tiabunna's photos with the keyword: Terre Adelie

For Macro Mondays Group, topic 245, 21 February 2022, set subject: "Stamp, stamp imprint, seal or seal imprint". Bringing back pleasant memories, copied from an old passport.

From a zodiac, looking back to the "Marina Svetaeva" past a largish pack ice floe from previous years. The ship has since been renamed the 'Ortelius' following a change of owners. Best on black (Press 'Z').

Sometimes ice melts, even in the Antarctic - usually near rocky areas where heat radiates. Small streams then run on the ice before plunging down crevasses where they eventually freeze again. This ice is denser and a different colour than the surrounding ice formed from compressed snow. When the glacier finally breaks away to form icebergs, the frozen stream shows as rare jade coloured ice.

Snow Petrels Pagodrome nivea are found around Antarctica and even travel hundreds of kilometers inland (years earlier, I was surprised to see them overhead in the Prince Charles Mtns). This one was nesting under a rock shelter near the Dumont d'Urville base. It would be normal practice to not go so close to nesting birds, but this had chosen to nest alongside one of the main walkways and seemed utterly unconcerned at the passing people!

Near Dumont d'Urville base. Moulting Emperor penguin chicks ( Aptenodytes forsteri ) watch Adelie penguins, on fast ice at water's edge. As the Emperor penguin chicks finalise their moult to an adult coat (as some are doing here), they will begin to take to the water. I suggest viewing on black. Explored

Following the interest in my previous shot (link in note) of the pair of South Polar Skuas Stercorarius maccormicki , here's a wider shot to give more context. Although it's easy to dislike skuas because they predate on penguin chicks and eggs, they also fill a very useful role as scavengers, keeping the area clean: natural decay in Antarctica is very slow indeed.

The French antarctic base of Dumont d'Urville is situated on a series of rocky islands. There are thousands of nesting Adelie penguins in the surrounding area. This panorama was taken looking westward along the coast from near the station, which is to the right. The note has a larger version of the image. Use the 'satellite view' if looking at the location.

A pair of South Polar Skuas Stercorarius maccormicki which have just laid claim to a spot in an Adelie penguin colony, screeching defiance to other skuas circling overhead. With neighbours like these, you have to feel sorry for the penguin in the background! I later showed this to a French biologist, who told me he had banded the nearer skua several years previously and appreciated the information on its location.