Volunteer Point

Beaches & CovesEast Falkland,Falkland Islands

A white-sand spit on East Falkland where almost every king penguin in the islands stands together, about 1,500 pairs on open sand with no fence.

September·Quiet month

Apr–Sep

Brown king chicks tough out winter, fasting to half their weight while parents fish at sea. The Magellanics have gone north, the cruise season is over, days are short and highs near 4°C. Only heavy rain, not the calendar, shuts the 4x4 track.

Year-round King penguins are on this beach in every month of the year. Their breeding cycle runs 14 to 16 months, so what changes is the stage the colony has reached.

Volunteer Point is a spit of white sand on the northeast coast of East Falkland, in the Falkland Islands, where almost every king penguin in the islands stands together, about 1,500 breeding pairs on open sand with no fence between them and the visitors, reached by a two-hour drive across the camp from Stanley on a track that is mud for most of it. The king penguin is the second-largest penguin, a metre tall with an orange collar, and this is its northernmost large colony, growing from a handful of pairs in the 1970s; the colony lies on the low ground behind the beach, and from the rise above it its shape resolves, a crowd of grey and gold standing in a rough circle with the chicks in the middle, while small parties shuttle between the colony and the water all day, walking upright in single file over pale sand streaked with green marram grass and past the gentoo and Magellanic penguins that share the point. The rule is to keep six metres back, and the penguins ignore it, walking up to the visitors' boots. The breeding show runs from November to March. A single egg is carried on the parents' feet under a fold of skin through November and December, hatching from January, and by March the chicks are bunching into crèches; the chicks wear a thick brown down so unlike the adults' sleek plumage that early observers wrote them up as a separate bird, and they stand almost as tall as their parents, begging with a whistle, then fast through the southern winter on the beach while the parents hunt far out at sea, so that the yearlings in their shaggy brown coats stand among the adults all year. Paired kings stretch their necks skyward and trumpet in unison, a brassy duet that lets each bird pick its partner's voice out of thousands. The beach beyond the colony runs white and empty to the surf. Volunteer Point is a beach the kings have chosen, and the walk to them has no gate.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Come dressed for peat bog — there is no road in; the last stretch is trackless bog and open camp, and heavy rain can close it entirely. Waterproof boots, not trainers.
Ask whether a cruise ship is in port — on ship days the colony fills with vehicles from late morning to mid-afternoon, so an early start buys you the beach almost to yourself.
Sit down and let them come to you — the six-metre rule binds you, not the penguins. Stay low and still, and curious kings will often walk right up to inspect you.
Bird flu has reached this colony — disinfect your boots as the wardens ask, never step between a penguin and its path to the sea, and report dead birds instead of approaching them.

Things to do

1
Watch a pair trumpet in unison
Paired kings stretch their necks skyward and call together, a brassy duet that lets each bird pick its partner's voice out of a colony of thousands. They repeat it through the day, entirely indifferent to whoever is standing a few metres away.
2
Meet the yearlings in their brown down
Chicks hatched the previous summer stand almost as tall as the adults, wrapped in shaggy brown down and still begging to be fed. They gather in loose crèches while their parents are at sea, and they are usually the birds bold enough to come closest to you.
3
See the whole king colony from the rise
From the low ground above the beach the shape of the colony resolves. It is a dense mass of white fronts and orange collars packed shoulder to shoulder, with a steady trickle of birds arriving from the sea to join it.
4
Follow a line of penguins over the dunes
Small parties shuttle between the colony and the water all day, walking upright in single file over pale sand streaked with green marram grass. Fall in behind at a respectful distance and they will lead you straight down to the surf. At the water's edge they bunch up and hesitate, then commit in a rush through the breakers — with sea lions working the shallows offshore, it is the one moment a king penguin looks fast.