one of the most amazing was a Blue-crowned Motmot that swung its amazing tail feathers backwards and forwards like the pendulum of a clock.