Ok, so here we are way south, the sky is frickin blue, the wind calm and the ice bergs stunning. Life doesn't get better right? Wrong!!!
OMG, OMG, OMG! today we found penguin babies at Bongrain Point! Wee bundles of silvery-grey fluff that hatched right around Christmas, tucked up under mum (or dad). Lots of twins too!
This adelie colony was breathtakingly stinky and off the charts cute! We wandered up to 15' from the nesting parents, mesmerized by the calls, gentle poking and feeding and coordinated efforts it would take to get their offspring safely reared. Surely a photographers dream?! Well, taking pics is harder than it looks. Firstly, in the colony area, there is a sea of birds, nests, rocks and "mud", rendering them all kinda red-brown. Secondly, the parents do a mighty fine job of hiding their babies. Pretty sure not from us per se, but definitely from skua birds who patrol the skies and land in search of unattended babies. At the first moment an inexperienced mom turns her gaze or her body from her chick, a skua will snatch it and call it dinner. After all, skuas are nesting now too and have hunting and gathering responsibilities if they want to get their chicks from fluffy to feathered before the summer ends.
Life here is harsh. The struggle to survive is real, the timeline is exhausting, child rearing and keeping the bonds of partnership alive is a full time job.How many people get to yield to penguins on a penguin highway before wandering a beach that may never have been wandered on? We did.
And then we cruised...
After lunch we did it all again. This time the location was Horseshoe Island. This area was mapped in 1936/37 and a base was established by the British in the 40's. It was only occupied until the 60's but remnants remain and seabirds are now the only ones to call Horseshoe, their home.
Back at the ship, bathed in daylight, the picture-taking continued. We had a BBQ dinner, topside.
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