These Adelies have
a problem, they went out fishing at high tide and now. some
hours later have returned. In the meantime the tide has gone out.
Still attached to the land is the "ice-foot" an ice step left behind
as the tide rises and falls in the winter months to which the floating
sea ice is loosely attached. When the sea ice breaks out, the ice-foot
is left behind for a period of days to weeks before rising temperatures
and the waves cause this to break off too.
So what was a short
hop down for the penguins is now a step too high for them. I spent
a couple of hours one afternoon watching and following an ever increasing
number of penguins as they came back from their fishing trip. They
wandered up and down the shore-line trying to find somewhere to
get up, but to no avail. Eventually, the tide came back in and so
they floated back up to the right level and were able to get back
to their nests. The ice-foot broke off completely a few days later
in a mild storm.
Photo; © Paul Ward - Pentax equipment,
100mm lens, 35mm film, K64.
This picture may not be copied
or used in any manner without prior written permission.
