Penguin Paradise
It’s truly amazing spending a winter at Mawson station and being able to see the penguins go through their lives.
When I first arrived, it was the Adélie penguins out on the icebergs and around the station, the writers of the Madagascar animated movies must have studied the Adélie’s for the penguin characters in the movies. They are energetic and I’m sure sometimes up to mischief.
You will be sitting at your desk and just outside and Adélie will go past on some random mission.
I was inspecting one of the masts and could hear one calling out from the other side of the station to one near me. They exchanged calls every few seconds, the one at the other end of the station was coming closer, the calls were increasing in volume. It was 10 minutes or so but eventually the penguin came into view and hurried over to the other one. Only to be scalded by the penguin that it came to see, then promptly waddled off back to where it came from.
I was lucky enough to score a gig as one of the small vessel operators for re supply of Casey and Davis stations. You would be sitting waiting to load your vessel back onto the RSV Nuyina and an Adélie would launch itself into your vessel. Then all the fun of trying to convince the penguin to leave without upsetting it, getting too close or touching it.
The Emperor penguins are the chill dudes of Antarctica. Just relaxed seemingly happy and just going about doing Emperor things. We are lucky here we have an opportunity to visit one of the colonies and get to see the chicks growing up. Some of the adults are curious and will come closer and check you out. It’s awesome to watch them push themselves along on there bellies, sliding across the snow. The chicks are like any group of young ones, chase each other around, run away from mum or dad and make lots of noise.
I have been very lucky to be able to witness some of the lives of the penguins down here, and the Adélie’s are returning at the moment for their breeding season.
More entertainment to be had.
Scott Gardner, BOM Tech - Mawson Station 78th ANARE
