Back by popular demand; Penguins.

OK you've all been asking for penguin pictures, so that is what you'll get.

Palmer Station is know for its great opportunities to see wild life and so far it has met all my expectations in that respect. There are lots of birds (that will be another post) and up until recently we had seen the occasional seal and penguin close to town. However, it is now far enough into the season that penguins are here in great numbers.



Just to get an idea of the number of penguins we're talking about.

Surrounding the station are many little islands, some of which are off limits to mere mortals (non-scientists) like myself and some of which are (partly) accessible. We have several Zodiac inflatable boats with an outboard engine that are used by the scientists or us for operational needs, and then there is the "Rec Boat", which is purely for recreational use.  The waters around Palmer have been marked on a map with a "safe boating" zone which is some 2 miles around station and markings on (is)lands indicating their level of forbiddenness. Also on this map it shows where emergency caches and landing sites are.
You need to have done the "Boating 1" course to step into a boat, and "Boating 2" course to be allowed to drive it. When the weather is good (below 20 knots winds and not to much swell) and after approval of the Boating Coordinator you can organize a boating trip. Usually there will be a announcement on the white board with some sign up spots that will fill quickly. The driver of the boat will try to get an idea of which destinations people want to go to and will drop you off or just take you along for the boat ride itself.

My destination of the day was Torgersen Island, which is really nearby, but houses some Adelie penguin colonies and half the island is accessible to mere mortals. The number one rule in dealing with wild life is that "if the animals alter their behavior" you have gone too close. Luckily, penguins have had no reason to learn to be fearful of humans and have seen many scientists come to the island, so getting close did not alter their behavior in the least bit. It was nice to just sit down and look at what they were doing. It is nesting season for them and they are busy finding the best little stones to bring to their mate at the nest site. This one individual I observed kept fetching rocks and then dropping them a couple of feet from his/her mate. I think he was daunted by the idea of having to run the gauntlet; to get to his mate he would have to pass a couple of others who would invariably do a little pecking and squeaking at him.

One of the scientists counting the penguins

A few of them had eggs already.

Skua, waiting to see if it could steal some eggs.

Hard to tell what it is, just seeing the backside.

On the island was also this beautiful Weddell (I think) seal. Just like the penguins, it was not phased at all by our presence.

The other critters that we saw were a couple of Elephant seals. The females are not unpretty, but the males remind you of why they have the name. They have a big nose and humongous torso. They are full of bloody wounds and scars, because they have had to defend their harem from other males.

Lastly, the beauty of the day was in the surroundings themselves. It certainly is not as sunny here as in McMurdo, but when there is some sun peeking in between the clouds it makes for beautiful light. The brash ice has such beautiful geometrical shapes that I am reminded of my dad's collection of fine glass art. If it were up to me this blog would be filled with just these dreamy forms, but I have done my best to make it just a small selection.

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



Photos I Wish I Took

The warm temperatures have been melting all of the roads and the snow on the hills and mountains, creating a huge amount of run-off.  This relatively warm run-off flows into Winter Quarters Bay and raises the temperature of the water which speeds up the melting of the Ice Pier from underneath.  Remember that Ice Pier I mentioned in a prior post?  It now has 4 feet of good ice and the rest of its thickness is slush.  Not good news...

The powers-that-be have been brainstorming alternative methods of off-loading all of the cargo arriving by resupply vessel since the Ice Pier has finally and officially been deemed un-usable.

They are down to 2 options:  offload all of the cargo in Lyttleton, NZ and fly 150 extra C-17 missions or use some kind of modular "Lego" pier to do an offload here.  Too bad the NSF didn't want to consider other options when the alarm bell was sounded by our Fleet Operations personnel back in August.  Over half of our cargo has already been containerized in California and ready to load onto the Resupply vessel.  This cargo will likely get re-prioritized and need to be re-containerized.  

On a brighter note, everyone who bet money on the NSF missing their stated deadline to announce the new subcontractor for the USAP is now richer.  Although...no one would have bet against this happening.  After two contract extensions, we were supposed to hear today who our new "boss" will be, but it is silent at the Denver Headquarters.  Many think that we'll hear right before Thanksgiving.

Finally, to end my week on a happy note, here are some great photos that I WISH I took.  They have been "borrowed" from the public photo storage location on the network.  Enjoy!



Penguin Chick under one of its parents



The Life of an Emperor

The Life Cycle of an Emperor Penguin

I've received lots of questions about the emperor penguins so here is some information about them and what they are doing on the runway road.

The life cycle diagram above is helpful in understanding what emperors do on an annual basis. The ones pictured in the previous blog are about 30 to 40 miles away from the open water and have wandered to this spot in order to molt. This stage isn't depicted in the diagram but occurs some time in late January/February.

During molting, emperors develop a completely new set of feathers, which push out the old feathers. The new feathers grow to one-third their length before the old feathers are pushed out in order to keep the critters from having no insulation. Emperors have the most feathers per square inch of any bird (up to 100) which gives them superb insulation. During the molting process, the penguins cannot be in the water so they find a spot somewhere safe on land and do not eat during the 34 day process. The only nourishment that the emperors get during this time is a small amount of water extracting from the snow that they eat.

To give you sense of size, these emperors are the largest variety of penguin. They can be as tall as 3.7 feet (1.1 meters) and weigh between 60 and 90 pounds (27 - 41 kilograms).

Once the emperors have a complete set of new feathers, they will waddle slowly back to the ice edge and feed in the ocean until April, when the cycle begins anew.

Since they are so irresistible, here are some close-ups taken by Michiel on Saturday night.