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.