Grandma's feather bed

Posted by dobbino (Cape Town, South Africa) on 28 November 2008 in Animal & Insect and Portfolio.

Firstly - a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who posted birthday wishes for Jacqui yesterday - she was quite taken aback, but very grateful, and now has a whole new appreciation of this wonderful community we are part of. Your wishes were the cherries on top of a fabulous day, and are really, really appreciated!
This is the last of the penguin shots (Thank goodness, I hear you say!) Another photo without much artistic merit, but probably educational nonetheless - well, for me anyway. Something I never really thought about before, but I never knew that these little fellas moulted. It almost looks like the floor after I have had a haircut - greys on the floor and a little darker colour left on top!
The moult cycle of African penguins is generally more synchronous than the breeding cycle. In South Africa most penguins moult from November to January. The entire moult takes about 20 days to complete, with the feather-shedding period lasting about 13 days of this period. Prior to the moult the penguins spend about five weeks feeding and laying down fat deposits, but lose almost half their body weight during the moult process. At the end of the moult the penguins return to sea and spend about six weeks fattening up again. Information courtesy of Sancob
BTW - have a great weekend.
Title from the song written by Jim Connor and my favourite version sung by John Denver

All comments, and especially constructive criticism is truly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time.

All images © Rob Minter, and licensed in terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License

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Comments (13)

Nicholas from Shah Alam, Malaysia

Excellent shot :d Enjoy your weekend! :)

28 Nov 2008 6:31am

Kylie Greenan from Richmond, Australia

You have a great title for this one :o)...I remember the song! Look at all those feathers, wow, thanks for sharing this, so interesting Rob! SOOO CUTE!

28 Nov 2008 10:46am

grouser from Ludlow, United Kingdom

Personally I think there is artistic merit here. The limited colour palette and the varied textures make for an interesting and informative shot. I might have cropped it a tad closer at the bottom to get rid of that fuzzy line.

28 Nov 2008 11:23am

@grouser: Thanks Grouser - thought about it and then decided against it, but in retrospect, you're right - should have done the cropping.

JJ from Jersey City, United States

Great title for this, I know the song well, and such an interesting post, it was educating for me and thanks for sharing it, I can relate to your comment on the haircut also some color pattern for me lOL

28 Nov 2008 1:17pm

Lorraine from Gatineau, Canada

Fabulous Ron, I had no idea, beautiful capture of the feathers, so natural, so lovely and educational to boot, wow and I'm glad Jacqui enjoyed the greetings...she sounds wonderful :)

28 Nov 2008 4:15pm

@Lorraine: Thanks you for all your wonderful comments - and you are right about Jacqui, but I must say you sound like a wonderful lady too - have a fabulous weekend lol (not the laughing version)! :)

Shirin Moosavi from Tehran, Iran

Your penguin shots are beautiful!
These feathers make great patterns!

28 Nov 2008 4:36pm

Graham Russon from Cape Town, South Africa

Nice shot, and interesting info to boot.

28 Nov 2008 8:01pm

Linerberry from Sumner, Christchurch, New Zealand

How very sweet indeed:-) All those feathers!! Lovely capture R:-)

28 Nov 2008 8:39pm

jamesy from christchurch, New Zealand

great shot Rob could make a feather bed with all those feathers.

28 Nov 2008 9:24pm

Roman from Thunder Bay, Canada

You inspire me with your simplicity, my friend. Plus, I awlays like to read the accompanying description.
One always learns something new. For example, I didn't know that there were penguins in South Africa, how cool is that !!!

..and as usual...

cheers
Roman

29 Nov 2008 1:07am