Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2014/01/31
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The second stop in the Falklands was to visit a Rockhopper Penguin breeding colony in an area of Tussock Grass. These are small, aggressive and loud penguins with spectacular eyebrows, who nest at the top of cliffs and make the journey down and up again daily to feed, and get their name from their propensity to hop or jump over rocks on the way. They belong to a part of the group known as Crested Penguins. The conventional scientific wisdom on why many species of penguins tend to colonize the highest points of cliffs, despite the obvious expenditure of large amounts of energy on feeding, is that these are the spots where the ice melts the earliest, so giving an earlier start to the breeding season, effective lengthening it, so more time can be spent on the chicks before they fledge. View from the colony: http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Panoramas/antarcticpanos_001/Antarctica_20140109_1489.jpg.html Trudging Up the Cliff: http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140109_1795.jpg.html Courtship: http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140109_1682.jpg.html Ecstatic Display: http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140109_1685.jpg.html Cacophony: http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140109_1640.jpg.html Feeding: http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140109_1558.jpg.html Please see LARGE Comments and criticism, as ever, welcome Cheers Jayanand