ellusive emperor

My crowning wildlife moment came today when I was doing our Pegasus weather observer shift change. The trip out to the Pegasus White Ice Runway is about 40 minutes at a reasonable (25mph) speed. We drop one person off, and pick up one person to return to McMurdo. I spotted what I thought was a penguin in the distance as we neared the airfield, but we had to stop to see it moving. As first glance, it was so small in the distance, it appeared to be another Adelie. But, Estefan, the weather observer brought some binoculars out and confirmed that the bird was the elusive emperor.

I began driving Debra back to McMurdo and she asked if I wanted to stop and take some pictures. So, we took a short walk to where the penguin was; careful not to "disturb" it's normal habits per the Antarctic Treaty. I did get some good shots of this awkward, but still elegant big bird!

This sighting was the marciano cherry on the top of a banana split at Jersey Junction (where I worked for a summer)!

*favorite photo: the emperor.