Two of a kind

I drove down to Moeraki this afternoon to look at its weird spherical beach boulders again, and figured after driving all that way I should visit the Yellow-Eyed Penguins. There were plenty about; it was interesting to see the changes they'd undergone since I was last here 6 weeks ago. The chicks are fully grown now and have lost all their down, as well as their dependence on their parents. Several of the adults were moulting--it's bad hair month for penguins this time of year. Once they've completed the process (that is, shed all their old feathers for shiny new ones) and become waterproof again, they'll return to the sea to fish. Yellow-Eyed Penguins continue to come ashore each day for the entirety of the year, so the conclusion of their moult does not mark their seasonal disappearance from land in the way that it does for the other penguins of the New Zealand mainland, the Blue and Fiordland Crested Penguins.

As with previous trips to this particular colony, I had a really tough time choosing a blip for today. Other candidates I considered are up on Flickr.