Hi!
Thanks for e-mail, those who have written. I'll try to reply personally, but you may have to wait for a letter in Jan. because my e-mail limit is 10Kb sent & rec'd per week. This has been a great week on the Cape. We had one very windy day with gusts over 40 mph. I almost got blown off the skua territories. Field work is much more pleasant when you're not struggling against the wind. It was fun sailing across the ice on my skis with a strong tailwind. After breaking 6 ski bindings, I have finally renounced the skis and now commute on snowshoes. The snow will only last another 2 weeks or so and the beaches are snow-free, so if I'm prepared to dodge charging fur seals, I can walk the beach. There is far too much testosterone on the beach now that females are coming into estrous - which only lasts a matter of hours. Peripheral bulls are looking for any sort of distraction to help them get a female on their territory. We finished all of the seal captures this week. They went smoothly, although one female tore a hole in the net and escaped. There are now 28 mama seals with radio transmitters on their back. The females are heading out to feed at sea and leave their pups on shore. The pups all gather and play unattended in groups. Hanging out in the pup nurseries is fun. They are so curious that they'll crawl on your lap. The first gentoo penguin chick was born yesterday - very cute little ball of feathers. Soon mom & dad will be busy running to sea to get enough food to feed the gaping mouths. It will be fun to see chicks hatching every day. Today we took a long hike off of the cape, sneaking past the glacier at low tide to check on some gull and skua nests. It was a great hike - saw my first leopard seal on the beach - impressive teeth. Also saw lots of pig piles of southern elephant seals, monstrous beasts - males can weigh up to 8000 lbs. Wow! So much to see and do down here. On Sat we'll help the Chileans capture, weigh & tag seal pups. They'll be repeating the process every 2 wks to monitor pup growth (monitored as part of the CCAMLR treaty.) Apparently the pups are very agreeable the first time, but wise up and learn to make it much harder on us for recaptures. Right now you can just walk down to the beach and pick them up as long as mom isn't around. When we're done with work, it's my turn to cook a big dinner for the 7 of us. Jorge made excellent empanadas last week, so it's a tough act to follow. Everyone down here cooks exceptionally well. The food is always great. That's all for now.

Love and penguin chicks, Iris