Setting foot on the Antarctic continent

February 1, 1994

The base was empty: apparently the Chileans were all gone for a while. There were thousands of penguins, however, all making noise just like their cousins at Port Lockroy.

Gentoo penguins on rock nests

Gentoo guarding their territory

It was much drier here, however. The ground was stone mixed with a soft, spongy dry material that I assume must be dried mixture of mud and guano.

The ground at Paradise Bay's Chilean base

There were also cormorants and a very fat white bird variety, scavenging among the rookery residents.

Cormorants and another bird type infesting the rookery

Offshore I spotted two large predator birds, mostly white with black patches on their sides, long legs, and hooked beaks, standing on rocks. They looked like seagulls to me.

An abandoned gentoo nest

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