Thursday, December 10, 2009

Playing to our audience

Mrs. Powell's kindergarten class has asked for pictures of penguins swimming and sliding on their bellies. We know our audience, and we aim to please.
Yet these are two areas where we're pretty weak. I've not seen many penguins sliding with real speed on their bellies. Rather, they tend to flop on to their tummies and scoot a little bit when they seem to feel it's easier than walking.

As for swimming, those pictures are a challenge, too. It's a blast to watch them swim through the water, breaking the surface like dolphins. But since you never know just where they'll come up, it's hard to capture.

But sometimes they lounge around the surface of the water and look a little like ducks.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

How close will the penguins let you approach? Do the show a lot of fear or do they ignore you?
KCPL8R

Scott Canon said...

The penguins can get a little animated in their squawking when first approached, but quickly seem rather oblivious to people. You get the picture very quickly that they're not concerned about attack from land-dwelling animals -- just birds and marine mammals.
Researchers will pick up the penguins, and have scarred wrists from the resulting bites. They look chubby, but are, I'm told, all muscle. The rest of us are asked to keep a distance from them so we have as little impact as possible on their natural behavior.

zoot said...

Y do U never respond to any of my comments?

Anonymous said...

Your pictures were up on the SmartBoard...oh my, they were thrilled!
Thank you,
Mrs. Powell