Return of the albatross

Grey head awaiting the return of its partner

September is the month when the winter finally feels like it is coming to an end. After months of deserted colonies the albatross finally start to return. From the 1st September I started visiting the Grey-headed albatross colonies to await the first bird coming back. The first bird was a female seen back on the 13th September in colony E. She was first observed on the island in 1989 as an adult making her over 30 years old! Since then she has raised three successful chicks out of 17 breeding attempts. Hopefully the 2014 season will see her fourth success.

Grey head coming in to land

Within a couple of week the grey heads had returned in force and the colonies are noisy once again. They have been making renovations to the nests and are getting reacquainted with the partners that they haven’t seen for almost two years since they last bred. I have been visiting the main study colonies every day and recording which individuals are back. This is fairly easy to do, but very time consuming, as most of the birds have plastic darvic rings that can easily be read at a distance. 

Any birds returning without darvics tend to be young birds returning for the first time. Chicks do not receive darvics only a metal ring as the mortality rate is too high to justify the expense of the darvics. I've been doing my best to catch as many young birds as possible and put a darvic on them. This only takes a couple of minutes but it very valuable to do, as it reduces future disturbance trying to read the metal ring. 

Grey head pair preening each other to renew their bond after a couple of years apart

The Black-browed albatross are slightly later to return as their breeding season is shorter than the grey heads so they don't have to get started quite as soon. It wasn't long though before they were home and their loud distinctive call was filling the air. It's definitely a noise I'd missed over winter.

 Before the eggs are laid I had to put nest tags in every nest that might possibly be used so that once the birds start breeding I'll be able to keep track of each nest and can record lay dates, and both adults ring numbers. This was a pretty big task as the colonies are spread out across the island, and I needed to put in hundreds of tags. I had a pretty heavy bag for a couple of days!

Black browed albatross pair on their nest site

Wandering albatross chick ringing- they're so grown up!

It seems a long time ago that I was visiting the Wanderer study area every day awaiting the arrival of the first Wandering albatross egg, which finally arrived on the 12th December 2012. The eggs are extremely hefty weighing in at around 500g, so not surprisingly the birds that emerge from them turn out to be very large indeed. The chicks spend the winter months being battered by snow, wind and rain hunkering down on their nests, awaiting the next meal brought back by one of their devoted parents.  By mid August the chicks are large enough to be ringed and receive their very own metal ring with a unique seven digit number that will identify them for life. The chicks in the main study area also receive a darvic, which is a plastic coloured ring with three digits on it. The reason for this is that at fledging time I have to visit the study area daily to see when each chick fledges. With the darvic rings I don’t have to get too close to be able to see who is who, thereby minimising disturbance to the birds. They live up to their name of wandering albatross, as just before fledging they leave the nest and can walk fairly big distances to find the best spot for takeoff. It really helps to have the darvic rings to avoid confusion. 

A friendly chick sporting a metal ring and a darvic

In mid-August I got out the ringing pliers and what looked like far too many rings and began. There are just fewer than 500 chicks to ring this year, which does sound a lot, but 20 years ago there were at least double this number.  Ringing can only be done on dry days, which on Bird Island aren’t all too common, so although it is now approaching the end of September I still haven’t quite finished. Ringing an albatross chick is a whole different ball game to ringing the smaller birds I was used to before I came to the island, but you soon get used to it. The chicks definitely have their own personalities, with some being very placid and barely batting an eyelid, whereas others are feistier and peck you in the legs/bum while you are getting the ring on. However once the ring is on most of them have a little shake and flap and settle back down on the nest. Every single chick on the island gets a ring, so Jerry (penguin man) has been helping me ring chicks in the further away areas of the island.

Chick showing off his new darvic

A Giant Petrel "helping" me whilst out ringing.

I’m saving a few chicks for when my replacement Jess arrives in just under seven weeks. I will need to train her in how to handle these big chicks ready for her to do it all again next year.

Another of my favourite chicks showing off his brand new feathers.

The chicks are now losing their fluffy white down, and their dark grey body feathers and white faces are coming through. Over the next few years they will become as white as their parents. They will spend the next few years at sea, wandering the oceans going as far away as Australia, South Africa, and South America. Some have even been known to make full circumnavigations of the globe, which we have learned from putting geolocators on them. Hopefully I’ll get a few more back this year so we can see where they have been.

Chick practicing flapping to strengthen the wing muscles.

Family days out

During the winter we have taken advantage of the lower work load to have a few “family days out”, when we shut down the base and go out for the day. The first one wasn’t a day out but just a few hours out one evening. Taking advantage of the snowy conditions we hiked up the hill to the peak of Gazella (which overlooks the base). It was my first time up there, as I wanted to save a few places on the island to experience for the first time in the winter.  Jerry, Hannah and myself were joined by Craig who decided he didn’t want to be left alone. We climbed over the crest of Gazella and had an impromptu snowball fight on the edge (well it was Hannah and I against Jerry, and he wasn’t really throwing any snowballs). After spending some time watching for whales off the North Cliffs and admiring the views, we headed down the hill into Wanderer Valley where we saw an all white Giant Petrel (know by us as a Spirit Geep). It was sporting a GLS tracker, but we were too slow to catch it and retrieve the data. Maybe next time! 

After summiting Gazella we paused for a photo in front of La Roche the highest peak on the island (Photo by Craig Brown).

Snow ball fight! I got this one dead on! (Photo by Craig Brown).

On the way back we went to see a few Wandering albatross chicks, and I managed to fall in a bog twice, which is a pretty usual occurrence. It’s pretty dangerous walking around the island with snow covering the ground as you can’t see the numerous holes and bogs that can easily swallow you up to your waist. 

A halo going over the bay

Heading through the snow to the east of the island (Photo by Craig Brown).

Our second trip was a full day affair when we left the base and headed to the eastern end of the island, which is rare to say the least for most of us. The only work done on that side of the island is the monthly Wandering Albatross census so it is a very under visited area.  Again there was a fair amount of snow on the ground which led to Jerry falling thigh deep into a bog, but we soldiered on and eventually got past the worst boggy areas. The eastern side of the island is different in that the terrain is a lot more rocky and involves traversing scree paths high up the hill. We headed down the hill to Natural Arch (another place I hadn’t been to before, mainly due to the large number of Fur seals around earlier in the season). We had lovely views of the South Georgia mountains just across Bird Sound (the small stretch of water that separates us from the mainland). There were a few penguins about and one inquisitive King Penguin very nearly decided to make friends with me, but finally decided I was a bit too weird looking and waddled off. We had a picnic on the beach, but didn’t hang around too long as it was very cold. We then traversed along some icy streams, luckily we all had our trusty spikes on, and followed the coast back towards home. 

Natural arch- it was cold! (Photo by Jerry Gillham).

South Georgia mountains through Natural Arch

After exploring the coast for a while we had a long trudge back up to the scree path high above. We went through deserted penguin colonies, which seem ridiculously far from the water and eventually made it back to the path. It was such a nice day that I decided to go up Gandalf, one of the higher peaks on the island. Everyone else decided to join me, and after a little bit of a struggle made it to the peak, where we could simultaneously see the South Georgia mountains as well as looking down over the North Cliffs of the island. The descent mainly involved sliding down the hill, which was great fun but resulted in ripped trousers, and in some cases skin damage from the rocks. We managed to get up some impressive speed heading down some parts, which was at times a bit scary. We all got home relatively unscathed after a great day out. 

The view from the top of Gandalf looking West- Hannah and Craig are in the picture climbing up but it's hard to see.

Hannah on the summit of Gandalf, it's a long way down!

Hannah and I on Gandalf (Photo by Craig Brown).

Our next foray was to the opposite end of the island, with a hike along the beaches, checking for Leopard seals on the way, and then up and over the hill to Johnson Beach. It is the largest beach on the island and seems to be a favourite haunt of Gentoo penguins. The route to Johnson is around the cliffs and requires some well timed dodges between waves. luckily for us the tide was fairly low so none of us ended up with wet feet. There were lots of Gentoos hanging out on the beach (a few hundred at least ) and we went to the place where you get the best view of it all, Johnson Stack.  Looking at it from the beach it just looks like a tall stack of rock with no possible route up (unless you had ropes and at least some proficiency in climbing. However if you can manage to get around the back (only possible in calm conditions at low tide), then you can scramble up to the top. We paused on top to have a few snacks and to take some pictures whilst admiring the view. 

The four of us on the top of Johnson Stack with Gentoo penguins on the beach in the background.

On the way down we spotted a very strange looking Fur seal, it was a sandy brown colour with spots; very different to all of the other Fur seals on the beach. We went a bit closer and Hannah declared it to be a Brindle fur seal. It was a young male seal and seemed happy chilling out on the rocks, I managed to get a few photos of it. Whilst sitting on a rock on the beach I noticed a number of penguin shaped shadows coming up behind me, and just standing there. A quick glance behind revealed a gang of about eight Gentoo penguins slowly creeping up and looking and Jerry and I inquisitively. They soon got bored of us and wandered over to see what Craig was up to taking photographs of some of their compatriots. 

Strange looking Brindle Fur Seal

Watching penguins can be hilarious for no apparent reason one will suddenly start flapping it’s wings madly and honking at the sky, and then starts running around. It seems to be contagious behaviour as often others around it will start joining in. I  could sit there for hours watching them, and can’t wait until they start nesting again, and we have tiny chicks to amuse us. We walked back up over the top of the island back towards base, and had chance to see lots of my Wandering Albatross chicks that are getting ever bigger and are now as large as their parents. 

Gentoo Penguins on Johnson beach

The final trip was not a complete family day out as Craig had to stay behind to mind the generator which has been playing up after having some new parts fitted. We again headed over to the Eastern side of the island and this time went all the way to the end of the island called Farewell Point. There is one lonely chick living out there, so we sat and gave him a bit of company while we had some snacks and then climbed over to the end of the island to look over the cliffs to see if we could spot any Elephant seals in the water below. 

Jerry and I in front of one of the scree paths (photo by Hannah Wood).

 I always like heading out over to that part of the island as you get lovely views of South Georgia and the water is so blue, it almost looks tropical. On the way back we played in the snow, sliding down the hills in ever more extreme ways. When we were nearly back at base we saw two Giant Petrels mating, a sure sign that spring is on its way, although they are definitely a bit early to be thinking about nesting, I guess they are just keen. Up on Wanderer Ridge lots of adult albatross were back and were busy feeding chicks, or spending time preening each other and ignoring their chicks begging calls for more food. The chicks are absolutely insatiable, even before the parent has managed to sit down after regurgitating one lot of nutrition food, the chick is already begging and tapping the beak of the adult. It’s tiring work being a parent!

Middle of winter

Before I left the UK people were amazed to hear that I would be spending 16 months living on a tiny island in the middle of the Southern Ocean. More people have climbed Mount Everest than have set foot on this island. When I told them that during the winter months (for an 8-9 month duration) there would only be four of us on the island, most people were incredulous. Everyone wanted to know “How would I cope?” “Wouldn’t I get bored?” “What if I didn’t get on with the other people?” and “What if you, or worse, someone else goes crazy?”. 

We are now five months into our winter and so far we are all good, and no one is totally insane (people do seem to speak to themselves with far more frequency than I noticed in the UK, but maybe that’s just because I’m spending 24/7 with them). Living together on a small base on a very small island certainly has its difficulties, but life is much simpler. I am definitely enjoying being away from the madness of life in the UK. I can’t tell you how great it is to never have to go food shopping, visit the bank, drive anywhere (especially on motorways), or be squashed into a tube carriage with your face shoved in someone’s armpit. 

There are things I do miss there are the obvious ones my family, friends and my pets. Then there are the less obvious things like flowers, trees, the SUN (it’s not been seen in what feels a very long time), fresh food (I’d kill for a salad right now….mmmm fresh rocket and cherry tomatoes!), lemonade, butterflies and moths, UK birds (especially the noisy ones like Swifts and Skylark), grass (the short, nice to lie on variety), radio, thunder and lightning storms (we don’t get the right clouds), being able to go out without having to wear thermals and salopettes. 

In order to survive a “winter” in Antarctica without having a rubbish time, or at worst completely losing it, you have to do certain things. Firstly you have to talk to your fellow winterers and not spend all your time in your room working your way through endless box sets. Secondly you have to devise events (mainly fancy dress evenings) to keep you all entertained. In the last couple of months there have been a fair number of ‘events’ on Bird Island. The main one being Mid Winter, which is a big deal in Antarctica. This years mid winter fell on the 21 June, and is the turning point of the sun returning to Antarctica. For us who never experience total darkness it isn’t such an important time, but for our colleagues at the Halley base, who have months of darkness it’s very important. However we didn’t want to be left out and celebrated enthusiastically along with the rest of the continent. 

Our official mid winter photo that we sent to all of the other bases. The Wandering albatross chick was pretty good at posing for the shot! (Photo by Craig Brown).

It was our annual week off (although we still had to do the Leopard seal checks every day and I had to check on my chicks). First up was crazy golf around the base, we had eight holes to complete in the generator shed, lab, office, lounge, and corridors. We each designed a couple of holes using whatever we could find.  Somehow I managed to pip the others to the post to win the coveted chocolate bar. We hadn’t thought some of them through very well, and gave up after taking 30 shots on each hole, otherwise we would have been there all night! 

Me taking a shot in the generator shed (Photo by Craig Brown)

Jerry following the crazy golf course around the office (yes the route was under the desk!)

Wimbledon 2013 (the table tennis edition) was also held during mid winters week and was won by Craig, there was a short interruption in play due to a Leopard seal appearing in the bay (but at least there was no rain!).

Wimbledon 2013 (Photo by Craig Brown)

Continuing on the sports theme we tossed the caber, wanged the welly, and completed the obstacle course (with a fair bit of cheating and egg throwing). The obstacle course was made more difficult because the Sheathbills kept stealing parts of the course. I’m not entirely sure who won, but I’m inclined to put it down as a victory to the girls. Unfortunately due to generators problems we didn’t get to finish the mid winter games, but hopefully we’ll get around to it soon.

Craig tossing the caber during the mid winter highland games (Photo by Jerry Gillham)

On Mid winters day itself we awoke to a brilliant fry up courtesy of Jerry our base commander. After filling our bellies we went out to check for Leopard seals and I made friends with a tiny Elephant seal. Once the work was done for the day we decided to get the traditional dip out of the way. Around 20 minutes prior to going in we spotted a Leopard seal in the bay, so waited until we thought it had gone. We then ran out in our towels and dressing gowns to the water edge, got the camera set up and raced into the water. It was cold! The fact it had started snowing and that there was an icy breeze didn’t help. We didn’t get in very deep before Jerry sounded what I thought was the Leopard seal alarm, but was just the turn around sound. I ran pretty fast out of the water imagining a Leopard seal coming after me! We grabbed a towel and raced back to the house to the warm showers. I’m not going to post any pictures as there are only a couple still in existence and the others might kill me! 

Me and a tiny Elephant seal seen on our mid winters day walk (Photo by Craig Brown).

Once we had warmed ourselves up we settled down for a screening of ‘The Thing’- the traditional movie that everyone across Antarctica watches. Luckily for us we don’t have the constant darkness that other bases have so we weren’t too terrified to go outside by ourselves after watching it. 

In the evening we tucked into our mid winter meal (similar to Christmas dinner) and had some of our two cakes! After finishing the food it was time to exchange gifts, that we had all spent a lot of time working on. Everyone seemed pleased with what they got, gifts included a painting of all the wildlife on the island, a set of hand-made knives in a box, a framed hand drawn map of the island, and a hand painted deck of  cards and Tabasco glass shot glass. We spent the rest of the evening playing card games and doing a little bit of dancing. 

Mid winters meal (Photo by Craig Brown)

We received greeting cards and messages from all of the other bases, and even had letters from David Cameron and President Obama. Stephen Fry sent us a video message and we all had messages from our families (although those we didn’t get for quite a bit later as we couldn’t download the messages with our slow internet connection). 

Jerry's knives made by Craig (Photo by Jerry Gillham)

Hannah's picture made by me (Photo by Jerry)

My painting by Jerry (Photo by Jerry)

Craig's cards and shot glass made by Hannah (Photo by Jerry).

The following day we were all pretty worn out from the festivities so enjoyed a movie marathon and relaxed.

Near the end of the week we went on a bar crawl. I hear you say “But don’t you live on a tiny island, what bars??” Well for one day only the base was transformed into four different bars, with each of us running one each. We started off at the Jolly Albatross Inn, a pirate themed bar by walking the plank blindfolded to get in. After a couple of piratey drinks, mainly featuring rum, some pirate music and a game of find the treasure (like pin the tail of the donkey but with a map and a sticker) we headed to the beach. Hannah’s bar was a Hawaiian themed cocktail bar in the boot room (which is the hottest place on base). We all got into our shorts and relaxed beneath the palm trees and sipped cocktails with our sunglasses on. Following that we headed to the laboratory for some crazily coloured drinks- green and purple (suspiciously they just tasted like cider and G&T). Finally we headed off to the generator shed for some drinks with very dodgy sounding names (yet fairly tasty).  A great night was had by all, and everyone felt fine in the morning. 

Jerry and I chilling in the Hawaiian bar (Photo by Hannah Wood).

Bar number 3 the Puboratory in the laboratory (Photo by Craig Brown)

Me directing Craig onto the plank ready to walk into the pirate bar (Photo by Hannah Wood).

Relaxing at the end of the bar crawl evening on some very comfy lagging in the generator room (Photo by Craig Brown).

We rounded off mid winters week by holding our very own Glastonbury festival. We printed off the line up and tried to listen to songs by some of those artists. We had a BBQ and camped out ln the beach. The Skuas were very interested in the tents and kept trying to pull up our guy ropes. Fortunately they left us alone during the night and didn’t keep us awake. 

Since mid winters we have been up to lots of other stuff but I’ll save that for another post.