Penguin Summer in the Falklands

In 1984, two years after the Falklands War, Rich Kern journeyed alone to the Falklands to revise a film made by Olin Sewall Pettingill, Jr., one of America’s leading ornithologists and former director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. Rich had to go by way of England and from there fly to Ascension Island and thence by the “Air Bridge” to the windswept Falklands.

In 1984, two years after the Falklands War, Rich Kern journeyed alone to the Falklands to revise a film made by Olin Sewall Pettingill, Jr., one of America’s leading ornithologists and former director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. Rich had to go by way of England and from there fly to Ascension Island and thence by the “Air Bridge” to the windswept Falklands. The last leg of the trip involved air to air refueling, and the in first two attempts they failed to reach the islands and had to turn back after many hours of flying. Kern began to think he would never make it and would never get to film the five species of penguins that nest in the Falklands during the Austral Spring. But finally, they landed after a third attempt.

The only way to visit the many extraordinary colonies of penguins and seals in the Falklands is to island hop aboard a small plane that makes the mail run once or twice a week and carries a few passengers. At most, there is a single sheep rancher and his family on any of the outer islands where the penguin colonies are. The plane settles down on a grass runway, makes its deliveries and sails off. So when Rich would hike to, say, a massive rockhopper colony of 100,000 birds, he was the only one around. When he put on his dry suit and slipped into the frigid waters to get underwater shots, there was never more than one person waiting for him on the shore.

The penguins and seals were not particularly fazed by Kern invading their space. On shore the birds pecked at his shoelaces. In the water one sea lion tugged on his swim fins, playfully, he assumed. It was much like the Galapagos but much windier, colder and without the tourists.

For anyone who can figure out how to get to the Falklands for more than a cruise ship stop, the islands are one of the few places where one can imagine life on Earth at a time when man had not covered it with his progeny and his handiwork. Kern spoke to the owner of New Island – a 14-mile-long stretch of land with some of the best penguin colonies in the world. The owner wanted to sell the island, complete with its stone house. The price? About what you would pay for a modest three-bedroom home on a half-acre in Miami-Dade. Location, location, location.

Coming soon

RELATED VIDEOS

The Florida Scrub Jay

Gopher Tortoise: Ecosystem Engineer