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.