Penquins

During one of the talks on our cruise given while crossing the Drake Passage, the Penguins we were expected to see were covered.

These included the 3 species included in the genus Pygoscelis commonly known as the Brush-tailed Penguins. The 3 included; Adélie - Pygoscelis adeliae, Gentoo - Pygoscelis papua and Chinstrap - Pygoscelis antarctica.
The diet of these penguins is mainly krill along with small fish and squid. All three types makes nests of small stones to keep their eggs and young dry and the female lays 2 eggs. We saw quite a bit of stone stealing going on. We were surprised at the variation in size of the chicks we saw within each colony.

 Adélie: These are the smallest of the Brush tailed group and found breeding the most southerly. These are the ones we first saw and my favorite.

 Alternative form of land transportation.

I'm imposing grander thoughts on this guy than is probably correct.

Penguin exiting the water, they pop out like Champagne corks.

Here is a "Waddle" of Penguins heading up to their Colony or Rookery off in the distance.

Another group heading back to the sea for food.

Gentoo: These are the third largest of the Penguins after the King and Emperor. As we traveled more north we started seeing these guys. Distinguished by the white on their heads and a red beak.

 A Penguin highway.

 Off on an adventure.

 British Gentoos at Port Lockroy. The Port Lockroy Base is on Goudier Island (64º49’S, 63º30’W) just off Wiencke Island in the Antarctic Peninsula. The Base is now a museum, gift shop and famous Post Office. It is run by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust by 4 volunteers selected from 5000 applicants. The 4 volunteers stay for 4 months, due to inclement weather they had not been able to land 12 ships during the first half of the 2016 Antarctic summer.

This base is on the Antarctic mainland. Can you guess whose base it is? All the Argentinian huts have giant Argentina flags either on the walls or roof.

We spent a lot of time just watching the interactions at the colonies, very interesting and entertaining. The Expedition staff were always available for questions.

Mothers and chicks

Nice comfy nest of stones.

Nests under the Port Lockroy base.

 Views out from the Port Lockroy base window.

Chinstrap:
These breed further north than the Gentoos, though it appears that the breeding territory of the Gentoos is spreading both south and north. We did not get very far north due to a bad storm hitting the South Shetland Islands, so we stayed in more sheltered waters.

 These guys sound a bit like gulls.

 A breeding colony.

 Large chick in the right third of the photo.

 Some chicks of various sizes here.

 The green on the snow is algae.

 This guy may not be sleeping, We were told Penguins are able to have half their brain sleep at a time. Uni-hemispheric sleep happens in animals when one side of the brain shows waking activity while the other side is asleep.

Emperor Penguin.
The staff did not expect to see these and everyone was surprised. These guys were molting, you can see the feathers on the snow in some of the photos.

From watching the movie,  The March of the Penguins, I know they breed in winter and have just one egg. The movie is worth watching.