Trip to Bleaker Island (Falkland Islands)

A FIGAS flight, operated with a 9 seats Islander, brings me from Stanley to Bleaker Island, where I will stay for three nights.

Bleaker Island is about 16 miles long, but never wider than 2 miles. There is a still active farm and a nice cottage (right picture) for tourists.

The accommodation on Bleaker Island is very charming and has three bedrooms with two beds each, a bathroom with shower and hot water, a kitcken and a wide living room with library and TV / video recorder. The eletricity (220V) is available 24 hours on 24, so you will not have to worry about recharging the batteries. This is a very nice place to relax, after a full day outside.

For the first day tour on Bleaker Island, I decide to visit the king cormorants and rockhopper penguins colony, which are just 20 minutes on foot from the cottage. The land where I hike is quite flat, with low shrubs and grass just everywhere.

Shortly, I reach an enormous colony of king cormorants.

And finally, a beautiful colony of about 700 rockhopper penguins. The rockhopper penguin is the world's third smallest penguin and the smallest penguin living in the Falklands. At the beginning of October, the males return from the ocean and start to buil a nest; several days later, also the females arrive. They are called "rockhopper" for their incredible ability to climb, jumping on their lovely pink feet, steep cliffs sometimes higher than 100 meters. Unfortunately this penguin is very vulnerable, nearly threatened, as the colonies were decimated by unknown factors during the last 20 years.

Pictures of rockhopper penguins on Bleaker Island.

Penguins taking care of their feathers.

The penguins recognize the partner by voice. There are two movies showing this behaviour of the penguins, click the links below to see them:

MOVIE 1 | MOVIE 2

Rockhopper penguins busy in nest building. There are two movies showing penguins busy in nest building at the beginning of the breeding season, click the links below to see them:

MOVIE 1 | MOVIE 2

Pictures of mating penguins.

The steep cliffs around the colony on Bleaker Island.

Penguins evaluating the best path to climb up.

Penguins descending from the colony to the sea.

There are three movies showing penguins climbing and descending a cliff, click the links below to see them:

MOVIE 1 | MOVIE 2 | MOVIE 3

Also the king cormorants were busy in nest building.

Photos of more birds from Bleaker Island.