South Polar Skua.

This large aggressive bird is an opportunist. When the seals haul out on the ice and give birth to their pups the Skuas hang around and eat the after birth. At McMurdo Research station they will wait for people to leave the dining hall with a sandwich or cookie in their hand and swoop down for the ‘kill.’ When it’s time for them to breed many build their nests at the edge of penguin colonies where first the penguin eggs then the chicks can be easy pickings among the penguin parents who are just beginning.

Skuas, tag teaming a penguin to get the egg.

Adult Adélie Penguins can defend themselves so are safe from Skua attack. However, while the penguins are nesting, and before the Skuas lay their own eggs, the Skuas work in pairs, one will fly overhead to distract the Adélie and the other will swoop in and snatch the egg or chick as the penguin stretches to peck at the decoy. Often times when I’ve been sitting watching this, I wish that the penguins would someday take revenge.

The Skuas often build their nest close to the Adélie breeding colony so they do not have to go far for their food. But in the following sets of pictures you can see this Skua was very bold, laying the egg within 10 feet of nesting Adélies. At first the Adélies would walk by with only passing interest in the nesting Skua but finally one penguin decided this was too close and challenged the Skua.

A Skua nest very close to a group of Adélie Penguins.

Some penguins would walk by without paying attention to the intruder.

First a challenge.

Then the Skua is evicted from the nest.

Every attempt by the Skua to return to its nest was thwarted by the penguin.

Finally the egg was lost to other Skuas.

Skuas are no match for adult Adélie penguins so the Skua moved off the egg. The penguin did not chase the Skua but stood at the nest and did not allow the Skua to return. Every attempt by the Skua to return to the egg was thwarted, and meanwhile the Skua egg was getting colder by the minute.

Skuas are indeed opportunist eaters. Even exposed Skua eggs are taken. This egg was no exception and once the penguin walked off, with in a few minutes another Skua made this egg its meal. The Skuas abandoned this nest site and will likely build one a much safer distance away next time. Penguins 1 – Skua 0.

Penguins sitting on eggs. In the right-most picture the very busy mate has continued to bring rocks to the nest, to place them on top of the snow.

When storms come the penguin will not leave their nests. To do so would mean their eggs would be blown away or freeze very quickly. During the storm they sit quietly with their face to the wind and wait for it to be over.

Adélie Penguins seem to have a strong sense of where their nest site is even if it is covered with snow! For this group, their sites from last year are under 3 feet of snow. Not discouraged, they simply built their nests on top of the snow pile. How this will affect the egg and chick brooding, hatching and rearing as the snow melts, we are going to find out.

This pair returned to find their long time nest site covered with snow. Instead of building on top of the snow they decided to move elsewhere and found a cozy nest site with a couple of large rocks for protection from the Skuas about 12 meters away. This is nest #3 in our Nest Check and you can follow them throughout the breeding season by seeing the daily pictures here.

Because of their body heat some of the birds are sinking into the snow pile as the days go by. This bird, below, built his nest on top of the pile, but as you can see he is slowly sinking into a larger and larger hole. He is on a nest of a few rocks with two eggs under him. When the female came back it was a challenge to do the nest exchange. We will observe and record the success of this nest.

When the sun comes out and the snow melts, there are small streams everywhere. Small depressions (scrapes) where penguins have built nests in the past fill up with water. This makes it harder to build the nest and the penguins need more rocks. A successful nest will be high enough to keep the egg out of any water run off. The egg will not hatch if it is sitting in freezing water.

The penguins on the left have a challenge to build a dry nest above the water. The third picture shows the result of a poorly built nest in the mud. The egg rolled out and moments later it was picked up by the ever watchful Skuas. The nest shown to the right is a well built nest above the mud, these eggs will be kept dry.

Adélie Penguins are sturdy birds, but stronger and more summer storms pose a challenge to their breeding success. Read how these birds are coping with the effects of climate change here.

Satellite image of McMurdo sound and the ice cover, Nov 2008, (left) vs. Nov 2009 (right).

At Cape Royds we have a ‘penguin cam’ which is a permanent structure housing a remote camera. The camera takes a picture of the colony every day as long as the solar panels generate the power to keep the batteries charged. Since the research team is not in the field all year round, this allows us to monitor what is happening at the colony when we’re not here. You can see the daily pictures at http://penguinscience.com, as well as a time-lapse of images taken over the last two years. Last year and this year the first penguins were seen the last week of October, so not much changed there, but there were fewer birds and nests being built during the first weeks this season. When we started looking for eggs the picture became even more surprising.

In 2008 the first eggs were seen on November 5th. This year we did not see eggs until November 16th. Plus the number of birds present in the colony continued to stay low. Something was keeping the penguins from arriving, building their nests and laying their eggs on the normal schedule. As the days progressed more birds started showing up and by November 25th the colony looked busy, with many nests completed and females leaving for open ocean to replenish their energy and become fat again.

An early arrival at the colony. He could have all the stones he needed so he built a large nest. Now he waits for the female to show up and guards his rocks from other males as they arrive.

The breeding season in Antarctica is very short. Adélie penguin chicks must gain the weight they need to sustain themselves through their molt to adult plumage before they are able to swim and find their own food. If the sea ice closes in around Ross Island before this happens they will have a huge task walking to open water and food. They can not swim until they have their adult plumage. We do not know what will happen this season, but that is why we are here so we can observe and record this event. We are hoping you will follow along as well.

Did you know that penguin researchers also use the satellites to track penguins when they are out in the open ocean foraging for food? See how they do this here.

Learn more about Adélie penguins at www.penguinscience.com

One result was that the coordination and synchrony of birds with their former maters was thrown out of whack, one bird often arriving much later than the other. It’s not that this sort of condition is new to Adélie penguins, as they are pack ice creatures by choice. In a way, they are ‘used’ to it, sort of (the vagaries of pack ice that is).

When a male penguin arrives and his former mate is late (or doesn’t arrive at all), usually he has some difficulty in finding a new partner. In many cases, he goes the entire spring and summer trying to attract a new one and establish a pair bond. In the case of females, she’ll begin to look for an unattached male after waiting a few days, mateless. The mortality of females is higher, and so there is a surplus of males; easier pickings for females. In the vast majority of pairs, unless they are lost, the laying of eggs and tending of chicks occurs without fanfare: the members of the pair alternate duties equally to raise their chicks.

This is how a pair begins. Lots of bowing to assure the prospective partner that all is good!

Well, as a bit of a related aside, in my interview with Werner Herzog for his film “Encounters at the End of the World” a year or two ago (yes, you should see the movie, came out earlier this year), he tried to get me to talk about deviant or maladaptive behavior in penguins. I really didn’t know why he persisted in asking me these questions (later I found out it had to do with a penguin that wandered into their camp at the base of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, sort of lost) and I deflected his questioning pretty well (?).

He wanted me to talk about gay penguins…heck, why not, I’m sure there are some of those. There’s that lovely story about the penguins in the Bronx Zoo, Tango Makes Three, banned by some immoral (or at least unauthorized) persons who were put off by what they viewed to be deviant behavior. And then he asked questions about other sorts of things, like prostitution. The latter happens when a devious female (not deviant) gains access to a male’s nest, by being totally submissive, and then makes off with one of his rocks. A researcher published a short note about this several years ago, and of course this made the front page of the London Times. Right, sells newspapers!

Here’s a male (on left) who is not convinced this female is sincere about her intentions.

In any case, check out the following histories. The first was last season, when owing to lots of wind, the pack ice was very extensive during the winter and many penguins had a super long trek to make in the spring. Many arrived later than they should. What to do if you’re a female and your mate is nowhere to be found upon arriving at Cape Royds? Well, one female attracted a young, mateless male (Band # 04163) to her nest. They paired, and she laid eggs and then departed, as females are supposed to do. Well, a few days later the female’s mate of the previous year apparently returned, kicked #04163 off the nest, and of course the eggs, in the process. #04163 moped around for a week. The female came back and, of course, associated with her old mate. #04163 moped some more and then left. This past season, he showed up again and attracted a female (the one of the previous season?), who laid eggs, and on they went for quite a while (eventually skuas stole the eggs). Hmmm.

A penguin alone on its nest, but with whose eggs?

This season, without much wind during winter, the large-scale pack ice was not extensive and so wintering areas were closer than usual. Many birds arrived a week earlier than in the past since they had a much shorter distance to travel. In one case, female #02985 arrived much later than her mate, paired with another male, and quickly laid eggs. That mate, having been around a while, then left first but returned in 7 days, just in time. Off she went, but then this male’s former partner arrived and began tending the nest and eggs. Eventually, #02985 came back, very late owing to that 70 km walk, and found herself without a nest. The two formerly paired birds currently are raising two, somewhat adopted young. #02985 is pacing around, dejected.

A similar scenario happened, this time with another female banded penguin, #03809. She paired, apparently with a new partner, laid eggs and off she went. Same sort of thing happened. She eventually came back, again after a longer than usual trip, to find a stranger on the nest. Well, she somehow managed to sit on the eggs for two days, but then other bird came back and displaced her. So, she’s looking on from a spot above the nest in question.

A loving parent, regardless of who was responsible for adding the egg (and ultimately the chick) to the nest.

So, there you have this deviant behavior in penguins. Of course, the really ‘deviant’ behavior (but which I’m sure would not pass as immoral to many people) are the males who come back late to find their ‘homes’ occupied, and then blast the occupants off the property, eggs and/or chicks to boot. You know, protecting one’s home is allowed and is the ‘first’ rule (according to certain national leaders of ours). Then they strut around, collecting rocks to make their castle, friendless and at least for awhile, mateless.

So, you see, penguins are just like people.

A tranquil scene at Cape Royds: penguins quietly sitting on eggs, dreaming of food, 65 km away. But, tranquility sometimes can be deceptive. Kind of like the Western Movie where one guy says, “Its quiet out there, isn’t it?” And Tex says, “Yes, too quiet!” Then a big shooting battle starts.

The colony has certainly been quiet, with very few birds coming in or going out to sea. In my first dispatch of the season (“The Early Returns”) I detailed the fast ice situation: a continual sheet of ice out to beyond the horizon. Its edge at the open water is about 60 km away now; at the beginning of the season it was at 75 km. Walking about 2-3 km/hour that distance adds 30 hours to a trip, not counting times for resting or checking that there are no leopard seals at any wide cracks along the way. I can recall seeing 3 cracks on trips that we’ve flown out to Beaufort. Penguins can wait at these for hours to make sure nothing nasty lurks in those black waters in the channel between the white ice.

The penguin pairs are well coordinated in their schedules but there is very little cushion for major delays. Adding a day or two to a trip can spell disaster to the bird on the nest who is dreaming of a fish or krill dinner. Well, it’s a disaster for both members of the pair! In fact, this season has been a disaster so far for many. I’ve been keeping track of 38 nests of banded, known-age birds since early Nov. As of today (12 Dec), 55% of nests in which eggs were laid have failed. Each nest started with one or two eggs, plus of course the incubating bird. Such a loss rate means that lots of birds incubating the eggs waited way past comfort…stomach growling…and finally had to leave. Males are prepared to sit for two weeks or a bit more while taking the first turn at incubation. They can lose 30% of their body weight or more awaiting their mate to return.

Here is a penguin that can not wait a minute longer. He has been staunchly taking care of these eggs for 3 weeks, and now it is time to eat. His mate is no where to be seen, but he’s got to go. That’s the way it’s been so far this season, males taking very long first responsibility on the nest while the females search for food in order to be able to sit for weeks when she arrives back.

Sometimes skuas can intimidate penguins to leave. The skuas just sit there staring at the penguin for hours, just out of pecking range. The penguin can’t take it any more. Or, sometimes one skua pesters the penguin by pulling its tail, and then the other grabs the egg when the penguin reaches back to peck the tail-pulling skua.

A few weeks ago there would have been 25 nests in the foreground of this view. Now there are 13 and all are vulnerable to skua staring as there is space free of penguins around every nest. Neighbors are needed to guard one another’s flanks.

A fine meal for a skua, offered by a penguin who had to go in search for its own food.

You can see the result of many birds having given up: broken eggs everywhere. This is quite different from Beaufort (see last dispatch). These nests didn’t roll out of poorly built nests…just look at all the rocks in these nests. These eggs were left by the penguins, and the skuas then arrived to eat them.

Well, so, things are looking kind of bleak at Royds this season, certainly a stark contrast to the ‘happy’ chaos of the Beaufort Island colony and a stark contrast to last season at Royds!!! Many, many 10’s of thousands of chicks will be produced there at Beaufort, in spite of the seeming chaos. What’s with this global climate change? They said it should be getting windier in these parts, and the wind would blow the ice away. I think they also said the weather would be getting more unpredictable and more wildly varying. I guess they got that part right! Kind of sad, though. Gotten rid of your gas guzzler yet?