Readers’ wildlife photos

We have a rare batch of photos from reader Russell Collins today, as they show the Antarctic—the place I most want to visit. (If anybody wants to comp a scientist a trip in return for four lectures on Antarctica and biology, I’m game.) Russell’s notes and IDs are indented:

I’m heeding your call for more wildlife photos. I recently returned from a spectacular 22-day sailing adventure to the Antarctic Peninsula where the was an abundance of wildlife. We often didn’t have the best weather for photography, but nothing can be done about that except to work as best as you can with the conditions you’ve been given. Apologies if I have sent too many.

Chinstrap penguin (Pygoscelis antarcticus):

Chinstrap penguin and chick:

Chinstrap penguin colony:

 Gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua):

Gentoo penguin and chick:

Gentoo penguin colony:

Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae):

Adelie penguin and chicks:

Adelie penguin rookery:

We spent several hours one day slow circling around Paradise Bay while watching several groups of Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) feeding. It was an amazing show, as they would dive, slap the water with their fins and surfaced while gulping mouths full of krill – at times only a few meters from the ship. The cloudy and snowy weather that day was, however, not ideal for photography.

Humpback whales:

Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella):

Crabeater seals (Lobodon carcinophaga):

Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii):

Weddell seal:

And a couple of gratuitous non-wildlife photos: first, a panorama shot of Neko Harbour, our only landing on the actual continent (the other landings were on islands).

And finally a photo of our ship the Bark Europa, she’s registered as a sail training vessel so everyone signs on as voyage crew and is expected to participate in sailing the ship. It is, I think, the best possible way to travel to Antarctica – though sailing a tall ship across the Drake Passage is, perhaps, not for the faint of heart (or weak of stomach).

JAC: I am extremely jealous. Will I see a penguin in Antarctica before I die? If I know a song of Antarctica, of the plump seals plastered on the ice and the glaciers calving blue offspring and the fishy faces of the penguins, does Antarctica know a song of me? Will the air over the snow quiver with a color that I have on, or the Adelies invent a game in which my name is, or the masts of a bark throw a shadow on the water that is like me, or will the gentoos of Palmer Land watch out for me?