Bird Watching in Argentina - Península Valdés

Penguins

When the guides have to tell you not to touch the penguins, you know you are going to get close. Magellanic penguins are mid-sized (around 11 pounds), with black-and-white bodies and pink circles around their eyes that make them look a bit ditzy. Apparently when the explorer Magellan visited Patagonia, he and his crew found the penguins a bit useless, with meat that tasted like rotten pork—all fat and nerves. So they called them pájaros bobos, or silly birds.

We went to both the San Lorenzo penguin rookery (entrance US$40) near Punta Norte on the peninsula, and the much-touted colony of one million penguins at Punta Tombo (a long bus ride away, three hours from Puerto Madryn). My advice is, stick to the peninsula. Once you’ve seen 30,000 penguins (San Lorenzo), you’ve seen all you’re going to. Penguins waddle about to the beat of their own drum and don’t act any differently in groups of a few thousand versus a million. Not that I was expecting a choir of penguins on the rocks while others were doing Tai Chi at the beach—I just thought they might be more impressive all massed together. Not really.

It’s the proximity that’s so engaging—the penguins barely acknowledge your presence. My daughter crouched in front of nests to watch mother penguins feeding their fluffy gray babies, one foot away. She asked over and over why she couldn’t touch them—sure that anything that didn’t run away from her was fair game. However, like most 3-year-olds, after about half an hour she was onto something new—picking up stones, playing with sticks and counting the penguins in Spanish. 

Sea Lions and Elephant Seals

One has ears, one does not. One sleeps on land, the other sleeps in water. One set of mothers operates a nursery for the pups. The others feed their pups for just three weeks and take off, never to see them again.

• Whale watchers deboard their boat after a tour in Peninsula Valdes.
• Nichole Beauchamp

The first group is sea lions; the second is elephant seals. I know this, thanks to our guide Marta. She spent two days entertaining us with strange and interesting tales about the animals, their behavior and their sex lives. Most unexpectedly, I found myself fascinated by the sea lions and elephant seals lying on the beach, lazily flipping sand onto their stomachs to cool down and occasionally cuddling up to their neighbor. To my daughter, however, they were distant and dull. Good thing there were so many sticks around. Uno, dos, tres…

Other Wildlife

On our two days on the peninsula we also spotted guanacos (like llamas), rheas (like ostriches), an armadillo, maras (patagonian hares), petrels, oyster catchers, cormorants, turkey vultures and elegant crested tinamous—without really trying.

What You Can See, When

The animals come and go, so timing is important. We wanted to see baby whales and penguins, so early December worked well. This useful table comes from the Tourism Board of Puerto Madryn:  http://www.madryn.gov.ar/turismo/en/general_information/fauna_calendar