Cape Royds

About once a season, I get a call or an email from someone in the IT department (my boss or someone from the Communications part of our department) to tell me that I'm going on a really cool trip in a helicopter.  This year, the destination was Cape Royds - an adelie penguin rookery and the site of one of Ernest Shackleton's huts.  Built in 1908, this wooden hut is undergoing restoration work by the Antarctic Heritage Trust of New Zealand.  The hut is off-limits during the restoration work, which last year, turned up five crates of whisky.  The whisky was distilled by Mackinlay Distillery in Scotland and has since been reverse engineered and re-created.  Incidentally, you can buy it online, but the reviews have not been all that positive.  See here:  http://www.connosr.com/reviews/mackinlays/shackletons-whisky-mackinlays-rare-old-highland/good-but-not-worth-the-hype/


Ernest Shackleton's hut - 1908

 Anyway...I didn't go out to Cape Royds to drink 100+ year-old whisky.  I went to see penguins while my IT co-workers rigged up the antenna, wiring and equipment for wi-fi and telephone (land line and VOIP phone) for the scientists who will be continuing their on-going adelie penguin studies.

The day was uncommonly calm and warm - so calm that all I could hear was the sound of thousands of penguins calling for their mates.  And warm enough for me to sunbathe, albeit in parka and wool hat.

Here are photos of the site.  You can see the hut and the penguin rookery to the right of it.  In the background is annual sea ice with the ice edge not too far off in the distance.  On the other side of the hut, is active volcano, Mt. Erebus and perhaps you can also see Barne Glacier beyond.


Adelie Rookery



Mt. Erebus



Hut, Rookery, Sea Ice and Mt. Discovery in the background

 After I returned to McMurdo, I ran into the educational outreach coordinator for this science work.  She has been working with a penguin researcher for many years and does daily blogs with school kids back in the States.  I asked her to help me understand some of what I observed at Cape Royds.  You might notice that the penguins are standing on a pile of small stones.  Those are nests.  The males come in from open water (running and sliding over the sea ice) to Cape Royds and gather stones and pebbles (lava rock from Erebus) to make a nest.  Then they make a lot of noise and flap their wings in an attempt to attract a female.  Penguins are monogamous for one year.  They might attract the same female as the year before or they might choose a new one each year.  Sometimes jilted females peck and squawk at this season's chosen mate.  In some of the photos you see birds with their wings out - these are apparently the males trying to get attention.  If you see any penguins standing on a lying down penguin, that's sex.  I did see some of that but the shots were blurry.  Sorry no penguin porn on this blog.



Penguins returning from the sea





Molted penguin feathers



My terrific colleagues - riggers Andrew and Emily