As you can imagine I came back with one or two penguin photos. World Penguin Day seems like the perfect time to put some of them on here (with apologies for not having done so before now!)
Gentoos
There are 3 main species of penguin found on the Antarctic peninsula: the Gentoos, the Adelies and the Chinstraps. The Gentoos are by far and away the most common and I spent a long time just watching them waddle, and slide and hang out. They're recognisable by the white stripe on top of their head that goes down to their eyes, along with the red bill and pink feet
They were remarkably unphased by our presence: we were told to keep at least 5m from them but if they came closer to us that was fine. Some of them stopped on their way past to have a look and a few came close (but none as close as the one that apparently once came and sat in someone's lap).
Moulting
By this point in the year the babies were all long gone having acquired their adult plumage and headed to the sea. However, having done their duty taking care of the young, the adults then undergo a "catastrophic moult". This is an annual occurrence when lose all their feathers (unlike other birds which don't lose them all at once) and for around 2 weeks they are confined to land - without the oily protection from their feathers they are not able to swim and therefore also not able to feed. Luckily their fat stores see them through but some of them do (unsurprisingly) look a little fed up with the whole process and we were warned to take additional care when near the moulting penguins as it can cause them additional stress.
Adelies
The second species we saw were the adelies. They are slightly small with different plumage to the gentoos: a plain black head, a shorter black beak and a beautiful white ringed eye.
The third species seen by a few members of the group was the chinstraps. I was not lucky enough to spot one of these - I was looking forward to seeing the slightly comical plumage where the whiter faces coupled with the black line under their beak make it look like they're wearing a black cap with chin strap. Unfortunately the outing that offered the opportunity to view these was curtailed by some rather wet weather (rain in Antarctica!) which caused several of the life jackets worn by the earliest groups to automatically inflate. The unusually wet conditions meant that the plan to go out was abandoned at that location was abandoned.
Diet
The penguins live on a diet of krill (small pink shrimp like animals), small fish and other sea creatures. As a result their droppings are pink and have a distinct fishy aroma! The Snowy Sheathbill - a white bird with yellow bill that is the only land based bird in Antarctica is a renowned scavenger, stealing regurgitated krill and fish from penguins whilst they feed their chicks but also scavenging on penguin droppings leading to their nickname: shit chicken.
In the water
The penguins weren't all confined to land while we were there and we saw many showing off their "porpoising" skills, bouncing across the surface of the water usually in groups.
I also saw some just splashing around on the edge of the ice!
Predators
The main predator is the leopard seal. I didn't spot one of these although they were around and a few of the group even saw a leopard seal successfully prey on a penguin. By the time I got there it had tossed the remains to a group of happy sea birds :-(
But just to leave you on a happier note...
