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.

CAPE ROYDS, ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA– Male Adélie Penguins were seen this year at Cape Royds on Oct 21. First a trickle then a flood, by mid November most of the nests had been built, the males had found a mate and the eggs were laid. Cape Royds has a short breeding season; there is no time to waste in this process. Many penguin breeding pairs will return to the same nest site year after year re-bonding with each other and raising their chicks together. But not all penguins find their mates from the previous year. Some did not survive the winter, some may have found a new colony to breed in, others may simply decide not to breed this year and stay out near the ice edge. In these cases new mates must be found.

To attract a mate, males build nests out of small rocks then stand nearby bowing to females as they pass by. Females may just walk by, or step into the nest for a while then move on, or they may stay accepting the male as a partner and his nest as hers. What causes the female to select the nest she wants? There is no way to know for sure, but one thing for sure, not all Adélie Penguin nests are alike. The rock structure, although not warm and soft like other bird nests, provides a barrier to keep the eggs and small chicks from rolling or falling out. It also keeps the eggs above melt water that will flow through some parts of the colony as the weather warms and snow patches turn to small rivulets. Perhaps the females sense the merit of each nest to provide this protection for her chicks, maybe it is random, or maybe there are other factors we do not know about. Either way there is great variation in the nests as you can see by the pictures below.

This year the penguins must walk 50 miles over the frozen sea ice to get to their breeding ground at Cape Royds.

Once they arrive at Cape Royds, the males find a place that suits them and start to build their nests.

This is a well built average nest, the male is waiting for a female to join him.

The female is inspecting the nest.

She enters the nest to see how it works for her.

She decides to stay, the bond is made and this pair will raise some chicks.

Some nest builders use big rocks.

Some prefer small rocks.

This Adélie Penguin built a large nest.

Some penguins build small ones.

Perhaps this female chose this nest because it is well protected by the rocks. Skuas will have trouble attacking here.

This nest is out in the open and very vulnerable. It will be difficult to fend off the Skuas from taking the eggs and chicks.

This nest is very tidy and organized.

This nest is not.

As long as the snow stays frozen this nest will be okay, but when the weather warms up these parents may find their rocks washing away.

This penguin may have trouble finding a mate to join him in this nest.

As you can see, not all Adélie Penguin nests are alike, and just like people they all have their own sense of décor.