Winter is upon us

The start of March was time for final goodbyes to last year’s wintering team, the summer base commander and Iain the seal biologist.  None of us could believe how quickly the summer season had gone by, least of all the old wintering team who were on their way home after between 18 months and 2.5 years on the island! There were mixed feelings all round, I think everyone was sad to be leaving, and we were sad to see them go. However they are all moving onto news adventures; Tamsin is off to Namibia to work as a doctor, Jen is going to bike around the US, Central and South America, Jon is also off travelling in South America, and Ruth is off on a live aboard in Egypt. For us the new winterers although we were anxious about being left alone in charge of the base, we were also pretty excited about our winter and the more relaxed attitude to base life. 

moulting Gentoo penguins and Fur seals on a rare nice day

The Saturday before the ship was due to arrive, the new winterers cooked a meal for the departing team members. We even stretched so far cheese soufflé (which none of us had ever attempted before), and I made the cake that had so nearly defeated me on Valentine ’s Day with the complexity of the recipe (but this time I had help from Hannah).  The food all went down well and we spent the evening chatting, drinking and dancing. It turns out Iain is worryingly good at recent dance crazes like Gangnam style, and he gave us all a few lessons.  The following day was supposed to be the final day before the ship arrived, and luckily it was one of those rare beautiful days on Bird Island and we could even see the sun! Ruth took her first trip up Tonk, and came to me Jen and I over at the albatross colonies where we were doing some diet sampling. The views from the colonies of Willis Islands were just stunning. 

Mum and Dad at the nest

D-day finally arrived but when I opened the blind in the morning, mine and Hannah’s first thought was “It’s Christmas!!” . It had become a winter wonderland outside with a huge over night dump of snow, and it was still coming down.  Unfortunately though the wind had seriously picked up and it was at around 50 knots. We received an email from the captain of the Ernest Shackleton to say that they were stuck out in the open ocean in a Force 9 storm.  Glad I wasn’t on that boat! I did feel sorry for Jerry, our resident penguin biologist who unfortunately was on the boat after going to the Falklands to get his tooth fixed. So no boat that day! It was Wandering Albatross hatching time so I was visiting Wanderer Ridge study area daily to get the hatching dates of the chicks up there. I decided to go out and do my checks but the snow was as deep as my waist on the top of the hill. It made getting around very difficult, as although there was a lot of snow the bogs and ditches hadn’t fully frozen over, so on many occasions I would go through the snow straight into the cold muddy water that can be more than knee deep itself. I gave up in the end because of the 50 knot winds that I faced at the top of the hill, as well as ice crystals hitting me straight in the eyes. Sometimes it just isn’t worth it. 

The next day when I did manage to get up the hill I could barely see the Wandering Albatross sitting on their nests, as they were well camouflaged and half buried by the snow. They didn’t look too impressed by the snow and were all pretty grumpy after being battered by snow and wind for 24 hours. Quite a few eggs had hatched that day, a nice introduction to the world! Luckily it’s pretty warm under a Wanderers belly so they all seemed okay. 

The ship finally arrived two days late and I spotted it out in the mist while I was up the hill, but they decided that the weather wasn’t good enough to launch the boat to come ashore, as our little bay is pretty exposed and we get some big waves coming in, which can be very dangerous for the boat. Instead they decided to head off to King Edward Point (the next nearest base) to do the final call there. Another two days later the ship arrived back. They still had trouble with the water conditions, so sent in two zodiacs (small inflatable ribs) who brought us a few supplies including the post and a few vegetables. I took the crew up to Wanderer Ridge to meet some albatross which they all seemed to enjoy and had to hurry back down when they got a call from the ship saying that had to get back aboard. That evening Jen, Ruth, Jon, Tamsin and Iain all put on boat suits and headed off in the boats, and left the four of us standing on the jetty.... alone!

The next day the boats returned to bring us a few more supplies, including the rest of the vegetables! Thank goodness!  We managed to get rid of some of our rubbish and got all of the science samples away, which will give us a lot more space on base.  Finally the boats headed out of the bay for the last time, and it was officially the winter season. 

Wandering albatross displaying in the snow

Special thanks to my friends and family back home for sending me parcels and letters, especially Grandma and Grandad, Zara T, Zara S, Mel, Aunty Chris and of course Luke. You probably don’t realise how much it means to get post from home, but when you only get it three times  a year, it’s better than Christmas! 

 I didn’t feel as scared as I thought I might when the boat sailed off, not to be seen for another 7 months or so. Relief had been dragged out for so long that I think I was just glad it was over. 

It took us a while to get the base straight again, and all the boxes unpacked. The thing that takes the longest is sorting through all of the vegetables and fruit for insects. Bird Island doesn’t have any invasive insect species and we have to be really careful to ensure that we don’t introduce any. Everything seemed okay apart from the broccolis which were infested with caterpillars and moths! It took Jerry ages with a pair of tweezers and a magnifying glass to remove all of them and stick them in ethanol, to go back to Cambridge to be identified. 

March is a busier time in the albatross calendar than February, so with the loss of my partner in crime Jen and the increased workload I was finding myself pretty busy! Besides getting the hatching dates of chicks in the study area, I was making weekly visits to each colony to check for failed nests, doing fortnightly diet sampling, and I started weighing Black-browed Albatross chicks. All of the chicks at colony J needed to be weighed when they were exactly 80 days old, so it meant quite a few visits to the colony. The chicks weigh between and 3 and 5.5kg, if they have been fed that day it can add 1 kg to their weight so it’s pretty variable. The chicks get weighed every year and so long term trends can show how good food availability has been each year, and give an idea of the state of the oceans.

Weighing the chicks took its toll on me without me realising it, and on a trip up the hill one afternoon I started getting shooting pains in my back. A couple of hours later when I had managed to hobble back down the hill to base, praying that no seals would decide to attack me on the way, I was out of action for a few days. The repeated lifting of the chicks, even though they aren’t that heavy, really strained my back. I was pretty worried about it as for one day I was mainly laid up in bed, and after that I couldn’t see myself getting back up the hill in a while. Luckily I had Jerry and Craig to help me out with my work, and they weighed some more chicks for me and visited the Ridge. 

Sorry for all the Wanderer pictures but they are jsut too photogenic! This time with South Georgia in the background.

A few days rest seemed to do the trick and I was back in action for April 1^st which is one of the more important days of the year for the albatross work, as it was the chick census day. Between us we had to visit all of the Wandering Albatross nests across the island and check whether there was a chick in the nest. In total we had 585 nests to check, and at the end of the day we had 504 left. This number probably sounds high but to put it into context only 10 years ago there were almost double this number..... Albatross are taking a huge hit at the moment due to long line fishing and climate change. I really hope they don’t keep declining at such a fast rate otherwise there might not be any left soon.  We had a beautiful day for doing the census which I was very grateful for as I don’t like sending people out to help with my work in the rain.

The next day was another busy one as it was the start of the week when all of the Black-browed Albatross chicks in the study colonies had to be ringed. I managed to get all of the chicks at colony J ringed, and the next day Jerry and I ringed all of the chicks in N. That adds up to around 400 chicks. It was a busy couple of days and my hand was sore, and my legs covered in bruises from the pliers. The rings are extremely hard stainless steel, so take all my strength to close. Pretty exhausting messy work (albatross chicks vomit a lot when disturbed). It was really satisfying to get it all done in a couple of days, even if I fell in a big ditch of muddy water on the way home and had to walk back with squelchy feet. 

Wandering Albatross chick with it's watchful parent keeping an eye on me.

Craig's birthday hot tub party (me, Hannah and Jerry)

It’s not all been work since the boat left, it was Craig’s birthday last week and we made the most of it. We had an Hawaiian themed cocktail party and BBQ (even though it was wet and cold) and Craig filled up our “hot tub” which is really an old water tank with the top cut off. It works extremely well as a hot tub (you do need ladders to get into it) and Craig rigged up some piping to the compressor to make us bubbles. We ended up staying in there for about 4 hours, as it was the first time in months any of us had been submerged in hot water (no baths here), and it was really cold outside. We drank champagne and listened to music... bliss!

Wandering Albatross family. Dad is having a good shake.