Exploring Port Lockroy
February 1, 1994
The Gentoo were raising their new young when we arrived. They had already
established fairly large (1.5 to 2 foot diameter) nests made of small stones
(1 to 2 inch diameter). There were typically two parents (I couldn't
distinguish their genders) with one or two (mostly two) half-sized chicks.
The chicks were still fuzzy, but mostly dark gray and white now. Only a few
were still slightly brownish. A few of the chicks had their heads stuck
under a parent's body, laying on their stomachs, but most of them were
standing near to the parents and close to each other, generally standing with
their heads raised up toward a parent's beak, poking and searching for a bit
of food.
Gentoo penguins raising their young
When a chick became apparently very hungry, it would start waving it's arms
around and squawk in a higher pitch than the parents, and sometimes it would
look around almost as if it were ready to leave the nest and go off on its
own in search of food.
Hungry chicks
Occassionally, a parent would move toward another nest, and the encroached
parents would stick out their heads and beaks at it and squawk, warning it
off. Sometimes, a parent would leave the nest and go in search of food (in
the water) or rocks (nestled between larger rocks in the open areas of the
island).
The cormorants were ever-present as well, mixing in with the penguins so well
that it sometimes took a moment to realize that the bird one was looking at
wasn't a penguin after all.
A cormorant in the penguin rookery
You may continue with some gentoo
penguin portraits, or return to today's table
of contents.