Went to Cape Dolphin yesterday for a look around the penguin colony’s and the pond. All the Penguins are now in their annual post breeding moult.

Moulting Gentoo Penguins 

Moulting Magellanic Penguins

A lost moulting Rockhopper Penguin with Magellanic Penguin 

On the Pond there were 2 pairs of Black Necked Swans both with cygnets, White Tufted Grebe, 250+ Speckled Teal, 6 Silver Teal, 44 Chiloe Wigeon, 1 Yellow Billed Pintail, 35 Crested Ducks & the star bird was a single female Red Shoveler.

A pair of Black Necked Swans with this years cygnet 

Around the edge of the pond wader numbers were very high with hundreds of Rufous Chested Dotterel, Two Banded Plover & White Rumped Sandpiper. While scanning through the waders I saw a Chilean Swallow hawking for insects at the edge of the pond.

At the breeding Southern Sea-Lion beach I counted 79 pups along with 3 young Southern Elephant Seals.

Adult male Southern Sea-Lion with females & pups

Offshore I saw large numbers of Black Browed Albatross, Sooty Shearwater, Thin Billed Prion & a few White Chinned Petrels along with a few large whales probably Sei Whales.

Other birds seen during the day included 3 Red Back Hawks , Turkey Vulture, 1 Peregrine Falcon carrying a South American Tern & 2 Southern Caracaras.

Turkey Vulture