International Penguin Day!
Brucie loves penguins. Whenever there are penguins on TV, she pays rapt attention. I don’t know what she sees in them - she’s a cockatiel who was born in New Hampshire almost twenty years ago and has never been to the Antarctic - but penguins fascinate her.
She’d really like today. April 25th is World Penguin Day, the day on or around which Adelie Penguins begin their northward migration from Ross Island. It takes them a while, because they’re the only migratory bird that don’t fly.
It’s not just the Adelies. Other penguins also migrate north for better feeding opportunities, whether from Antarctica, the Falklands, or South America. The days are growing shorter in the far southern latitudes - it’s time to head for warmer weather.
The annual migration signals the end of breeding season. The waters between Antarctica and the Patagonian shelf are full of newly-fledged youngsters. Well, fledged is probably the wrong word for flightless birds, but these juveniles have shed their baby fluff and are wearing their formal dress of black and white feathers as they leave their parents behind.
When I was a kid, I volunteered at the New England Aquarium. At that time, the only penguins they had were half a dozen or so Jackass Penguins, which the politically correct have now renamed to African or Black-footed Penguins. I learned a few things about them. While they are adorable on land, their appearance of formal dress made ludicrous by their ungainly waddle, they are absolutely stunning under water. They swoop and soar through the water like swallows do in air.
The other thing I learned, oh, did I learn it, is that they are copiously incontinent and stink to high heaven. I spent quite a bit of time in their enclosure with hose and scrub brush. Remember Mr. Popper’s Penguins? Mrs. Popper would have sent Mr. Popper packing before you could say Peter Popper Plucked a Pack of Pecking Penguins.
In the water, however, not only can you see how graceful and elegant they are, but you can’t smell them. Today is the perfect day to celebrate them, because today is the day they take to the water. Today they fly.
She’d really like today. April 25th is World Penguin Day, the day on or around which Adelie Penguins begin their northward migration from Ross Island. It takes them a while, because they’re the only migratory bird that don’t fly.
It’s not just the Adelies. Other penguins also migrate north for better feeding opportunities, whether from Antarctica, the Falklands, or South America. The days are growing shorter in the far southern latitudes - it’s time to head for warmer weather.
The annual migration signals the end of breeding season. The waters between Antarctica and the Patagonian shelf are full of newly-fledged youngsters. Well, fledged is probably the wrong word for flightless birds, but these juveniles have shed their baby fluff and are wearing their formal dress of black and white feathers as they leave their parents behind.
When I was a kid, I volunteered at the New England Aquarium. At that time, the only penguins they had were half a dozen or so Jackass Penguins, which the politically correct have now renamed to African or Black-footed Penguins. I learned a few things about them. While they are adorable on land, their appearance of formal dress made ludicrous by their ungainly waddle, they are absolutely stunning under water. They swoop and soar through the water like swallows do in air.
The other thing I learned, oh, did I learn it, is that they are copiously incontinent and stink to high heaven. I spent quite a bit of time in their enclosure with hose and scrub brush. Remember Mr. Popper’s Penguins? Mrs. Popper would have sent Mr. Popper packing before you could say Peter Popper Plucked a Pack of Pecking Penguins.
In the water, however, not only can you see how graceful and elegant they are, but you can’t smell them. Today is the perfect day to celebrate them, because today is the day they take to the water. Today they fly.