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Hunkering Down

“I’ve never seen a cold penguin,” said ornithologist Grant Ballard of the Point Reyes Bird Observatory. “It can be minus 30, and they’ll just be doing the same things they always do.” The only time Ballard sees uncomfortable penguins is when it’s too hot, which tends to happen around  the freezing point. (They stand still and pant, their beaks hanging open as if they were dogs.) Nevertheless, they make a pitiful sight when the relentless winds cake them with snow. The chicks are much more vulnerable to cold, so parents lower their flippers to shield them from the worst of the wind.
(Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)