PENGUINS AT ST. ANDREWS BAY, SO. GEORGIA ISLAND
I was rather amazed at the response to last week’s blog about penguins. It seems that lots and lots of people love them. They are certainly comical–but loveable?–I’m reserving judgment. (They smell really bad.) Here are some unedited photos I took in the five hours we spent at this wonderful site.
For some reason–maybe because they so often perch on hard surfaces–penguins tend to rock back on their crusty black feet.
King Penguin chicks need to lose their warm brown coats and grow waterproof feathers before they can leave the colony to forage for themselves at sea. In the meantime, they depend on their parents for food. The process takes a year and until the waterproof feathers grow, the sound of begging chicks fills the air…
and it gets pretty noisy.
The penguin parents are impressively patient despite all the prodding from their offspring.
You have to wonder what this penguin had in mind.
Keep these two bloodied southern elephant seals in mind for next week. It’s an exciting story.
HAVE A GOOD WEEK!
