We saw
lots of interesting things on this island... Gentoo penguins, ice floes,
a leopard seal, some very unusual rocks, and even a small waterfall.
I did say "small".
:)
There
were many gentoo penguin chicks here, about 4-6 weeks old. The parents
would go swimming and gorge themselves on krill, and then return to regurgitate
their most recent meal into the squawking mouth of the chick. Makes
breast-feeding look like a piece-of-cake!
This was
also a nice island to just sit on the beach and watch the penguins swim
about and then hop out of the water, all clean and shiny.
We spotted a seal
on an ice floe just off the beach, and some of us went out on the Zodiacs
to get a closer look...
It was one of
the few predators in Antarctica, the snake-like leopard seal. This
one was unhappy that we had just woken it up from its "penguin-digesting"
nap! (Note the penguin goo dripping from its fangs... Ick!)
I saw some very intriguing
rocks while wandering around Cuverville Island. This one in particular
caught my eye, because it looked just the color of amber...
But amber is fossilized tree sap, and what would something like *that*
be doing on Antarctica? Anyway, I took a picture of it, and if anyone
with more geological knowledge than I would care to identify it and write
to me, I'll be more than happy to post the correct term for whatever
this really is.
The wispy bits are
moulted penguin feathers
Here's another interesting rock that caught my eye:
.
