The remote and sparsely populated Falkland Islands are an ornithologist's dream. There are large and easily accessible colonies of penguins and albatrosses, especially on the outer islands.

The black-browed albatrosses accompanied us very early on our boat trip, and on the Falkland Islands we saw two breeding colonies on Saunders Island and at West Point. Again and again we were also accompanied by Southern and Northern Giant Petrels, as well as the much smaller Antarctic Prion, gulls and terns, and further south the Wandering Albatross.

In the Falkland Islands we also saw the endemic steamer ducks, oystercatchers and night herons, rock shags, caracara and turkey vultures, meadowlarks and tyrant flycatchers.

On the trip to South Georgia we saw large groups of Antarctic cormorants at Shags Rock.

South Georgia is unique: a breathtaking landscape combined with a paradise for animals of countless species. Here, too, we saw various penguins, including chinstrap and golden crested penguins for the first time, as well as giant pipits (South Georgia Pipit).

Antarctica and penguins are often mentioned in the same breath. However, only two species of these Antarctic birds live on the sixth continent - the emperor penguin and the Adelie penguin. The other species love the northern tip of Antarctica, where the weather conditions are less harsh.

The breeding colonies of emperor penguins are geographically the southernmost of all penguin species and are rarely sighted.

We saw Adélie Penguins on some landings; they are medium-sized penguins (up to 70 cm tall).

Other sightings in the Antarctic: Antarctic Tern, Great Skua (Subantarctic Skua), Dominican Gull (Kelp Gull), Blue-eyed Shags (Imperial Slag).