2nd excursion of the fourth day took us to Palaver Point where we saw LOTS of chinstrap penguins, some seals, and some predator birds. This excursion involved a somewhat challenging climb.
This next one gives a sense of how far we climbed - that's most of the way, but not the whole way. I have no idea who the person in the foreground is.
Some predators...
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| Brown skua in flight |
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| Brown skua |
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| Comorants (Antarctic shags) |
Fur Seals!
Fur seal climbing to a chinstrap rookery
And now for the ever adorable chinstraps...
The picture above shows a chick with most of its down (in front). To the left of that chick, behind the rock, is a juvenile that has most of its feathers, but some down on the top of its head.
The picture to the left may be juveniles or adults; it's hard to tell with chinstrap penguins. Adult penguins molt once a year, and I believe the top penguin is an adult, because that looks like feathers being molted rather than down. Hard to tell.
The other two could be either. The tail feathers are the last to grow in, so the one in the middle may be a juvenile or an adult, depending on what that is on the back of its neck. And the one on the bottom is starting to get tail feathers, but hard to tell if juvenile or adult.
Behavior is another indicator of whether a penguin is juvenile or adult. Juveniles are very curious, the ones most likely to wander around and check out the humans coming ashore. We were told to back up if a penguin came close - a minimum of 15 feet between us and the penguins.
The picture below shows a penguin parent feeding its chick. Penguins will only feed their own chicks; penguins and chicks identify each other by their calls. A chick has to rub the neck of the parent to get it to regurgitate. Parent then feeds chick with what comes up.
Those are some really great chinstrap close-ups!
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