Punta Norte, Peninsula Valdes, Argentina. Very heavy rains coupled with gale force winds around the Peninsula caused exceptional mortality in Magellanic Penguin chicks. The first major storm occurred on 29 Nov. with torrential rain and very high winds from the NE for much of the day. Nov 30 th and 1 st of December had little (sporadic) rain but temperatures were unseasonably low. During the night of 1st December to 2nd there was driving rain and gale force winds from the South. Over 2nd December, it continued to rain and remained cold. Conditions improved on 3rd December. The heavy rains resulted in flooding in a great many penguin nests and large numbers of chicks died as a result. A section of the colony where we had marked and weighed chicks had 58% mortality (38 chicks of 66). Masses of chicks were between 200 and 1200 g.--Rory Wilson <rwilson@ifm.uni-kiel.de>