Another Day with the Gentoo Wed. January 10, 2018

We’re in Neko Harbor and taking the tender to a small Gentoo rookery.  Gentoos look like they are wearing ear phones and have a red beak: both charactristics make them easy to identify. And they are very noisy.  Remember, we are seeing these Penguins during their summer mating season.  After their babies fledge and they moult, they all go back to the ocean for 8 months of living on krill and fattening up for this process to begin again next November.  Antarctica has lots of rules for visitors.  We go out in small groups since no more than 100 people can be on land at one time in an area and we stay on land for 90 minutes a day. Boat group times are posted daily and we rotate going out in the morning, noon or afternoon.  We can take no food ashore.  Don’t walk on penguin highways, don’t walk in any stream, don’t  pick up ANYTHING for a souvenir, no drones, no smoking and the list goes on and on.  All wildlife has a certain distance to stay away, but we’re encouraged to be aware of how bird and mammals are responding to us and stay further away if they become aggressive or anxious.  That being said, humpback whales came right up to zodiacs, penguins walked up to us and birds flew close over our heads. Our ship is very comfortable, accommodates a bit over 400 guests, has lots of common areas with spectacular views.  First picture is a whale tale since that is the only part that I got many pictures of.  Most of our sightings were humpbacks and a few fin whales.  Fin whales are on the endangered species list and are the second biggest whales in the world.  Last summer there was a rare fin whale sighting in Puget Sound--the second since 1930.  Obviously, a lot more common here. 

  We have really had good weather and today is our second landing.  I guess there are times—and we were warned ahead of time—that all landings are weather dependent and that there are trips where it is only possible to get one trip to land. It is much warmer than I expected with the temperature reaching 34 degrees today.  The wind is fierce and we wear waterproof windbreakers and pants along with life jackets  because the wind  whips up the waves around the zodiac and water can splash on us since we’re sitting on the side of the boat.  Also, walking on land, while not all that cold, is very windy also. We have to be very careful not to disturb the penguins since right now the Chinstraps that we saw yesterday and the Gentoos today are nesting and understandable it makes them anxious if we get too close.  We don’t approach them, but they are very curious and they approach us!

Today, I took my binoculars (thanks Louise) and instead of focusing on taking photos and covering all the possible ground, I stayed in one place for an hour to watch.  Oh my, I saw some interesting things! The males and females equally care for the nesting, feeding and later on training of the chicks.  The penguins sit on their nests and except for head movement and squirming babies—some with heads stuck out of the pouch and most have their backsides out and their heads in the pouch.  I was watching next to Fritz, a German naturalist on the boat, and as we watched, 2 penguins:  one sitting on the nest.  The other—again male and female are undistinguishable so I’m just choosing to call the one on the nest “she” and the newly returned “he” —has come back from fishing and ready to take over the duty of caring and feeding of the chicks.  Lots of posturing, prancing and vocalizing around the nest by the newly arrived penguin.  They have been in the ocean so they are very clean as opposed to the dirty fronts of the current nest sitter.  He extends his neck into the air and nudges her as if to say “I’m back, get off the nest”!  Finally, she moves off and in a matter of seconds, he is on the nest moving around for several minutes while the newly vacated mates watches, makes sure that the baby is tucked and all is well.  When all is satisfactory, the tired, dirty penguin starts a long walk to the walk down snow covered hillside on a “penguin highway” to the ocean. 

A rare chinstrap penguin in a Gentoo colony

 Gentoo penguin on his/her babies.  Babies are the fluffy, grey stuff under his/her feet.

.  They are very noisy! Each makes a unique noise to find their partner and babies and also to warn the colony of birds of prey looking for lunch

When they are feeding their babies, the baby sticks it's head way up the parents throat.

Two way traffic on the penguin highway

 I watched this pair trade places, the clean penguin walked around the nest many times, nudged the one sitting on the nest, brought a stone over and dropped it by the nest, and finally they switched places.  The penguin who had been sitting on the nest is dirty, and  probably hungry and will return to the ocean to clean up, gets some more krill for itself and a stomach full for the babies.  Some penguins had one baby and some 2.  We also saw birds steal eggs, drop them and eat the contents and a skua bird snatched a baby out of the nest that is always guarded by one parents

That's Chris in the zodiac