In July I went to visit the Emperor penguins at Auster Rookery about 50kms from the station, the male penguins were huddled, eggs balanced on their feet, tummies facing in towards the centre of the huddle as they tried to keep warm.

I was excited to be able to return in late August to see if the eggs had hatched and how the young were doing.

We headed off on a beautiful sunny morning for the 3 hour drive to the rookery.  This alien
landscape that was so unfamiliar when I first arrived in Antarctica has become so familiar that I have to actively look and see the landscape.  The soaring ice-bergs that tower out of the sea-ice, whites, blues, greys and greens glinting in the sunlight.  The sea ice that stretches as far as the eye can see, lined and crossed with sastrugi and tide cracks.

As we drive across the sea ice we pass small groups of penguins, just wandering around in the middle of no-were like they are out for a Sunday afternoon.  The occasional seal lazes around next to the larger tide cracks.

As we get closer to the rookery, the number of penguins loitering around increases and then we see the main colony a black line on the horizon.  We park up and starting walking towards the main group, it is a bit of a race as the curious birds from the group also see us and start walking towards us.  We try not to get closer then 50 metres so we don’t accidentally scare the group and trigger a stampede.  By the time we get 100metres from the main group we meet the welcoming committee and take a few minutes to look each other up and down.  Kneeling we are almost eye to eye, when you look directly at the birds they shuffle like naughty children, nudging each other to the front of the group.  When you look through the camera or away from them, you can hear them shuffling closer on the ice, occasionally they peer up the lens of the camera.

In the main group there are chicks every-were, they are still young covered in fluffy grey down and snuggled on their parents feet.  I watched them through the lens of my camera for about 2 hours.  Some of them decide to test the bound of freedom jumping off their parents feet staggering a few steps before the adults scoop them back.  Others are content to sit on their parents feet observing the world, raising their heads and demanding a feed as often as possible.  The rest are trying to snuggle head first, little wombat bums sticking out over the big clawed feet.  

They are amazing, it is a happy if cold couple of hours watching, interacting and trying to commit everything to memory.