Mountains, glaciers, and chinstrap penguins, Antarctica

At the end of our trip to Antarctica for Visionary Wild, I told Claudia that the thing I was going to miss most was seeing penguins every day. It seemed strange to be heading back to a world without penguins, since they had been a daily part of our lives for two weeks.

And penguins are so much fun to watch. While supremely graceful in water, they’re awkward on land. Yet every day many penguins climb and descend from their nests on slopes so steep they would intimidate most humans. They fall all the time, but always seem to bounce back up and keep going. They’re determined and dedicated parents; they have to be to thrive and reproduce in this harsh environment. And they’re feisty. They won’t tolerate other penguins getting too close to their nest, or intruding on their space.

And somehow all of that is endearing. As Claudia said, they’re so earnest in everything they do. They’re seemingly unfazed by the daily challenges that they face, and go about their business as best they can, putting one webbed foot in front of the other. And their behaviors are quirky and entertaining – gathering rocks to add to their nests, stealing rocks from other nests, plus various calls and displays. In chinstrap penguin colonies, adults would frequently throw their heads back, point their beaks to the sky, flap their flippers, and make their croaking call. (I think this is called an “ecstatic” display.) And this could be contagious, where one chinstrap would do it, then another, and another, and soon every adult in the neighborhood would be doing it.

We saw other birds that could actually fly, like skuas, giant petrels, kelp gulls, Antarctic terns, and cormorants (or “shags,” as some of our British crew members called them).

Then there are the Antarctic fur seals. We saw five different species of seals in Antarctica: Weddell, crabeater, leopard, southern elephant, and Antarctic fur. We saw most of those seals resting on ice floes or rocks. Our crew called them “sausages,” because that’s what they look like, plus they’re usually about as active as sausages.

But fur seals are much more agile and active on land than the other seals we saw. And they’re playful. As earnest as the penguins were, the fur seals were the opposite, needing little excuse to chase each other and play-fight. Of course it was mostly juveniles that were playing, but we saw an adult join in as well. And even when resting the fur seals exhibited lots of personality. Watching them was highly entertaining.

You do have to be cautious around fur seals, because sometimes they’ll chase people – and they’re faster than you think. We didn’t see fur seals chase anyone, but kept a respectful distance.

In addition to the penguins and seals, we saw lots of humpback whales – way more than we could possibly count. And on our last day, as we were motoring toward King George Island, our second mate, Joanne, spotted an orca. She turned the ship immediately, and we ended up following a pod of four or five orcas for an hour or so. A great send off on our way home.

It’s amazing that so many animals thrive in this harsh, cold environment, but it’s all due to an abundant food supply in the form of krill. Krill are small, shrimp-like crustaceans. In Antarctica they’re the a main food supply for penguins, many other birds, crabeater seals (which don’t actually eat crabs), and humpback whales. And some of these species are, in turn, preyed upon by leopard seals and orcas.

Krill feed on phytoplankton, microscopic algae that grow in the nutrient-rich waters around Antarctica. The cold waters sink, creating a cycle that pushes nutrients to the surface, feeding the phytoplankton, which feed the krill, which feed almost everything else. So while there aren’t many different species of animals in Antarctica, the ones that have adapted to this environment have a rich source of food from the sea, and can often be found in great numbers. A chinstrap penguin colony on Deception Island has an estimated 100,000 breeding pairs.

Antarctic krill are so abundant in the areas we visited that our crew could see vast swarms of them on the ship’s sonar. And where we found thick schools of krill, we always saw humpback whales, drawn to this rich source of food.

I loved the icy, mountainous, glacier-covered landscapes of Antarctica, but watching penguins, fur seals, and whales made the experience even richer. I’ve included some of my favorite wildlife photos from our trip to Antarctica below, and here’s a video Claudia and I put together showing Antarctic wildlife. Claudia captured most of the footage; all of it was made with an iPhone 15 or 16:

— Michael Frye

P.S. I can’t wait to go back next year! I’ll be joining Visionary Wild founder Justin Black for another trip to Antarctica next January. I loved the flexibility we had aboard the Hans Hansson to focus on the best photographic opportunities, with our small group taking over the whole ship, and I’m looking forward to doing it again with another enthusiastic group of photographers next year.

And if you like icebergs and spectacular landscapes, I’ll be co-leading another trip for Visionary Wild to Greenland this September, with Jerry Dodrill and Chris Linder as co-instructors. I’m really looking forward to that trip as well; I’m sure will be an unforgettable experience! There are still a few spots available, so I hope you can join us.

Gentoo penguins and small icebergs, Antarctica

Gentoo penguins attempting to leap onto an iceberg, Antarctica

Adélie penguin on an iceberg, Antarctica

“Porpoising” gentoo penguins, Antarctica

Gentoo penguin highways, Antarctica

Gentoo penguin procession, Antarctica

Swimming gentoo penguin, Antarctica

Gentoo penguins on an iceberg, Antarctica

Chinstrap Penguins on an iceberg in fog, Antarctica

Iceberg with chinstrap penguins, Antarctica

Antarctic tern with krill, Antarctica

Curious Weddell seal, Antarctica

Antarctic fur seals jousting in a snowstorm, Antarctica

Orcas, Bransfield Straight, Antarctica

Humpback whales, Gerlach Straight, Antarctica

Glaciers, clouds, and humpback whale, Antarctica

Related Posts: My First 36 Hours in Antarctica; One Day in Antarctica

Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He lives near Yosemite National Park in California, but travels extensively to photograph natural landscapes in the American West and throughout the world.

Michael uses light, weather, and design to make photographs that capture the mood of the landscape, and convey the beauty, power, and mystery of nature. His work has received numerous awards, including the North American Nature Photography Association’s 2023 award for Fine Art in Nature Photography. Michael’s photographs have appeared in publications around the world, and he’s the author and/or principal photographer of several books, including Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, and The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite.

Michael loves to share his knowledge of photography through articles, books, workshops, online courses, and his blog. He’s taught over 200 workshops focused on landscape photography, night photography, digital image processing, and printing.