You can never have too many penguin photos

The penguins are here...

With the Antarctic recruitment drive in full swing for next season, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about the real reason we all flock back to Antarctica year after year. That is, of course, the penguins.

Here at Mawson we have two main species of penguins kicking about, the emperor penguins and the Adélie penguins. I don’t like to play favourites, so let’s just say they are both super cute and extremely photogenic.

We have been very fortunate to have emperor penguins all year round with Auster Rookery just down the road, which has kept us amateur photographers nice and busy all winter long. But now that the warmer months have arrived, we are starting to see these majestic creatures a lot closer to station.

The warmer months have also brought the return of the Adélies. Mawson and its surrounding islands have become a hive of activity with Adélie penguins courting, mating and just recently, these little guys have been laying eggs.

It’s a fantastic time to get out and about down here at Mawson and I’m actually quite jealous of the next group of Antarctic expeditioners that will get to experience this magnificent part of the world next season.

Troy (SCTO)

A line of penguins walk across the sea ice with icebergs in the background
Newly hatched penguin chick sits of the feet of its parent
A penguin and chick are threatened by a brown bird
A group of five penguins stand together on the sea ice against a bluey pink sky
Three penguin chicks are watched by an approaching brown bird
Two large penguins stand on the sea ice
A group of penguins crossing the ice on their stomachs
A lone emperor penguin stands with it's wings stretched out and it's mouth open
A single penguin is in focus against a grey background
A penguin sits on an egg on a rocky nest
A crack in the ice is lined by penguins
Five small penguins stand in a huddle on the ice in the sun
A lone penguin is silhouetted on the rocky edge above the sea ice
A penguin stares down the camera lense

This week...

We’ve had a busy week on station making the most of the beautiful weather, even reaching positive temperatures for the first time since we’ve been here.

The down side of the positive temperatures… melt. With such warm temps we won’t be able travel on the sea ice for much longer. As the ice rots from underneath and melts on the surface, we must measure, measure, measure to ensure we are safe to continue driving across it. Very soon, the Hägglunds will no longer be allowed, then it will just be the quads (for work activities) or by foot. Once that’s done, no more travel off the Mawson coast and we must revert to moving back up onto the plateau and visiting the mountain ranges which have loomed over us, just on the horizon, over the winter. That has to be one of the wonderful things about Mawson – winter on the sea-ice and visiting the emperor penguins, and then in summer up onto the plateau to the mountains. The best of both worlds.

As a little aside; we thought we were all set for the summer, new team arrived, trained and settled in, and moving on with summer work. But what should happen? A slip on the ice, a slightly broken expo, and sadly their summer in Antarctica has ended abruptly. The operational wheels of the Australian Antarctic Program start rotating quickly and before we knew it a flight was arriving to evacuate our fella from Mawson, through Davis and Casey, and then back to Hobart. I think we were just lucky it happened in summer rather than the middle of winter so evacuation was possible.

Other happenings, penguin counts underway; many, many days of counting the many, many thousands of the local Adélie penguins on the islands around station… That’s a lot of black and white! Vantage point photos of penguin colonies across the Rookery Islands taken. And, we’re even starting to think about packing and preparing for resupply (it is only 8 weeks away!). Which seems weird as we just had our welcome to summer dinner on Saturday night. Time will fly quickly now, but luckily the sun is up constantly so we have many hours in the day to get everything done.

Bec, SL

A plane sits on the ice while being refuelled on a sunny day
Two people relaxing in the sun with the Mawson mountains in the background
A single penguin wanders near the wing of a plane on the ice
A person lies inside a plane and gives the thumb up sign
Two people rest on a refuelling trailer enjoying the sun on the ice
A large array of delicious desserts
A colony of emperor penguins mingle to protect their chicks
A chubby chick standing on the ice is beginning to lose it's fluffy feathers
A penguin shows it's shiny black back as it walks across the ice towards other penguins
Three people relax in the sun on top of a rocky outcrop with ice all around
A group of penguins cross the sea ice with shiny white icebergs gracing the distance
A huddle of penguins show their black backs as they cross the sea ice towards an iceberg
A person in a yellow jacket writes in a visitor type book on a rocky shoreline
A women in sunglasses and beanie holds up a piece of paper with writing on it
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