Adelie penguin breeding colonies

Adelie penguin's one of the first brush-tail species of penguins to arrive on the Antarctic Peninsula to breed in the early spring. Throughout the early summer these animals have already found their previous mate or found a new one - They aren't as monogamous as everyone likes to think they are... A soap drama is more accurate to life in a penguin breeding colony.

These animals have a complete black head and beautiful ring around their eye, which makes their eye stand out and causes some people to believe they have blue eyes. These are a few pictures I took whilst on the Antarctic continent in December exploring this colony all resting on their eggs waiting for the new generation to hatch.

Here is what a breeding colony of Adelie penguins resting on their eggs looks like majority of the time, as they incubate the eggs and protect them from flying predators - especially, the Skua. The pair will take turns with incubating the egg or eggs and foraging in the surrounding food-rich coastal waters of the peninsula.