Merry Christmas!!
Well, we celebrated last night with a big Christmas Eve dinner, in the
French tradition. Rest assured that the American tradition of eating
more then you can handle then complaining about it for the next
several hours, all while snacking on left-overs, did not fall by the
wayside. Our pile of leftovers is bigger than our normal meals here,
and takes up half a bunk in the hut.
We started with savory pies, then moved on to pork tenderloin, mashed
potatoes, and two kinds of gravy. Desert was a raspberry and a
chocolate tart.
The day itself was fairly normal. I woke around 8 and had the first of
two main meals of the day, pancakes then some cereal (lunch is
generally a bit of jerky, granola bars, and some chocolate eaten on
the go). While eating I re-read some of the NSF grant for the
continuation of the project, then began getting ready to head out into
the field. It takes some time to gather all the things I need (food
and water, a thermos of coffee or tea, extra clothes, GPS, notebook,
nest markers, hammer, crampons, and a variety of other smallish but
important things), then get into all the clothes I wear down to the
colony (1 or 2 pair long underwear and bib wind pants on bottom, 2
light wool shirts, a light fleece, a soft shell, then a hard shell on
top[often this last layer doesn’t go on until I get down to the
colony], finally socks and boots, hat and sunglasses).
It was my day to do the AM sea watch, so I hiked up to the top of
Pat’s Peak (about 10 minutes) and sat for an hour scanning the ocean
for whales or other exciting action. I didn’t see any whales this day,
but we often see Minke’s and occasionally see Killers.
After the hour was up I headed down to the colony, and just as I was
getting there I heard over the radio that a Leopard Seal was eating a
penguin just off the beach. I rushed there, thinking the spectacle
would be over any moment, then stood for an hour or so as the seal
caught and ate two more penguins. Over two hours it caught 7 total and
ate 4, the other three got a way. It was a gruesome show, played out
literally 10 feet from the beach where we stood.
After the seal disappeared it was time to do some actual work. I went
to the weighbridge subcolony to download data from that device. While
this took place I checked the nests in that subcolony that belong to
tagged and banded individuals, and used a hand reader (imagine a
clothes iron) to try and find more nests with tagged birds. The tags
are 14 or 18 mm long and about 2 or 3 mm wide, and are injected under
the skin on the back of the penguins’ necks. To use the hand reader, I
crawl toward the nest (they don’t too stressed by things shorter than
them), then keep it’s snapping bill busy with one hand while running
the reader over its back with the other. If the bird is tagged a
9-digit number appears on a little screen, and I crawl away happy. One
of the birds I scanned was back to feeding its chicks less than a
minute after I finished, a sign I take to mean I didn’t cause too much
stress.
Once I was done at the weighbridge I spent a few hours searching a
section of the colony for banded birds. This area is not very close to
where the chicks are banded, and birds generally return to nest very
close to where they hatched, so I only had a few lines of data to show
for shivering in the cold wind.
Speaking of shivering, the weather is quite interesting here. My
clothing system has to be immediately adjustable, due to the fickle
meteorology. When I was doing the sea watch in the morning it was
sunny with a light breeze. My jacket hood was down and I was happy to
have un-gloved hands out and taking pictures. However, as I walked
down to the colony a dark cloud layer approached from the ocean and
soon snow blew across the colony on a chill wind. Band-searching
involves slowly walking through the colony, so clothes rather than
physical activity are needed to stay warm. On come the neck-warmer and
thick gloves (a joy to write with), and my hat ear flaps are strapped
down tight.
After 6-8 hours, I walk back up to the hut, which is about a half mile
and 770 feet above the colony, up a gently bending snow field. New
snow thinly covers slick blue ice; in most places the traction is
good, but memory of a few falls on the way down this morning has me
stepping carefully. I am soon shedding layers to avoid becoming a
soaking mess, then arrive at the hut to wonderful smells drifting out
the slightly opened window..
After the feast mentioned above we gawk at videos of the Leopard Seal
in action, and have a slide show from Chris, the photographer who is
here working on the Skuas.
We all wandered out to our tents between midnight and 1 am, a standard
end to a pretty standard day.
Hope all is well with you all.
Scott
PS. My current plan is to continue sending these email updates, then
when I get good internet will add more or less the same text and
plenty of photos to the blog.
Well, we celebrated last night with a big Christmas Eve dinner, in the
French tradition. Rest assured that the American tradition of eating
more then you can handle then complaining about it for the next
several hours, all while snacking on left-overs, did not fall by the
wayside. Our pile of leftovers is bigger than our normal meals here,
and takes up half a bunk in the hut.
We started with savory pies, then moved on to pork tenderloin, mashed
potatoes, and two kinds of gravy. Desert was a raspberry and a
chocolate tart.
The day itself was fairly normal. I woke around 8 and had the first of
two main meals of the day, pancakes then some cereal (lunch is
generally a bit of jerky, granola bars, and some chocolate eaten on
the go). While eating I re-read some of the NSF grant for the
continuation of the project, then began getting ready to head out into
the field. It takes some time to gather all the things I need (food
and water, a thermos of coffee or tea, extra clothes, GPS, notebook,
nest markers, hammer, crampons, and a variety of other smallish but
important things), then get into all the clothes I wear down to the
colony (1 or 2 pair long underwear and bib wind pants on bottom, 2
light wool shirts, a light fleece, a soft shell, then a hard shell on
top[often this last layer doesn’t go on until I get down to the
colony], finally socks and boots, hat and sunglasses).
It was my day to do the AM sea watch, so I hiked up to the top of
Pat’s Peak (about 10 minutes) and sat for an hour scanning the ocean
for whales or other exciting action. I didn’t see any whales this day,
but we often see Minke’s and occasionally see Killers.
After the hour was up I headed down to the colony, and just as I was
getting there I heard over the radio that a Leopard Seal was eating a
penguin just off the beach. I rushed there, thinking the spectacle
would be over any moment, then stood for an hour or so as the seal
caught and ate two more penguins. Over two hours it caught 7 total and
ate 4, the other three got a way. It was a gruesome show, played out
literally 10 feet from the beach where we stood.
After the seal disappeared it was time to do some actual work. I went
to the weighbridge subcolony to download data from that device. While
this took place I checked the nests in that subcolony that belong to
tagged and banded individuals, and used a hand reader (imagine a
clothes iron) to try and find more nests with tagged birds. The tags
are 14 or 18 mm long and about 2 or 3 mm wide, and are injected under
the skin on the back of the penguins’ necks. To use the hand reader, I
crawl toward the nest (they don’t too stressed by things shorter than
them), then keep it’s snapping bill busy with one hand while running
the reader over its back with the other. If the bird is tagged a
9-digit number appears on a little screen, and I crawl away happy. One
of the birds I scanned was back to feeding its chicks less than a
minute after I finished, a sign I take to mean I didn’t cause too much
stress.
Once I was done at the weighbridge I spent a few hours searching a
section of the colony for banded birds. This area is not very close to
where the chicks are banded, and birds generally return to nest very
close to where they hatched, so I only had a few lines of data to show
for shivering in the cold wind.
Speaking of shivering, the weather is quite interesting here. My
clothing system has to be immediately adjustable, due to the fickle
meteorology. When I was doing the sea watch in the morning it was
sunny with a light breeze. My jacket hood was down and I was happy to
have un-gloved hands out and taking pictures. However, as I walked
down to the colony a dark cloud layer approached from the ocean and
soon snow blew across the colony on a chill wind. Band-searching
involves slowly walking through the colony, so clothes rather than
physical activity are needed to stay warm. On come the neck-warmer and
thick gloves (a joy to write with), and my hat ear flaps are strapped
down tight.
After 6-8 hours, I walk back up to the hut, which is about a half mile
and 770 feet above the colony, up a gently bending snow field. New
snow thinly covers slick blue ice; in most places the traction is
good, but memory of a few falls on the way down this morning has me
stepping carefully. I am soon shedding layers to avoid becoming a
soaking mess, then arrive at the hut to wonderful smells drifting out
the slightly opened window..
After the feast mentioned above we gawk at videos of the Leopard Seal
in action, and have a slide show from Chris, the photographer who is
here working on the Skuas.
We all wandered out to our tents between midnight and 1 am, a standard
end to a pretty standard day.
Hope all is well with you all.
Scott
PS. My current plan is to continue sending these email updates, then
when I get good internet will add more or less the same text and
plenty of photos to the blog.
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