Among Penguins: A Bird Man in Antarctica

Color Image Plates

Inside the U.S. Air Force C-17 to McMurdo Station. Ivan the Terrabus (left) and two Delta shuttles stand ready to transport passengers. Deplaning on the frozen surface of the Ross Sea. Happy Campers try to stay warm during a survival exercise. Antarctica’s dry and wind-packed snow is perfect for quarrying blocks. A National Science Foundation helicopter whips spindrift while landing at Cape Crozier. The Crozier field camp includes a permanent hut and three canvas sleeping tents. The nine-by-fifteen-foot Crozier hut (with attached outhouse). Adult Adélie Penguin. A curious marching band of young penguins. Kirsten Lindquist pauses, ice axe in hand, at the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. Kirsten (left) and Michelle (right) follow a distant Snow Petrel. Michelle Hester fills out a penguin nest flag. Adult Emperor Penguins. A slow-moving Emperor Penguin is thronged by passing Adélies. Noah is surrounded, as usual, by curious penguins. Young Emperor Penguins look like kids in their grandmas’ Christmas sweaters. Very young Adélie Penguins stick together for warmth. Noah wrangles a young penguin. In late summer, the Ross Sea thaws enough to break up sea ice. Adélie Penguins dive from a fantastic abutment of icicles formed by freezing sea spray. Like dolphins, Adélie Penguins porpoise for air while swimming. A Weddell Seal lounges on the ice. A Snow Petrel knifes by the summit of Pat’s Peak. The loser of an unusually bloody penguin battle. South Polar Skuas typically eat fish, but a few have learned to rip the stomachs out of baby Adélie Penguins. Noah’s tent after two days of hurricane-force winds. Mummified carcasses, some hundreds or thousands of years old, crunch underfoot in the penguin colony. Blondie sits on his nest. Blackie relaxes. Noah in the valley of penguins. Flipper tags help scientists keep track of individual birds. The penguin roundup: researchers corral young birds between two sections of plastic fencing for banding. A lenticular cloud over the penguin colony signals windy weather ahead. top left: Noah, before traveling to Antarctica. top right: Mid-season in Antarctica. right: At the end of the Antarctica field season. ...