12/17 Brown Bluff

Rested and revived – we get ready for our next expedition to Brown Bluff, so named for the brown color of the earth and the mountainous peaks that rise above the beach.

This is our first large colony of Adelie penguins, the smallest species that live here in the Antarctic.  It’s still fairly sunny and warmer now than any day we’ve had before.  We’re excited to hit solid ground and walk around a bit in the sunshine.

Brown Bluff actually turns out to be one of our favorite excursions.  Perched at the bottom of a glacier, the earth is a black/brown lava like substance, with a rocky beach and ice everywhere.  The Adelie penguins are precious, waddling all over, jumping into the ocean to swim and fish. They are the most active of the penguins we’ve seen so far.  They co-exist with some Gentoos here, but its mostly Adelies here on the beach.  There is a huge rookery at one end of the beach where tons of new chicks have just hatched – the naturalists tell us they weren’t here last trip – so these guys are at the most 10 days old.  So cute and fuzzy, with moms (or dads, can’t really tell) protecting , feeding and nurturing them.  You can stand there forever and watch – so fascinating these little creatures are!

Sadly, there is also a dead penguin on the rocks being picked at by a Skua.  Man, those birds are big!  It could probably carry the whole penguin off, but it seems content to just sit and pick.  Sad, but it’s the cycle of life, starkly displayed all within a few feet of beach.

We wander back to the other end of the beach, walking with the penguins, watching them jump and swim and fly out of the water like little missiles, only to stumble, fall on their bellies, then jump back up on their little feet, swiveling their heads around, almost like they’re looking to see if anyone is watching. Cute!!

Now we’re walking  on a glacier!!!  How awesome!  The glacier stretches out across the coast in front of us, and up into the mountains above us.  There are more penguins here too, including one that’s been mauled by a leopard seal.  Aw!  As we are standing there watching, and looking for the leopard seal in the water, we hear a groan and crash.  We whip around and just barely miss seeing a huge chunk of ice (over 100 meters long)calve off the glacier and fall into the water.  Andrew, the naturalist there, moves us all up higher on the glacier as we wait for the wave to come.  We’re fortunate today, nothing really occurs as the force of the water radiates out into the sea and dissipates into little swells going away from the beach. 

We stay as long as we can, soaking up the sun and the atmosphere, then slowly walk back to the zodiacs for our return trip to the ship.