Flickr: Creative Commons by Steve Deger

The Washington Post reports on a strange phenomenon that is getting stranger: Magellanic penguins making landfall on equatorial beaches. It is not uncommon (though as noted none the less strange) for a few of these critters to get caught in the plankton-rich Falkland current and wind up somewhere north of their usual home on the coast of Argentina.

Like some maritime dust-bowl migration, more than 1,000 of these penguins have floated ashore in Brazil, nearly as far north as the equator. By the time their webbed feet touch sand, many are gaunt and exhausted, often having lost three-quarters of their body weight. Even more have died.

What's weird is the massive number of the penguins that have shifted northward this year. It's the penguid version of frogs raining from the sky. Scan your body for boils.