Hello from Copacabana Field Camp! Things are going great down
here on King George Island. Our weather has been phenomenal. I
haven't seen this much sun in both of my previous seasons in the
Antarctic combined. Our location on the southern side of the
island in Admiralty bay is low and protected, so while the
storms hammer the mountain tops & the north side of the island,
we've got clear, sunny skies. We've been keeping pretty busy
doing penguin diet sampling. We also decided to deploy a few satellite transmitters on penguins because the chinstraps were
finding bigger krill than the other 2 penguin species. It seems
like swarms of larger krill are starting to move into the area
now as all the penguins are fat & happy. My greatest pleasure
has been the long hikes all over the island. We regularly hike
4-6 hours checking skua territories. On Saturday I hiked out to
the Italian Valley (so called because the Italians tried to put
up a research station there, but the Argentines burned it down).
It was a calm, sunny day and we had some of the most impressive
views I've ever seen. This island is truly spectacular. On
Saturday we also had our weekly visit to Arctowski, the Polish
Station. They have a bunk room set up for their American
visitors. They let us take showers and do our laundry there,
then they treat us to dinner. Polish food is actually delicious.
Their cook is excellent. The only thing I tried that I wasn't
too fond of was cow tongue, a delicacy. Tongue tastes fine, but
the texture is a little unnerving. There were 7 Hungarian
visitors at the Polish station too. A couple of them are
geologists studying permafrost & the rest are part of a film
crew here to make a documentary. They're great folks - young &
adventurous - dragging their scuba tanks & cameras in sleds
across the glacier. They didn't bring much food, so they are
excited to partake in all of the fresh food we brought in.
Dancing & drinking into the wee hours is also part of our weekly
Arctowski visit. It actually feels like taking a weekend off
when we go over to their base. This Saturday we're celebrating
Yarek's birthday, so in addition to us, the Poles, & the
Hungarians, the Brazilians, Argentines, & Peruvians will also
motor over in their zodiacs for the party. Copa is very
different from Cape Shirreff. We have a much busier social
calendar. At Cape Shirreff we rarely saw other people or
vessels. Here we bump into other scientists puttering around in
the lakes or climbing the peaks. I love the freedom we have to
roam. I have a great 8km beach run I can do out to the
Barenowski Glacier. The camp also has a lot more privacy than
Cape Shirreff. Instead of one main building, we have 3 separate
buildings, each with a couple of rooms. Everyone manages to be
very productive and things run smoothly.
The penguins are managing to do pretty well - those that
survived the harsh early season conditions have managed to raise
one or two chicks. The Adelie penguin chicks should be fledging
in a week or so and the colonies will thin out. The parents go
first to fatten up for their molt. The chicks follow after a few
days when they realize that mom & dad aren't coming home to feed
them anymore. It will be sad to watch all of the little
inexperienced chicks head out to sea. Very few of them make it.
Gentoos will be around for another full month. The skuas are
having a very bad year. The territories are fairly close here,
so when some of the skuas lose their chicks, they go after their
neighbors chicks and eat them. The majority of them will kill
each other off by the end of the month. Very sad, both for their
survival & for our hiking. Once there are no more chicks, there
is no excuse for us to trek out checking on them. It's quiet
here without fur seals breeding, but soon the young male fur
seals come to hang out on our beaches & we should have a few
thousand of the snarling beasts to dodge.
I hope things are going well up north. Time is flying by
here. Before I know it we'll be on a ship home. :( Until next
week, take care.
Love, Iris
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