Today we added two new penguin species to our list, the Magellanic and Rockhopper. We also saw the elegant Black-browed albatross with its chick. We saw penguins, sea lions, fur seals and lots of "little brown birds" including the rare Tussock bird. Windswept and isolated, these islands hold an abundance of wildlife that can rarely be equaled anywhere in the world. Carcass and New islands, our destinations, have mixed colonies of seabirds. The hustle and bustle of activities makes these places showstoppers. Shags feeding fuzzy huge chicks that are as big as they are. Watching the young plunge their pointed sharp bill down the throat of the adults makes you marvel that the adults aren't injured. Rockhopper chicks playing king of the mountain pushing and shoving each other remind us of our own childhood. The kings of the kingdom are the Albatross chicks sitting sedately on their elevated mud nest surveying their world.

For me the highlight was New Island where I've worked since 1996. It's been a year since I've seen the mixed seabird colony and watched the Rockhoppers greet mates and chicks like long-lost relatives at a reunion that has gotten out of hand. They are loud and raucous and look like tough guys with their yellow plumes flying in the wind. I wanted to see old friends, penguins I've marked to see how they were doing. Did they fledge their chicks? Did they move to a new nest, improve the old one or get a new mate? I didn't get a chance to answer all these questions but I did see old marked penguins and saw they had another successful breeding season.

The season is winding down and Magellanic chicks are now juveniles out to sea and adults are finishing the molt before heading off for the winter to Argentina and Brazil. A few Rockhopper chicks are left but most of them have likewise gone to sea for the winter. I hope to return next year to see how they have fared.