Emperor Penguins!

Up until today, I had never been closer than a half mile to
an Emporer Penguin. Today, I was much closer than that!
There are 13 Emperors just off the Pegasus Field road that
have been hanging out there for the past ten days or so.
Our friend and co-worker, Gid from Scott Base offered the
Air Services team a sort of end of season thank you trip to
go out and see the penguins. Lynn got to go as well so the
trip was that much better.


I was amazed at how they had no fear of us at all. Of course
we couldn't get too close because of regulations but they
really just saw us as big red penguins.


I learned something about their...well, let's just say
Number 2 habits. I know this sounds gross, but when it is
pink, they are eating krill and other small sea animals.
When it is green (like it was in the area surrounding all
13 of them) that means they are living off their own internal
fat. I believe that, because they were miles from any open
water at all and have been at this very spot for a while now,
not heading back to the sea.



This guy looks like he/she is wearing a shawl, but it's really
just it's feathers from being a youngster. It will look like
the others after the rest of these feathers moult.


I loved zooming in with my camera on this guy. He was so
uncaring or maybe oblivious to my presence he just ignored
me while I was giving him his shot at greatness! "I'm ready
for my closeup, Mr. De Mille".

We had a great time and it was fun to get everyone together
one last time before things start winding down for the season.
Add that to the fact that we had the opportunity to see such
a magnificent group of birds made it extra special!

Early Emperors

There was a rare early sighting of four Emperor Penguins
out at the Ice Runway today and someone was lucky enough
to get a few good photos. These fellows seemed to
know where they were going and what they were doing, so
they definitely weren't lost. We usually see emperors
out at Pegasus but not this close to town in October.

Adélies

After work today, I ran into my friend Melanie,
and she told me that she had just been to Hut Point
and had seen quite a few Adélie Penguins. Now I
had seen a couple hundred Adélies in 2007, but it
had been awhile since I had seen penguins of any
kind, so I figured it was definitely worth my
time. It was fun to see them running around the
ice and interesting to see how they moved when
a helicopter flew over. They moved almost like
a herd of wildebeests like you see on nature shows
but also like a rather large swarm of flying
starlings. Hard to describe, but it was almost
as if they moved as one. Anyway, for a few minutes
I had the entire point to myself and I could hear
them chattering back and forth to themselves.
They were communing with each other, while I was
communing with nature.