Another wonderful week at Copacabana!
Life down here on King
George Island is absolutely great. We have entered the party
season. Last night we had a big goodbye fiesta for our friend &
camp leader, Ladi, who is headed back to the Czech Republic. 20
of our Polish & Hungarian friends came to our humble home & we
had a great night. Today our ship, the Yuzhmorgeologiya has
arrived to take Ladi, so we will have another party & barbeque
for our friends on board - the American scientists & Russian
crew. It's nice for them to be on land after 3 weeks at sea. We
have calm weather for their visit, although it's not quite
as sunny as it has been for the past week.
Our field work is slowing down. We were fairly busy doing
Adelie, Gentoo, & Chinstrap diet sampling this week. Now the
Adelie penguins are slowly leaving the colonies. The adults
leave first & head down to the Weddell sea to fatten up on krill
& molt to prepare for winter on the ice. After a few days, the
chicks realize that they aren't going to get any more food from
mom & dad, so they make their way down to the beach. We've been patrolling the shoreline in the mornings & evenings to catch &
weigh fledgers. Poor little guys. There are leopard seals &
giant petrels waiting to eat them as they splash around in the
water &
learn how to swim. Only about 10% will make it back to breed
here in a couple of years. Tough odds for our little Adelie
penguin friends. It's sad to see them go & the colonies will be
much quieter with only gentoos left. The gentoo chicks are
getting bigger & they are chasing down their parents for food. A
few brave chicks are experimenting with swimming, but it will be
weeks before they are on their own. We only have a few more big
days of field work & a lot of data to sort through. I think
February will pass very quickly though because we have several
parties lined up each week. Next is my birthday with the
Brazilians coming from across the bay to celebrate & dance the
samba in our backyard, then we'll have an outdoor party with the
Hungarians at their tent camp. February is also the month of
anniversaries - the establishment of Copa Field Camp (Feb 12),
the Polish Base (Feb 20) and the Brazilian station, plus
Brazilian Carnival at the end of the month. I have a busier
social schedule here than I've ever had. It's pretty fun.
I hope the winter up north is treating you well. It sounds
like we have not gone to war yet, which is good. We don't get
any news down here. I'd love to
hear news from home. Best wishes & happy end of
January.
Love, Iris
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