Hello again from Cape Shirreff.
Here's the weekly update (you may also be receiving the SitRep which is a weekly report we have to send to the government in  DC so they know what is going on and that their money is going to good use. You may or may not be interested in reading them since they're a little on the dry side.) Today I got home from the field early. It's only 4:30pm and I have the whole house to myself - ahh, solitude. Actually, while the 4 of us are somewhat on top of each other in our living quarters, I spend the bulk of my day out in the field wandering alone amongst the squawking penguins. Mike and I spent most of yesterday gathering data on adult penguin weights at laying, and getting egg measurements. This involved first lifting up hundreds of penguin butts to find birds who had only laid their first egg, stealing their egg to weigh and measure it and then sneaking the egg back on the nest and successively catching each adult to toss them in a stuff sack and weigh them. The whole process is pretty quick and while a few birds freak out, most of them seem to get over it quickly and get right back on their nest. It is exhausting catching and being thrashed by 50+ penguins (we each did 50 birds). Mike got some good video footage of me getting brutally flippered and bitten by one particularly uncooperative bird, granted he only weighed 4 kg, but he was fierce nonetheless. Never underestimate the power of a small flightless bird. We have also started monitoring our skua nests to get lay dates. I check 10 skua territories. It's great work because they choose the highest, most inhospitable points on the island to nest on, so I have to scramble up snow and scree slopes in the howling wind (the weather has taken a turn for the worse with very strong winds from the east hammering us) and search for scrapes (skua nests aren't much, just a divet scratched in the soil.) While skuas are normally pretty fierce, when they are on eggs, they are very docile. They will screech a little and call in their mate, but you can reach under them and take their egg without getting your eyes gouged out. Apparently this isn't the case when their chicks hatch and we have to band and measure them. They are strong birds and can brutalize you, so that's a 2 person job. We had a vagrant king penguin wash onto the island 2 days ago. Their range is much farther north than Livingston Island and it is very rare to see them down here. He seems a bit confused, but he did find the chinstrap colonies. Sadly, he's twice the size of all the other penguins and just doesn't quite fit in here. While Mike and I were searching for the king penguin we got to observe a mama fur seal give birth. That was amazing to see. The beaches are literally covered with fur seal pups and the cries of mothers and their pups can be heard all night long. I'll get to help the seal biologists when they start to do pup captures next week. Should be exciting. In response to a couple of questions... how did I end up down here and what exactly am I doing... I actually found out about this research position on the internet and applied for it. My boss Wayne hired me over the phone as I was headed out in the field on a Yukon hiking course. This research position is perfect for me because it is short term (4 mo.) and I was looking for something to provide some variety and intellectual stimulation as a break from NOLS work - which I'll continue when I return to the states. Now one may argue the true quality of intellectual stimulation that I am getting as I slog through penguin dung, but it's nice to be immersed in a scientific community again. The work we are doing is part of a long term monitoring project required by the Antarctic Marine Living Resource conservation treaty. They basically need to know population sizes, reproductive success, etc. of larger marine predators and seabirds. NOAA also contracts a boat to do transects to measure krill density and other oceanographic variables. Most of the penguin and skua work we do is gathering basic ecological data. Wayne has been studying penguins for over 24 years, so he's somewhat of an expert in the field. He'll be joining us in January for our final 2 months. Well...I'm starting to hit my e-mail size limit, so I'll sign off. I also have to go shovel some snow. We're worried that our fresh water supply might run out if we don't get some precipitation soon. We have 10 50gallon barrels full of water/ice, but the snow is melting fast, so I need to fill up some more barrels.

Lots of love, Iris