The Adelie Chicks are Getting Bigger!

The chicks are almost as tall as the parents and this one (with the white patch at his chin) is beginning to lose his baby down

It looks like there are more chicks than adults in this colony

Another cute shot of an Adelie chick

A chick asks it's parent for food by pecking at it's beak like this one is doing

Last weekend I went out to Torgesson Island to see the Adelie penguin chicks and I was surprised to see how big they were. The largest (the ones who hatched the earliest and had a head start) were almost as tall as their parents and were much fatter. I was surprised to see how skinny the adult penguins were but when you think about it, it makes sense: They fatten up before coming back here to mate and then use up all their reserves incubating the egg and feeding the chick. It's an intensive process.
I read someplace that when the chicks get to this size and begin losing their down, they're hungry all the time and constantly beg their parents for food. I actually saw one pair of chicks (Adelie's will hatch two chicks) chasing down an adult penguin, peeping at it for food. The adult ran away from them for about 20 feet and then turned on the chicks and began chasing them back to the colony. It made it about 10 feet before the chicks turned on it and chased it all the way to the water!
The video above isn't very good but it's mostly to let you hear what the colony sounds like now, with so many chicks. Usually it's almost entirely the adults calling to each other, but now it's fully of sharp tiny peeps. Enjoy!