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Ken Kembry

@old-traveller.bsky.social
310 followers 43 following 1.4K posts
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
A moody day in Pouch Cove Newfoundland. A resurrected photo from about 1990
A moody black and white seascape from Pouch cove in Newfoundland
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
It's World Penguin day... there are many varieties of penguins - and I love them all!
Chinstrap Penguin, Half Moon Bay, Antarctic PeninsulaAdelie penguins, Gourdin Island, Antarctic PeninsulaRockhopper Penguin,  Saunders Island, Falkland IslandsKing Penguins, Salisbury Plain, South Georgia Island
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Half Moon Island, Antarctica #BlueSkyMonday #Photography #EastCoastKin
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Ah.. things are finally looking springy at the Toronto estate!
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
It's World Penguin Day!!
Lots of King Penguins at Salisbury Plain on South Georgia Island
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
On a positive note… although we’re having some trouble finding spring in Toronto, we do have a great garden conservatory - Allan Gardens - where can go and enjoy some horticultural beauty 🙂
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
I thought we needed more penguin today.. so here's a Rockhopper. I'm not sure why the rockhopper appeals to me so much - could it be the small size (50cm)? The hairstyle? The big pink feet? or maybe the (somewhat) demonic red eyes?
One of the penguins I really wanted to see on our trip was the Rockhopper. Not surprisingly it likes rocky areas and spends a lot of time hopping from rock to rock. In late October the females are already on the nest - and the males are hopping around looking for small stones or turf to bring back to upgrade the nest.
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Luckily nice clear skies (though a bit cold) in Toronto for grabbing a picture of the blood moon.
Blood Moon!
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
A somewhat despondent looking Southern elephant seal. This was back pre-election (Nov 2) so that can't be the cause. Actually he's a young male who it appeared had been in a bit of a scrap - and lost. It was mating season... #photography #nature #wildlife #travel
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
It's Penguin Awareness Day! There's something about the face of a chinstrap penguin that makes you very aware he (or she) is looking at you! But with a mischievous little grin 😊 #penguin #naturephotography #photography #birds
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
In the Antarctic there are more birds than just penguins... This is the Antarctic Shag, or Imperial Cormorant. It is usually found only in the Antarctic area and when nesting they seem to like to hang out with other bird species such as the rockhopper penguin, and black-browed albatross.
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
An Antarctic sea spider! Although it looks like a spider its actually a marine arthropod having an exoskeleton. As such, unlike an arachnid spider, it moults as it grows. Surprisingly there are about 1500 species of sea spider.. and they can be tiny, or huge (50cm). This one was only about 5cm.
Sea spiders swim and crawl along
sandy seafloors around the world. They
might be as small as a grain of sand or
as long as a housecat. When a sea
spider discovers a soft-bodied animal
to snack on, it thrusts its straw-like
proboscis into the animal’s flesh, then
sucks out its insides like a smoothie.

Sea spiders are also known as pantopods which means “all legs"
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
There's no place like home! Two Adelie penguins on Gourdin Island in the Antarctic gaze out at their domain. These two have undoubtedly returned home to nest.. though they'll wait until there's some melting... they only nest on stones piled together - snow and ice just don't cut it.
Adelie penguins are one of only 4 penguin species that nest on the continent itself and are only found in the Antarctic and some sub-Antarctic islands like South Georgia
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
In Antarctica the wildlife leave hints that they might be around... a few prints in the snow suggests there might be one or two penguins around... and somehow I figured out the second track was from an elephant seal! Good on me! From Yankee Harbour, Antarctica (evening)
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
We have a weird situation here... what is sky? what is snow? It was an interesting landscape at Yankee harbour in the Shetland Islands. Clearly, the penguins (Gentoo penguins if you're wondering) don't really care. Or maybe they're all gathered together discussing the possibilities .. hmmm... 🤔
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
While we were at Salisbury Plain on South Georgia Island, I called a meeting of the local King Penguins to discuss climate change. It was standing room only! A very attentive crowd... #southgeorgiaisland #worldwidequesttravel #kingpenguins
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
Will you be frolicking at midnight? These King Penguins at Salisbury Plain beach on South Georgia Island were practicing their New Years Eve porpoising frolic way back on Oct 31! Of course for them that might be the start of a new year anyway - Spring! Mating Season! New life!
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
I love clouds .. well not all clouds, if you know what I mean. But these clouds are magnificent - mostly lenticular, with a lovely fish shaped cloud on the left (once you see it you can't unsee it). That was on Nov 9th.. I wonder what it was like today? 🤔
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Oh my! Are they singing Christmas carols? No - this was early November - too early for carols (except, apparently, in grocery stores). Its courting time! Who knows what the story is with the third party....
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
Seals beware! - Orcas! In Antarctica there are 5 different types. These are likely type B1 - or pack ice orcas. They feed mostly on seals... and are good at it. They use innovative techniques to catch their prey such as flipping ice floes to knock seals into the water and use teamwork to hunt.
Most people are familiar with the black and white orcas off the North Pacific coast, but in Antarctica there are 5 different types. These -a mother and calf - are likely type B1 - or pack ice orcas. They're more grey in color, -although they have a dark grey patch called a "dorsal cape "stretching back from its forehead to just behind its dorsal fin - and the white areas are stained slightly yellow.
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
The Macaroni Penguin! They're not seen as often as other penguins - largely because they seem to like less accessible environments, like high up on the rocks. There are still about 6.3 million breeding pairs, but their numbers have been declining rapidly over the past few decades.
Why, you may wonder, is it called the Macaroni penguin?  The name comes from English sailors who nicknamed them after Macaronis - fashionable 18th-century Englishmen who wore caps with yellow feathers. These gentlemen were also the source of the line in the song "Yankee Doodle" in which the final two lines read “stuck a feather in his cap, and called it macaroni”.  

They're not seen as often as other penguins - largely because they seem to like less accessible environments, and hang out high up on the rocks.  While there are still about 6.3 million breeding pairs, their numbers have been declining rapidly over the past few decades primarily due to habitat changes, climate change, and overfishing, which affects their food supply.
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
A calm and peaceful morning at Deception Island in the Antarctic Peninsula. Nov 10.
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Intrigue in the Antarctic? It's mating season in the Antarctic... I'm sure there's a story here... #antarctica #antarcticpeninsula #halfmoonislandantarctica #penguins #antarctica21
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
The most abundant species of fur seals are Antarctic fur seals. There are around 5 million of them on South Georgia, which is about 95% of the global population. Antarctic seal fur seals were nearly hunted to extinction in the 18th and 19th centuries. These days they are protected and thriving.
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Many Expedition ships in the Antarctic have labs as part of their infrastructure. Doing research in the polar regions is expensive and complicated - these labs provide means for ongoing research. Scientists on board also share their expertise with passengers. #mvmagellanexplorer #antarctica21
Wet lab on the MV Magellan Explorer measuring aspects of the Antarctic Ocean Antarctica is surrounded by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current - a flow of colder water that circles the continent. The area where this current meets the various oceans is called the Antarctic Convergence.  As one passes through the convergence there is a noticeable drop in sea temperature and salinity…
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
I'm likin' this picture... Lichen that is.. bright orange lichen - and a fine lenticular cloud in the sky, lovely blue glacier and lone penguin... From Half Moon Island in the Antarctic Peninsula.
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
South Georgia is a key summer feeding ground for a number of whale species, but the whaling industry on the island nearly wiped them out, killing over 176K in sixty years. Almost every bay on South Georgia had a whaling station - Grytviken was the first. Surprisingly, whaling continued until 1966
Grytviken HarbourWhaleboat the Petrel.  The harpoon gun is mounted on the front. It had 14 ports along the sides where killed whales could be tethered to drag them back to Grytviken for "processing"Oil Storage tanks
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Ah, spring on South Georgia Island. It's mating season for the penguins and seals - and at Salisbury Plain there are about 60K breeding pairs of king penguins - when you include chicks and non-breeding penguins the total is about 250K. #southgeorgiaisland #antarctica21 #penguins #worldwidequest
The penguins at Salisbury Plain in South Georgia
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
In Antarctica it stays light late - and we took advantage of the great weather and calm seas to do a landing at Yankee Harbour. This was taken after 9pm.... #antarctica #antarctica21 #worldwidequesttravel #antarcticpeninsula
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
There are different ways of getting around on an Antarctic expeditons... a comfortable expedition ship (this one was 88 passengers maximum - 69 in our case); a versatile zodiac; or a delightful hike in a snowy landscape.
Zodiac outing at Gourdin Island, Antarctic PeninsulaSnowy trek at Telefon Bay on Deception Island in the Antarctic Peninsula
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Ken Kembry @old-traveller.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
From Deception Island on the Antarctic Peninsula These are Weddell seals, the first a mature female eating snow, a relatively rare sighting, and the second cute young pup. The Weddell seal is only found in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions generally around the Antarctic coast.
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