Day 283: Antarctica Cruise Day 19 – Salisbury Plain
Our final stop in South Georgia was Salisbury Plain – a large, flat beach at the base of the Grace and Lucas Galciers. The flat ground and easy access to freshwater from the glacial melt made it the perfect location for nesting King Penguins. Here was where we finally saw illustration of the dense concentration of wildlife on South Georgia: the beach was home to over 250,000 moulting and nesting King Penguins – you could not step one foot in front of the other without bumping into a bird! And that’s not all – the beach was also populated with several hundred fur seals who established their mating “harems” within a few meters of each other.
Unfortunately, the weather did not hold out for our last day in South Georgia – it was windy and lightly snowing, which was just enough to make the swells a little too big for the zodiacs to land on the beach. We could only observe this bountiful display of nature from afar. Too bad we had to end our adventure on a low note, but that’s the Antarctica for you: nothing is ever guaranteed.
Cold weather and swelly conditions at the beach on Salisbury Plain make it too rough for the captain to allow us to land onshore, so our visit is limited to a zodiac tour
The plain is LITERALLY covered with penguins. With over 50,000 nesting pairs, Salisbury is the *second* largest King Penguin rookery on the island. Apparently St. Andrews Bay, further south on the island, has a whooping 300,000 pairs! As impressive as that may sound, King Penguins aren’t even the most abundant penguin on South Georgia – the real “king” of the island is the Macaroni Penguin. With the island boasting over 5 MILLION nesting pairs, it’s pretty shocking that we didn’t even see one.
Fur Seals coexist peacefully with the King Penguins. The dominant males each establish a territory on the beach and will claim the right to mate with any females who camp out on their property, thus making himself a harem. Younger males will have to go further inland where they will probably wait disappointed, as few of the females will bother to leave the beachfront locations.
All the other penguin chicks we have seen until now were really cute. But King Penguin chicks just look awkward – talk about an ugly duckling! Their puffy brown feathers look like an comfortable winter coat even when it’s dry, but the poor things look exceptionally gross when they get too close to the surf.
King Penguin chicks take about a year to mature, so many of last year’s babies are finally finishing their “awkward teenager” phase and are moulting into their adult feathers.
The Expedition Team spotted a Leopard Seal lurking near the beach earlier in the morning, so the penguins are probably wary of predators. We see groups of them congregating on the beach before taking the plunge together – safety in numbers!