And so another week passes at Cape Shirreff. I keep track of time by my
weekly shower - a great luxury in our remote camp. So far we've been here
a month. Time is flying by & the island is now bustling with new life. Gull
chicks are starting to hatch & during their first few days of life, they
are about the most beautiful creatures on the Cape. They are downy little tan
fluff balls with black speckles all over their body mimicking the
camouflaged eggs. More & more gentoo penguin chicks are hatching every
day. They grow incredibly quickly & keep their parents busy bringing back food
from the sea. After about a week the chicks are just fat bellies & little
heads. In less than 2 months they are the size of full grown adult
penguins. The beaches are also crawling with fur seal puppies - thousands of them.
They are adorable at this age - dark brown fur balls who are very curious
& will crawl right onto your lap if you sit quietly with them, but if you
surprise them or try to touch them, they growl & bark like ferocious
knee-high pit bulls. Very cute. They think they are intimidating. Most of
them are a week or two old & their moms are now off on their first trip to
sea to refuel for the demanding job of nourishing their pups with rich,
fatty milk. We have been helping the seal biologists with their female
captures all week. They have to catch 28 female fur seals with pups who
are 1-2 days old to outfit with radio transmitters & time-depth recorders. The
instruments collect data on how long the females are out foraging & how
deep they are diving. Later they will also put satellite-linked transmitters to
track exactly where they are going. We'll be doing the same on penguins in
January when the chinstrap chicks hatch and all the penguins are busy
rearing their chicks. Because their body size is so much smaller than
seals, we can only put one instrument on each bird, so we'll have 30 birds with
radio transmitters, 8 with time-depth recorders which we'll put out for 10
days at a time, then reuse them, and I'm not sure how many satellite
transmitters we'll get. These come down in January & at $2000 each they're
not exactly something you want to lose. Unfortunately penguins often fall
prey to the leopard seals patrolling off-shore. Last yr we lost $4000
worth of equipment due to hungry predators. Oops. Weather has been on the wet &
rainy side. The good news is that all of our water barrels are full. The
downside is we're often soaked & our data books get soggy. Oh well. Such
is life in the "banana belt" of the Antarctic. We never have the severe cold
temps of the mainland, but we get plenty of wind, snow, & rain. Our
research has slowed down a lot now that the early season work is done. In about two
weeks we get really busy from late Dec until mid Feb. I'm savoring the
time now working on little projects like house painting, setting up a weather
station, and entering data. Not the most thrilling work, but it needs to
get done. I'm also kicking back, reading, relaxing, & trying hard to drum up
the motivation to crack open that Spanish textbook I brought down. Tomorrow
I'll start... I hope all is well where you are. May your days be sunny & warm
(or filled with many feet of deep powder.) I hope the skiing is good in the
far north. Think of me if you are out playing in the snow.
Love, Iris
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