Emperor Penguin: A study

Hello again! With only 3 days to go before The Great Davis Mid-Winter Festival, I figured it would do me good to post up some pictures that I've wanted to for so long but never got around to. If I didn't do it now, it'll probably never come up, as I forsee myself moving onto posting about midwinter's etc etc you get my drift.

Anyway, for the last month or so, I've been doing weekly seawater sampling trips out on the sea-ice. We had to make sure that the sea-ice was thick enough (> 60cms) before we were allowed to take a Haggslund out on to it (a Haggslund is sort of like a big 4-wheel-drive van capable of travelling through snow and ice). On our very first seawater sampling trip out (which was back in early May, HAH!) we were lucky enough to have spotted an Emperor penguin. These little dudes are hard to come by nowadays, but we're always keeping our eyes peeled out for them. As it is, no one has seen another Empie since, so fingers crossed, another will trundle its way across our paths soon enough.








Have you ever felt an overwhelming urge to pat a penguin before? I have, and I was left feeling disappointed when it didn't respond to my wiggling fingers, pseudo-penguin cooing noises and my Jedi-Knight penetrating stare that clearly sent out 'COME TO ME' signals.