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The sky point in the yellow-eyed penguin is a general greeting flavoured with some flirtation. Not all that welcome by the look of the reaction of the second bird in this case. We haven't seen any serious fighting yet, that happens closer to breeding in September when the penguins are competing for nests and mates. The yellow-eyed penguins are really shy around people and a photo like this can only be obtained with a trail camera as the penguin is obviously on purpose and single-minded! Notice how pink the undersides of the flippers and the feet are. He is evidently just come home and still a bit flush with body heat - so he's radiating it off with his little-insulated flippers and feet and they get all pink.  We still have a lot more photos to share of the fab four but just for a change we shifted the camera and put it on video. This penguin appears to be intrigued by it (maybe it's the little red light) but then it becomes clear that it is coming over to say giddaye to another penguin - and together they photo-bomb the video! It's holiday time for the penguins and they seem happy and relaxed - and nicely chubby. Such a pleasure to see!  When the tide is out the commute home is a bit longer for the yellow-eyed penguins at our colonies. At high tide these rocks on the foreshore are all under water and the penguins can swim all the way to the beach but at low tide there is a whole lot more walking to do. The penguins don't seem to mind and stop often to preen and check out who else is around and on the way home.  Can you spot him/her? These guys don't bother the penguins in the least. They get a good peck on their rump if they get too close to the penguin and hop away again.  Someone usually sat right in front of the camera most nights and often so close that the camera gets triggered every minute or so and a whole load of photos are useless. But on this occasions Stitches and her mate can be seen clearly on their box on the right and the neighbouring pair sitting at a respectable distance on the left. No shouting at each other that evening!  It looks like Stitches and her mate have settled in for the night on their favourite trap and are not worried about the weirdly beautiful purple sky.  We have a number of fab photos from this camera and so there will be a wee bit of a series featuring (presumably) Stitches, her mate and neighbours - for some the horizon will be straight (because that was possible to adjust in Photoshop) and for some it's wonky because it would have cut out too much of the photo. Here one of the fab four is already collecting nesting material, it's never too early to get started!  It's always fun to spy on the penguins with a trail camera and we get to see what they are up to when no human is there to see. The camera was on a slight angle - hence the wonky horizon but the camera captured some priceless moments in the life of these penguins. We think that one of these four who appear to have a lively discussion is probably Stitches, so this foursome will be her, her mate and the neighbouring pair. They have lived next to each other for years and know each other - but here no one is listening and everyone is talking at once. Remind you of anyone?  |
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