This Saturday 8 of us went for a day trip out to Auster rookery. I was pretty excited to get back out there as I had only been once before and the chicks were only just about to hatch back then. Auster would be one of the Larger rookeries with approximately 4000 birds and the rules about approaching this particular rookery are a little more relaxed, so it makes for a great experience. It takes almost 3 hours travelling in the Haggs to get there from Mawson and we park up almost 1 km from the rookery so as to not cause any disturbance. Even at that distance there are a couple stray penguins either making their way back to the ocean to feed or back to the rookery. They will quite often come over to check us out and see what’s going on. If they are on their own, they still seem pretty happy to stop 4-5 meters away from our group. As we approached the actual rookery we noticed they had split into two groups which is not unusual as they are quite happy to spread out a bit when the weather is good. The two groups were about 300 meters a part so we walked into the space between them and made our way a little closer to the smaller of the two groups. As we each set about grabbing our cameras and setting up a few penguins at a time started waddling over to come see us. So long as we stay quiet, don’t go moving too quickly and stay kneeling down when possible the penguins are not bothered by us at all and its quite cute as to how curious they are. After a few minutes watching them I turned around to notice penguins from the other group had snuck up behind us and were watching us watch the other group. I hung out there for quite a while just enjoying the novelty and unique experience before moving off to have a look at the other group. These penguins have been in roughly the same spot for the last 6 months, so the snow underneath has been stained a light greenish brown. I had heard stories about how bad these rookeries can smell towards the end of the season but it didn’t seem quite that bad but was also definitely noticeable. As most of the penguins were grouped together hugging the edges of the icebergs sheltering the whole area, I found a spot in the middle of the clearing, in a small patch of almost clear snow. After a few minutes a group of about 10 penguins made their way over and chilled out about 3 meters away from me. Luckily they didn’t seem at all worried by my GoPro I had on a stand and were happy to sit about 1 foot away from it. The only tricky bit was when I went to leave, I had to slowly crawl over, reach out and grab it back. The one closest to it shuffled back slightly a little nervously but apart from that they were not at all fussed. They seem to be very sociable and curious animals and since they don’t have any land-based predators, are quite happy to investigate their visitors and will spend quite a while very close to us. It is an unbelievable experience not only because very few people ever get to experience this especially in this environment, but also to be allowed to get so close and intimate with wild animals.
Guy's Antarctica Adventure 2020 