[Leica] South Georgia 1

[george.imagist at icloud.com (George Lottermoser)]

On Feb 1, 2014, at 8:51 PM, Jayanand Govindaraj wrote:

> South Georgia is one of the most amazing places I have ever visited
> for sheer profusion of wildlife - the only comparable place I can
> think of is the Serengeti ecosystem. Our first landing was on
> Salisbury Plain, unfortunately on a dreary, foggy day - one can only
> imagine how wonderful this place must be in sunlight! During the 5
> minutes of sunshine we had the entire day, I got this from my balcony
> on the ship:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Panoramas/antarcticpanos_001/Antarctica_20140111_2409.jpg.html
> 
> When you get on shore, you see this - this is around 75% of the colony:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Panoramas/antarcticpanos_001/Salisbury-Plain-Pano.jpg.html
> 
> There are an estimated 100,000 breeding pairs of King Penguins in this
> colony. Of course, with so much life around, you get various behaviour
> - the difficulty is always in isolating it in the din and stench of
> the milling hordes! You have exultant ones, announcing their presence
> in no uncertain terms:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140111_2458.jpg.html
> 
> Pairs going about late season romance - King Penguins have one of the
> most complicated breeding cycles amongst birds - it takes around 14
> months, so at any time of the year, breeding goes on - it is not
> restricted to any particular season:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140111_2834.jpg.html
> 
> There are moulting birds everywhere. King Penguins moult at once -
> they lose and grow all their feathers at the same time, so cannot go
> into water or feed for the six weeks it takes:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140111_2451.jpg.html
> 
> There are fledglings at every stage of the process:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140111_2709.jpg.html
> 
> You have moulting Elephant Seals peeking with their limpid eyes from
> clumps of Tussock Grass:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140111_2920.jpg.html
> 
> Fur Seal bulls, on the beach, guard their harems with a wary eye:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140111_2442.jpg.html
> 
> Other Fur Seal youngsters sharpen up their skills with mock fights:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140111_2786.jpg.html
> 
> Finally, there are those who need to disconnect once in a while:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140111_2526.jpg.html

wonder full

Regards,
George Lottermoser 
george at imagist.com
http://www.imagist.com
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