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Penguins
About 20km form the base was an Emperor Penguin colony consisting of
thousands of birds. This was a popular destination for day trips and weekends.
They are really quite amazing animals. You could lie down on the sea ice and
they would actually walk up to you to have a look. This is probably down to
their short sightedness and the fact that they seem to think that anything that
isn't white must be an Emperor penguin. They shuffle over for a look, eventually
decide that you are not a penguin and then shuffle off. With several thousands
birds there, another one soon shuffles over for alook. I could sit there all day
long, quite content just to watch them do their penguiny things.
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Feeding
a young chick. They regurgitate squid for the chicks. When there is a lot
of sea ice, the next meal can take quite a while to turn up.
This
one is just trying to figure out whether I am a penguin. I was actually
trying to photograph a chick being fed behind it, when it shuffled up to
block my view.
This
is a very young chick. They sit on the adult's feet, nestling into an area
of bare skin to keep warm. This would have been September, when it was
still very cold.
Sit
a suitable distance away and they crane their necks to get a better view.
These
penguins are not in love, they're just looking at each other (there are
two chicks, each couple has one).
This will give
an idea of how many penguins there were. As it was quite late in the
season (The chicks are pretty big here) the colony had spread out into the
distance. In winter they shuffle together in one big clump. They then take
turns on the outside of the clump. You could see condensed vapour rising
off the clump when it was -40C.
