Pembrokeshire penguins

My camera's not up to a decent shot of these birds,  jostling for position on their usual ledge well in advance of the breeding season. Already they're making a hell of a racket which you can listen to here.

These are guillemots and, like penguins, they adopt an upright stance when not in the water. Similarly too, they don't build nests but will lay their single eggs on the bare rock and balance them on their feet under a fringe of feathers for the 4 week incubation period.  Although they spend most of the year roaming the open sea guillemots need these noisy, crowded conditons to stimulate the mating urge.  You could  say the party atmosphere turns them on. 

The shot on the right shows how different they look when they're afloat. I thought at first that these bouyant birds were all guillemots, but in fact the lower set (thumbnailed) are their cousins, razorbills,  which have blacker plumage and a stripe on their beaks.

The way these far-flung seabirds start to gather so early in the year is a welcome sign of the coming spring and reminds me of traditional human customs whereby distant communities come together for celebrations and gatherings, opportunities to meet and re-unite, to dance, sing, feast and cement relationships. 

We need to be social to keep afloat, be the water rough or smooth.