Nigel Marven's Penguin Safari

Early Spring, My mission at St Andrews Bay is to find a King Penguin individual to follow for the spring and to witness an Elephant Seal birth. By the end of the show I achieve both targets, finding in a colony of 200,000 penguins, a bird with strange markings, who I call Charles. At Bird Island I meet Macaroni Penguins and name one Basil. He is waiting for his wife to arrive. I mark his nest with an elaborate house sign and prepare the audience for a remarkable transformation from 1,000 Macaronis to 80,000. At Cobblers Cove I meet the thieving Gentoos, Terry and June.

My mission at St Andrews Bay is to find Charles, but I have to admit defeat at the end of the show and decide to follow courtship activity in the colony as a whole, we were not allowed to mark birds, so this was our only option. Bull elephant seals are beginning to fight, I see a spectacular battle in amongst the King Penguins. At Bird Island, Basil is still waiting for his mate. I meet giant Petrels and wandering Albatrosses. Terry and June are still thieving at Cobblers Cove. I feel so sorry for their neighbours, I give them some extra DIY nest materials.

Cybil has at last returned to join Basil, the spectacular colony now has over 80,000 birds. Birds nesting in the centre have to run a gauntlet of pecking neighbours. At Cobblers Cove where Terry and June - the thieving Gentoo penguins live, there is been an extraordinary turn of events. All of their neighbours have moved away. Was there a mini avalanche or had they has enough of Terry and Junes anti-social behaviour? At St Andrews bay the cute King penguin chicks are growing fast. Nigel makes friends with one that follows him everywhere.

On South Georgia Island it is the day of the Fur Seals. Twice the weight of Nigel, with formidable teeth, they are dangerous animals. To ward off attacks, the presenter needs a stick to tickle their whiskers. Basil and Cybil the Macaronis and Terry and June the Gentoos have laid and defend their clutch against aerial attack from predatory skewers. Nigel watched the hunters swallow eggs mid air. At St Andrews Bay, home of 200,000 king penguins and over 6,000 Elephants Seals, the seal pup Nigel watched being born is now 3 weeks old. This cute blubber wrapped baby with unfeasibly huge eyes is preparing for its first sea voyage. Threesomes of King Penguins are not what they seem, you would expect two males to be fighting for a mate, but the birds flapping each other with their flippers are females, a wife is fighting to keep her husband.

For Nigel Time is running out. It is touch and go whether he will see Terry and Junes newly hatched chicks, Cybil the Macaroni starting to incubate her egg, or the first King Penguin egg of the year.