Day trip to Cape Royds

Iceberg stuck in the sea ice.

On Wednesday (Tue for you in the US) David, Katie, Jean and I took a day trip to Cape Royds, so David could give Katie a tour of the colony and Jean could set up her time-lapse camera to capture penguins and seals. It took us about and hour to drive out there on snow mobiles, over sea ice 5 or 6 feet thick. It was a beautiful day, with little wind, blue skies, and temperatures around freezing. We passed giant ice bergs frozen in place by the sea ice, rising blue from a flat plane of white. Mt Erebus steamed above us, one of the few volcanoes on earth where magma is exposed at the surface. We saw around 20 Weddell Seals basking on the ice near cracks or holes they use to dive for food.

Iceberg and mountains.

We arrived at Cape Royds to find the penguins dutifully getting started with the breeding season. Males had chosen territories and begun nest-building, and were displaying with flippers outstretched and bill pointed to the sky, hoping to attract a passing female. Some birds had formed pairs, and two nests already had a single egg each. The females will probably lay a second egg before heading out to sea to forage for two weeks while the male incubates. We searched the colony for banded birds, and got the camera set up for the time lapse shot. A highlight was seeing a Kelp Gull fly by, a species I didn't know came this far south, and that David said he has only seen occasionally here.

Adelie and steaming Mt. Erebus

The drive back was equally beautiful and somewhat uneventful as the drive out. The novelty of riding on a snow machine wore off fairly quickly, and then it was just a long, loud, uncomfortable ride.

Open water north west of Cape Royds.

The rest of that afternoon and for the last two days we've continued getting everything ready to go out to Cape Crozier. Jean and Katie flew to Cape Royds today, and we're set to fly tomorrow.

Unfortunately, it looks like we won't have internet out there, at least for a while. So this blog may be fairly short-lived. I may be able to get internet-via-satellite phone set up, but no promises. I'll update when I can, but it may not be until late January.

At this point I'm at peace with not being connected for a couple months. I appreciate the internet for its utility and entertainment value, but not having it will allow me to focus on other things for a while.

Until sometime in the future...