Gobs of Penguins – A visit to an Adelie Colony

November 22nd, 2025

I’m going to try real hard to keep my blathering to a minimum and just post a bunch of picture. Last night we sailed back into rough water (I kind of enjoy it at night.. sort of like being back in the cradle) and headed further south. We are way beyond the Anarctic Circle now. The intent was visit an Adélie penguin colony, and then find a fjord with enough stable sea ice to ram the ship in, and let everyone play on the ice. 

We hit ‘em both. What a great day. But this post is all about penguins. Everyone loves them. This particular colony is fairly large, located on a very rocky shore beneath a glacier. Everything is beneath a glacier here. It was our first wet landing (we wear big waterproof muck boots, and a short steep climb up on the shore. Except for a group of crazy people who climbed up a steep glacial moraine for no particular purpose other than to climb up a steep glacial moraine, everyone else just wandered around watching penguins either on the shore, or up on the rocky slope, or wandering in between. They were everywhere. It was like watching either a cartoon, or a nature movie. We even got to watch the males stealing rocks from one nest to their own. And of course these penguins are known for their high velocity pooping. No, I did not photograph that. These are all Adelie penguins, the smallest of the Antarctic birds. But just as cute and funny to watch. I spent most of my time by the colony, where the females were sitting on eggs and males were wandering around aimlessly (it seemed), and then watched a bit from the shore. It was about 30F – cold enough when you are standing on snow for 90 minutes. It was nice to be back to the ship

Enough blathering….I do have some video and will eventually do a summary including the best photos and some video as well.

And there was one Wendell’s Seal lazing around the beach