Emperor Penguin rookery at Mt Taylor, Antarctica – field trip report from Western Coastal Journey

A report and hand drawn sketch of the emperor penguin rookery at Mt Taylor.

Transcript

[Underlined] Field trip report.

Western Coastal Journey.

Appendix

Page 2

[Underlined] Report on the Emperor Penguin rookery Brettangen [Brettangen is crossed out and TAYLOR is written over in blue pen ink] October 1954.

A few points of minor interest. There is a possibility that a second rookery of emperors exists in the fjiord area south of Foldoya. There were a large number of birds here, some travelling southward in the deep fjiords and compared with other places the number was large, suggesting that there may be a second rookery at the bottom of one of the fjiords. I did not have the time to investigate closely such a complicated area.

About a dozen old carcasses of fullgrown or immature birds at the rookery s site. That all the abandoned eggs were found together in a small area, suggested to me a sudden fright from a fall of ice from the glacier.

Rough Sketch of Rookery

[handwritten, blue ink is an arrow pointing to the top of a diagram with the words:] TAYLOR ROOKERY.

[A hand drawn sketch shows the location of the rookery sites. Centred in the label 'PRESENT ROOKERY SITE'. Below is the label 'EXPOSED ROCK MOSTLY FROST SHATTERED', above the rookery site is the label 'Lake (Frozen)' and to the left 'SNOW DRIFT CONSOLIDATED'.

Across the 'present rookery site' are many dots. With the label 'Dots indicate approximate location and density of dead chicks'.]

About this record

A report on the emperor penguin rookery at Mt Taylor which includes the observation that 'abandoned eggs', found together in a small area, may be due to 'sudden fright from a fall of ice from the glacier'.

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