Weird weather week

Black-brow albatross on a less sunny day, with La Roche our highest peak in the background

This week we have had extremely varied weather! It started off absolutely gorgeous, I actually left base without a coat on and had to slap on the suncream (although I still ended up a bit pink). 

I went over to the east side of the island for an exploration and to find and record all of the Brown Skua nests. It is very different to the west side (which is where most of my other work is done). The path goes along the back of La Roche (our highest peak) and then past Gandalf (another peak). The path is mainly scree which is a welcome relief to the tussac on the rest of the island. Eventually after going over a few small hills you get to Farewell Point- the very end of the island. I walked out to the very tip of the island and was rewarded with stunning views of the coves below me. The seals can almost trick you into thinking that they are dolphins, they are so agile in the water. The sea is so blue and clear here, on a sunny day you can imagine that its warm, although it definitely isn’t! I wish it was sometimes! Whilst standing on the point of the island two Antarctic terns flitted past me calling, and two Blue Petrels which are really really blue!  Stonking little birds! Unfortunately no pictures as they were too quick for me, but I’ll try and get some at some point. I also spotted a Cape Petrel nest on the edge of the cliff. I couldn’t get very close as it was a little bit scary as I couldn’t really see where the edge was because of the tussac. 

Grey headed albatross on a very sunny day!

At one point I got too close to a Skua nest and got smacked on the head by both adults one after the other, it really hurt- they got me right in the ear!!! I came off more lightly than Ruth who came home this week with blood running down her face because of them. Luckily they tend to shout at you as they dive bomb so you usually have time to duck, but not always. 

Brown Skua chick with parent in the background (probably about to dive bomb me!)

A seal with very big teeth- this is what they do to warn you that they are very scary and not to come too close!

On the way back from that side of the island Tamsin and I decided to walk up to the snow line to practice some ice axe arrests (stopping yourself from sliding down snow/ice with an axe). We did a little bit of practicing but then got distracted by sledging down the hill on a orange survival bag. It was great fun! You get a great view of the base from up there and can even see over the hill to Willis Island at the western side of the island. 

A fur seal hanging out above the base

We had two glorious days like that, and then came the rain.......

It rained for two days solid, which everyone apart from our tech wasn’t very happy about. Craig (the tech) was very happy as he had been struggling to get our water tanks filled up, and was having to pump water from the dwindling stream supplies all day. All the tanks are now nice and full. For the rest of us who had to trek up the hills in the rain it wasn’t much fun. My waterproof trousers are already no longer waterproof- they didn’t last long. All the kit here takes such a battering that nothing lasts anywhere near as long as it would in the real world.

Kitchen seal pups- they didn't like the rain either, and decided our house was much cosier

A Light sooty mantled albatross (you can see his blue smile on his beak)

Whales, Wandering albatross eggs and ICE!

Time on Bird Island seems to go disproportionately fast compared to in the real world! I’ve already been here for over 4 weeks, but I guess if you never have a day off then the weeks don’t get split up by a weekend and it’s all becomes a bit hazy. 

It’s been another busy couple of weeks on the island. The Wandering albatross chicks have been fledging like there’s no tomorrow. We only have 11 chicks left now out of 74 that were here a month ago in our study area. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to see any fledge, but I’ve seen lots of practicing. They hold out their wings and do little jumps, which gradually get bigger. It’s seems to get them pretty excited and you can hear their excited screeches from miles away.  I’ve sat near ones that I thought might go any minute for ages, but have given up when I get too cold, or when they fold their wings in and sit back down. I don’t think they like having an audience, but neither would I, too much pressure!!!  When I come back the following day they are usually gone, so if I’d only waited a few more minutes (or hours) I might have seen it. 

Although the chicks are all departing to head off to the big blue ocean there are plenty of adults on the island to replace them. Everywhere you look you can see massive white dots on the landscape. I’m glad they are so easy to spot as I will have to visit every nest on the island. On the 5 December we started checking all of the adults on nests in the study area each day to see if they had laid an egg. We got our first egg on 10 December and it was absolutely huge!!! I got a picture with my hand to show just how massive they are- they weigh around half a kilogram and are around 130mm long. They are quite pretty eggs mainly creamy but with nice red marking at one end (it varies a lot between birds). I have been recording the locations of each nest, the identity of the parent birds, and taking the weight, length and width of the egg. So far we’ve had 21 eggs so there should be plenty more on the way!  

A Wandering Albatross egg- HUGE!!!

Besides the Wandering albatross work I’ve been visiting the other albatross colonies regularly, and I think I am finally getting to know my way around them. From tomorrow we start visiting some of them every day instead of just once or twice a week, as the eggs are due to start hatching, and we need to get the hatching dates of 80 chicks in each colony. 

Some of the Brown Skua’s  on the island had GLS tags put on them last year and it’s now time to retrieve them. We’ve done pretty well and have gotten 18 back out of 23. They are not at all easy to get as Skuas are very intelligent birds and when they have been caught once they don’t make it so easy next time. We have used various methods including just slowly moving towards the nest and catching them, using a net (like a fishing net), and using a noose pole. The noose pole seemed to work best for the most wary birds but I doubt it would again! Skuas also like to divebomb you so I have had a few occasions when I’ve been face down in the tussac as the bird swoops down and I can feel its wing sweeping over the back of my head. Luckily I’ve managed to avoid a full on collision but they can be pretty feisty. 

Close up of some of the moss on the island

So that is the main work that I’ve been doing over the last couple of weeks but I thought it might be interesting to let you know some of the other things that have been going on around the island. 

The first piece of exciting news is that I saw a WHALE just off the coast of the island. Tamsin, Jen and I were taking a break after scaling one of the many hills on the island, when I spotted spray shoot into the air from a blow hole, we all eagerly watched and saw the tail come up into the air and descend into the depths. Unfortunately we had no time to get any pictures as we only saw it twice but it was lovely to see a whale so close. 

Secondly I saw my first ICEBERG (and not of the salad variety)! This isn’t quite as exciting as it sounds because it was pretty much on the horizon so I couldn’t see it very well. Nevertheless it was really cool to see and hopefully the currents will bring it a bit closer. Apparently last year an iceberg made contact with the island, so it was thousands of years old ice in the G and T’s for a while. 

The beach outside the base is still covered with seals but there are now a lot more puppies than adults. The females have started heading out to sea to feed for a few days and then returning to feed the pups. The pups seem to like being close to our base and a couple of times I’ve found them sleeping directly outside of the front door. They are so cute and when they try to be fierce and growl at you they are even cuter. Last night I met a very friendly pup underneath the bench out front, who really enjoyed having his belly rubbed, and kicked his back flipper, like when you scratch a dog! It was hilarious! You still have to be careful though as you do not want to be bitten even by a pup. Seals have extremely filthy mouths and if you get bitten you need lots of antibiotics. 

Most afternoons the seal guys work on the puppies outside the base, so I’ve been helping “puppy cuddling”- holding the puppies while they get measured and weighed. I guess like children you get some that are good as gold and go to sleep in your arms, and then those with attitude who twist and try to bite you, and then those with a weak bladder who make a huge mess of your overalls. Luck of the draw!

The puppies have started exploring a bit more and have started climbing up the stairs and go round in little puppy gangs- very funny! 

Seal love (I don't think it's all that consensual though!)

The male seals are still as grumpy as ever and I’ve had a couple of close encounters which resulted in me running as fast as I could away from them. They are speedy when they want to be! It’s like walking between sleeping bears, and hoping you don’t wake them up as you sneak past- often though they do wake up! There is still a lot of fighting going on between the males for females, and over the last few days the number of dead males around the base has been increasing. They don’t last long as the Giant Petrels , Skuas and even the ducks make light work of them! Some days there are  intestines everywhere! It sounds grim but it’s just the reality of life for the seals. It’s more upsetting to see the dead pups but not everyone can survive. 

A lot of the seals are becoming bird food!

So on that depressing note I’d better change the subject! I saw my first ducklings today which is not an easy task as they dart through the tussac as soon as they hear you coming, they are little bundles of black fluff- one of them was mistaken for a potential rat- which would be disastrous for the island, but luckily just a little duckling!  The South Georgia Pipit chicks have also been fledging the nests and it is so lovely to hear the pipits singing away as they fly up above the tussac- it really makes it feel like Spring. 

It’s not all work though (well mostly it is), we’ve had a couple of social events- mainly film nights and on Saturday we had a darts match against another base, Signy. We couldn’t get the video working so had to settle for exchanging scores on msn messenger. All I can say is we definitely need more practice and we now have to provide Signy with a crate of beer the next time the ship goes there. 

Macaroni Penguin

La Roche our highest peak

Trip over to the east side of the island that is a lot more rocky.

Tamsin made mulled wine and mince pies so it is starting to feel a little more Christmassy. We also put up our Christmas tree (which is hideous) and the rest of the decorations which I think were stolen from the 80’s! The saving grace is the purple sparkly penguin at the top of the tree.

Another week on Bird Island

Another week has gone by and there are a lot more seals on the beaches.  It’s getting pretty noisy at night now with all the females continuously calling their pups and males fighting for the best territories at all hours of the night. I’m still sleeping pretty well though as I’ve been absolutely shattered from all of the work I’ve been doing. 

Female Antarctic fur seal and blonde pup (which are pretty rare)

This week I have been up to check on the Wandering albatross chicks every day to see which have fledged. It’s getting a bit more difficult as they are all getting more mobile, and I guess living up to their name! Usually they stay near the nest but now that they are getting ready to leave the island they have been wandering all over the place. Quite a few have already gone, and we think that the average fledging date is going to be a lot earlier than last year- but we still need to check the data. 

Wandering albatross chick in the snow

The twice weekly Black head and Grey head albatross checks are still busy and I’ve been doing quite a few of the rounds on my own, I think I still need a bit of practice at following the exact route around the colonies that Jen set up, as I keep going completely wrong and spend ages trying to get back on track. I’m sure I’ll have got the hang of it soon enough. We deployed some GLS trackers on some of the Black brows that are going to stay on until around a week after the eggs have hatched. That should be sometime towards the end of the month, I’m really looking forward to seeing some of the chicks! 

In the last week the number of adult Wandering albatrosses returning to the island has dramatically increased and I have seen them beginning to pair up again and start courtship. They make a sound like they are blowing bubbles when they are trying to impress each other, it’s really cool! Soon enough we will start having the first eggs, so another big job is taking out all of the stakes that denoted where the nests were last year, and preparing them for this year’s new nests. The stakes are dotted across the whole island so we are taking them out bit by bit. 

We had a lot of snow one night this week which made doing the albatross rounds more fun as on some parts you could slide down the hill on the snow. It was nice to see the island covered in white, but it did make it more difficult to walk around as the holes in between the tussac were disguised, so you could fall down a lot more easily. Most of the snow has gone now but we have been having small snow showers almost every day. It is supposed to be going into summer on the island so I don’t think we should get too much more snow, but the weather is very unpredictable here so who knows!

I had a trip over to SSB the seal study beach and helped with the recording of new pups born on the beach. This meant I got to cuddle a day old pup which was lovely! They are pretty cute when they are first born but don’t seem to stay that way for long!

Sooty Mantled albatross

On a weekly basis we check the nests of the Sooty Mantled albatrosses. I went out with Jen and Jerry to check some nests that Jen had already found. They nest just underneath bare rock in tussac, so to get to them you have to go across some pretty steep bits of slope. We checked all of the nests and none had failed which is great. They are not the best birds at breeding and tend to fail quite often.  Some of the sootys had GLS trackers put on them last year and we are checking each bird to see if it has one. So far we’ve just got one back. 

Giant Petrel  chick- now big enough to be left alone.

South Georgia Pintail- our only duck species

A friendly Elephant seal

This week was also the first time I had to cook for everyone. I made toad in the hole with cauliflower cheese and veggies. It went down pretty well. The cook duty also involves baking the bread for the day and thankfully my two loaves turned out alright, as I think there may have been a few grumbles if there was no decent bread for toast and sandwiches.

A clear day with the mountains of South Georgia visible

Finally a post from the island!

I’ve been on Bird Island now for just over a week and it has been a hectic week! We arrived on the afternoon of Saturday 17^th November. We had to come across from the JCR ship to the island in small inflatable ribs as the weather wasn’t good enough to launch the tender boat. As we got to the island I was amazed to see all of the seals swimming around the boat and waiting on the beach, as well as the birds soaring overhead. There was a huge elephant seal on the beach outside the base just chilling out amongst all the male Antarctic fur seals that were fighting to hold their territories. 

The Bird Island winterer team about to head to the island

First view of the base from the boat- a massive elephant seal in the foreground

The Bird Island winterer team were waiting at the end of the jetty to greet us (Ruth, Jenny, Jon, Rob and Jaume). It was great to finally meet them after talking by email and seeing photos of them over the last few months.  We were all very excited to finally be on the island! The rest of the day was spent in base waiting for the ship to send over the tender with the first of the supplies, but it never came. The captain decided that the weather wasn’t good enough so they would go a few miles out and wait until the next day. 

The following morning the weather was better and the first tender came in carrying the FIDS (that is the name for the people from the ship- I think it stands for Falkland Islands and Dependencies) and lots of wood (tonnes of the stuff)! On Bird Island it is not easy to unload the supplies. The ship cannot come directly to the island as the base is located in a shallow bay, instead the ship carries a smaller tender boat that is loaded with supplies and then comes over to the end of the jetty. This is also quite difficult as it can only get in when the weather is good (which isn’t very often) as the entrance to the bay is fairly narrow and there are lots of rocks that the tender could run into.

This year was particularly difficult as it was later in the year than usual which meant that there were more fur seals around the base than usual. Everything had to be brought past them which can make them pretty cranky when they want to sleep right in the middle of the jetty. This year we also had three large fuel tanks to get onto the beach. Everyone was worried that we might not be able to get them ashore as the tender had to run aground on to the beach onto fairly soft sand and we could only do it at high tide. Then there were the seals to contend with, and reliance on the Bob cat machine (which is prone to break down). Amazingly though we managed to get all three tanks onto the beach (they have ruined the view out of my bedroom window!). The scientists aboard the JCR will be happy as the tanks were on the science deck which they need clear to do all their experiments once they have unloaded at all the bases. 

The fuel tanks are going to be installed at the start of next year when we get the builders in. The reason for the new tanks is that currently we rely on drums of fuel to power the generators, which means we have to bring lots of them onto base and roll them all to the fuel store. This year we had 190 drums to roll, which takes a long time but certainly gives you a good work out! 

Rolling barrels

Besides the fuel tanks and drums and wood, we also had the food supplies for the year and the bond (drinks- which is apparently very important, the winterers were down to the last glass of red wine). Science equipment, personal belongings (I was happy to see my box had made it and wasn’t sitting on a dock somewhere in the UK!), cleaning products, everything you could possibly need!

It took three days to get everything unloaded and all of the waste back onto the ship to go back to the Falkland Islands and the UK. Everyone worked really hard and I was impressed how organised it all was. The FIDS were keen to see a bit of the island, so when we had a bit of spare time Jen and I took a group of them up the hill to see some Wandering Albatross, which they all really enjoyed! The JCR kindly provided us with food during first call so we were all well fed and had plenty of leftovers for the following days.

Eventually when everything was unloaded it was time to say goodbye to everyone from the ship and wave the tender off for the last time. It was strange to see it go and know that I’m going to be on this island for the next 16 months but it was also pretty exciting. 

Since the boat left I’ve been busy getting stuck into the work. I have been following Jenny (albatross assistant) around the island and she has been teaching me everything she knows. Hopefully by the time March comes around and she leaves I’ll have a good idea of what I need to do. 

Gentoo Penguin

One of our daily tasks is going to a part of the island called Wanderer Ridge to check on all of the Wandering Albatross chicks. These are all now very big and have started fledging (leaving the nest) and won’t return for around 5 years. A few have already gone but we need to get the date each one goes, so every day we go and see if they are still in their usual spots. They all have plastic markers on their leg so we can tell who is who. When they are 260 days old we also have to weigh them and take bill measurements. I have been getting to grips with doing this and I’m now feeling fairly confident with them. They are lovely birds and make the most hilarious sounds. When they flap their wings to practice flying they jump up and down and make an excited screeching noise, as though they are just excited that they have wings.

There are also a few adults returning in preparation to breed this season. Some of them had GLS tags (GPS locators) put on them last year, so we are keeping an eye out for any with them so we can retrieve and download the data. So far we have only retrieved one but it will be exciting to see where the bird has been over the last year. 

Wandering Albatross chick practicing using his wings

Another job that we have already completed is ringing all of the Wandering albatross chicks across the island. There were almost 600 to ring, and Jenny saved me a few so that I will know what to do next year. Each bird receives a metal ring on its leg that is a unique identifier so we can tell if it comes back in the future which bird it is, or if it ends up somewhere else we can find out where it went. 

Me with an adult Wandering Albatross

Grey Headed Albatross

It is not only the Wandering Albatross that we work with on the island. I have also started work on the Black Browed and Grey Headed Albatross. Each species has its own personalities and I have discovered that the Black Brows are pretty grumpy and will try and peck you at every opportunity, whereas the Grey heads are very docile and very rarely peck. There are different colonies where the birds’ nests across the island. Some of these are study colonies which we have to visit to monitor breeding success. Once or twice a week we visit to see how many nests are still active, and for each nest we record both parents and laying date if possible. The Black brows and Grey heads are all now sitting on eggs and should have chicks sometime next month. 

 

This week we did an all island count of the Black brow nests which everyone on base helped with. This gives us an estimate of how good a year it is for the birds- so far it looks like the numbers are slightly down on last year unfortunately. 

Elephant seal

Birthday presents!

Besides work we have been finding out how life works on base and getting to know our new housemates. It was my birthday this week and Jaume made a huge effort and we had a Mexican feast followed by a very tasty chocolate cake that apparently had Guinness in it- I’ll definitely have to get that recipe! I even got a birthday present- a newborn baby fur seal that was born on my birthday that has been named after me. I went over to SSB which is the seal study colony to meet her which was lovely! As a bonus I also got to see some Gentoo penguin chicks on the way. 

Antarctic Fur Seal pup with his mum

A Bird Island tradition that we all took part in was the annual blonding that happens on the day the first seal pup is born on the study beach. So we are all now sporting various amounts of blonde hair and for some moustaches.