Antarctica, Orne Island
Day 5, landing 1
Another beautiful, still morning as we dragged ourselves out of bed for a pre-breakfast landing on Orne Island. The surroundings were a big change from yesterday and more typically "Antarctic" in appearance; snow-covered islands with icebergs dotted about. We walked across the snow to see small nesting colonies of chinstrap penguins each on their own patch of bare rock.
Although we'd seen quite a few penguins by this stage, I was far from being fed up with watching the birds' antics. One major pastime is the stealing of stones for their conical nest mounds. A huge amount of energy is spent pinching stones from neighbouring nests, only to be stolen back again the minute the thief's attention wanders and he forgets to guard his hoard. Those sitting on eggs or chicks watch their precious stones carefully and are quick to shout at a potential burglar, or give him a nip if he dares to come too close. On other occasions, however, they're much more haphazard and seem to gather stones at random, discarding them halfway to the nest or carefully placing them so they roll away downhill.
Aside from the chinstraps, we saw one solitary Adélie penguin on Orne Island. He looked a bit lost, but happily wandered right up to Merel (age 9) - Niall's theory, that as the smallest person in the group, she was least intimidating to the little penguin.
