As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Sunday 2 February 2014

High-risk life for the adelie penguin


By ONE News reporter Will Hine in Antarctica

Published: 9:21AM Monday January 27, 2014 Source: ONE News

From a distance, the adelie penguin colony at Cape Bird is a sight to behold. Tens of thousands of charismatic little birds waddle about the slopes that lead down to a vast blue sea. Sometimes they slide on their belly on the snow. At the end of the beach is a glacier which descends majestically into the ocean. And offshore, there's an island, and icebergs floating past. The vista is nothing short of gorgeous.

It's not a place for the squeamish though. Firstly there's the stench of centuries of bird poo. The guano lies in mounds on the gravelly beach, the layer rising incrementally each year.

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