Stacey in Antarctica

Photos

2012-01-31T09:06:00.002Z

The work huts at Gourlay, where I mainly work.

Some of the neighbours (young male elephant seals).

The Ernest Shackleton by moonlight.

My commute to work (you can see my footprints over the ice).

A Signy sunset.

Signy photos

2012-01-24T00:43:00.005Z

A wintery looking sunrise at Signy.

Adelie penguins.

Chinstrap with chick.

Ice.

Weddell seals on the ice floes.

Christmas Dinner

2012-01-22T13:23:00.001Z

The Signy team, 2011/12... From left to right, Mick, me, Norman, Matt, Bruce, Wen, Paul.

Signy life

2012-01-06T22:52:00.002Z

I finally arrived at Signy on 18^th December. Back in September, I had spent 3 days in Cambridge, learning what my job was to involve, with Mike, who was doing the job before me. Mike was at Signy when I arrived, and we had a one day handover, to get me up to speed before he left on the ship that I had arrived on. The first days were taken up with base inductions, getting to know people and learning how life works on the base. There are 7 of us on Signy this season, which will reduce to 6 at the next ship call in the middle of January.

Signy is further south that Bird Island and is therefore a bit colder. It seems to snow instead of rain, which is rather nice. The base is surrounded by a number of young male elephant seals, which appear to be noisy and smelly neighbours, but they are entertaining to watch and fairly harmless. The terrain is steep, with lots of rock and scree, and a large ice cap in the South East corner of the Island. This makes moving around the island a little tricky as there are two-person travel regulations for anywhere on or over the icecap for safety reasons, meaning its essential to find a spare person to take with you if you want to go somewhere to do some work.

My main penguin study site is on this side of the icecap and is a 45minute walk from base. My job is to continue the long term penguin and seal monitoring work on the island for the summer. This involves regularly monitoring 100 Adélie and 100 chinstrap penguin nests, which act as a representative sample for the whole island population, and allows me to work out when the chick/egg/fledging counts need to be done on the rest of the island. I also do regular seal counts, and work with other species including giant petrels, snow petrels, cape petrels, and blue-eyed shags.

The Adélie chicks are getting nice and fat- they are grey, but are currently very muddy from running around in the penguin colonies. The chinstraps have just started hatching and are almost pure white.

We spent Christmas in much the same way as people at home probably did: with Christmas lights and a big Christmas dinner, cake and pudding, mulled wine and mince pies and some Christmas movies. We were lucky enough to get a white Christmas (it snowed for most of the day) but sadly it was a bit too warm and didn’t settle. As it is the middle of the summer here it is the breeding season for the wildlife so we are all very busy and unable to take much of a break from working. New Year was nice too, and involved a big buffet tea, champagne and letting off a few flares.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and I wish you all a Happy New Year for 2012.

More pictures from the journey

2012-01-03T05:25:00.002Z

Adelie penguins enjoying the ice.

Rothera at Midnight.

Weddell seal.

The JCR at Deception Island.

Chinstrap penguin.

Photos from the journey

2011-12-30T20:54:00.003Z

Evening light over the South Shetland Islands.

The "real" Antarctic at its best.

Adelie penguin (one of my study species this year).

Down the Crevasse at Rothera.

The JCR leaves clear tracks behind it through the ice-covered ocean as it continues on its way.

The journey south

2011-12-30T20:51:00.000Z

Ok, here begins Stacey in Antarctica Part 2.

My journey began on the morning of 6^th December, when Mum, Dad and Derren waved me off on the minibus, that came to pick us up from the BAS headquarters in Cambridge to take us to the airport (myself and about 8 others who were going to different bases around the Antarctic). Later that day, we flew to Madrid, where we waited for a connecting flight for a few hours, then continued onwards, across the Atlantic to Santiago. After another brief stop there, we flew South, to Punta Arenas. We were put up for the night in a very nice hotel there. The following day, the adventures really began. We went back to Punta airport, where we boarded the Dash7- the British Antarctic Survey aeroplane. This is quite an exciting plane- used for carrying people and cargo backwards and forwards between Punta and the Bas research station at Rothera, about half way down the Antarctic Peninsula. The plane is very small, with seats at the back, a kettle for cups of tea, and a big open space for cargo at the front. It took us 5 hours to fly south, and we arrived at Rothera on the afternoon of 8^th December.

When we arrived, the JCR, the ship that was going to take us onwards, had just arrived and moored at Rothera station. It was the first ship call of the season so was bringing all the supplies and kit needed by the station for the coming summer. This required 3 days of organising, which meant we got a 3 day holiday there. Rothera is below the Antarctic circle so was having 24 hour daylight at all times. The sun remained high in the sky both day and night. Whilst there, the base members took us out riding on the skidoos, and exploring down a big blue crevasse, which was like a huge blue cave. The colours and icicles were lovely. We were also able to walk out around “the point” and have our first encounters with Adelie penguins and Weddell Seals.

When the work at Rothera was complete, the JCR set sail, heading northwards along the peninsula. This day was sunny, and the mountains, ice, clouds, blue sky and flat calm seas produced probably the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen; vast areas of white wilderness, dotted only with the small black shapes of seals and penguins, hauled out on the ice floes.

In the next few days we continued North, along the peninsula, stopping at various places along the way. First stop was the Ukrainian base at Vernadsky where we had to drop off some scientific kit, then Port Lockroy, Deception Island and Jubany. We also passed the South Shetland Islands and finally arrived at the South Orkneys. I wonder how many other people have seen both the North and South Orkney and Shetland Islands, all since April! J The journey was lovely, sometimes ploughing through thick slushy ice, and at times open water. We eventually arrived at Signy on the morning of 18^th December. I’ll write that bit in another entry, so you can see some pictures of the journey first (if I can get the internet to upload them).

The plan (and Frozen Planet)

2011-11-03T12:38:00.003Z

So, for those of you who are wondering what the plan is, here it is...
I fly from the UK on 6th December, to South America, where I am then flown to the BAS research station Rothera, on the Antarctic peninsula. I get three days there, before joining one of the BAS ships, the James Clark Ross, to take me to Signy, the island in the South Orkney islands where I will be spending the summer (UK winter). Thats all for now, but there will be photos once I get going.

Oh, and make sure you are watching Frozen Planet... Much of the South Georgia stuff was filmed on Bird Island during my first summer there.

Stacey in Antarctica: Part II

2011-09-02T12:40:00.005+01:00

Yes, its back- the new and exciting
"Stacey in Antarctica: Part II" Watch this space as new and exciting events unfold...

In November 2011 I will once again be heading South, for 5 months. This time to Signy, an island in the South Orkney Islands, for yet more penguin adventures.

The end of the adventure...

2011-06-21T15:45:00.000+01:00

The gentoo penguins go about their daily life as the RSS.Ernest Shackleton arrives to take me home.

Wandering albatrosses display in the sunset.

2011-06-21T15:28:00.002+01:00

Wandering albatrosses displaying.

Some of my Wanderers.

The last few days of my time on Bird Island.

Wanderer and chick.

One of my wanderer chicks.

The end of it all...

2011-05-25T22:14:00.001+01:00

I suspect some of you are checking this from time to time, wondering whether I intend to update this any more. Well here it is- the long awaited final entry to the Stacey in Antarctica Blog (although i promise to put up one last batch of photo's after this).

The last couple of months flew by. We had one ship call which took away a few of our short-term summer staff and delivered us some more. I continued to do the albatross work which kept me busy monitoring the grey headed and black browed albatross chicks, and recording the hatch dates for all of the new wandering albatross chicks.

On base we fitted in some useful activities to help the winterers, including a search and rescue exercise, and an oil spill response scenario. We also made lists of everything that was present on base, to allow Ags, our summer BC to order what is needed for next year.

Two weeks before the end of the season, the Fisheries Protection Vessel, the Pharos, arrived, bringing a few new people. Of particular significance to me, was Jenn, who arrived to take over the albatross work from me for the winter, so I could go home. The final 2 weeks therefore were busy, handing over the job to her, and doing the final parts of the penguin work handover to Ruth. Once everyone was up to speed (I hope there wasn’t too much I forgot to tell them, but its all a bit rushed when what is usually a 5 month hand over period is squeezed into a 2 week slot!), I spent my final days packing up my belongings into boxes, and filling in the paperwork that is needed to accompany it on its journey home on the ship. I also found the time to help Mick attach tiny GLS tracking devices to fur seal pups.

The ship, the RSS Ernest Shackleton, was due to arrive on 25^th March. On the day, we were all packed and ready, with all of our personal kit packed, and all of the waste, empty drums and unwanted kit ready to load. On the day, the ship arrived, but the sea was too rough to launch the small boats needed to transfer all of our kit, so it continued along the coast, to the base at King Edward Point, and promised to return on 27^th instead. This was lovely, because as we were all packed and ready to go, we had 2 days of holidays, without having to worry about final packing or organising anything. The weather was kind to us, and on the final afternoon we turned off the generators and shut down the base, and all climbed La Roche (our highest peak) in the sunshine. It was a lovely afternoon, and a fitting end to a fantastic 29 months here, sitting in the sunshine on the very top of our little island in the Southern Oceans.

On 27^th March the sea was calm enough for the Shackleton to do its work. The 4 winterers went onboard to visit the dentist, and those remaining ashore oversaw all kit being loaded onto the ship. Finally, by late afternoon, despite a few technical hitches, everything was loaded onboard, and all that was left was the final farewells to the island, and the friends and creatures I was leaving behind. They will all be missed very much, in a way that only people who have been before me could understand.

The Shackleton headed for the Falklands, with me and 3 others from Bird Island, leaving the 4 winterers to get on with their winter. We arrived in the Falklands 3 days later, and headed into Stanley, to enjoy the novelty of being able to spend money, and sit in a bar. It was surprising how quickly the novelty of having to pay for things wore off! Afterwards I stayed for 2 weeks in the Falklands, for a holiday, and to do some work with the Falklands Conservation group. Derren arrived mid way through, and we both spent a week in Ascension Island on the way home. We eventually returned to the UK on the evening of 23^rd April 2011, where Mum and Dad came to pick us up.

I will put one final batch of photo’s onto here, of my last few weeks, so don’t stop reading just yet....

Mid February

2011-02-07T22:23:00.002Z

It’s now early February, and I’ve got less than 2 months left here on Bird Island. Time is whizzing by at an alarming rate, and the main thing that bothers me is that I’m still not managing to find the time to take all those photographs I have been meaning to. I have no idea how I’ve managed to be here 26 months and still haven’t got half the photographs I wanted! Still, it’s good to be busy and keeps me out of trouble.

Christmas on Bird Island was fun, and despite everyone being very busy, we still found time for a few days off to celebrate Christmas in a fairly typical style with lots of good food, decorations and fun. Thank you everyone who sent me Christmas cards and presents. They are lovely to look at on Christmas morning when so far from home. New Year was good too, and the Fisheries Patrol Vessel arrived at the unsociable hour of 8am on New Year’s day to take away several of our staff. This included Joe, one of my 3 winter companions, who will be missed, and some of our visiting scientists. The ship brought us Jon, from the BAS base at King Edward Point, to act as an extra pair of hands for the field assistants, as we are currently one man down.

Those of you that check this frequently have probably noticed that I am not improving in my ability to write anything on here! J I’m sure you’re all bored of me saying that I’ve been very busy and haven’t got round to writing anything- this time I have an excuse as I have a new job. Our albatross assistant left unexpectedly at the start of December. Being the veteran here, and as I had a fair idea of what the job entailed, I took over the roll as Albatross Assistant and handed over most of the usual penguin work to my replacement Ruth a bit more rapidly than we had originally planned. This proved hard work, for both of us as I’ve had to leave Ruth to fend for herself pretty early in the season and I received no handover at all for the albatross work. But two months down the line we are still muddling through and the data is still being collected so we are coping ok.

I still get to play with the penguins from time to time, but most of my work is now monitoring the wandering, black-browed, grey-headed and light-mantled sooty albatrosses. The work is interesting and keeps me very fit as I am out and about for most of the day, nearly every day. The wandering albatrosses have just finished laying eggs and the location of every nest on the island (around 800) had to be mapped. Most of the birds have a metal leg ring with a unique number, and some of them have been nesting on the island for over 50 years. The wanderer work is a good excuse to get all over the island to places you wouldn’t usually venture to. The smaller albatrosses, the black-brows and grey-heads, have small chicks at present, which are very cute. They nest in colonies so it requires less walking to check the birds, but the colonies are spread over quite a large area, so still keeps me out and about.

As I have less than 2 months left now, I am starting to have to think about going home and facing life in the real world again! Ships visit dates seem to be changing on a regular basis at the moment so I haven’t managed to make any firm plans for arriving back in the UK as I am also thinking of travelling a bit on the way home. I should be back in the UK around the end of April/May whatever happens so will catch up with people then.

Albatrosses.

2011-01-17T23:30:00.003Z

Wanderer in the evening light.

Light-mantled sooty albatross chick.

Wanderer at sunset.

Light-mantled sooty albatross with chick.

Other wildlife

2011-01-17T22:35:00.003Z

Northern Giant petrel that has been eating a dead seal.

Gentoo penguins at Natural Arch.

Not so little Gentoo penguin chicks.

Skua chick.

Bottom Meadows on a sunny day.

Seals.

2011-01-17T21:52:00.002Z

Fur seals on the beaches.

More fur seals.

One in 1000 pups are blonde.

The beach in front of the base in summer.

Fur seal pup that's been playing in the sea.

Christmas on Bird Island

2011-01-17T21:28:00.002Z

My Christmas cake.

Christmas Dinner.

Christmas photograph... (rather random).

Spring arrivals and more...

2010-11-11T00:21:00.002Z

Day-old gentoo penguin chicks.

The North Stacks and North Cliffs on a sunny day.

Young wandering albatross practicing using his wings.

More little gentoo chicks.

Strange cloud formations over South Georgia.

Some writing to go with the pictures....

2010-11-10T23:47:00.001Z

Yet again I have failed miserably to keep this up to date!

Spring has been progressing nicely here. The days are getting much longer which is refreshing after the long winter’s nights. The wildlife is all returning to the island to breed and all the field assistants are now spending long days in the field measuring, weighing, counting and monitoring their various study species.

For me, this is the giant petrels and the penguins. The Macaroni penguins started returning to the island in October, and the huge 80,000 strong colony at Big Mac is rapidly filling up. The males return first, to guard the nest spot they occupied the previous year, and the females follow a couple of weeks later. They are just arriving now. The gentoo penguins were early this year, and have been incubating eggs for a number of weeks now. The first tiny chicks were spotted yesterday and their little squeaks can now be heard throughout the colony as they beg for food. Many of the Gentoo’s have 2 eggs this year, which is a sign that they are in good condition and bodes well for a successful breeding season.

The fur seals have started returning this week too. This is a definite sign of the start of spring. The large males turn up first, and fight for territories on the beaches around the island. The beach upon which the base is situated is no exception, and this is therefore the start of the period where moving around outside the base requires accurate footing and a brave heart! The females should also start turning up any day now to pup. Soon the beach will again be full of the cries of the pups, the “hoof choof hoof choof” of the territorial males, and the calling of the females.

On 31^st October, the BAS ship the James Clark Ross, arrived at Bird Island for first call. This is the first ship call of the season and they delivered us everything we will need for the coming year. This was quite a big operation this year, as we are having 2 new generators, some new sets of doors, a new set of batteries for the night time power supply, as well as all the food, beer, fuel, science kit and domestic supplies that will be needed for the coming year. More noticeable to the winterers was that the ship also delivered us 6 new staff. This brought numbers on base up to 10 people, which is quite a shock after only being four for the previous 7 months.

Two of the new staff were particularly significant to me… I have been the Winter Base Commander since February, and the arrival of the new Summer Base Commander meant I have now handed over the reins of responsibility to someone else. Although this position was a good experience for me, I found I was always conscious of the responsibility. Now I am left with a free feeling, knowing I am now no longer responsible for whatever may happen here! J The other significant arrival was Ruth. Ruth marks the beginning of the end of my time here, as she is the new penguin assistant, who has arrived to spend the summer with me learning the tricks of the trade, to continue the job after I leave. It’s hard to believe my time is almost up, and as we begin our work together I am constantly reminded of all the photographs I still mean to take, and all the places I still mean to re-visit! I still have nearly 5 months on the island, so there’s no need to panic yet, but I need to keep reminding myself that time is short and no opportunities should be passed by!

Spring returns to Bird Island

2010-11-10T22:39:00.003Z

The Macaroni penguins are back, after spending the winter at sea.

Willis Islands from Top Meadow on a misty spring morning.

Light-mantled sooty albatross awaits the return of its mate.

The gentoo's have settled down to breed and are incubating their eggs.

The Black-browed albatrosses have also returned to their nesting sites.

Some more pictures....

2010-10-21T20:49:00.004+01:00

Sunset over the bay.

Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins having a disagreement.

The black browed albatrosses returned to the island this month after spending the winter at sea.

Adult male elephant seal on Main Bay.

Chinstrap penguin.

Late winter...

2010-08-29T15:56:00.000+01:00

I keep putting photographs on here but never get round to writing anything! I don’t seem to have written anything since Midwinter, so here is some writing to get people up to date with what’s going on now winter is starting to draw to a close.

Winter is plodding along nicely- the days are getting much longer and the sun shines directly onto the base again now which is nice to see. I have spent much of the winter in the lab measuring and sexing krill and fish otoliths (ear bones) from penguin diet samples collected over the summer. This is all finished now, and I am now writing the end of year report, analysing files from the penguin weighbridge (a platform which weighs Macaroni penguins as they cross it- the idea being that we can weigh them without having to disturb them), and updating the penguin “user manual” which is a full set of instructions of all the work that I do, for my replacement who will arrive in October.

We are currently down to only 3 on base as Mick went to the Falklands about 3 weeks ago to see the doctors, but they’re sending him back fit and healthy and he’s currently on the ship back to us. We are just waiting for calm enough seas for the ship to be able to launch the zodiac to drop him off! Today the waves are breaking into the entrance of the bay, so he won’t be coming back today. And the forecast is for a windy week, which means big seas, so he might be floating around for another week yet! It means the rest of us now do his work, which isn’t too time consuming as he isn’t very busy at this time of year. We do a daily leopard seal round for him, walking along the beaches, and photographing and measuring any seals, on land or in the water for the database. All the leopard seals have a unique pattern of spots so can be identified from photographs from previous years.

There’s more free time in winter for things like going out and taking pictures, or playing in the snow. Myself and Claudia went camping one night in the cave up on Cave Crag which is just behind the base. It was a lovely (but cold) moonlit night, and snowed later in the night, but it didn’t quite reach us tucked into the back of the cave. I am making a chessboard and a set of Bird Island chess pieces (little penguins and seals etc) in the workshop which keeps me amused on nasty days when it doesn’t look very appealing outside. Now I just need to learn to play chess… We also play scrabble and other games on the long winter’s nights and I am very slowly, and largely unsuccessfully, attempting to learn to play the guitar.

My next season’s field work begins on 10th September, with the start of the Giant petrel round- a daily walk around the study area, to map the birds breeding and get their ring numbers (they all have unique leg ring numbers so we know who is who). The Northern giant petrels should start laying around 16th September, and I need to check each nest daily to get the egg laying date. The daily round will continue until the end of November, as the Southern giant petrels start laying once the Northern’s stop. The penguin work will begin in October when the gentoo’s start nesting and the Macaroni’s return from their winter at sea. My replacement arrives in October to take on my job, and we then have a 5 month hand-over period for her to learn the tricks of the trade, before I leave Bird Island in at the end of March. Where did the last 2 years go to!!!

2010-08-21T17:29:00.002+01:00

Wandering albatross chick.

Isabelline Gentoo penguin (the grey one).

Leopard seal wondering if I look tasty.

Pancake ice on the sea.

Pintail ducks with ice on their backs.

2010-08-21T17:08:00.001+01:00

South Georgia Pipit.

Claudia in the cave at Cave Crag, where we camped last night.

Kelp gulls and Pintails feeding.

August pictures

2010-08-21T15:11:00.002+01:00

Leopard seal in the water.

Pancake ice.

Willis Islands from Bird Island, with giant petrels and a wadering albatross.

The cave at Cave Crag (where me and Claudia camped last night).

Gentoo's coming home for the night after a day at sea.

And a few more

2010-07-31T22:56:00.002+01:00

Icebergs.

Male fur seal enjoying the sun.

Gentoo penguin contemplating which stone to pinch for his nest next year.

Wanderer chick in the snow.

Bird Island on a sunny day.

A few winter pictures

2010-07-31T22:52:00.000+01:00

Bits of ice in the bay.

Gentoo having a scratch!

Wandering albatross chick above base.

Ice on the beach.

Another leopard seal

2010-07-07T00:27:00.002+01:00

A sleepy, yawny leopard seal.

Leopard seals

2010-06-23T00:05:00.002+01:00

The first leopard seal of the winter. With a Mick for scale!

Big teeth on a big leopard seal! We had to postpone our Midwinter dip in the sea due to the presence of this beautiful beasty.

Snoozy happy Leopard seal.

Happy Midwinter!

2010-06-18T00:46:00.004+01:00

Happy Midsummer to everyone at home, from the Bird Island Wintering team.

Midwinter is the most celebrated day of the year in Antarctica as it marks the turn of the seasons and the start of the days getting longer. This is more significant for bases who are situated closer to the South Pole, many of whom have not seen the sun for several months, but even for us at our higher lattitude, it will be a refreshing change as the days get longer and the sun no longer rises at midday. In another 6 weeks the sun will once again shine directly on the base, instead of being in the shadow of the mountains. Bases of all nationalities around Antarctica celebrate Midwinter by sending their best wishes and greetings photographs to their fellow Antarctic companions around the continent. Everyone takes time off to celebrate in their own different ways. It is lovely to recieve greetings from bases of all nationalities, who regardless of war or disputes back home, are united into one big Antarctic family on this day.

Here on Bird Island, we have plans for a full week off work, and the type of festivities you might expect around Christmas time. We have all been busy in the workshop, making presents for eachother and are looking forward to a week of good food, snow, movies, games, presents and various other novel types of entertainment. Happy Midwinter. xxx

Today's Sunset and Moonrise

2010-05-25T01:06:00.004+01:00

La Roche by moonlight tonight.

Todays Sunset from the top of Bandersnatch.

Winter begins

2010-05-23T16:01:00.001+01:00

It’s been a while since I wrote anything on here so thought I’d better get on and get up to date! Mid April we all ran around madly preparing the base for the last ship call of the season. This is quite a busy time, as it the time when all of the waste from the year gets shipped back to the UK, for recycling or landfill. All empty fuel drums get sent out, and any other kit that has to go back to the UK for repair or replacement. Every box or bag has its own bit of paperwork to complete so it’s all rather time consuming. As Winter Base Commander, the paperwork all falls to me, which kept me out of mischief for several days. After several days of running around and packing things up we were finally ready. Ship calls at Bird Island are always touch and go, as the ship has to anchor offshore, and then launch small inflatable boats and a cargo tender, which are small enough to get into the bay and to the end of the jetty. If the seas are too rough, they cannot launch the smaller boats and loading and unloading cargo becomes very dangerous. This means we have to be pretty flexible, and not get too excited, until the cargo tender actually reaches the end of the jetty!

This was the case this season. The ship turned up, but then called us on the radio to tell us the seas was too rough, and that they were going to go to do Last Call at King Edward Point (another BAS base about 60miles down the South Georgia coast) and then come back to us afterwards. So we sat around and waited for another week.

The ship came eventually, but the suitable weather window was so small that everything had to be done very quickly (sometimes at ship calls, the ship will stay overnight, allowing people on the ship to come and spend the night on the Island. This always makes a nice change as we see so few people here, and usually they are people from the other bases who are going home, many of whom we know, or who we have been playing darts with via webcam earlier in the year). We all got aboard the ship to see the dentist, and visit the shop, and got all the cargo loaded.

The ship took away Derren, my boyfriend, who had been on Bird Island for 2.5 years. His leaving has been quite a change for me, but he had done his time here and was ready to go home and see new places. He seems to be happy enough enjoying the novelty of going to the supermarket and seeing trees and sunshine in the real world! The departure of the ship left only 5 of us on base. Ewan, (who has also done 2.5 years) left about a week later, on board a sailing ship, which came to pick him up. This left only the 4 winterers, and we do not expect another ship visit now until early October.

We soon all settled into just having four on base and the fact that winter is a less busy time for us for fieldwork. This gives us a little bit more time to do our own thing, and there is even time now to take an entire weekend off! Unfortunately, having only four on base means everyone now has to cook once every 4 days instead of once every 10 like in summer.

Time is moving on- we are only 4 weeks away from Midwinter, the shortest day. The base faces south, and there are high cliffs to the North- this means that although the sun shines higher up the valleys, it never reaches the base at this time of year (the sun travels round the North here as we are in the Southern Hemisphere). It gets light around 10.30am at present, which always makes getting up quite hard! We are busy making midwinter presents for each other now and making lots of lists of all the food/medical supplies/lab equipment/clothing/kitchenware/toiletries etc etc that we have on base, so we can order what we require for next season. The weather is getting more wintery. As we are the sub-Antarctic, we are not frozen solid all year and it can get quite warm in summer. We are getting to the stage now where it mainly snows, instead of raining, and the streams are frozen up for several days at a time. It will only be a few more weeks before the ground and streams freeze solid and do not thaw again until spring.

That’s all for now. I will get some more pictures on here soon. I’m going to go to the workshop and carry on with my Midwinter present. Hope everyone at home is enjoying the warm weather!

Icebergs and penguins

2010-03-27T17:19:00.005Z

It's only just over a week til the last ship of the summer and we settle down to 6 months of winter with no more ship visits. As a result, we are all busy running around, finishing the last of our summer fieldwork and packing up cargo to go out on the ship. It is the time of year when we send out all of our rubbish, recycing, empty fuel drums and anything else sitting in dusty corners of the base that we no longer use.

We've had some great icebergs recently, and the penguins and seals have a a great time, jumping on and off them and sliding into the sea. I'm not going to write much here as i still have lots to do, but here are some happy gentoo penguins to keep people amused til after the ship has been and i have no more excuses left for not writing anything on here!!!

Does anyone want my job?

2010-03-09T17:36:00.002Z

If anyone wants my job, it is advertised at:
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/employment/vacancies/job.php?JobID=531

You would get to Bird Island around November, and have a summer season handover with me, before i leave in April 2011. I can't believe how fast the time has gone- it seems funny that my job is advertised already, and that i shall have done 2.5 years by the time i leave!

All is well here. It seems to be raining and very windy a lot at the moment. I am looking forward to the winter when the rain will become snow and everything will freeze. We have lots of big icebergs at the moment, which is great.

Better get on- just killing time til the rain stops so I can go out and put rings on my giant petrel chicks so we know who they are when they come back to breed in a few years time.

Hope spring is finally on its way, back home in the real world!

Ice!

2010-02-15T22:47:00.001Z

A nice big iceberg that grounded just offshore and got us all excited (we haven't seen many big bergs for a while). The next day it was gone, but there are still plenty of others drifting around a little further offshore.

A few pictures because its a rainy day

2010-02-14T14:57:00.003Z

Snow can fall at any time of year... we woke up one morning to this- the seal pups loved it!

The fur seal pups are moulting out of their black fur into lovely soft grey swimming fur. They are quite big now, and very inquisitive, playing and fighting on the beach and in the sea.

Krill- the staple food source upon which most Antarctic wildlife depend.

Gentoo penguin chicks- like the seal pups, these too are getting very big. It has been a good year for krill and all the species that depend on this have done really well. The chicks parents leave them each morning to go fishing and return at night to feed them.

Blonde fur seal pup. We still have a blonde pup living on the beach outside base. Here he has just come back from a swim in the sea.

and a couple more....

2010-01-23T16:45:00.002Z

Macaroni penguins coming out of the sea.

Swimming Macaroni's.

Brown Skua chick.

Gentoo penguin feeding its chick.

Random pictures....

2010-01-23T15:58:00.004Z

A nice summers sunset.

Bird Island, looking over to Mainland South Georgia, on a summers day.

Bottom Meadows... Doesn't look much like the Antarctic on a day like this!!!

Antarctic Fur seal and pup on the beach.

More fur seals.

It's been a hectic month, so i've not yet got round to writing anything on here. However, here are a few random summertime pictures to keep people happy and a little bit of writing that i shall do til it stops raining enough for me to go out.

Summer is progressing nicely. We had a nice Christmas and New year, with a bit of time off work, then continued working. It is always very busy here in summer- not only do we have our usual long-term monitoring work to do, but we also help out any visiting summer scientists with their work. This year we had a penguin scientist in, who kept me busy with deploying little GPS devices onto the gentoos to track where they are foraging. We also did some tracking of the South Georgia shags. 3 of our summer staff left last weekend, dropping numbers down to 7 on base. Time is going fast- only 10 weeks til the last ship of the season comes, taking away all of our extra staff and we are back down to just the 4 of us for the winter!!!

All the young wildlife is growing quickly. The seal pups are getting very fat, and the penguin chicks are growing well. The Wandering albatrosses are incubating their eggs- it takes around 75 days for the egg to develop and hatch, so they will be sitting patiently for a while longer yet. The smaller albatrosses (black-browed, grey-headed and light-mantled sooties) all have cute little chicks now.

The days are long, and on sunny days the island looks lovely. Unfortunately, the warmer weather (sometimes up to +5 degrees) means we get a lot of fog and rain, and not many clear days. It certainly makes you appreciate the island much more on the days when the sun does decide to shine!!!

Anyway, the rain has stopped, so i shall head up over the hill and across the meadows to the field hut at Little Mac to weigh some Macaroni penguins. It is Saturday, which means 3 course dinner night, so i'd better head on out, else i shall be late home!

Penguin chicks a couple of weeks later....

2010-01-18T22:38:00.002Z

Gentoo chicks-there is a lot of krill in the oceans this year, so the chicks are growing rapidly and all looking very fat and healthy.

The Macaroni Penguin chicks are getting massive too!

Penguin chicks...

2010-01-18T22:32:00.001Z

Newly hatched gentoo penguin chicks at Christmas time.

Newly hatched Macaroni chicks- also at Christmas time.

Christmas Day

2010-01-03T14:43:00.003Z

Christmas Day breakfast (photo by Mick Mackey).

(From left to right, Mick, Stacey, Ewan, Claudia, Norman, Encarna, Richard, Sam, Joe, Derren).

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!

2009-12-22T22:39:00.003Z

This is just a note to wish everyone who reads my blog a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. Thank you all for the Christmas greetings you have sent. I hope you are all enjoying the winter snow that sounds to be plentiful this year. Sounds like you will be getting more of a white Christmas than me this year. Yesterday was Midsummer’s day here and we enjoyed an unusually calm sunny day with temperatures of +6 degrees! It makes such a refreshing change when after days of fog, the skies clear and the sun shines. If this miraculously coincides with a calm day the combination is a gorgeously warm and beautiful day. Sadly today again it is raining (which is why I am inside writing this instead of outside with my camera!). In summer temperatures are normally just above freezing so we usually get rain instead of snow (although snow can and does occur at any time of year).

It always seems odd having Christmas in the middle of summer. Still, it’s never very warm so it’s not too unlike the UK. The main difference is that it barely gets dark at this time of year. This is the second of my three Christmases down here- only another one before my time here is done, and I’m back to wondering what to do next with my life! But, I’ve still got another 16 months to decide that so I’ll not start worrying yet!

Christmas is looking like being a festive affair- the Christmas decorations are up, as is the tree. I made a Christmas cake a few weeks ago and decorated it this week. Last night we sat down to make a list of things we intend to eat over the Christmas period- I don’t think we will be going hungry! There are 10 of us on base at the moment which i think is a nice number to have for Christmas festivities. Small amounts of work still continue despite it being Christmas (nest checks etc) but this just helps work up an appetite for the next meal! Christmas celebrations will begin tomorrow night (Christmas Eve) with mulled wine and mince pies at the Seal Study Beach where all the seal research is carried out. Here there is a raised gantry, where we can sit above the seals and enjoy them without getting bitten!!!

Its busy here- the beach at the front of the base is full of sounds and smell of fur seals and their pups. They lay all around the base, and some nights they are almost deafening as the females and pups call backwards and forwards to each other. All the penguin chicks are just starting to hatch elsewhere on the island as are the grey-headed and black-browed albatrosses. The last of the wandering albatross chicks are just leaving the island, after sitting on their nests for over a year, slowly changing from a tiny fluffy chick into the smart birds they look now. As it takes over a year for a chick to mature, Wanderers only breed every two years. The next cohort of birds have already arrived, and have just started laying eggs- these will hatch into the chicks that will stay with us through the winter and leave next Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!

One year later...

2009-11-24T10:11:00.003Z

Today is my first Bird Island anniversary. I arrived here exactly a year ago today! It is scary just how fast the time has gone! In another 10 weeks, i shall be half way through my time here! I'm currently very busy with fieldwork, but this should start to ease up soon as the last of my Southern giant petrels finish laying eggs and the same with the gentoos. So i shall try and write a bit more then. Here are a couple of pictures to keep people amused until i get a few more minutes to spare.

The young wandering albatrosses that have been growing all winter are learning to fly and will leave the island in the next few weeks.

My first Northern Giant petrel chicks are just starting to hatch. Here is one of the first ones.

The gentoo penguings are busy laying eggs.

Albatrosses and penguins

2009-10-22T23:46:00.002+01:00

The Grey-headed albatrosses have returned to breed.

One white-capped albatross breeds with the black-browed albatrosses. Its partner is a black-brow too.

The white-capped albatross.

Light-mantled sooty albatrosses have also retuned to breed.

And these were the first two of my macaroni penguins to return last week. They have been away at sea all winter. Soon Big Mac will contain around 80,000 birds!

Bits and bobs.

2009-10-22T23:15:00.002+01:00

Ice formations on the grass.

Pectoral sandpiper- just visiting- made a nice change from the usual species!

One of my Northern giant petrels on her egg.

Black-browed albatross colony, with the base behind.

My field hut at the Little Mac penguin colony. Provides an ideal holiday home.

Icebergs and elephant seals

2009-10-22T22:30:00.002+01:00

Ewan, Me, Derren and Jose on a passing iceberg (Ewan's picture)

A lesser spotted southern ocean Mermaid (photo as requested by Mr Bell).

First birth of the season- elephant seal pup with its mum (only hours old).

Male elephant seal bull who is guarding the female and pup.

Busy times...

2009-10-21T00:56:00.002+01:00

I’ve just noticed how long ago it was since I last wrote anything for my blog. I’ve also got loads of pictures to put up on it which I also haven’t got round to doing. But writing this is at least a start!

Here things have got quite busy. Winter seems to be over and spring is nicely on its way. Two weeks ago, the fisheries protection ship came, bringing the first new people since the start of winter in April. It brought Dirk (my line manager) and Grant (an electrician) who are both here for a month to do various bits of work with us and on base. The ship also brought us the first fresh fruit and vegetables we have had since April, and the mailbag. The arrival of fruit, post and new people is always a bit exciting- a bit like Christmas, with lots of new and exciting things to open and eat. For a few days we enjoyed luxury items such as lettuce and tomatoes, grapes and bananas, but these have travelled a long way to get to us and never last long. We still have plenty of longer lasting fruit and veg that will keep until the next ship, which is only a few weeks away.

The snow has been melting fast. All that remains has been compacted down into hard icy lumps and the pretty whiteness has disappeared. We do still get the odd snow shower every now and again, but with temperatures hovering between –1 and +2 degrees, nothing lasts long. The warming temperatures have caused the sea ice way south of here to start melting and breaking up- this releases all of the big icebergs that have been trapped in it for the winter, some of which travel in our direction. If the wind/tides are right, these sometimes get grounded along our coastline, where they slowly break up into pieces, sometimes filling the bay with chunks of ice.

Some of us are now very busy out and about each day doing fieldwork. The days are getting much longer, often light until past 9pm. The grey-headed and black-browed albatrosses have returned to their colonies to breed. The macaroni penguins have started returning this week. The colony at Big Mac looks rather empty so far- I counted 55 individuals today. In a few weeks time, the colony will be quite different- with around 80,000 breeding birds (thankfully I don’t have to count them all when there are that many)! The gentoo penguins are gathering up piles of rocks to form into nests and the giant petrels are happily incubating their eggs. The first birth of the season was a tiny elephant seal pup, which arrived about a week ago. The fur seals will not return to breed for a few weeks yet, but soon the beach in front of the base will be full of males defending their harems of females and pups.

Only another two weeks before the JCR ship arrives to bring in our summer staff, increasing us to 10 people on base. Then we will all be busy working until April, enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of the vast quantities of wildlife that surrounds us everywhere we go on this tiny little island.

End of winter/start of spring...

2009-09-18T00:18:00.000+01:00

The rest of August remained pretty cold and snowy. We had some gorgeous clear days and had a few excursions out, including climbing up to the top of La Roche, our highest peak and going camping in the little cave on the hill behind base. One night, José, Derren and Ewan went to sleep in the field hut at Little Mac, so I had a nice night of peace and quiet on the base by myself. During the daytime, we continued to work on our annual reports and other tasks but all made the most of the winter being our least busy time. Evenings were spent playing bridge and other board games, watching movies and random TV box sets, and one night, a darts match against Halley (one of the other BAS bases on the Antarctic continent), via webcam. As the evenings got longer, we played cricket on the beach and had a BBQ and bonfire in the snow, where we were joined by a Gentoo penguin that came and sat by the fire for most of the evening.

The start of September seemed to bring the end of winter as birds started returning to the island that had been absent for the winter. The skuas have started returning and the Grey-headed albatrosses have just started to appear. By mid September, the South Georgia pipits were singing loudly, advertising their territories. It makes a nice change to hear songbirds, when nearly everything else on the island are seabirds. The nights are noticeably longer- its not fully dark until after 8pm now which is lovely. The temperature is hovering just above freezing, which means all the snow and iced up streams are starting to melt. Its not too late for more winter conditions though- this might just be a short-term warm patch, with more cold periods and snow to follow- we shall have to wait and see.

The 10th of September was the start of my summer field season. Although the penguins aren’t thinking about breeding yet, the giant petrels are, so my summer work begins. Since this date, I have been out daily to check all the nests in the study area for eggs. The first egg was laid on 13th, which in my mind means the start of spring! Today I have 6. By the end of the season I shall have 500-600! I will now check nests daily until all birds in the study area have eggs, then will continue to monitor them until the chicks finally fledge at the end of the season.

Seals of Bird Island

2009-09-03T23:04:00.002+01:00

A young elephant seal- around most of the year. Very small numbers breed in summer.

A young male fur seal- around all year. Thousands breed on the island in summer.

Leopard seal- our winter visitor. Comes to eat my penguins on cold snowy days.

Another leopard seal.

And another leopard seal.

Yet more pictures...

2009-08-18T00:09:00.003+01:00

Me, in the partly frozen/slushy sea (Derren's photo).

View from the top of La Roche, looking over to South Georgia on a rare gorgeous day.

Sunset in the snow on the way down from La Roche.

Me on the top of La Roche (Derren's photo again).

Mid August...

2009-08-14T13:17:00.000+01:00

I’m feeling rather pleased with myself today as for some reason I’ve managed to update this only a couple of weeks after the last time! J This last couple of weeks, the temperature has finally dropped nicely, to around -6 degrees, which is a bit more like what we should be expecting at this time of year. It is cold enough that on days when there is little wind (uncommon when you live on an island just 3 miles long in the middle of the Southern Ocean!) the sea in the bays turns to a strange slushy consistency and starts to freeze into pancakes along the shoreline. It has also been calm enough for the snow that has been falling regularly to settle and form a nice solid base layer that should no longer just blow away on windy days.

Last Saturday Ewan took me out for my very first skiing lesson on the slopes below La Roche. It was good fun and I somehow managed not to break any bones. Hopefully I shall manage to get a bit more practice in the coming weeks. We have a snowboard here too, but I think I’ll try and master the skiing a bit better first before attempting anything else new! Sadly I wasn’t graceful enough for pictures… but maybe next time.

On days of driving snow when we are looking for excuses not to go outside, it has got to the time of year when annual reports have to be written, so we are all working away on our Bird and Mammal report to be sent to Cambridge and reports for beach debris, seal entanglements and fishing hooks/devices found inside the albatrosses that go to CCAMLR- the convention that protects the Southern Ocean environment and ecosystem. We have also been busy doing jobs that would have been Dave’s if he had still been here- such as fixing things that have gone wrong, cleaning and disinfecting the water system, testing the fire pumps and alarms, and servicing the generators. It makes a nice change to do something practical- a bit different to the usual science!

The bay in front of the base has been full of wildlife in the last couple of weeks. One day we watched a leopard seal killing a young fur seal in the bay, which attracted lots of gulls, giant petrels and cape petrels. There have been masses of terns feeding along the coastline, sometimes accompanied by up to 15 snow petrels. These little pure white petrels are gorgeous, and like many petrels, dance on the water to feed. They have been feeding close to shore, so we managed to get some lovely pictures. Some days they fly so close you could almost reach out and touch them. No one here has seen them in such numbers before- they are normally seen as a little white thing shooting past along the cliff top, gone before the camera can be taken out, and unusual enough to be mentioned at dinnertime.

We have installed a new sunshine recorder on our weather station. Today it has recorded 33 minutes of sunshine already, which means its time I stopped staring at my computer and went outside with my camera.

A few wintery scenes....

2009-08-13T23:43:00.004+01:00

Ice around the jetty.

Strange ice formations that resembled trees.

La Roche, with South Georgia behind on a sunny day.

Ice forming on the Jetty (with the still functional jetty bog behind).

Top Meadows with Willis Islands in the background.

Flagstone pond, frozen over, with Tonk behind.

A few birds...

2009-08-13T23:30:00.002+01:00

Snow petrel in Main Bay.

King penguin on Freshwater Bay in front of the base.

Young Antarctic tern on Freshwater Beach.

Snowy sheathbill (known as a Mutt around here) on Freshwater Beach.

Chinstrap penguin at Evermann Cove (we don't get many of these).

South Georgia Pintails- our endemic, carniverous duck.

and a few more pictures

2009-07-24T00:03:00.002+01:00

The sea begins to freeze on a cold day (the base in the background)

Giant petrel, sheathbill and skua prints in the snow

Leopard seals

Wanderer chick in the snow (base in the distance)

White morph southern giant petrel in the snow. Most southern giant petrels here are greyish- we had 6 white ones breeding on the island this year. The white morph becomes more common at lattitudes further south.

A few pictures

2009-07-23T23:21:00.005+01:00

A winters day

Young wanderer enjoying the sun

Dave, Jose, Ewan, Derren and me, enjoying Dave's picnic bench midwinter present for Derren

Otoliths (ear bones) from 3 species of fish (the ones on the right are about 3mm long). I have spent many hours in the lab sorting/identifying/counting/measuring thousands of these!

Midwinter

2009-07-23T22:58:00.002+01:00

June 21st was Midwinter’s Day. With temperatures rising to +3 degrees a few days before the 21st, we celebrated an almost snow free mid winter. However, this was our least busy time of year, so we took a full weeks holiday and despite the disappointing start, the weather turned lovely and snowy again by the middle of the week. We celebrated mid-winter with the giving of gifts we had made for each other and the opening of surprise parcels from home. We cooked an enormous dinner and held the 2009 Bird Island Midwinter Games, including tossing the haggis, welly wanging, archery and tossing the caber, all dressed in the finest Scottish outfits. Later in the week we had our traditional mid-winter swim in the sea, followed very quickly by some time in the hot tub where we thawed out our frozen fingers and toes. We also had a darts match via web cam with the base at KEP and a midwinter bar crawl with different themed bars around base.

Towards the end of Mid-Winters week, we said goodbye to Dave, our wintering technician who has not been well and is returning to the UK. The fisheries patrol vessel made a special visit to pick him up, and we were waiting for about a week for the conditions to be good enough to get the boat in. Despite the wait, he still left in rough seas and driving snow. He will be sorely missed. The remaining four of us (all scientists/zoological field assistants) are now filling the gap and learning about servicing generators, changing water filters and all other aspects of how the base work. There will just be the four of us now until the first ship calls in October.

After our midwinters holiday we all got back to work. Jose and Derren have been working with the wandering albatrosses, deploying GPS’s (which track where the albatross has flown) and stomach temperature loggers (which tell us when the bird has been feeding, by recording the increase in stomach temperature which occurs when a bird has fed and is starting to digest its meal) and collecting diet samples from both adults and chicks. This ties in with the gentoo diet sampling myself and Jose have been doing, and the seal scat samples analysed by Ewan to give a good idea of the diet composition of a range of higher species in the Antarctic food web. Jose has then spent hours in the lab sorting out the samples he has collected. I have also spent many hours in the lab measuring otoliths from my penguin samples collected during the summer (I’ll stick a picture on later to give an idea of what they look like).

When the ground is snow-covered, Bird Island is visited by hungry Leopard seals. These powerful hunters enjoy eating my nice little Gentoo penguins, before hauling out onto the snow to sleep. Each seal has a unique pattern of spots and part of Ewan’s winter work is to photograph these, to identify the individuals from a photograph catalogue collected through the years, in an attempt to understand a bit more about the behaviour of these animals.

Besides work, life continues to progress through the season. Earlier this week, whilst standing outside the lab, the sun peeped just over the hilltop, and shone directly onto my head (it didn’t get high enough to reach my knees!). The base faces south, and as we are in the Southern Hemisphere (therefore the sun is in the north) for a couple of months the base gets no direct sunlight at all as it is in the shade of the rest of the island. On dull days however, it is still past lunchtime before it gets fully light.

We currently have a lovely dump of thick snow. If the temperature is low, our snow usually falls as tiny crystals of ice. This is fine, but we frequently have gales which then blow it all away and as we are on a small island, there is no more blown in from further down the road to replace it! Still, the recent snow has been lovely big flakes with no gales, and our home is looking beautiful.

Winter Pictures

2009-06-19T16:37:00.002+01:00

Home on a snowy morning.

Gentoo penguin in the snow.

Adult male Antarctic fur seal guarding the snow covered beach.

The base from North Valley.

Wandering albatross chick in the evening sunshine.

Nearly Midwinter

2009-06-19T13:33:00.001+01:00

Again its been a month since I last wrote- I’m not going to bother apologising for not updating this regularly from now on, because I do exactly the same thing every month and still never get round to doing anything about it!

Somehow time has continued to pass at an alarming rate. Yesterday was the interview date for the two people taking over the seal and albatross field assistant positions for the next 2.5 year stints. Like me last year, they will do 3 months training in Cambridge from September, then come down to Bird Island in November for 3 summers and 2 winters. It’s frightening to think that this time next year it will be my job that is being advertised and I will be enjoying my second and final winter before my replacement arrives next November for their summer of training. It’s even more frightening to think that it’s been a full year since I was sitting in the office on Oronsay, being told on the phone that I had got the penguin field assistant job. By staggering the year of recruitment for the three field assistants, it means that there is always someone one base who has done the previous field season and the previous winter, and saves recruiting 3 new people one season and none the next.

It’s been a relatively relaxed month. With the last of my giant petrel chicks fledging last week, most of my fieldwork is now complete for this season. I am still taking Gentoo diet samples with Jose for his winter work so I still have the excuse to go out and about. There have been excuses for using the medical training I was given back in Cambridge, in both administering injections and doing a filling on one of Ewan’s teeth which have been good fun. I’ve also spent a lot of time in the lab, dissecting the pellets collected weekly over the summer from the Blue-eyed shags that nest on the cliffs. The shags regurgitate all the fish bones and otoliths (ear bones) and squid beaks and by collecting the pellets and dissecting them, these can be removed. Later, when I get round to it, I can use these to identify the squid and fish species that the birds have been eating.

This weekend is mid-winter. For us, this is the equivalent of Christmas. As Christmas falls mid-breeding season for us, celebrations tend to be a bit limited as we are all very busy. So we celebrate mid winter instead. We have already started receiving midwinter greetings photographs from other Antarctic bases of different nationalities around the world which is always nice to get. For us, this is a turning point in the year, the point when daylight starts to lengthen again. As no one is very busy, we have a full week off work and of celebrations, which will start on Sunday. Everyone is busy making a present for one other person on base to be presented on mid winters day (we picked names out of a hat a few weeks ago and are all secretly working away in various parts of the building). We are all looking forward to our week of fun.

We had a lovely couple of weeks of cold settled weather, where all the streams froze solid, and we had lots of snow. It was great to see the seals playing in it, pushing their noses into it and scampering across the beach to get enough momentum to slide on their bellies. Sadly a lot of it thawed when temperatures warmed to just above zero for a few days, but there will be much more to come.

Anyway, that’s enough for now, I’ve only got 2 days to go til midwinter and I still have some work to do on my midwinter present.

A few more pictures....

2009-05-10T00:20:00.002+01:00

Funny snow balls formed by the wind in Prion pond below Tonk.

Southern Giant petrel chick practicing learning to fly (South Georgia behind).

Bird Sound and South Georgia in the snow from the top of La Roche.

A wintery day on Bird Island- Jose and Ewan at the top of La Roche.

A few winter pictures...

2009-05-03T15:28:00.004+01:00

The view from the kitchen window on a wintery day.

Antarctic fur seal, La Roche (highest point on the island) and our base, looking across to South Georgia in the background.

Wandering albatross chick on the meadows in the snow.

The 4 winterers (excluding Jose as he'd only just arrived on the ship) go out for lunch on the JCR at last call (Me, Derren, Ewan and Dave).

Last call and the start of winter

2009-05-03T15:13:00.001+01:00

Yet again I’ve got left behind with my blog- so much for the good intentions of writing each week! Another month has somehow passed, bringing my total to 5 months on Bird Island. Those 5 months spanned the main breeding season for most of the wildlife on the island, and I spent much of my time counting/weighing/measuring/monitoring my penguins and giant petrels, watching the season progressing and my young birds rapidly growing. The middle of April saw the beginning of the end. The last of the Northern giant petrel chicks fledged and we ringed the Southern giant petrels in preparation for them leaving in a few weeks time. The Macaroni penguins that had all returned to the colonies to moult started to leave in vast numbers. They will not return until next year. The young seal pups that have been playing on the beach ever since I arrived finally took to the sea leaving only a handful of the smallest ones left. The young grey-headed and black-browed albatrosses can also be seen perched on the edges of their nests, practicing flapping their wings in preparation for that perfect gust of wind that will see them launch into the air and fly away, not returning to the island until they are old enough to think about breeding themselves. The breeding season is nearly over. Only the wanderer chicks are still small- they will remain in their nests throughout the winter, not fledging until Christmas time.

The end of the season was also felt on base. On 13th April, the JCR called for the last time this season. It delivered a final instalment of fresh fruit and veg, a large load of frozen food (meat, frozen veg, butter, cheese etc), the mail bag, and Jose (a scientist who will be spending the winter with us studying penguins and albatrosses and their foraging behaviour and diet). The wintering staff were lucky enough to be taken onto the ship for lunch- it made a nice change to “go out”, and it was nice to see our little island from offshore instead of being on it. The ship took away all of our empty fuel drums and waste from the season. Most significantly, the leaving of the ship heralded the official start of winter as it also took away all of out summer scientists. This included Fabrice who I have been working with all summer and who has now handed over his job to me at the end of his 2.5 year stint here. The other summer staff also left, leaving just 5 of us for the winter. We do not expect another ship call now until November.

The departing of the ship and some very close friends and work colleagues left the 5 of us rather lost, rattling around in the suddenly very large and very empty base. We drowned our sorrows with lots of cake and the first official filling of the hot tub, where we spent a pleasant couple of hours, sitting in the warm water with snow falling around our shoulders. The next day, there were chunks of ice washing up on the beach and everywhere was covered with snow.

Since then, we’ve had periods of snow and ice, interspersed with warmer periods where everything starts to melt again. My fieldwork is much reduced- I now only have Southern giant petrels to monitor, but I’m also helping Jose with work on his Gentoo penguins and there is still plenty of opportunity for albatross work. My winter work will mainly consist of writing up the reports from the summer, and lab work, analysing the krill and otoliths collected from the penguin diet samples over the summer. Its nice to know there is time to play in the snow after our hectic summer. I am looking forward to learning to ski and snowboard!

Ship visits

2009-03-30T22:47:00.000+01:00

I’ve finally managed to write again without having at least a month to write about! The Pharos came as planned on 13th March. We were sorry to see the Aki, Ken and Takashi (three of our summer scientists) leave as they had been with us since the start of January and it felt like we were losing part of the team. They had been doing all sorts of interesting science, including attaching tiny cameras to penguins, seals and albatrosses. The cameras worked both above and below water, taking pictures every few seconds. The resulting photographs were really interesting- we got lovely pictures of a penguin’s eye view of coming in to land at Big Mac and birds diving for and catching food. The scientists were replaced by Mark and Andy who will be with us until the JCR calls in mid April. The Pharos brought us lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, including two enormous watermelons and lots of lovely things like lettuces, grapes and plums and other things that you just take for granted at home. We stood in the fresh food store unpacking the boxes, eating things as we opened each box- it was a bit like Christmas, because you didn’t know what you were going to find in each box!

On the 13th we also had a visit from “Warship Clyde” (as it announced itself over the radio when sending its boats ashore). This is one of the Southern Ocean naval patrol ships and a few people on board came ashore for a few hours to see the wildlife.

Work wise, myself and Fabrice (the person who has done my job for the last 2.5 years and who is currently teaching me the ropes on how it is to be done for the next 2 years) have been busy taking blood samples from various bird species for isotope analysis, as well as checking the progress of our giant petrels on a weekly basis and also doing a bit of work with the penguins. The Northern Giant petrels are doing well- of the 250ish nests in the study area, 68 fledged this week. Its been pretty windy recently and the young birds can be seen on windy days trying out their wings, jumping up and down flapping when the wind blows. Sometimes they get a few centimetres off the ground before falling back down again. These ones will have to sit around for a few more days to use up a bit of fat so they are light enough to take off. I suspect we will have lost a lot more by this week’s weekly round which will be nice to see.

Next weekend if weather permits, we are expecting a Royal visit from Princess Anne. As a result, we have spent a bit of time scrubbing out the lab and the outside of the buildings to remove all the dirty marks that the seals have made rubbing around the buildings. If the weather is bad, she will be unable to get in, but fingers crossed for a nice day.

Only 3 weeks left til the JCR calls to take away half our people including Fabrice (meaning my job will be entirely mine and the 5 month handover is over), just leaving five of us for the winter. I’m quite looking forward to seeing what this will be like.

23rd Mar 2009.

My laptop had a bit of a fit so I didn’t manage to get that put up on my blog on the date I wrote it! Its now 30th March and I’m hoping for better luck this time-it means what I wrote is out of date now, so here’s what happened in the week in between:

The weather on the morning of the Royal visit was beautiful, so I went out and weighed some Albatross chicks with Derren, then returned to base. The ship arrived at 3pm and time before this was spent tidying up, making sure we had enough mugs and baking cakes. The weather went downhill a bit by late afternoon, and the Princess and her husband the Admiral Laurence were treated to a few flakes of snow when they went up to Wanderer Ridge to see the albatrosses on their little chicks. The ship carried the Royal party, plus some BAS people who had been doing lectures on the ship, plus some ex-bird islanders from many years ago, plus invited guests/or people who could afford to pay the cost of the trip. All in all, this totalled about 30 people; the most many of us have ever seen on Bird Island. The seals (and to a lesser extent, the base inhabitants!) didn’t seem to know what to make of it all. The guests were all taken up to see the Wanderers nesting on the ridge and then returned for a base tour, lots of drinking tea and polite conversation. It was great to meet the lovely people who had been working here 20 years ago; they all seemed delighted to be back and pleased to see the new base buildings, and how little the island had changed over the years. The day made a nice change to the usual fieldwork day!

Now back to our normal routine… down to the final 2 weeks before the last call of the ship and being abandoned for the winter. We run on GMT at all times, which now puts us an hour behind all of you back at home. I hope you are all looking forward to the joys of spring as the days here shorten and our breeding season draws to a close. We are looking forward to our share of the winter snow and the easing off of our workloads.

End of February

2009-03-09T22:11:00.001Z

Yet again the weeks seem to have passed without me noticing and it's been another month since I last wrote anything… I'm not quite sure where all my time is going!

Since I wrote anything last month, there's been quite a lot going on with the wildlife here. The wandering Albatross chicks have just started to hatch. It is lovely to walk through the meadows and see the tiny chicks sitting in their huge nests, being guarded by their enormous parents. It takes 5 days for some of them to hatch fully; they have been incubated for 2.5 months before hatching. It will be a while yet before the parents leave them unguarded.

The fur seal pups are moulting their black puppy fur for gorgeous soft silvery grey coats. There are still lots of them playing/sleeping/lying around the base, growling in their funny little puppy ways when you walk past them.

The Macaroni penguin chicks have all just finished moulting their fluffy down for smart new coats of feathers. Last week, fully ready to face the big wide world, they left the colonies and jumped into the sea. They were very funny to watch- it took a few seconds for them to realise they were able to swim and dive. It will be a full year before we see any of them again, when they return to Bird Island for their annual moult.

The Northern Giant petrels are also coming along nicely- last week we ringed all of the chicks in the study area. We can expect to see some of them back in about 3 years time (well, not me- I shall have left by then, but whoever takes over from me) when they will return to think about breeding themselves. We will then be able to tell who they are/who their parents are etc by the ring number. The first chicks are just starting to fledge now.

I will try and get some pictures of all of that up on here sometime soon.

On base it's been fairly quiet… a couple of birthdays, but no major celebrations, as everyone has been busy working. We're expecting the Pharos (ship) next weekend, to bring us a new supply of fresh fruit and vegetables. This will be very welcome. We are looking forward to things like lettuce and bananas! The Pharos will take away three of our summer visiting scientists, and bring in two new visitors (technicians). We will then be 9 on base, with only 1 month to go until the JCR's last call, and the start of our winter isolation.

A couple of pictures

2009-03-09T21:26:00.004Z

Natural Arch, with South Georgia in the background. A pretty place on a day like this! :)

Bird Sound: the 500m stretch of water that divides us from South Georgia itself. On a day like this, it looks almost close enough to swim across. It's definately not!!!

End of January/Early February.

2009-02-10T12:26:00.005Z

Since I last wrote there has been lots of work going on here. We've been busy collecting diet samples from both Gentoo and Macaroni penguins, which is then followed by a couple of days in the lab, sorting through the samples to determine what the penguins have been eating (usually fish, krill or other crustaceans). This data is important as it shows us what the adult birds are bringing back from the sea to feed to their chicks and highlights any problems of food shortages. The South Georgia Government can take this into consideration when setting fishing quotas for the following season to ensure wildlife does not suffer at the cost of commercial fishing.

The Gentoo penguins have struggled this season, but the chicks that have survived this far are looking healthy and are moulting their soft down, for feathers. The Macaroni penguin chicks appear to be doing better, and are also moulting well, many supporting weird and wonderful hairstyles as the down moults away in patches, leaving random tufts and stripes.

We've also been busy with the weekly check of all the Giant Petrels in the study area, checking each nest for failure. The last of the Southern Giant Petrels have now hatched so both species are now feeding chicks. Some of the Northern chicks are almost as big as their parents, and are feathering nicely. Also this month, everyone on base helped out with the monthly fur seal pup weighing (to compare pup size with previous years at this time of year) and the monthly albatross nest census (we have over 800 wandering albatross nests on the island and monitor each nest individually for success).

Although it's continued to be pretty busy for us here, things are finally starting to tail off a bit with work and there has been a bit more time for things like playing with kites and cameras and exploring new bits of the island. We celebrated Burns night in style, dressed in tartan and starting with Highland games, which involved tossing the haggis and welly-wanging. Then we went inside for a full Burns night feast, done in traditional style, with our resident Scotsman in his kilt recited the full Ode to a Haggis poem from memory. It was a good evening.

We've had some days of rain and gales when it's been hard work outside, but we've also had some stunning sunsets, and a few lovely snow showers. Sadly nothing as exciting as you all have at home, but I'm sure there will be more than enough when winter arrives here.

Wandering Albatross nesting on the meadows.

Displaying Wandering Albatrosses.

Adult grey-headed albatross on nest.

Grey-Headed albatross chick.

Adult grey-headed albatross.

Penguins.

2009-01-23T23:25:00.003Z

Macaroni penguin at Big Mac

Macaroni chicks at Big Mac

King Penguins in Freshwater Bay

Gentoo with chicks at Natural Arch

Big Mac... 80,000 penguins

Happy 2009!

2009-01-23T22:16:00.000Z

Happy 2009- thanks to everyone for all the Christmas and New Year greetings. I'm slowing getting through my huge back-log of emails and will eventually get round to replying to all of them!

Christmas was lovely- it seems a long time ago now! We started with flasks of mulled wine and mince pies at the seal study beach on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day everyone still had a few hours of work to do but we had more mince pies with the penguins and took photo's of Fabrice in the middle of the 80,000 penguins at Big Mac dressed in his Father Christmas costume. We then all climbed up the communication tower to the platform at the top, for yet more mince pies and gin. We ate Reindeer for Christmas dinner (obtained for us from the herd on South Georgia, delivered by the BBC when they were filming at the start of the season). The meal was a long and large event with several starters and puddings as well as the reindeer. It was very nice and very Christmassy. Boxing day was a quiet affair, with many of us going back to work.

For New Year, we all went up to Cave Crag for drinks and nibbles in the cave, so that I could keep up my annual tradition of going caving for new year. The Cave Crag cave isn't exactly large, but it served the purpose! We again cooked a huge meal, and released some out of date flares that needed using up, at midnight to see the New Year in. Another great day with only minimal work done, which made a nice change from our usual hectic schedules.

Since then, time seems to keep flying by. The season is moving on- the beaches are now littered with rapidly growing angry fur seal pups but are practically empty compared to when we first arrived as all the adult males and many of the females have left. The smaller species of albatross have chicks and the wandering albatrosses are incubating eggs. My penguin chicks are getting rapidly bigger as are my northern giant petrels. My southern giant petrels have been hatching for the last couple of weeks. My work for the last few weeks has involved lots of penguin chick counts and nest monitoring, taking diet samples from the Gentoo penguins, and taking blood samples and monitoring nests of the giant petrels. Also helping out with the seal pup weighing and marking out nests of wandering albatrosses and various bits of data analysis and identifying fish and krill found in the diet samples. It's been busy but varied and fun, with some late nights and early mornings and some stunning weather.

One night, us 4 winterers walked out to Farewell point, on the West side of the island and camped out for the night. It made a lovely change to get out for the night. We had a couple of ships in around Christmas, one bringing in 3 Japanese scientists who are with us until March. Jaume left on the same ship, so we currently have 10 on base. The ships also brought us post, and lovely fresh vegetables, including things like lettuce and bananas and other luxury items. Later, we had a visit from a small sailing boat for a couple of days. This was a group of botanists and entomologists from Kew Gardens- it made a nice change to have new people around for a few days.

Dinner is ready so I'll stop there. I'll get some more pictures on here soon- I promise!

A few pictures of home on a sunny summers day (and no, there is no snow- its summer)

2008-12-30T06:56:00.006Z

Looking West from the top of La Roche (the highest point on the island) towards Willis Island. The base can be seen in the distance.

Home

Looking East, over Bird Sound- the 500m stretch of water that separates us from South Georgia itself.

One month on Bird Island.

2008-12-28T10:09:00.000Z

Somehow I seem to have been here a month already! At this time of year (midsummer, and therefore peak breeding season for most of the wildlife) we're outside collecting data/monitoring/checking nests of penguins and giant petrels every day, so there is little time for doing things like updating blogs or wondering where the time is going! The other field assistants on base are equally as busy with the albatross and seal work. There is certainly no time to worry about being bored or wanting to go home!

Wildlife update:

The base is situated on a flat beach in the middle of a breeding Antarctic fur seal colony. As the weeks have passed, we have watched the males come in from the sea and select territories on the beaches. The females follow a short while later, coming ashore to pup, joining one of the male's harems on the beach. In the last week, the number of new pups has dropped dramatically and the females are now all returning to sea, returning only every few days to feed their pups. The base is now surrounded by hundreds of small black angry pups. The males are still defending their beach spots, but the peak breeding is definitely over. The males fiercely defend their territories and we watched many fights between rival males as each attempted to establish its own territory.

The wandering albatrosses are settling down well and are just passed the peak laying period. There are still a handful of last year's chicks that have yet to fledge. These can be seen running up and down the meadows trying out their enormous wings, before they will finally take off and head out to see. Wanderers only breed every 2 years, so the birds returning to breed this year are not the parents of the chicks that are still to fledge. The stunning Grey headed albatrosses already have chicks, and the Black-browed albatrosses are incubating eggs which should hatch any day now.

My work is to monitor the giant petrels and the penguins and check on a few other species such as the blue-eyed shags. The macaroni penguin chicks started hatching this week; the Gentoo penguins had their chicks before I arrived. The young Macaroni's are like tiny grey balls of fluff and are very cute. The gentoo chicks are getting quite big now. The Northern giant petrel chicks are also getting big now, and are usually seen without the parent birds. The Southern giant petrels are just beginning to hatch. The giant petrel chicks are very cute from a distance, but vomit stinking fishy oil all over you if get too close.

That was just a quick summary of what's going on- I was meant to be writing about Christmas so I'll stop with the wildlife for a bit there!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-23T23:43:00.004Z

Merry Christmas everyone. This is the gang i'm living/working with at the moment. They usually look a bit more normal than this so don't worry too much! :) Hope you all have a good Christmas. I will try and keep my blog updated more often in future. Thanks to you all for your nice Christmas emails, and best wishes for the new year. Lots of love Stacey. xxx

Bird Island

2008-12-18T09:00:00.002Z

The cargo tender was launched with the first load of cargo and set off out of sight around the headland, for the Bird Island base, which is in a little cove on the South side of the island. The rest of us packed up and got ready to leave the ship. The cargo tender returned after an hour or so, reporting that conditions at the jetty were good enough to unload the rest of the cargo. We all got into the tender, along with another load of cargo and headed into Bird Island.

We were greeted on the jetty by the current islanders (5, plus some of the BBC film crew who were working on a documentary and living at the base). Introductions were made, over bacon sandwiches (due to the 2 hour time difference between ships time and Bird Island time-meaning it was still only breakfast time for the people who had got off the ship). The day was spent unloading cargo, then the ship left to do some science work for a few days, and we were left on our new island. Fabrice, (the current Penguin/Giant Petrel assistant, who I will be working with and then taking over from at the end of the season) took me out for a quick walk up the hill to see Big Mac- one of my Macaroni penguin colonies. This is our biggest colony and contains around 40,000 pairs of nesting Macaroni's. The evening was spent getting to know each other and sorting out boxes.

The next day (24th Nov) was the anniversary of 50 years of science at Bird Island, so we had an entertaining evening watching videos of work done many years ago, whilst dressed up in the type of clothes worn 50 years ago. The seal work here involves marking pups with blonde hair dye for identification. Annually, the Bird Island staff also enjoy this, and by the end of the evening, all present on base were blonde.

The next few days were spent doing field work (I'll write about my job later), then the JCR returned from its science cruise for a second day of unloading cargo. Much time was spent rolling barrels of fuel from the cargo tender to the base, and rolling empty drums back. In the afternoon, the sun shone and lots of the crew and passengers from the JCR went out for a walk, up through the meadows where the wandering albatrosses are displaying, to the macaroni and grey headed albatross colonies. The beautiful weather and views dispelled the myth that it is always foggy or wet on Bird Island, and everyone left happy. In the evening, the JCR and its passengers left us, not due to return until after Christmas. It is great to finally have arrived!

2008-12-16T11:34:00.003Z

Around Signy

The JCR, just off Signy

2008-12-16T11:25:00.001Z

South Georgia

2008-12-10T15:49:00.001Z

On Friday 21st, the ship drew in alongside South Georgia and pulled in to the BAS base at King Edward Point (KEP). The sun broke through the clouds as we arrived, revealing stunning snowy peaked mountains and incredibly blue seas. The base at KEP is located close to the old whaling station at Grytviken. This is where all the tourist cruise ships call, to visit the whaling museum and Shackleton's grave, so there is a big jetty for ships to moor up at. The JCR docked and we all got off the boat and had a day out at KEP. As the JCR could unload directly onto the jetty, we were not needed for unloading cargo as this was done mechanically, so we were free to do what we wanted. We visited the church and whaling museum and ruins of the old whaling station, and walked out to Shackleton's grave and up one of the nearby hills. It was gorgeous and sunny and very beautiful. There was plenty of opportunity for photo's of king penguins (which only visit Bird Island in small numbers, so it was nice to see lots), gentoo penguins and huge elephant seals. I also got my first introduction to Antarctic fur seals, of which there are thousands on Bird Island. We spent the evening socialising with the BAS staff at KEP, who I had done much of my training in Cambridge with so it was very nice to see them. These had arrived in Antarctica about 10 days before we arrived, travelling down on the South Georgia fisheries patrol vessel instead of the JCR. The JCR spent the night docked at KEP and then set sail for Bird Island the following morning.

We sailed for one more day, and anchored just off Bird Island early the following morning, while the captain decided whether the sea was calm enough to transport cargo and people ashore.

The JCR is a scientific research vessel for BAS, but also delivers supplies and people to various bases in the Antarctic. At both Signy and KEP, people, kit, food, fuel and provisions were offloaded to the bases, and waste from the winter returned to the ship to be transported back to the mainland. The same was to be done at Bird Island, with me, and two others to be dropped off at Bird Island, and one of last years winterers to be picked up as he had reached the end of his contract as was returning to the UK. Due to the weather and sea conditions, Bird Island is the most difficult base to re-supply, and often the ship may have to anchor offshore and wait a few days before conditions are calm enough for unloading. Bird Island only has a small jetty so the JCR had to remain offshore, and the smaller cargo tender launched from it, and used to transport everything to base. Conditions need to be calm for this to be done safely.

The captain decided conditions were good enough, and gave the go-ahead for Bird Island.

Signy

2008-12-08T08:43:00.002Z

Sorry to those who have been eagerly awaiting my update- I've been rushed off my feet ever since I arrived here! I finally arrived on Bird Island on 23rd November as originally planned. Here's what happened on the way:

Signy:

We started to see icebergs the day we arrived at Signy (Monday 17th November). Signy is another research base run British Antarctic Survey. Signy is located on the South Orkney Islands and is the furthest South I shall get on my trip to Bird Island. Signy is only open in the summer, so upon arrival on Monday morning, no one was quite sure what to expect, as it had been left unattended since last autumn. The base was fine and many of us were sent ashore to help dig snow from around the buildings and help transport kit and provisions into the base. The mechanics were busy getting the generators up and running to provide heating and fresh water to the base. At the end of the first day, everyone returned to the ship for the night. The following day, more digging and sorting kit saw the completion of the work on Signy. There was even enough time for a short trip in the cargo tender (the small boat, used to transfer kit/provisions between the JCR and the base) out to visit the breeding Chinstrap and Adelie penguin colony further along the coast. Leopard seals were patrolling the sea around the base of the colony, for any stray penguins that ventured into the sea. Blizzard conditions and leopard seals meant we couldn't land at the colony, but we go some fantastic close views from the boat. In the evening, we left Signy, and the 8 scientists/technical services staff who were staying for the summer. We then set sail North towards South Georgia, passing huge icebergs on the way for much of the evening. Signy was stunning- it looked like the true Antarctic; surrounded by massive icebergs, with its penguins, snowstorms and glaciers, and rocky peaks reaching up to the grey clouds above.

The next 2 days were spent on board the ship heading for South Georgia. Conditions varied but the sea was relatively calm for most of the time. Whales were sighted on a number of occasions, but none well enough to identify the species. The lovely white snow petrels that had been numerous around Signy faded away and were replaced by albatrosses the closer we got to South Georgia.

Going to Antarctica!!!!

2008-11-16T11:34:00.002Z

My lastfew days in Cambridge were a bit hectic, involving lots of packing/unpacking/repacking etc etc etc. I spent my last weekend at home with family, which was nice.

On Sunday 9th November, we loaded up the car and drove to RAF Brize Norton, near Oxford, where i met up with the rest of the people from BAS. My flight was at 11pm. Family saw me off at the airport. The flight was an 18hour flight, to the Falkland Islands, with a 2hour stop at Ascention Island on the way down. It was a good flight, and we were well fed. Arriving in Ascention a 9am on Monday morning, we all got out of the plane and got our passports stamped, and waited in the lovely hot sunshine for the plane to refuel. We werent allowed to explore, but it looks an interesting place! All too soon we were herded back onto the plane for the second leg of the journey to the Falklands.

The Falklands runs 3hours behind UK time so we arrived at 3pm on Monday. A bus ran us to the James Clark Ross (JCR), the British Antarctic Survey ship that was anchored just outside Stanley (the capital). We were given our cabins and a safety briefing and left to our own devices.

The next few days, the JCR remained in Port in Stanley, awaiting a spare part that was required before we could sail. This gave us 3 days to explore. (Photo's will follow but the ships internet cannot cope with them so they will have to wait until i reach land). We had days out walking and exploring the area. The Falklands seem to be a mixture between Iceland and Shetland- vey wild and windy with few trees. Lots of rocky areas and beautiful white sandy beaches. Many areas however were out of bounds due to being uncleared minefields from the Flaklands conflict. Stanley itself is a small but colourful place with brightly roofed buildings, and all shops and services you might need. The islands themselves only have about 3000 people. The islands had lots of new and exciting wildlife (again, photos will follow later), including turkey vultures, giant petrels, night herons and some smaller birds like long-tailed meadowlarks and rufous-chested dotterel.

The JCR finally set sail around lunchtime on Friday 14th November. Almost immediately once out of sight of land, the albatrosses started appearing, following the boat. Black browed albatrosses appeared first, and also many cape pigeons and a few Wilsons petrels, these were soon followed by wandering albatrosses. Grey headed albatrosses only appeared the following day. This is day 3 at sea now and the weather has calmed down dramatically compared to the first 2 days which were pretty bumpy. We are due to arrive at the BAS base at Signy (South Orkney Islands) tomorrow, where the base will be opened up for the summer, and many of the ships passengers will get off. It is planned to spend 3 days at Signy, before heading for South Georgia and Bird Island, where i will be getting off. We crossed the Polar front this morning, which although had not obvious visual change, was apparently marked by a large drop in sea temperature. It was snowing when i woke up this morning and the air temperature is currently at 2 degrees, dropping day by day. The first icebergs are due to be spotted any time now.

Think thats all- i'm now heading up on deck to see if there's any ice about yet.

October Christmas Party.

2008-10-12T09:33:00.000+01:00

I've been asked several times why I've stopped updating my Blog. This is because I've moved into a new house in Cambridge that doesn't have the internet so I only have access to update it at work when I'm meant to be working! Once i get there (November) it will be updated far more regularly!

However, I've done all sorts of interesting training courses (including dentistry and paramedics) in the last couple of months so will write all about them in the next few weeks.

This weekend I went home for Christmas. As I won't be around for proper Christmas, we decided to have Christmas early. We had a great evening on Saturday with 19 family members arriving late afternoon for Christmas tea and the evening. The Christmas decorations and exchange of Christmas cards made it seem very Christmassy! It was a great evening and I think everyone enjoyed it. It was particularly nice to see everyone as I've not seen some people for quite a while.

On Sunday, Katie&Alistair, Mum&Dad and myself had a day out, then had Christmas dinner for tea. I had to leave on Sunday night to get back to Cambridge for a Home Office course of Animal ethics on Monday morning.

4 weeks to go!!!!! :)

Antarctic Clothing

2008-08-14T16:59:00.000+01:00

Today i was kitted out with all my Antarctic clothing. Typically it was the hottest day we've had since i arrived in Cambridge. This was fine when trying on thermals and base layers, but as more layers were added including padded boilersuits, sallopettes, waterproofs and ski goggles, it started to seem like it would be a good idea to have a giant freezer room to try things on in to give an idea of warmth! Eventually my gear was all packed into a huge orange bag and put in a big pile ready to go on the ship next week. I will have access to it as soon as i join the ship in the Falklands. I then went to visit the packing sheds to see the size of the boxes i have for my personal kit, which i'm hoping to have packed and ready by Tuesday.

Getting started

2008-08-13T19:56:00.000+01:00

People checking this page in the hopes of exciting iceberg and penguin photos will have to wait patiently for a bit longer. But, progress is being made. I am now at least working for the people who will take me south. I left my previous job with the RSPB on Oronsay last week and have now moved down to Cambridge where i shall be living for a couple of months, getting trained up ready for the big adventure.
I shall be based in Cambridge from now until early November. During this time, i have various training courses to undertake, to prepare me for my time in antarctica; this ranges from dentistry, to satellite communications to analysing penguin vomit!
My first training began yesterday, when i was flown up to Aberdeen to learn all about the satellite communication system that provides us with telephone and email contact with the outside world. We got to play with big satellite dishes to locate satellites and learnt what to do if parts of the system fail. It was quite complicated to a biologist! But i got the general idea and it was very interesting. Today i returned to Cambridge to continue my packing.

Welcome to my Blog

2008-08-02T13:00:00.000+01:00

I've set up this blog for all the people who have asked me to keep them updated on what i'm up to down in the South Atlantic. Theres not much here yet because I haven't got there yet but keep checking this page as i'll be putting up pictures and keeping you all updated as things progress!