Chicks!

The season is progressing rapidly on Signy as the Adelie chicks are growing quickly and starting to creche with each other. This happens when the chicks are left unguarded by the adults and they all huddle together for warmth and safety.

The Adelie colonies are now a mass of creching chicks and wandering adults

Of course, with so many penguins moving around the ground becomes quite muddy and is well covered in the guano of the birds. The result is a very smelly and dirty looking colony with some very sorry looking chicks.

The ground, and the penguins, have a orange/pink hue due to the amount of guano being ejected by the birds!

But looks and smell aside, the chicks are progressing very well.

Bedraggled and dirty, but healthy

"This stuff gets everywhere!"

Despite the muck, the chicks can still pull off that cute look!

You can't help but still find them endearing

Now that they are creching the chicks are also beginning to moult. The warm fluff is being replaced by their first set of proper feathers, providing some quite funny looks during the process.

The chicks are sporting some fine hairstyles as they moult

One or two chicks are so advanced in their moult that they are looking close to fledging already. Most chicks have a couple of weeks to go yet but there are a couple that look like they could go for a swim in a few days' time!

Once moulted the chicks have a blueish colouration to the feathers

They soon look as sleek as the adults and ready to swim - but maybe not until they have some friends to go with!

These chicks are the early starters though, the majority are still reliant of the adults returning and feeding them as often as possible to help them grow.

The adults return and try to find their chicks in the jumble - the colony still looks quite dirty even with a filter on the camera!

Of course, returning to such a messy colony and finding your chick isn't exactly an easy job and the adults come out of it looking quite messy themselves!

Looking after the kids can be dirty work, they may preen but it will take a trip back to sea to get fully clean again

The Adelies aren't the only ones progressing well. The Chinstraps, who are about 4 weeks later than the Adelies in their season timings, are now hatching very quickly.

The Adelie colony (left) is looking quite a bit more dirty than the Chinstrap colony (right).... for now!

The Chinstrap colonies are now echoing with the sound of young chicks squeaking away and the nests are full of fluffy grey blobs sticking out from under the parents.

Spot all the fluffy grey chicks

The chicks are barely big enough to hold up their heads but they will grow quickly and it won't be long until they reach the stage the Adelies are already at, so this is the best time to enjoy the chicks when they are at their smallest.

The adults are keeping the chicks safe whilst they are so small

Many nests have two chicks and with enough food and security from the parents both can grow to fledging

But for now it is a struggle just to lift their heads up

However, the effort is worth it for a bit of food!

It is not just the penguins that are on chicks. The Skuas have also started hatching and are raising their chicks on the fringes of the colonies. They may predate on the penguin chicks, but with chicks of their own to feed it is all part of the ecosystem here.

A very young Skua chick with its parent brooding a second chick

They grow quickly, this Skua chick is twice the size and only a bit older

It is harder to track the progress of some of our other species. Snow Petrels, Wilson's Storm-petrels and Antarctic Prions all nest in rock crevices and under boulders whilst Cape Petrels nest on inaccessible (by land) cliff ledges. But that doesn't stop us getting some views of how they are getting on.

Cape Petrels on the cliff ledges

Late evening is the best time to see these species as they have been feeding at sea all day and come back to the nest site most often at night (to avoid predators like Skuas and Giant Petrels who are about during the day). The ones that begin returning to the colonies in the early evening can sometimes be seen quite clearly as they find their nest sites among the rocks.

Wilson's Storm-petrel about to enter it's nest site

With so much going on it is a very busy time for the birds and for us here on Signy, but a very exciting time as well!