Hello!
We've had a rough week of weather - snow, rain, wind; typical Cape Shirreff February weather. Yesterday we banded & weighed 200 gentoo chicks in the rain. It actually went really well, although our weigh bag ripped to shreds & by the end we were covered with feathers & penguin poop. The chicks aren't as strong as adults, so they don't fight as much, but they are such fluff balls & their downy feathers get in the way. Next week is chinstrap chick banding - 1,000 chicks - which should take all of us a good part of the day & usually is even messier because chicks run to safety in the nearest mud hole. We also did a chick census - counting almost 10,000 chicks. They have a rough life - hunted by giant petrels & skuas while their parents are at sea, harassed by young male chinstraps looking for next year's territory (the young males alternately beat up the chicks & try to mount them, walking through the colonies w/a beak full of chick down wreaking havoc - evil little buggers) & then when they fledge, the biggest slaughter of all. Leopard seals wait offshore for the plump chicks who are buoyant with fat & very inexperienced at swimming. Seals feast on them & at the end of the season we walk the beach to count carcasses. Less than 10% of the chicks survive to adulthood. The fur seals love the snow we've been getting. The colder temperatures make them much more playful. I guess we'd be pretty sluggish if we had heavy fur coats in the sun. They chase each other around our cabin, barking & wrestling - very cute. Seals have migrated to every part of the Cape - even on the highest hills. They prefer to give birth on the rocky beaches in big groups, but later in the season the pups are so ambulatory that Mamas prefer to spread out & find a nice piece of real estate with a view. The ship has just arrived (fresh fruit & MAIL!!) with our new campmate Rennie, the director of the Antarctic Ecosystem Research Group. We've put him in the cooking & chores rotation so he'll have to partake in all of the odious tasks from outhouse duty to dishwashing....Just got lots of mail & b-day wishes. Thank you thank you thank you. It's so good to hear from everyone. Sadly, I can't reply to letters until we leave in March, but I will try to e-mail as many of you as I can given the e-mail restrictions. Enjoy the arrival of spring. I hope the weather is better up north than it is down here.

Lots of love, Iris