The penguins are definitely the star attraction of any Antarctic Cruise and it is easy to spend hours watching and listening to them.
It was simply entertaining to watch then move, whether it was walking
The most active are the Adelie Penguins and the Chinstrap Penguins (48 cm/19" in height) The Adelies have black faces and beaks
The Chinstrap Penguins have shite faces with a black strip under their chin.
The Macaroni Penguin stands out with it's funky yellow hair and is slightly shorter at 45cm/18".
The Gentoo Penguins have orange beaks and grow to 53cm or 21" in height. They were the least active and were mostly sitting on eggs.
The largest are the Emperor Penguins that were featured in the movie, "March of the Penguins"
Although we were unable to visit the Emperor Rookery, we did see a lone male on an ice floe.
Two others were spotted but dove into the water before we could move in for a closer look.
This is the season for mating and sitting on eggs.
We still saw many penguins singing for their mates or young penguins singing to attract their first mates. The ability to built a nice nest and having a nice song is what the female penguin look for in her mate.
There were couples still in the process of building nests
In the act of coupling.
And attentively warming the one or two eggs on the nest.
The males and females take shifts sitting on eggs. When they are not on the eggs they are in the water eating krill and fish.......and getting clean in the water.
We were not supposed to get any closer than 5 m from the penguins, and our guides enforced this rule rigorously. However, nobody informed the penguins!
No comments:
Post a Comment