Sunnier days

It's not permanently cold and dark and when the spring arrives, there can be some warmer days, as high as freezing point even! The ground in this picture is not grass as it may seem at first, but sea-ice covered with a liberal layer of penguin guano (poop). Note also the abandoned egg at the bottom right, if an egg is left alone for even a short time, it will chill to a point where the developing chick in it will die. A possible reason that it has been abandoned is that it was not viable at all - it didn't develop properly for some reason, or that the mate of the penguin holding it didn't return to her partner who no choice to leave it and return to the sea to feed or starve.

This picture by Jérôme Maison. © 2005 Bonne Pioche Productions / Alliance De Production Cinématographique.
From the Warner Brothers film The March of the Penguins used here by permission of Warner Brothers.