Hi!
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. We had an excellent feast down
here at Cape Shirreff - a delicious smoked turkey with all the fixins plus 4
pies (one for each of us). We were all a bit slow rolling out of bed the next
day, but have been busy back at work since then - penguins take no
holidays. On Nov 24 at 4am our Chilean neighbors arrived. Now the island population
is a whopping 7 human beings. John won the bet on their arrival date & got to
choose new radio "handles" for us. My new name is "Chucara" which means
"unmanageable or very difficult character" in Chilean slang. I think my
cabin-mates are starting to warm up to me : ) Their new names are equally
degrading. We had our first rainy, stormy, nasty Cape Shirreff day today
with gusts of 45 mph - weather typical of Feb. Last yr our weather was
great for most of Nov/Dec. On the work side of things, all of the birds are in
full swing. Chinstraps laid eggs very synchronously. Within a few days of
starting, every bird seems to be on a full clutch. Our brown skuas are
enjoying the bounty of fresh eggs to steal & the lack of snow on their
territories. They actually caught us off guard & some have laid eggs a
full week early. Oops. Now we have to be more vigilant to catch the others as
they lay. We mark their A & B egg and keep track of them as they hatch &
until the chicks fledge. We will also band the chicks in Feb. My skua
territories are spread far & wide across the Cape. They prefer to nest on
the highest, windiest bluffs on the island. It takes me about 4 hours of
steady hiking to get to all of my territories. It's a great hike & will
keep me in better shape than last yr. My penguins are also keeping me
pretty busy. Every day I seem to find more known-age birds that have
started breeding. I have to mark their nest, catch & band their mate, measure
their eggs, & follow their nests daily. These darn birds keep making my days
longer & longer. I now have 24 known-age breeders to monitor in addition
to my other 110 repro study nests. It is interesting watching the younger
birds try to figure out the whole breeding thing. Some are pretty inept. I
have one bird who laid the smallest egg I've ever seen - only 4 cm long;
less than half the size of a normal penguin egg. Oh well. They're young.
They'll get it down eventually. Now that most of the birds are on full
clutches, it will be a bit less work, but we still have the dreaded
Chinstrap Occupied Nest Census coming up - counting thousands of nests within
5% accuracy while being pelted by sleet & snow and getting your shins
pecked at by angry birds (as you can tell this is one of my least favorite parts
of the project). As for seals, things are heating up on the beaches. Dozens
of female fur seals are arriving daily & hundreds of new pups are being born.
The bulls are staring to get more ornery & vicious fights are breaking out
everywhere, occasionally leading to a chase through the penguin colonies
crushing nests. We haven't seen any leopard seals or whales yet, but they
should be around soon. I hope all is well with you. The best way to
reach me is still by email which is forwarded to me
weekly. We will
be getting mail in early January when a ship comes down. Any news, photos,
etc. would be great. I will send some mail out when they leave at the end
of Jan, so you'll definitely get a reply. Enjoy the last few days of Nov. I
hope snow is falling where you are. Ours is all melting. : ( Very sad. The
skis are being stowed away already. Last yr we were able to ski until the
end of Dec. Shower day tomorrow. Yahoo! Time to wash away a week's worth
of grime.
Take care.
Love, Iris
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