This is still Cuverville Island. Penguin colonies in an area can range from dozens to hundreds. Some penguin colonies have a half million penguins or more. The gentoo penguin colony on Cuverville Island was large and covered quite a range of locations.

In the first photo, these penguins were actually quite close to the water which I thought was a great location. It meant that these penguins didn’t have too far to go between their nests and getting some food. But according to some of our expedition staff, these are not the preferred locations.

In the second photo, you can see some other colonies and these are quite a ways up the steep cliffs. I would say that some of them were as much as 150 to 200 yards up the cliffs. Our expedition staff said that these were usually the first spots taken when the gentoo penguins came to start nesting. It seems that the nesting sites farther from the water have been safer over evolutionary time. I suppose it would be harder for a seal or Orca to get them and also less likely for a baby to wander into the water, so it probably makes sense. It just seems like such a long and hard hike every time the penguins need to get some food. I’m zoomed way in on this photo as it’s up the hill quite a long distance.

The third photo is just a close up of a few nesting birds. Brush-tailed penguins build their nests out of small rocks and pebbles. They are frequently adding more rocks to their nests to keep them built up. Where do they get the rocks? They mostly steal the rocks from other penguins nests which never goes over very well with the other penguins.