Bleaker Island

Bleaker Island is long, narrow and almost flat, which for once makes a Falklands island easy to walk: gentoo, magellanic and rockhopper colonies, an imperial shag colony and a pond with waterfowl all sit within a few kilometres of the settlement on foot. The name comes from a corruption of Breaker rather than from the weather, though the weather does the name no harm. Long Gulch, a narrow inlet cut into the eastern coast, is the one piece of dramatic ground on an otherwise level island.

What you actually see

• The walkable scale - colonies reachable on foot from the settlement.
• The shag colony - imperial shags nesting on the coast.
• The penguin species - gentoo, magellanic and rockhopper all breeding.
• The pond - freshwater drawing waterfowl near the settlement.

When to go

October to March is the breeding season. Rockhoppers arrive in October and leave by April. Winter has almost no wildlife.

Honest expectations

Accommodation is a single self-catering lodge and must be booked well ahead. FIGAS flights are weather-dependent. There is no shelter anywhere on the walks and the wind is constant.

Nearby

Sea Lion Island is west, and Stanley is northeast.