Full list of destinations:
Asmat Region, West Papua
Sepik River, Papua New Guinea
Tufi, Papua New Guinea
Baining Mountains, Papua New Guinea
Loh Island, Vanuatu
Tanna, Vanuatu
Manra Atoll, Kiribati
Suwarrow, Cook Islands
Manihiki, Cook Islands
Aitutaki, Cook Islands
Bora Bora, French Polynesia
Motutunga, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
Ua Pou, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia
Fatu Hiva, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia
All 17 Penguins Species Photographed over a Decade
While navigating the intricate, rocky shoreline of Dusky Sound in my zodiac, I realised I was on the verge of a unique and completely unplanned milestone – to photograph all seventeen recognised penguin species on the planet. It was of some amusement to me that this seventeenth species should lie on my back doorstep – New Zealand’s magnificent Fiordland National Park. Having worked for over a decade on expedition vessels to remote islands of the Southern Ocean and around the world, I was now only a couple of hundred kilometres from my living room looking for the Tawaki (also known as Fiordland crested penguin).
Within a couple of hours the keen birders amongst our party had one spotted, then several more. Several were in the water which came several metres from my craft, and a few were sitting in well protected cracks on the rocky shoreline. As per usual, the shutters flew, the birders ecstatic as we marvelled in a magical experience viewing one of New Zealand’s true elusive characters in the wild.
And so, with the ‘list’ complete, here are all 17 penguin species (in alphabetical order by english names) as seen through my camera over the past decade:
As always, all photos are copyright and may not be reproduced without permission from myself, and just in case anyone out there is writing a book about the world’s penguins, feel free to contact me, I believe I can help 🙂
Adelie Penguin in Crystal Sound, Antarctic Peninsula. Named after French explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville after his wide Adélie Pepin.
African Penguins (or Jackass Penguins), viewed from a distance on Robben Island, near Cape Town, South Africa.
Chinstrap Penguin, Antarctica. Now how did they get that name?
Emperor Penguin, Antarctica. The largest of all penguin species.
Erect-Crested Penguin, breeding only on two remote New Zealand subantarctic islands, the Antipodes and Bounty Islands.
Fiordland Crested Penguin (Tawaki) at the waters edge in Dusky Sound, New Zealand.
Gálapagos Penguin, the only species to live in the northern hemisphere!
Gentoo Penguin – The chick here mesmerised by the falling snow.
Humboldt Penguin off the coast of Peru.
King Penguins standing tall at St Andrew’s Bay, South Georgia.
The Little Blue Penguin (or Fairy Penguin) in New Zealand’s Dusky Sound.
The superbly named Macaroni Penguin in South Georgia.
Magellanic Penguins and their chicks on Saunders Island, Falkland Islands.
A Rockhopper Penguin with cool hair and striking red eyes on the Falklands.
Royal Penguin, breeding only on Australia’s Macquarrie Island.
And last but definitely not least, my favourite, the Yellow-eyed Penguin (or Hōiho), a rare shy and elusive inhabitant of southern New Zealand. Photographed here on Enderby Island in the subantarctic Auckland Islands.
Snares Crested Penguin, living in large numbers on, you guessed it, Snares Islands in New Zealand’s subantarctic. Somehow this character evades alphabetical order.
The second video in our Wild series, after Wild Alaska.
The Kimberley was one of the earliest settled parts of Australia, with the first arrivals landing about 41,000 years ago. This video includes footage from the King George River and Falls, the Hunter River, Ord River, Raft Point and Montgomery Reef.
“We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. ” – Aboriginal Proverb
A new Speechless episode from the majestic Enderby Island, part of the Auckland Islands in the New Zealand subantarctic. Step ashore with the rare Yellow-eyed penguins as they make their way past numerous New Zealand Sea Lions en route to their peaceful sanctuary in an ancient rata forest.
‘The power of imagination makes us infinite’ – John Muir.
A visual nature essay from the costal wilderness of Southern Alaska; water, mist, mountains, glaciers, icebergs, whales, fjords, forests and bears. Wild Alaska was created by filmmakers Aliscia Young and Richard Sidey during an expedition in July 2015.
Photography & Editing Aliscia Young & Richard Sidey
A day at sea today on the MV Silver Discoverer with Nobel Caledonia, making our way eastwards from Korsakov, Russia across the Kuril Basin to Yankicha, a sunken volcanic caldera on the Pacific Ring of Fire, once visited by the indigenous Ainu people and home to their god of thunder.
Mid-morning, while birdwatching on the aft deck, a group of around 20 – 30 Orca were spotted off the port beam. The Killer Whales were in great display, spy-hopping, tail flapping and rolling on their backs as we slowed our speed. Several large males came close to the ship and the pods made a couple of passes, allowing for good photographs, before they continued on their way. My colleges and I were scanning for any sight of the rare white orcas our friends had photographed the previous summer, but unfortunatly they were not in this pod.
Photographically the light today was low, grey and bleak, so common in this part of the world, but any encounter with Orca is always a wonderful experience.
A turtle dove flies beside our vessel during the morning.
Spyhoping Killer Whale
A pod of around 20-30 killer whales spy-hopping and tail flapping.
Several of the Killer Whales make a close pass to the ship
