Beauford Island is a 30 min helicopter ride from Cape Royds. Here is the ice edge where our birds have to walk, and a much larger (120,000 nests) colony of Adelie Penguins. We have come here to search for banded birds and found many that have built their nests here even though they were hatched at other colonies. Why the Cape Royds birds would walk 50 miles when they could have built their nests here is a mystery.
Around the island are several large grounded icebergs. These behemoths are chunks of ice shelf that have broken off and found their way to this island where the shallower water trapped them. Only 10% of the iceberg is showing, 90% is underwater. To learn more about Adelie Penguins go to www.penguinscience.com.
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Postcards from the Field: Adelie Penguins 2008