Penguin chicks depend on their parents to feed them by regurgitating food the parent has eaten.

Early in the chick’s life the two parents alternate between keeping the chick warm and protected and going out to find food. As a chick gets older, both parents go out to find food to bring back to the chick. If the parents take too long to return, chicks may pursue other adults in the hopes of getting a meal, but adult penguins rarely will feed a chick not their own.

Below are some pictures showing some of these relationships. I am also attempting to make a short feeding video clip available. I’ll post a new note if that works out.

An Adelie chick approaches an adult for food

The adult Adelie rebuffs the chick

The adult Adelie voices its displeasure at the pushy chick

An adult Adelie penguin nips a chick begging for food

Also on shore were fur seals. They were quite stressed due to their molting, and we were advised to stay well away from them. I strayed too close to one (about 35 feet) and was soundly rebuked with a growl and huff.

Fur seal - also molting

A fur seal and its entourage of penguins

It is the latter part of summer in the Antarctic now, and that means that penguin chicks are getting to be old enough to head off on their own soon. At Red Rocks Ridge we found a wide range of chick ages, determined by the amount of down the chicks still had on them.

With Adélie penguins, you can tell the different between adults and larger chicks by whether they have black under the chin or white. Fully black chins are adults or nearly so, while white chins indicate youth.

Below are a number of pictures of Adélie chicks in various states of molting.

A juvenile Adelie penguin nearing the end of its molting

A group of Adelie penguins

Two juvenile Adelies in different stages of losing their baby fuzz

Close-up of a juvenile Adelie penguin

Juvenile Adelies are not very clean - just like juvenile human boys, and likewise gawky

Elvis has entered the colony

An Adelie adult and a chick have an argument, while another chick looks on

Yesterday morning, we woke around 8am to find ourselves surrounded by ice bergs in the northern part of Marguerite Bay, just south of Adelaide island. We could make out brown bits of land in the distance in addition to ice bergs and figured landfall was not far off.

An iceberg in the fog

However, minutes later we were in the midst of very dense fog, which did not let up for hours. An attempt was made to find us a landing site with wildlife nonetheless, but it was not successful.

The fog made it difficult for the Zodiacs to scout a landing site

Radar shows where there are obstacles

The captain of the National Geographic Explorer opted to move the ship to a new location to try again, and another scouting party was sent out. Finally word came back that we would be able to go for an afternoon landing at Red Rocks Ridge, where there was a large colony of Adélie penguins. However, because of the fog, there would be no Zodiac tours while others were on shore, and instead half the passengers would go ashore at 1:30pm for two hours, and then the other half would go at 3:30pm so that the 100 person on shore limit could be properly enforced but still allow all to spend ample time exploring.

The plan for the afternoon once a landing site was confirmed

Everyone on board had all been previously distributed into a total of six groups, and we are in Group 1. Groups 1, 2, and 3 were the first shift, and Groups 4, 5, and 6 the second.

A Zodiac leaves the National Geographic Explorer en route to Red Rocks Ridge

The ride was a bit cold, but we were thrilled to able to finally set foot on the Antarctic continent, and better yet, get a better understanding of how penguins lived on land.

Bas and our friends Natalie and Bruce on the Zodiac to the landing site

Some of the expedition members who landed ahead of us - the black specks on the snow are penguins

We spent the next two hours observing the rules of conduct as well as hundreds of penguins, a fair number of Antarctic blue-eyed shags (in the cormorant family) as well as several territorial skuas.

The penguins ignore all the paparazzi photographers

Bas studies a juvenile Adelie penguin

I will post several separate blog posts after this one with photos of particular encounters at Red Rocks Ridge in order to split things up a bit, as there are a lot of pictures to share.

Last night past midnight we crossed southward over the 66.33 degree south latitude line, but alas, we didn’t feel it. Spent much of the day in fog searching for a suitable landing site with penguin colonies. Found one mid-afternoon at Red Rocks Ridge – numerous groups of Adelie Penguins. Photos later.

For now, our GPS track from about 21:44 last night through the present. No idea where we’re going next except that it’s probably northwards along the Antarctic Peninsula.