Penguin Ranch

Photos From Kozue

2008-12-20T17:48:00.001+13:00

Brendan looking at penguins

Paul before diving (Turtle Rock)

Jessica, seals, and skuas (Turtle Rock)

Brendan, Paul, and Jessica (Turtle Rock)

Brendan and Jessica trying to take a great picture (Turtle Rock)

Some of the penguins powdered in snow.

Someone fell in the hole.

Someone turning over in the hole

My "last" FROSTY BOY (big one)

Releasing our birds – Cass, left, and Brendan, right

The penguins didn't leave soon.

Penguins marching to the open water

Emperor penguin...??

An Adelie penguin came close to us.

Brendan likes Adelie penguins very much.

The penguin seemed to like Brendan.

Jessica and the Adelie penguin

He seemed to need a break before diving.

Adelie manjuu. It is this shape that reminds me of a 'manjuu'.

Real manjuus

He started moving.

Maybe fell.

An Adelie penguin walking to Cass

A photo taken before Paul left Penguin Ranch

I tried to take a picture of all the 15 penguins. (One bird is very difficult to see.)

Thank you very much

Penguin Ranch Tatts

2008-12-15T03:40:00.001+13:00

Jessica and Cass decided that the Penguin Ranch needed its own special tattoo. They ordered a set of 1000 from their own money and gave them out to people in McMurdo Station. The “tatts” were a big hit with the other graduate students and support people.

A Blog Entry From Jessica

2008-12-10T12:15:00.001+13:00

Monday night we returned our second group of birds, 5 more this time leaving only 5 in the corral. The big storm that we had over Thanksgiving seems to have blown out a lot of the ice, so there was a very clean, stable ice edge when we arrived by helicopter near Beaufort Island.

Barry, our pilot. Thanks for an incredible flight Barry!

Ron, the helo mechanic, resting comfortably

We were able to walk all the way out to the edge, and it was truly a spectacular sight to behold. Adelie penguins were porpoising all around in the water, emperors were swimming around as well, and we even saw 3 snow petrels whizzing by in the air.

Cass at the ice edge with Adelie penguins behind her

Jessica with Beaufort Island in the background

Kozue conquers the ice edge

Brendan at the ice edge

Snow petrels are incredibly beautiful birds, and a bit more rare to see down here for us. The release went well, and by the time we headed back to the helo, our 5 birds had figured out where the food was, and started their march toward the open water.

Our 5 released birds head toward the ice edge, with some Adelie penguins tagging along as well!

We were all in very high spirits when we returned to greet Paul back at the Ranch, but unfortunately it was a bit sad as well, as after a goodbye toast and a bit of reflection on the season, Paul had to return to town to get ready for his flight departing the ice the next day.

Paul and I did our last dive out at the Ranch recently as well. As you can see from the photo of Cass in the Ob Tube, the visibility has really gone downhill as the temperatures are warming up and algae (and so on through the food chain) has begun to accumulate.

Cass in the Ob Tube

It was still a fantastic dive, as always down here, and we were graced by the presence of some our emperor penguins zipping through the water only a few feet away from us. I was quite sad before coming up, though, knowing that it was my last dive under the ice, at least for some time.

Here’s a self portrait of Paul and me that I captured to mark that moment, thanks again to Jerry’s fabulous underwater Olympus.

“The last dive”

It has been another spectacular season down here on the ice, and I am getting very sad knowing how soon I will be leaving, and knowing that for the first time in four years, I don’t have any definite plans to be back here soon. Thank you so much once again to Paul and to all of the present and past Ranchers for making this a truly exceptional experience, certainly the most remarkable in my life thus far.

An Unexpected Gift

2008-12-06T06:50:00.001+13:00

(from Paul)

We received a package from Cory. I have attached pictures of the package,

seeing the SF Chronicle front page with Obama's victory,

and playing with the puzzle and the play dough.

Although Jessica and Cass often teamed up and teased and picked on poor Cory, he is still thinking of us, is part of the team, and is with us in spirit! Thanks, Cory!

I also attached a picture of Jessica with cookies from her sister - chocolate chip. They are very good. Thank you, too!

And, here’s a picture of us eating the TG food from the galley a few days later.

I am going to bed. It is late and we start early tomorrow on the last recorder.

A Visit By The BBC

2008-12-02T04:23:00.001+13:00

(from Paul)

Our visitors have left. It was a good visit. The two were Doug Allen and Hugh Miller.

Doug has been the cameraman for many BBC documentaries around the world. Doug was part of the BBC team that worked at Cape Washington a number of years ago, and he has done extensive Antarctic diving. He was the Scotsman who spoke at the McMurdo Sunday night lecture several weeks ago.

Below is a photo of Doug with his zoom lens taking close up pictures of our penguins.

The other cameraman, Hugh, assists Doug in his filming. They both have been working with Norbert Wu on a new documentary.

Below is a photo of Kozue showing her 3D dive records to Hugh, Doug and Jessica.

I have to get ready for our experiments tonight. Cass has returned to camp. I hear the Pisten Bully pulling in.

Photos By Kozue – A Season’s Retrospective

2008-12-01T07:11:00.001+13:00

Cass and Kozue in the ice cave.

Brendan, Jessica, and Cass at Cape Royds

Chef Brendan

Brendan releasing one of our penguins at the ice edge

Jessica releasing one of the birds

One penguin walking the wrong way

Aftermath

2008-12-01T07:10:00.001+13:00

(from Paul)

We never made it into town for the Thanksgiving dinner. However, we called the galley and they are saving us portions, which Cass will bring out tomorrow. She went into town tonight.

Today was a busy day. We took off the NIR recorders in the morning and it looks as if both worked; hurrah for Cass! We deployed Kozue's recorders, did guano patrol, built a new snow wall, and I dug out the snow berm in front of the propane cylinder cabinet of the sleep hut, which was about 5 ft deep.

We even cleaned out the snowmobile that lost its cover in the wind. Actually, the cover was not lost, it blew off during the storm.

John came out with the Challenger to clear the excess snow away. It was really good of John to come out on his day off. I am attaching two photos of what the camp was like this morning. Now it is back to when it was first put in!

We were able to let some of the birds dive while John was here, so he could see them from the Ob Tube. He also had the road graders come out to smooth the road and help him around camp. One of his crew included his boss, who had never been out here, and also a woman named Meow Meow, who was on one of the census flights with us. They all got to see the birds diving.

This is a photo by Kozue of one of her recorder birds.

We hope to put in two of Cass's recorders again tomorrow. Will take advantage of the good weather.

I am going to eat now - steaks by Jessica. It has been a long day.

Mother and Child???

2008-11-29T04:12:00.001+13:00

(from Paul)

Here are our visitors - beyond cute. At first glance, we thought it was a Weddell seal mother and her pup that had crawled across the ice and had stopped by the ranch for a rest. However, the pup is an unusual color since most Weddell seal pups are light brown and this one is white.

Jerry says that this is a Weddell seal accompanied by a juvenile crabeater seal. We haven't seen this behavior before, and it is unclear if they are just travelling together, or if the crabeater has been "adopted" by the Weddell.

It looks like the Weddell was bitten on the neck in a fight in the water, and has chosen to find a new dive hole.

She is taking her adopted pup with her as she wanders across the ice, looking for another crack or hole.

There are some cracks within a mile of the ranch, and I am sure they will reach those holes soon.

Both look healthy; both are quite large. So both should do well.

And a photo from Jessica of the two seals seeking shelter from the wind. Now that the storm is over, they have moved on.

Thanksgiving Dinner at Penguin Ranch

2008-11-29T03:50:00.001+13:00

(from Paul)

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner. Cass outdid herself in cooking. Below is a photo of Cass cooking with Jessica, Kozue, and Brendan appreciating the end result.

Jessica and Brendan at the table. We had pork tenderloin, yams, asparagus frittata, stuffing, a fruit salad, and cornbread along with wine.

The entire group sits down to the meal. And, for dessert, spice cake with strawberries. It was really quite good.

And Cass’ recorder birds dove well this afternoon; "Oprah" was the star diver. It looks like the weather is clearing. I hope it is over. I have also attached some post-storm pictures of the camp.

Tomorrow we will remove all the instrumentation. Perhaps the group will be able to make the dinner in town after all.

The Storm Continues

2008-11-28T20:28:00.001+13:00

(from Paul)

The birds do not mind the storm at all. If it is real windy, they huddle behind the snow wall or just lie down on the ground and fall asleep. Even in the mild winds (25 mph), they will stand and preen, seemingly oblivious of the weather. It does not phase them in the slightest.

We, on the other hand, are pretty much confined to the huts most of the time. The photo below shows some of the buildings and the blowing snow.

The two below are of Kozue taking pictures of the birds in the storm.

Jessica was stuck in town because the storm came on so quickly, and the visibility is too poor to travel now. As usual, the weather controls all in Antarctica.

We may not make it in to the big Thanksgiving dinner in McMurdo (held tomorrow – Saturday – our time) since the storm may continue for another day.

(Later)

We are having a Thanksgiving dinner here, instead. I have made a spice cake, and Cass is making the pork tenderloin and goodies.

The weather cleared for a few hours, and Jessica was able to return to camp. Our experimental birds did some more dives and we plan to take all the recorders off tomorrow morning if the weather permits. Otherwise, it was a quiet day. We just closed the dive holes and will be starting dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving, America!

2008-11-28T06:36:00.001+13:00

Our best wishes to everyone.

A Storm Day

2008-11-28T06:13:00.001+13:00

(photos from Paul)

We are having a little colder weather today with winds and light, intermittent, blowing snow. All the birds are diving, though less often. Cass's recorder birds are diving, which is the important thing.

The PO2 electrode only worked for about half the day, but we still were able to record some shallow dives that were as long as 12 min. So, that is valuable data. Not much else is happening, since we are just letting the birds dive today.

Some blowing snow is collecting on the periphery of the camp, but none in the corral. I hope this wind is only temporary so that we can record more dives. The penguins lose interest in the high winds. (Can’t say that I blame them!)

The storm is not that dramatic, but certainly the wind should help with charging the batteries in the power sled.

Cass is making some omelets. We got fresh veggies from Peggy (the food room manager) yesterday. We cook with propane, using Coleman camp stoves.

Kozue and Brendan are in the foreground eating breakfast. Cass and Jessica are bent over the stove,

A Visit To Cape Royds

2008-11-26T06:23:00.001+13:00

(photos from Jessica)

Cape Royds is known for two things. First of all, it is the location of an Adelie penguin colony,

and next, it is the site of Shackleton’s hut (1908) .

Shackleton built his hut during the Nimrod expedition, when Scott refused to give him permission to use the Discovery Hut. (The Discovery Hut is right next to McMurdo Station. see our blog, Scott's Hut, for photos.) Cape Royds is approximately 25 miles north of McMurdo.

On 9 January 1909, Shackleton and his group (Wild, Marshall and Adams) came within 112 miles of the geographical South Pole. Although Shackleton failed to reach the Pole, he lead the first expedition to reach the Polar Plateau, his group did the first ascent of Mount Erebus, and other members of his expedition (Edgeworth David, Douglas Mawson, and Alistair MacKay) located the approximate position of the magnetic South Pole. (The magnetic pole moves constantly, so it is no longer in the same location as when it was in 1909.)

Interior shots of the hut.

Kozue in the kitchen area of the hut

Brendan in the lab area of the hut.

On the way back from Cape Royds, Jessica also took a photo of the Barn Glacier.

Bye! And Thanks For The Fish!

2008-11-26T05:59:00.001+13:00

(photos from Jessica)

Here are some photos from the release of the penguins.

Going home. Kozue opens the penguin box to let one of the birds go.

“What was THAT all about? I’ll never understand humans!”

A Mystery Visitor To Camp

2008-11-25T16:27:00.001+13:00

(from Paul)

Yesterday, we had left the barn door open while taking out the boxes for the birds; when we returned the boxes, there was a black deposit on the snow inside. When I looked closer, I figured out it was skua guano. One must have wandered in when the door was open.

Sure enough, it looks as if Fred is back (or Fred’s cousin). I saw him hanging around today.

Fred is a South Polar Skua, Stercorarius maccormicki. They feed primarily on fish, but will rob nests and prey on penguin chicks. They are also highly adaptable and will scavenge human food if given a chance.

In fact, in McMurdo when the skuas return to the Antarctic, one has to take care walking across Derelict Junction holding food. The skuas have been known to bomb-dive humans and steal food right out of people’s hands. As a consequence, skuas have a bit of a bad reputation, but I admire them. They are smart, tough birds.

Better Photos

2008-11-25T16:13:00.001+13:00

Here are more photos of the landing shot in a proper ISO. (See previous entry – as you can see, the day wasn’t as gray as the photos posted earlier suggested.)

The birds all did well on release, and the ice edge is just as far out as it was. (The edge is all the way out to Beaufort Island.)

You can the helicopter coming in. It’s the black dot above the fence line. In the foreground, you can see the penguin’s snow wall, which serves as a wind break for them. They also like to eat the clean snow and, at times, enjoy climbing on the wall to look around.

The helo coming in for a landing.

Brendan and Jessica helping to unload the empty penguin boxes.

The helo going back to McMurdo.

Some Go Home

2008-11-24T21:31:00.001+13:00

(from Paul)

Here are some pictures of the helicopter taking five of our birds back to the ice edge, where we originally caught them. The ice edge is so far away (~60 miles from camp) that we can’t release them directly from Penguin Ranch.

Unfortunately, I was still on ASA 3200 when I shot these photos, so most were burnt out. I did darken the photos some, but you lose a bit of detail from that.

These photos just show us loading the boxes. Each box contains one bird. The penguins tend to be calmer in a dark box, which makes it safer to transport them.

and the helo taking off,

in one shot, you can see Scotty the pilot.

We are now down to 10 birds! One-third less guano to clean each day.

Photos From Camp

2008-11-24T17:49:00.001+13:00

Here are some of Paul’s recent photos. Tonight, we are returning 5 birds back home to the ice edge.

Impatient birds waiting for the cork to be removed so that they can go diving.

Here’s one of Hillary exiting (we have a political theme for names this year)

Kozue and Jessica working on Kozue's recorder

Kozue’s 3D profile recorder. The rectangle of white tape is installed to protect the small propeller on the top of the recorder. That propeller records the penguin’s swim speed when they are hunting. The tape keeps the feathers down. Everything just peels off at the end of the experiment.

A photo of Brendan and Cass with the anesthesia setup

Shorty Is Becoming A Beach Ball

2008-11-24T08:07:00.001+13:00

Shorty is our smallest penguin, but we know from the camera logger that he is good hunter. Here’s Paul’s photo of Shorty (on the right) after a particularly good day. I think that he is getting fat. These birds will need all the fat they can store to get through the harsh Antarctic winter.

Catching Rays

2008-11-24T08:06:00.001+13:00

Paul and Jessica went diving at Turtle Rock. There were a lot of Weddell seals about because the sea ice forms cracks around islands and that allows the seals to come up on to the ice. Here are two photos of the seals that decided to catch a few rays on a nice day.

Ah! It doesn’t get any better than this!

A mother and her pup sun bathe.

Views From The Ob Tube

2008-11-24T08:05:00.001+13:00

The observation tube allows us to sit underneath the ice and observe the penguins when the enter the water. There are other creatures that we can see. Here are a few photos.

First of all, the ob tube collects platelet ice rather quickly. The sea water is at approximately –2 C, which is below the freezing point of water. Any object in this water provides a crystallization site and the water freezes out around it.

This is the observation tube, as seen by one of the camera logger birds. You can just make out the collection of ice crystals on the lower half of the ob tube. Paul and Jessica cleared the ice from the windows the last time they went diving.

There are several species of jellyfish in the water. Paul was able to photograph one as it drifted past. This species isn’t very large, only a few inches across.

Of course, we see Weddell seal frequently. Here’s one that decided to explore the ob tube and swam quite close to it.

The real stars of the water are the penguins, naturally. Here are three of our birds. Notice how dark the ice has become compared with the photos taken earlier (above). Algae is starting to grow on the under side of the sea ice and that growth is blocking the light.

Kozue on the Roof

2008-11-24T07:57:00.001+13:00

Kozue needs to keep track of her recorder birds, but it is often difficult to do so from inside the lab hut. Here she is watching the birds from the roof -- a good solution, but a bit chilly.

Here is a shot of one of her recorder birds underwater. The recorder logs the 3D profile of each dive that the bird makes. Kozue hopes to understand how a penguin navigates under water.

The Ice Cave

2008-11-24T07:56:00.001+13:00

The Erebus Ice Tongue is an ice flow that comes off Mt. Erebus and thrusts into McMurdo Sound. Because the ice patterns of the Sound have been abnormal in the past few years (due to the huge iceberg B15), the sea ice has not broken out around the Ice Tongue for several years. Last year was the first time since about 2002 that there was open water around this ice flow. As a consequence the Erebus Ice Tongue was able to expand and in doing so, formed small gaps in the ice flow. These gaps form ice caves.

Below is a photo of Mt. Erebus with its volcanic plume.

Some of us were able to visit one of the caves last week. The caves were so beautiful that they seemed unreal. This is the entrance to the ice cave.

Paul at the entrance

Interior shots of the cave

Kathi

Brendan, Paul, and Jessica

The only bad thing about the trip was having to travel there by snowmobile – my least favorite way to travel. Here is a photo with me in my helmet.

The Penguin Ranch Banner

2008-11-24T07:54:00.001+13:00

I forgot to post this while I was in McMurdo, but Cass and Jessica had a banner made of this year’s logo. Here are photos of the banner on our Pisten-Bully.

Penguin Cinematography

2008-11-17T19:36:00.001+13:00

We have been deploying our camera logger on several penguins this week. The logger is is basically a tiny still camera that records what the penguins are doing under the ice. In particular, the camera logs what they are hunting and how successful they are.

We have been very pleased with the results, even though this is just a prototype model. However, since the camera takes a photo every four seconds, we are capturing the secret world of the emperor penguins, as well. Below is a sample of the photographs our penguin camera person has taken.

Emperors have very flexible necks and even though the small camera is on their back, they can stare at it. Here is a self-portrait of our camera bird.

Our penguin took the other birds’ photo while swimming.

Penguins in the dive hole. Notice how the water beads on their feathers.

The penguin view of the observation tube.

Photo of Jessica taken by our penguin

And one of Cass

Busy Day

2008-11-11T14:42:00.000+13:00

Today, we deployed several dive recorders. My small backpack camera was one of them. Here is a photo of the bird with the little camera on its back.

The camera worked great! We were able to see the bird capture a small fish called a bork just under the sea ice. Unfortunately, our camera doesn’t have a flash and Shorty also liked to hunt at depth, where it was too dark to record anything. We suspect that he is hunting something like squid since there are many squid becks in the guano.

The camera bird also took photos of Kozue’s recorder bird returning to the hole.

In the evening, we removed the camera from the bird.

One More Time Into The Breach

2008-11-10T14:28:00.000+13:00

Paul and Jessica decided to do another dive around the Ob Tube to finish cleaning it.

Paul suiting up.

Who is that masked woman? You also see the interior of our sleep hut with its bizarre blue walls.

Brendan in the Ob Tube, taken by Jessica from the water.

Jessica’s photo of Paul in front of the Ob Tube. I think that I’m the person that you see in the window.

Paul holding the tether line.

Jessica in the water

Both divers. The yellow tank attached to one of the lines is the pony bottle, which is an emergency supply of air in case a diver runs out of air before reaching the surface.

Paul exiting the dive hole. Jessica is already on the surface. There are still small plates of ices floating away from the Ob Tube after cleaning it a second time.

Cleaning the Windows

2008-11-09T14:09:00.000+13:00

Our observation tube’s windows are becoming obscured by large plates of ice crystals (see below) Those crystals are making it difficult for us to observe our birds underwater.

Paul and Jessica went into the water to clean the windows.

Paul, Jessica, and Brendan are discussing the set up for the dive under the ice. Since we are standing over 1500 feet of seawater with ocean currents, there are a number of safety precautions that need to be in place so that a diver doesn’t get trapped under the ice.

Here is Paul suiting up for the dive. He is a wearing a dry suit and is getting very hot, which explains the scowl. (I hope.)

Kozue helps Jessica enter the dive hole.

Here’s Jessica entering the dive hole.

and Paul entering the water (those are Brendan’s feet, who is acting as the dive tender for both divers). The boards are in place to help the divers exit the hole when they are done.

They install a line with blinking safety lights that are set at regular intervals to mark the depth, as well as, the location of the exit hole. You can see Paul holding onto one of these safety lines with the blinking light (the small yellow, flashlight item on the line). I took these shots below from inside the Ob Tube.

Jessica with Jerry’s underwater point-and-shoot camera.

A photo of me in the Ob Tube taken by Jessica, who is in the water.

And a photo of Kozue, also taken from the water by Jessica.

A photo that Kozue took from the Ob Tube of Jessica with a penguin diving behind her. The light area behind Jessica is under the penguin corral.

Our windows are clean! Here’s a shot I took of our birds after the ice was removed.

Penguin Maintenance

2008-11-08T21:02:00.001+13:00

Keeping birds in a corral, even for a short period of time, requires a lot of work. The dive holes have to be maintained or they will freeze shut, the snow that the birds lie on needs to be cleaned daily, and their snow wall, which the birds like to climb on (and eat) needs frequent renewal.

Brendan hauling away the ice from the dive holes.

Cutting new snow blocks for the wall

Paul and Kozue cleaning the corral with a watchful audience.

Kozue Drives the Pisten-Bully

2008-11-08T20:39:00.001+13:00

Today, Kozue drove the Pisten-Bully to Penguin Ranch. She also had to checked us out with Mac Ops, which is no mean feat given that English is not her native language. There’s a lot of military jargon involved with the radio transmission and she did great.

Finally The Penguins Dive!

2008-11-07T21:13:00.000+13:00

Yesterday, while four of us were finishing the aerial survey of the penguin colonies, Cass and Jessica held things together at the Ranch. (Here’s a photo of them from the first flight.)

The penguins finally went into the water. They didn’t stay long, but at least it is a start. Once they dive reliably, we can put our dive recorders on them.

Here’s Jessica’s photo of the birds diving beneath the ice.

And here’s her photo of one of the seals in the water.

Seven For Seven

2008-11-07T20:33:00.000+13:00

We did a second day of aerial surveys for emperor penguin colonies. This time we headed north to assess the colonies of:

Franklin Island (the smudges are the birds)

Cape Washington,

Coulman Island, (it doesn’t look it, but we think that there are 25,000+ chicks down there. this picure was taken from far away.)

and Cape Roget.

Cape Washington, in particular, was very spread out, so it is difficult to make a “guesstimate” of its size, but we think it was a bit smaller than normal. Coulman Island, however, had a huge number of birds. Both Franklin Island and Cape Roget had roughly the expected numbers.

This is the first time in 15-20 years that all seven colonies (the other three are Cape Crozier, Cape Colbeck, and Beaufort Island, which were shown earlier) of the Ross Sea were surveyed. It appears that the emperor penguin is holding its own. Some colonies have declined, but some have increased.

Kathi and Kozue

Kozue

Paul

Brendan

Aerial Survey

2008-11-06T18:57:00.001+13:00

Today we flew in the Basler (a converted DC-3) to Cape Colbeck to do an aerial survey of the emperor penguin colony there. The colony is huge! We are guestimating a population of 8000 to 10,000 chicks. This is a photo of only one section of the colony below.

On the way back, we also surveyed Beaufort Island, which is much smaller. (<2000 individuals). Here is part of the Beaufort colony below.

There will be another day in the Basler to survey the remaining emperor colonies, but if the Polies (i.e., the people that work in the South Pole Station) can leave tomorrow, we probably won’t be able to finish our survey until Friday.

Cass and Jessica on the Basler.

Now We Are 15

2008-11-04T17:36:00.000+13:00

Paul took one more helo flight to the ice edge with Brendan, Kozue, and Jessica. They were able to catch 4 more birds, bringing the total to 15.

Now if they only would start diving, we could get some work done….

Kozue heads off birds during final round up.

A Cold In The Cold

2008-11-03T21:42:00.002+13:00

Sorry for the delay in the blog. I came down with a cold that progressed to bronchitis. For four days, all I could do was cough and sleep – very boring. I’m still coughing and hacking, but it is so good to be up and about again.

The second and third batch of penguins arrived at the ranch. We now have 11 birds and in a few hours we may have a few more.

Paul and the troops have gone to the ice edge by helo once more in search of birds. He hopes to bring back four penguins, giving us 15 birds, in all.

I’m penguin-sitting, if that’s the right term for it. The dive holes have been closed for the evening and the birds are sacked out, looking like penguin pillows.

The night is so calm. It struck me that I would be hard-pressed to prove that I’m still on the Planet Earth. The landscape, which now seems so familiar, really is so alien.

And then, there is the profound quiet. It is a palpable presence. There is little wind tonight and the only sound I can hear is my own heart beating. Really, I suppose to be more accurate, it is the rush of blood pulsing past my ears, but that doesn’t sound as poetic. (Sigh….sometimes, being a scientist can spoil a good line.)

Here’s a shot looking across McMurdo Sound towards the Royal Society Mountains.

Sick on my journey,
only my dreams will wander
these desolate moors

Matsu Bashō

Halloween Photos

2008-10-31T17:33:00.000+13:00

Halloween is a big holiday in McMurdo. The group that was in town did us proud.

Night (Cass) & Day (Jessica) and Bubba (Brendan)

Catching Birds

2008-10-29T20:34:00.000+13:00

Tonight is the first trip to the ice edge to search for penguins. Because the ice edge is so far away (about 60 miles from camp) we need to get the birds by helicopter.

Below are the penguin boxes near the landing site.

We are waiting for the helo to arrive. Right to left: Brendan, Paul, Kozue, Cass, and Jessica.

Our penguin’s transportation arrives, a 212 helicopter.

Josh’s photo of our penguin herders.

Success! Birds are in the boxes! Jessica, Cass, Barry (the pilot), Steve (Mechanic) and Josh (Helo tech) with the birds.

So, they flew the penguins back to the Ranch. Here’s an aerial view of Penguin Ranch.

The penguins look at Kozue and Kozue looks at them. You can see the small snow wall that we built for them and in the foreground is one of the dive holes that we want them to use for their foraging trips.

Seal Wars

2008-10-27T20:44:00.000+13:00

Today, we had a couple of Weddell seals visit the dive holes under our huts. Here’s seal taken from the underwater observation tube.

One of the seals fell asleep under our kitchen hut and we heard him (her?) snoring beneath the floor boards. Kozue is taking a photo of the seal.

When we lifted the floor to watch the seal, all we could see was the seal’s nose and a few whiskers.

These type of seals often hold their breath when they fall asleep. (This is formally known as sleep apnea, which is dangerous in newborns, but perfectly normal in seals.) Cass is timing the length of the breath hold – about 3 minutes between breaths.

The seals are very territorial about their breathing holes and there were a lot of calling, trilling, and loud thumps, which continued long into the night. (I think that I need to have a long talk with those seals. They are keeping me awake when they fight at night.)

Famous Seal Biologists Come To The Ranch

2008-10-26T20:47:00.000+13:00

We had a short visit from the seal biologists today. They admired our camp (and our penguins, of course, when we finally get them). Both Randy and Terrie have spent many seasons down in McMurdo studying the Weddell seals. Randy was part of a group that studied the Wedddell over winter at White Island many years ago. Both Randy and Terrie have landmarks in the Antarctic named after them for their contributions to science down here. Ian and Tray are their graduate students.

Right to left: Randy, Kozue (from our group), Ian, Terrie, and Tray

Right to left: Brendan (our group), Randy, Kozue (our group), Ian, Terrie, Tray, and Kathi (our group)

Picnic At The Ranch

2008-10-26T20:30:00.000+13:00

The storm is over and it is such a nice day outside that we decided to have our hors d’oeuvres outside. I think that the photos are fairly self explanatory. Note our Penguin Ranch sign on the door.

Our First Storm

2008-10-25T20:12:00.000+13:00

We are now living at Penguin Ranch, but have no birds, yet. We want to go to the ice edge by helo to capture a few birds. Unfortunately, the weather had a change of plans for us. The flight was scrubbed and we were hit by a storm, instead.

Paul and Brendan checking the corral.

There is something very comforting about having lots of food and fuel when the snow is swirling about the camp. Here’s a photo of the kitchen larder and we have several coolers outside filled with frozen food. Obviously, it is very easy to keep food cold in the Antarctic – no power generation needed.

Paul cooked dinner.

Cass and Jessica warmed their feet by the stove.

Kozue at her computer.

The storm wore out Brendan.

Kathi writing the blog.

Moving In

2008-10-24T19:55:00.000+13:00

Today is our first night out at the Ranch. Cass and I drove out in the Pisten-Bully, while the rest of the group rode the four snowmobiles to our research site. A sudden flurry of snow overtook us on the way, which halted our progress briefly.

The sea ice road on a nice day.

The sea ice road today. This is a white-out. We have lost the horizon. The snow flurry only lasted a moment and we were able to continue a minute later.

Our new home. The buildings from right to left are the sleep hut, the kitchen hut, the lab hut, the OR hut, the power sled with the solar panels on top, the barn, and the little doghouse (with Snoopy on top) houses the snow blower. You can see the wind generator tower to the right of the last building and our snow fence beyond that.

Setting up Penguin Ranch

2008-10-22T19:52:00.000+13:00

Today we started the camp put-in. Fleet Ops pulled the huts out to our research site. The ground is frozen ocean with about 500 meters of water below it. Here is a Pisten-Bully (left), one of the huts, the large drill used to make our dive holes and the Challenger (i.e., a type of tractor) to pull the huts in place.

Drilling a dive hole.

Brendan and Kozue cutting channels in the snow to direct the seawater that will come out when the ice is pierced.

Brendan and Jessica bailing the last of the ice from a dive hole.

Jessica, Cass, Brendan and Kozue during construction. Mary Lynne (with her back to us) is a Podcaster documenting the role of women in Antarctica.

Installing the observation tube. The work stalled at this point. The drill used was about an inch too small for the ob tube! They had to pull it out and try again the next day.

Pulling one of the huts (the laboratory) over the dive hole.

The carpenters assembling the barn. Next door, the grey hut, is the power sled. Our camp’s power comes from solar panels and a wind generator. There is a backup gasoline generator just in case!

The almost finished camp. All that is missing is the sleep hut and the biffy (an important item!). The camp was finished the next day.

A Haiku For Hut Point

2008-10-21T19:48:00.001+13:00

A weathered skeleton

in windy fields of memory,

piercing like a knife.

Matsu Bashō, 1648

A Visit to Scott’s Hut

2008-10-21T18:58:00.000+13:00

Today is our last chance to see Scott’s Discovery Hut, which is located next to McMurdo Station. We probably won’t all be in McMurdo at the same time once the camp is installed. So, we checked out the key and walked over to see this historic hut.

Scott’s first expedition used this hut, although they didn’t live in it. Apparently, this design made for a successful building in the Australian outback , but the design was for hot climates. The building was too drafty and constantly leaked snow. Scott’s party used it for storage and lived on their ship, The Discovery, instead.

Here’s a photo of the hut taken from Vince’s Cross. You can see McMurdo in the background.

Photo of Jessica, Brendan, Paul, Cass, and Kozue in front of the hut.

Those black objects are seals that were killed for food by Shackleton’s people when they were forced to overwinter in 1914.

Kozue is trying to determine what was left in the pot – maybe seal blubber?

Jessica, Cass, and Kozue

Kathi in front of the dirty laundry. It makes you mindful of how you leave your room. I’d hate for visitors in future years to look upon my messes.

Paul holding The Fram cup in Scott’s Hut! Fortunately, the roof did not collapse on us, shaken by the ghost of Scott. The Fram was Amundsen’s ship and, Amundsen beat Scott to the South Pole, as you probably know.

Notice the ice crystals on the roof. I suspect that some of that is caused by all the people that visit the hut each year. The moisture is becoming a problem and to preserve these huts they are having to limit the number of visitors. As commercial tourism down in the Antarctic becomes more prevalent, this problem will increase.

Practicing A Virtue

2008-10-21T10:21:00.001+13:00

We are awaiting our camp put in. Some of our huts were dragged out last night and Fleet Ops has smoothed the road to our site, but the bulk of the work will be done tomorrow.

They say that Patience is a virtue. We are getting a lot of practice.

Today, the large drill that we need to create our dive holes is over at Razorback Island making dive holes for the BBC. There is a team filming for the Life series and their work will appear next year on television in England. They have a team of divers, a producer, and Norbert Wu (a famous nature cinematographer) in town to make the film. I think that they want to film the Weddell seals under the ice.

In case you are not familiar with a Weddell seal, here is a shot of one that I took last year. The seals like to come up in the holes under our huts. The shape of their mouths make them look as if they are perpetually smiling. Really, if they were humans, I suspect that they would be relatively good-natured and unflappable.

Last Sunday, the BBC presented clips of their footage of animals from all over the world. Their footage was truly spectacular and they had a particularly impressive clip of a snow leopard hunting a mountain goat on a steep hillside. They also showed a great white shark devouring a sea lion in one gulp. The shark must have been at 20' long. The sweetest clip was of a polar bear and her cubs. The cubs were beyond cute.

The talk was held in the Galley – see below. The place was packed. My shot was taken at 6 AM on a Monday morning, which explains why the dining room is so empty.

This is the coatroom outside of the Galley. Our big red coats are much too bulky to bring into the dining area, so they hang out here. Since there are three bays, you need to remember where you hung your coat. Almost all of them are red and they all look alike!

There’s a bit of a wind this morning. Sometimes, a hat just isn’t warm enough, so it is nice to use the hood, too. The ruff used to be made of wolf fur, I think. Now, it is some sort of artificial fiber, which isn’t as warm, but nicer for the wolf, of course.

More Sea Ice Photos

2008-10-19T16:46:00.001+13:00

(from Kozue)

Paul getting GPS data on the road

Jessica driving the Pisten-Bully

Paul drilling the ice (doing the hard work)

Drilling The Ice Crack

2008-10-19T16:42:00.001+13:00

Our camp is scheduled to be installed early next week (weather permitting). Brendan, Kozue, and Paul went out to assess the ice road’s ability to support the heavier vehicles needed to drag the huts in place.

Here are Brendan and Kozue checking the large ice crack that runs across our road.

Brendan is supervising Kozue’s work.

Range Wars

2008-10-19T11:36:00.001+13:00

For some reason, the seal biologists think that seals are more important that penguins….

The whiteboard in the hallway

The seal people’s lab door

On the door – Snowflake!

Photos From Town

2008-10-19T11:31:00.001+13:00

This is just a random collection of photos from McMurdo Station.

Paul at work in his office

Kozue and Brendan in our lab

Signs in the vestibule. Notice the phone in case you lock yourself out of the Crary Lab after hours.

Just in case….

(Cass’ photos below)

Paul and Jessica in a Crary Lab hallway.

Who is that masked man?

Getting ready for Halloween

Memories of Spring

2008-10-19T11:09:00.001+13:00

It’s snowing gently outside today. Notice that you can’t see the sea ice from town today.

It’s hard to remember that Christchurch is still enjoying spring.

(photos below from Cass)

Testing The Road

2008-10-19T09:28:00.001+13:00

The “ground” you see is frozen ocean and because it is a sheet of ice, we need to know that the ice is thick enough to support the heavy vehicles that must drive on it. We test the ice thickness using a power drill, but have to drill in many, many sites. It is especially critical to test the profile of any cracks since it is only safe to cross a crack if it is less than a third of the track length of the vehicle. The Pisten-Bully (the large red vehicle seen below) has a track length of 72”, which means that it can safely cross a crack that is 24” wide.

Here are Brendan and Jessica drilling the ice. They first have to dig down to the ice, which is why you see a hole in the snow.

Kozue is noting the ice thickness and the location of the drill site.

Checking to see if the ice is dry or wet. If it is wet that means the bottom of the ice is near the ocean beneath or that the ice is weakening. However, this early in the season it is too cold for the ice to weaken yet. (Left to right: Kozue, Brendan, and Jessica)

More drilling, the land mass in the distance is Big Razorback Island. (Left to right: Kozue, Brendan, and Jessica)

Note how strong the wind is blowing. After the ice has been tested a flag is erected to mark the road. (Left to right: Jessica, Kozue, and Brendan)

Testing yet another spot. (Left to right: Jessica, Kozue, and Brendan)

Did you notice that the Principal Investigator (Paul) is cleverly letting the younger members do the hard work?

A Small Gathering

2008-10-19T08:51:00.001+13:00

The seal people and the penguin people had a small gathering the other night. This is the lounge in our dorm. The lockers in the background are part of the recycling done in McMurdo. All garbage is separated into categories and ultimately shipped off the continent.

Left to right: Tracy, Randy, Jessica, Ian, and Cass

Terrie shows the glacier ice. Since it has trapped carbon dioxide, the ice fizzes.

Left to right: Tracy, Tray, Willem, Terrie, Cass, and Jessica

Left to right: Ian, Jessica, and Randy

Jessica and Kozue at ping pong

Kozue in an action shot

Left to right: Tracy, Tray, Cass (behind Terrie), and Willem

Left to right: Tracy, Tray, Cass, Terrie, Willem, Randy, and Ian

Left to right: Ian, Randy, and Jessica

Looking For A Home

2008-10-19T08:31:00.001+13:00

(from Jessica)

Today was a very productive day . . . the Penguin Ranch 2008 team is now complete with Kathi’s arrival, and we finally found a site for the Ranch!

Paul returns to the PB from Ranch site recon on snowmobile

Paul, Brendan, Kozue, and I headed out yesterday with a Pisten-Bully and two snowmobiles to check out the area Paul had spotted from the helicopter.

Kozue and Jessica find ways to amuse themselves in the PB while awaiting return of recon party

After Paul and Brendan combed the area on snowmobile looking for any cracks while Kozue and I waited patiently in the Pisten Bully, we determined that the ice looked quite good in the area. We left some flags to mark our territory and set the boundaries for our new home.

Brendan and Kozue with the Pisten Bully near the Penguin Ranch site

Cass diligently continued readying the lab for her assays.

Cass hard at work on lab set-up

and Kathi assumed her role as computer guru by starting work on a poster for the Crary lab for this season.

Kathi invokes master computer skills and initiates the lab poster

We are off again this morning to plot out the best route for the ranch, and will flag the road as we go.

Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride

2008-10-17T16:34:00.001+13:00

(from Kathi)

Greetings from McMurdo!

My departure was separate from the rest of the group. I made it into McMurdo Station (MCM) last night after two days of practically continuous travel – left San Diego on the 13th, landed in Christchurch on the 15th (crossing the International Date Line going west can advance the date depending upon the time crossed), and flew to MCM on the 16th.

Christchurch in spring

The originally scheduled MCM flight was for the 17th, but an emergency med evac forced our flight to leave a day earlier. As a result, none of us on this flight had the usual day to recover from the previous 24 hours of travel.

So, on very short notice, I caught a shuttle early in the morning, got my extreme cold weather (ecw) gear, received a flu shot, and had my computer security-checked. I have to hand it to the CDC staff. They managed to get us through everything with their usual good cheer.

We were shoved onto the military flight at about 1 PM. It was a mad dash all morning and to complicate matters we had to hang around in our ecw gear for a couple of hours in almost summer weather. None of us smelled very good after that.

The flight itself was mercifully short since the ambulance was waiting for the plane. The National Guard did not do its usual round of touch-and-go practice upon arrival in MCM. That saved us 30 minutes of air time, for which I was extremely thankful, as all that banking up and down unsettles my stomach.

On the C-17 to McMurdo

It was 6:30 PM when I arrived in Mac Town. We were in time for dinner and then had to endure an hour of briefing when all we wanted to do was go to sleep. I sort of unpacked and finally made it to bed around 11 PM. Unfortunately, our dorm developed a heating problem, so I had to bundle up in most of my ecw clothes (with a hat) to sleep. The temps outside dropped to -24 C last night, although I suspect that our room was considerably warmer than that - certainly well above freezing.

Yup, back in Mac Town. What a long, strange trip it has been….

Our lab in McMurdo

Another Penguin Rancher

2008-10-17T11:21:00.001+13:00

(from Red, Penguin Ranch 2005)

With his Boston Red Sox losing in Game 4, Matt (Penguin Ranch 2005) gave an entertaining talk about his Antarctic adventure, at a meeting of the San Diego Council of Divers.

Helo Trip To Beaufort Island

2008-10-17T11:10:00.001+13:00

(from Paul)

We flew to Beaufort Island on Oct 15. Normally, this colony is not accessible by helicopter because of the open water between it and Ross Island. Without a place to land in an emergency, helo trips are deemed unsafe. However,this year’s extensive sea ice makes a solid surface all the way to the island. We are looking also looking for a camp site on the way

Beaufort Island

. b

The colony (the smudges) at Beaufort Island

McMurdo Station

Sea Ice School

2008-10-17T10:37:00.001+13:00

Brendan and Kozue had to take an all day training course for working safely on the sea ice.

(from Kozue)

I am attaching the photos of Sea Ice School and the moon.

Brendan in front of Cape Evans. He is standing on frozen ocean.

Sea ice profiling to determine the thickness of the sea ice.

Snow vehicle Sorry, I don't know the name. (It’s a Hagglund)
I rode in it for the Sea Ice School. It was very warm in it, so I couldn't keep myself from drifting off to sleep.

Glacier near Cape Evans

Moon
I took this picture last night on the way from the lab to the dorm.

Photos From Jessica

2008-10-17T10:25:00.001+13:00

Cape Crozier photos

Cass setting up her camera at the Cape Crozier colony with emperor penguins coming to greet her.

My new friends from the colony edge

Paul and Cass on the hike back up the hill (the one on the blog now from behind is one Paul took of me). This photo shows how far we climbed. The V in the back right corner is where the colony is located.

Graduate students bestow Cass’s prime skua find (Skua is the depository for unwanted clothing or equpment) on deserving PI . . . Frosty Boy!”

Searching for a research site. Paul with the snowmobiles near the crack.

This is the seal that was near our old site (and quite a large crack!).

A Note from Bonaire

2008-10-17T10:00:00.001+13:00

Here is a note from Robert; he is a former member of Penguin Ranch (1999-2001). He was also part of many expeditions to Cape Washington, etc.

(from Robert)

I just stumbled upon the Penguin Ranch blog/website and am happy to see that you are back on the ice again this season. Very nice to see the photos of those familiar surroundings. Wishing you the best of luck to you and your team. Keep warm!

All the best, from Bonaire,

Robert

PS Attached are a pair of u/w photos of eagle rays I took snorkeling here yesterday.

The Cape Crozier Census

2008-10-14T03:15:00.001+13:00

A bit of background about why we go to Cape Crozier. Cape Crozier is on the opposite side of Ross Island from McMurdo Station. Crozier is the southern most emperor colony in the world and is also of historic significance since this is the colony that Cherry-Garrard reached in 1911. His harrowing journey is documented in Worst Journey in the World.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsley_Cherry-Garrard for more on this historic trek.

In 2001, this emperor colony was devastated by the large iceberg B15, which blocked the ocean access for the colony. Prior to B15, there were roughly 1200 chicks born in Crozier. In 2001, there were no living adults and certainly no chicks at the colony. Any adults that managed to make it into Crozier were trapped and died of starvation.

(from Paul)

We made it into Cape Crozier to do our annual emperor penguin census without any problem. There were no winds today and we walked down in about an hour . The colony looks about the same size as last year, maybe 100 adults bigger, no dead chicks, and about 7 eggs. It still hasn’t recovered from the iceberg incursion of a few years ago. It looks as the remnants are doing very well, coming and going. The chicks look good.

Our transportation below. The flight took about 30 minutes. On the other hand, Cherry-Garrard and his team man-hauled their equipment around the backside of Ross Island in the middle of the Antarctic winter, a trip of about 60 miles. At times, they could only manage about a mile and a half a day.

The colony from the air.

Cass and an interested bystander

Jessica at the colony

Cass

Some colony shots of the adults and their chicks. There are few things cuter than an emperor chick.

Hiking up the ice slope

Hero shots – sort of. Left to right, Marco (new pilot), Jessica, Cass, and Barry (pilot)

OK, this time for sure – hero shot of Jessica and Cass with the permanent ice shelf in the background. See the V? That’s where the colony is sited. Be impressed; its a long walk and a steep climb up an icy slope.

The weather in McMurdo was also good today. Kozue and Brendan enjoyed sea ice class. They have really scored on the weather for all their outdoor classes.

Tomorrow, we have a recon flight to see the sea ice where we want to put the camp, and to glance at the sea ice beyond Royds. No one is sure if it is just pack ice packed tight, or solid, fast ice (i.e., ice that is anchored to the land and floating on the ocean). There is apparently a large crack with open water at Royds. So, we will see.

First, of course we need to find a site, then we will need to find non-breeding birds.

Today's flight came in. So there is no back up. I think there is a flight on Wed and then yours on Fri. So far, the weather is looking good to keep you on schedule. (from Kathi – Yay!!)

(from Cass)

I haven’t sent many photos recently because I lost my camera transfer cord. But I found it last night, just in time for Cape Crozier trip.

We had amazing weather, beautiful blue skies and virtually no wind.

Crozier colony from the air

Part of the Crozier Colony

Jessica

A lone penguin

Paul taking census photos

An emperor penguin up close

The hike down to the colony was great – we wore crampons (my first time wearing them). I did pretty well until I caught one of the spikes on a strap from my other shoe – ended with a face plant. Luckily it was in the snow, so it wasn’t too bad – just made me feel silly. I’d never been to Crozier before and it was so beautiful. The features around the penguin colony were beautiful. And we couldn’t have asked for better weather – although as we hiked back up the steep hill, we were all sweating – even without big red (our extreme cold weather parka) on.

Adult and chick. Notice how the baby stands on the adult’s feet. It keeps the chick warmer to be off the ice.

Looking for a Home

2008-10-13T03:41:00.001+13:00

(from Paul)

We were out on the sea ice on our snowmobiles today for about 5 hrs. It was -12 degree C, and at times there was a bit of a wind, but we were relatively warm. Hot chocolate has never tasted so good (6 bags to a thermos).

I have not yet found a research site out on the sea ice. This hunt may take a bit longer than usual.We will see.

The area of flat ice that I thought would be good turned out to be old ice and we could not get through it with two drill flights . (We need ~6 ft. of ice or less to be able to drill diving holes for our penguins.) It was still dry ice, and that area is under about 2.5 ft of snow. I was hoping we could find an area without so much snow, since any area with that much accumulated snow means we will get buried in snow if a storm hits. (In the Antarctic, the question of storms is not “if,” but “when.”) The ice is just too thick there.

Last year's site had big pressure ridges near it, and the entire area is fused plates of old ice. The ice there is not too thick, but it was real slushy at 2 flights. We could not break through. That’s unfortunate since the area had less than 6 inches of snow.

We will continue to look for an area free of cracks in that general region I think. And, of course, we still have to get the route okayed for Fleet Ops to drag the huts into the site. So, it will be what it will be.

Otherwise, not much new. I think I will take some vitamin I (i.e., ibuprofen) with dinner.

Kozue’s Photos From Happy Camper School

2008-10-12T14:01:00.001+13:00

Kozue and Brendan have made it back in from Happy Camper School. After sleeping on the ice in a not-too-warm sleeping bag, they are very tired, of course, but fortunately, it was not super cold, so they survived the experience quite well.

Here are some of Kozue’s photos from the school.

Mt. Erebus from the permanent ice shelf side of Ross Island. (Notice the plume! Erebus is the southern most active volcano and McMurdo is sited at its base.)

Making an igloo

Cooking on the ice wall

Kuzue on the snow (taken by Brendan)

Scott's tents and pup tents

Morning

Navigation Training

Brendan just before returning to McMurdo

The DELTA carries us back to McMurdo

Snowmobile Class

2008-10-12T10:26:00.001+13:00

We finished our snowmobile and Pisten-Bully (our tracked vehicle used to travel on the sea ice) course this afternoon. We passed in flying colors.

The photos below are of Jessica and Cass during the snowmobile class out on the sea ice. That’s not ground that they are standing on, but frozen ocean!

Jessica, The Masked Avenger, Toby (snowmobile tech) and Randy (head of MEC)

Oh, wait! That’s Cass!

We will probably have a small celebration when Kozue and Brendan have recovered from Snow Survival School, otherwise known as Happy Camper. So far, it is looking good for them.The wind has died and it is sunny and clear. So, they probably have about the best weather possible unless there is a wind over on the other side by Happy Camper school.

Most of our equipment arrived. However, they are searching in the system for the batteries for Cass's near infrared recorder, and for all the drugs. Of course, they pulled those out of the big tri-walls in Port Hueneme. They assured Cass, despite her protestation, that they would not lose them and that they would ship them on time. They were considered hazardous.

Aside from that, all is going well. We will be going out tomorrow to look for a site.

All the employees are strained by the budget cuts, and the weather delays. They don't have enough people, or enough supplies, and now everyone is pouring into McMurdo because the weather has turned good. By tomorrow, they say we will be up to 1000 people.

The food has been very good at the galley. I hope the chef stays the same throughout the season.

Photos From Mac Town

2008-10-11T10:10:00.001+13:00

Paul took a few photos the other night just around town.

This is a shot of the area with the dorms. The Science Dorm, where most of the grantees live, is in the center. It’s not very luxurious, but it’s home.

This is a photo across Derelict Junction. The hill in the background is Observation Hill, where the Scott Memorial is placed. The small building in the center is Southern Exposure, one of the few places in town where you can smoke. When McMurdo was a Navy base, I recall that this was the rowdy bar for the enlisted men. It’s still a bar and still a bit rowdier than other places. (It’s a tradition….)

You can see a bit more of Derelict Junction in the shot below. The dorms are behind you when looking at this shot. I’ve always thought that McMurdo Station looks like Truckee.

This is the Chapel of the Snows, where the Erebus Chalice is kept each summer. The chalice first came into the Ross Sea in 1841 aboard The Erebus, which was Ross’ ship. His other ship was The Terror and they did the first exploration of Victoria Land and the Ross Sea. The two peaks of Ross Island are named after these ships. Mt. Erebus is an active volcano.

The Erebus Chalice

The low brown building in the foreground is an exercise room that is affectionately known as the Gerbil Gym because of the treadmills and exercise equipment inside. The large, beige building is the Crary Lab, where the grantees (i.e., scientists) have laboratory and office space.

The Crary Lab is on the right, the beige structure on the left is a temperature controlled facility to store things such as ice cores. You also have another view of Observation Hill. The shoulder of the hill used to be the site of the nuclear power plant in McMurdo. When the plant was decommissioned, they took everything out, including many feet of topsoil.

This is the science support center which houses FSTOP, and also the MEC-the place where we get the snowmobiles, the Pisten-Bully (our tracked vehicles), generators, chain saws, drills, snow blower, etc.

More later.

Classes

2008-10-09T18:19:00.001+13:00

We had the first part of our snowmobile class - the indoor session and also got our helmets - now mandatory; they look like they may work well. They now have an outside session where you have to drive the snowmobile under their guidance.

Due to the shortage of personnel, we are still waiting for the outside session of the snowmobile class and the Pisten-Bully/truck class. Otherwise, we are ready to go. Kozue and Brendan start happy camper tomorrow and will be busy for a few days.

From Here to There

2008-10-08T18:18:00.001+13:00

The group left Christchurch at springtime.

The Avon River flows through the heart of Christchurch

Indian Mynah

Hedge sparrow

And finally, landed here! No trees and no flowers.

This is Brendan and Kozue in front of the C17.

Finally…!

2008-10-07T17:43:00.001+13:00

They made it!

Some Interesting New Websites

2008-10-05T17:45:00.002+13:00

There is a new live webcam at McMurdo Station

AND

Cass and Jessica will also be featured on

Women Working in Antarctica

this season by Mary Lynn Price, who is down here working with Norbert Wu.

Stuck In Lodi Again….

2008-10-05T11:33:00.005+13:00

(from Paul)

Cancelled again...! We have been here in Christchurch for an entire week now. The storms in McMurdo STILL have not cleared. Of course, this last flight cancellation means that there will be no Sunday Night Lecture in McMurdo since the speaker (me!) is still in New Zealand.

Today, the group has some some work to do while we are stranded in Christchurch. Cass needs to prepare the list of equipment that she will use in her assays for the McMurdo lab I will have Brendan read the diving physiology review articles, which I have on my computer. Kozue, Jessica, and I can begin to review the accelerometer data that Kozue has from Cape Washington. Jessica can also work on her papers. There’s still lots of work to do even if we haven’t reach McMurdo.

Last night, we saw Christian, and Norbert Wu, who also came in. He is making another underwater documentary.

There is a city wide art exhibit on, with sculptures in parks, etc. In the park opposite the Windsor is a giant industrial crane, which suspends a sailboat in the air (when there is no wind).

(Jessica's photo)

And, in Cathedral Square, I thought they had a giant purple squid, but the sculpture is actually a giant purple sperm, which is supposed to promote the fertilization of ideas. The sculpture contains a small information booth, and, of course, the kids love to climb all over the artwork.

Still Waiting

2008-10-05T03:06:00.007+13:00

You know that we are scraping the barrel when doing our laundry becomes part of the daily update!

(from Paul)

I am about to go to dinner. We did the gondola ride this afternoon, and then I did my wash. We are still on schedule for a morning departure tomorrow, but we will see.

A sheep and lamb on the hillside.

Here are some other photos of today, including:

Winnie on guard at the Windsor (asleep in the sun on the porch)

Some gondola photos

(Jessica's photo)

Views of Lyttleton

This is a large harbor with an island in middle and is where Scott kept his ponies. He departed from here en route to Antarctica

Christchurch (with coastline).

In A Holding Pattern

2008-10-04T13:10:00.005+13:00

(from Paul)

We are still here!!

Yes, we were cancelled again. At least they called and notified us early so we did not have to go in. We are rescheduled for a flight tomorrow, although there is still talk that the weather in McMurdo won’t clear until Tuesday. They are going to continue to try every day until they get us in. There are about 400 people here stacked up in Christchurch for the Antarctic program, and more are coming in today on flights. So, they are quite busy.

We are leaving to pick up our luggage today at the CDC (Clothing & Distribution Center) and get some fresh clothing. Then, we will probably do some laundry today. Otherwise, there is not too much exciting to report. After the chores are done, we are off to the Market and maybe a gondola ride!

(from Cass)

Here are some photos I took in the last few days while we were in Christchurch.

The group in front of the Scott statue

Kozue and Brendan at the Art Gallery

The group in front of the passenger terminal for McMurdo

A black shag on the Avon

Another 24-hour Delay

2008-10-02T22:04:00.004+13:00

(from Paul)

We are organizing to go on a tour of Akaroa harbor and see little blue penguins and Hector's dolphins (bus and boat).

The large harbor is Akaroa Harbor. The whole basin was part of a volcano, long since extinct; one side blew out to make access for the harbor.

Some sort of duck??

Some (black) shags??

A New Zealand fur seal

A couple of photos of red-billed gulls

A sheerwater

Later that day

We just returned from our day trip to Akaroa; everyone had a great time. I saw little blue penguins and Hector's dolphins. The one penguin was too fast to photograph, but I got great photos of dolphins and we took a team picture.

Still later that day

We had a fairly simple dinner at a pub type bar that apparently was visited by Scott in his day. It is back in the corner (Bailey's) of Cathedral Square next to an old hotel. The trip was good; everyone had fun and they all saw the little blue penguin (there was just one) and the dolphins. It was a nice sunny day.

I saw Jack, the head of the helo pilots, and he said that apparently there is a small window tomorrow of "good weather" and that after that another storm is moving in over the weekend. So I hope we get in.

If we are cancelled, there is to be the lecture portion of the sea ice refresher course for a bunch of us tomorrow. So, we will get that done if we are still in Christchurch. I heard from Pam Hill at FSTOP that the storm in McMurdo may last another 24-48 hrs (as of midnight last night), so perhaps we can leave tomorrow.

Boomeranged!

2008-10-01T02:13:00.001+13:00

After a 24 hour delay, the group boarded the military flight to McMurdo Station.

Jessica and Cass on the plane

Interior of the plane.

(from Paul)

I’m not sure why they flew. Rumor has it that the sea ice was bad all day and that it was Condition 2 in McMurdo. We were 3 hrs into the flight when they turned around, so we landed at about 3:45, and got back to the Windsor around 5 pm.

To top things off, they put Brendan's boomerang bag on the wrong pallet, and would not take it off the plane. Fortunately, I had an extra set of pants, and Jessica had some flip-flops that he could wear. So, we went to the Dux since it was closest as well as good.

Everyone is tired now, and will probably be falling asleep soon. That is all our news.

The Journey Is The Destination

2008-09-26T19:00:00.013+12:00

Part of the group left today. They are arriving in Christchurch by a circuitous route since they are flying to New Zealand via Sydney. That route will do wonders for their frequent flier program, but after 14.5 hours in the air just to reach Australia I wonder if the thrill of the journey will be gone.

Paul and Brendan waiting to check in at the Commuter Terminal for the short flight to LAX.

Cass and Jessica hauling their gear and lab equipment for check in. Those boxes always cause a bit of panic from the airline people.

Paul, Jessica, Cass, and Brendan waiting in line. It's always a relief to get rid of all those bags and boxes.

A Traveller's Blessing
(with apologies to the Irish)

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May your flights always be on time.

Happy trails!

Penguin Ranch 2008

2008-09-21T02:33:00.004+12:00

Our 2008 blog will be starting soon!

The Last Photo of the Season

2007-12-10T16:15:00.000+13:00

Here is the group after our trip to Cape Royds -- the last group photo.

Cheers to all!

Penguin Ranch 2007

Postcards From McMurdo

2007-12-06T03:46:00.000+13:00

"Never for me the lowered banner, never the last endeavour." Sir Ernest Shackleton.

"Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has yet been devised." - Apsley Cherry-Garrard

"For scientific leadership, give me Scott; for swift and efficient travel, Amundsen; but when you are in a hopeless situation, when there seems to be no way out, get on your knees and pray for Shackleton." - Sir Raymond Priestley

"I have often had the impression that, to penguins, man is just another penguin - different, less predictable, occasionally violent, but tolerable company when he sits still and minds his own business." - Bernard Stonehouse

"Hurley is a warrior with his camera and would go anywhere or do anything to get a picture." - Lionel Greenstreet about Frank Hurley

"The continent has become a symbol of our time. The test of man's willingness to pull back from the destruction of the Antarctic wilderness is the test also of his willingness to avert destruction globally. If he cannot succeed in Antarctica he has little chance of success elsewhere." - Edwin Mickleburgh

Letters From The Ice

2007-12-03T08:22:00.000+13:00

(from Jessica)

Things have been incredibly hectic out here at the Ranch with this extremely long stretch of great weather that we have had (after our equally long stretch of bad weather and delays at the beginning of the season!). Cass and I have been very busy with our recorder deployments and lab work analyses.

and have managed to accomplish loads of science.

We are both feeling incredibly fortunate to leave the ice with so much data under our belts.

The birds have been diving regularly through their 2 dive holes, and as the season progresses, many of them have put on several kilograms . . . apparently the eating around the Ranch must be good!

Here is a picture of 2 of our penguins exiting the holes , one mid-air, and Markus (on the right) just after exiting.

One morning we were fortunate enough to see one of the penguins emerge from the hole with a fish still wriggling in its beak (we are pretty certain it is a “borch”, the Antarctic ice-fish, Pagothenia borchgrevinki). The penguin dropped the fish and went back in the water, so we threw it back in the hole .

Between all the science, Matt has managed to find time to get his daily workout in, slightly modified of course to accommodate Ranch life. Here he is in action

The seals are also still regular visitors to our huts, often bringing up fresh Mawsoni (Antarctic cod) that they have caught beneath the ice.

Here are pictures of our buddy Wendell, one of Cory bonding with the seal ,

and one of Wendell with a freshly caught Mawsoni .

Paul and I have also done several dives out here at the Ranch. It is absolutely breathtaking to be diving underneath the ice with Weddell seals and emperor penguins swimming circles around you. Today we did our seventh (and final) dive. Paul has taken several underwater pictures during the dives, but they are all on film so we will have to wait until we return to San Diego to see how they come out. The water has become progressively murkier throughout the season with summer approaching and the amount of algae (and everything higher in the food chain) increasing. Today’s dive was quite cloudy (relatively speaking for the Antarctic of course!).

We have recently made several trips to the ice edge to release birds that have participated in our work at Penguin Ranch. We let 2 of the last 5 birds go in our most recent release and because of excellent weather and good ice conditions, we were able to bring them right up to the ice edge. Here are pictures from this release

Paul releasing our bird Clara,

and one of both Clara and Cody Maverick (among some Adelie penguins), with Cody on the move, about to enter the water.

The ice edge was incredibly beautiful, and it was a wonderful feeling to once again hear open ocean lapping up against the shore.

With that our season has pretty much come to a close. We will release the rest of our birds tomorrow, and then it is time to break down the Penguin Ranch. Despite our slow beginning, it has been an incredibly productive and wonderful season out here on McMurdo Sound.

Penguin Ranch Spotlight: Caleb

2007-11-17T07:12:00.000+13:00

(from Cass)

Caleb is pictured here in a blue wingband. We use a little bit of colored Koban tape to distinguish our birds while they are with us. All penguins tend to look alike! It is completely removed when they are set free.

He is very eager to dive all the time. He is almost always the first one in the hole. As we are cleaning the holes of slush and ice (so they can dive), Caleb tries to get around us to dive into the hole before we are done. None of the other birds get so close, they just wait till we move away before they dive.

One time Caleb succeeded in getting around us before we were completely done so we just stopped so they all could dive. It was pretty funny. Paul said, “Well, I guess we are done.” We don’t scoop out the holes when the birds are diving because one of them could hit are nets when they come flying out of the hole.

Here’s one of Caleb coming out of the hole after a dive.

That’s it for now. Time to go to sleep – it almost 10pm!

Photos From The Ranch

2007-11-16T06:55:00.000+13:00

(from Cass)

Our huts have been completely covered in snow during these storms. [These are the same storms that trapped me in McMurdo for almost a week - Kathi] This photo is of the huts after someone came out to plow the ranch. The snow was so heavy it began to deflect, causing the water in our dive holes (and holes under the huts) to rise a bit.

Our penguins are doing very well. They are diving quite a bit and appear to be eating well (from the amount of guano we have to clean up every day!). I have included some pictures of penguins starting a dive and exiting the hole,

as well as a photo of two buddy penguins!

Cleaning The Windows

2007-11-14T07:08:00.000+13:00

( from Cass)

The windows in our observation tube were almost completely covered, so Jessica and Paul had to dive into one of our the penguin holes and clean the windows off. The first picture shows paul and Jessica getting ready to dive. Matt is dive tending.

The second is of Jessica cleaning the window where we keep our video camera. The video camera allows us to simultaneously watch the birds dive both above the water and below the water.

The last one is of Jessica and Paul at the end of the dive. They are about to go up the penguin hole. Right after Jessica got out the penguins decided to dive. She was sorry to not get to dive with them.

AAA Service - Antarctic Style

2007-11-10T07:04:00.000+13:00

(from Cass)

This evening Jessica, Cory and Matt were going in town to pick up equipment and also, while in town, going to a party, hosted by Markus Horning. They had gotten about 2 miles from camp when the piston bully stopped suddenly and turned off. They looked around the vehicle and found some oil had leaked out. They decided to start up the piston bully again to move it so they could clean up the oil. Cory watched the oil leak area while Matt started the piston bully. Almost immediately Cory is waving his arms for them to turn it off – oil had started to gush out. They had to call MacOps (McMurdo Communications center) who called Penguin Ranch to notify us.

As it was Saturday night, MacOps was having trouble finding anyone who could respond to their predicament. So Paul and I launched our own rescue effort, digging out a snowmobile that had been buried in the past week of storms. Paul went off in the snowmobile to bring our crew back, while I stayed at the ranch to watch over our penguins.

The first picture shows Paul leaving to rescue our forlorn group members.

The next one shows him returning with all three team members. While we were digging out the snowmobile, Jessica, Cory and Matt were cleaning up the oil leak. Each piston bully (and each snowmobile) has a spill kit for just this kind of situation.

Since we had such nice weather, we did experiments on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. They were long days, but it was fun to observe the penguins diving.

Stuck in Lodi Again....

2007-11-09T12:54:00.000+13:00

I’ve been waiting to leave McMurdo for five days. Each day, I get my hopes up, only to have them dashed with a “24 hour delay” notice for my flight. The weather has had other plans for us, buffeting our area with one storm after another. (Or, maybe it is one giant storm filled with a bunch of “sucker holes”)

It’s funny having one’s fate dependent upon something so out of one’s control as the weather. I alternate between extreme frustration/rage and bemusement. The longer the delay goes on, the funnier it gets, and also, the more annoying. I think I understand why desert people have developed that in s'Allah (as God wills it) attitude towards events. When the weather dictates your life, you either learn to bend or you break.

Two nights ago, McMurdo was under a Condition 1 lockdown, which is a fairly rare event at this time of the year. In Condition 1, visibility drops to almost nothing and it is a real hazard to venture outside. Cass was stuck in Gallagher’s with The Today Show crew for about an hour until the conditions lifted enough for her to run to the dorm.

The people out at Penguin Ranch are bearing the brunt of these storms, being awash with snow drifts, wind, and the very real possibility of running out of propane to heat the huts. Fortunately, one of the huts still uses a Preway stove, which is fueled by an abundant supply of diesel. If push comes to shove, they can all move into that hut to stay warm.

So, here I sit, waiting for clear skies. After all, storms must end sometime….

A Letter Home

2007-11-08T16:45:00.000+13:00

Well, another frustrating day.

I can’t believe it is November 8 already. This season is completely unlike my others here . . . sure, I had exceptionally good weather and few storms for those 2 seasons, but this is getting ridiculous. It is just storm after storm.

Last night we had sustained winds of 45 mph, with gusts to 60. There is so much snow everywhere it is ridiculous, when you enter a hut and close the door, it only takes a few minutes to have several inches (often much more) of snow outside.

This morning our lab hut door was completely invisible, there was snow up to the roof, and the other huts about 2/3 of the way up, so we spent the morning shoveling (yes Jonny, even more than when we used to shovel off the camp roof and jump down into the piles). Our windmill blew over and we found the propeller in pieces scattered all around.

When I left the outhouse last night to go to the sleeping hut, I seriously couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face. It was a bit tough actually, tripping all over the different snow drifts and I couldn’t see anything at all, just went by memory back to the sleep hut. It is actually quite cool to experience it and really interesting to see how bad it can get here, but I’m ready for good weather now so we can get something done.

Here are a few pics, one of the guys trying to secure the wind power yesterday (Iwo Jima anyone?),

....and some from today. Here's Matt in the storm.

And the snow at our door,

Also included is a photo of our emperors mistaking a snowball for an egg . . . I’d never seen that before, but apparently Paul has seen it several times at some of the colonies.

Kathi and the Today Show crew are all trapped in town trying to leave (Kathi’s flight was supposed to leave on Monday, but of course all the flights have been cancelled), and Cass has been stuck in town for days as well while we are out here.

I hope conditions improve soon!

-Jessica

The Today Show With Ann Curry Comes To Penguin Ranch -- Really!

2007-11-02T20:03:00.000+13:00

The Today Show has sent down a camera crew with Ann Curry to film in Antarctica. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21487444/ I think that their ultimate goal is to reach the South Pole Station, but while they were in McMurdo, they have visited a couple of research projects and Penguin Ranch was one of them.

Below is a photo of Matt and Ann Curry in our kitchen hut. She is a very smart and very nice person. I would say that she wears her celebrity well.

Ann Curry is a woman of many talents. Below is a photo of her taking shots of our birds. She showed us some of her shots. It is apparent that she has a very good eye; they were excellent shots.

Although the bulk of the interview was done in our lab hut, they decided to do some of the footage outside in the wind and cold -- all for atmosphere, I guess, but with the winds blowing, the wind chill was below -40 C. Here's Ann Curry and Paul standing by the corral. I felt sorry for the cameraman and soundman having to hold those heavy, cold devices in that wind.

Here's our group with Ann Curry. Left to right, starting at the back is Paul, me, and Cory. In the front is Matt, Jessica, Ann Curry, and Cass.

Okay, I had to add this one. This is a shot with Paul, me, and Ann Curry.

The two-hour live broadcasts are scheduled on Monday Nov. 5 and Tuesday Nov. 6, beginning at 7 a.m. Eastern, which means they would begin broadcasting at 11 p.m., McMurdo time.

Penguin Colonies - Part 2

2007-11-01T14:37:00.000+13:00

Today, Paul, Matt, Cass and Jessica took a flight to survey the remaining two colonies on our list -- Coulman Island and Cape Roget. Cape Roget is approximately 500 miles north of McMurdo and out of the reach of the small Twin Otter, so they flew on a DC3 (the Basler). See below:

Photo of Jessica and Cass in the Basler is below.

And here's one of Matt and Cass.

When the plane reached Coulman Island, which is the colony with most emperor penguins in the Ross Sea, they flew by that well-known (ahem....) landmark, Ponganis Icefalls (below). I have often thought that if we want world leaders to take global warming seriously, we should name icefalls after them.

It also begs the question of what happens to the Ponganis Icefall if it melts. Does it become Ponganis Pond at the foot of the slope or Ponganis Rock Pile? One of life's little imponderables....

Here is the Coulman Island colony from the distance with the penguin "smudges". Just like Cape Washington, this colony is so large (~20, 000+ chicks) that it splits into numerous smaller sub-colonies.

And here is Cape Roget with more emperor "smudges". This is a much smaller colony of ~5,000 chicks. It was very exciting to reach Roget. Its distance from McMurdo and its often bad weather have made it impossible to census this colony since 1993!

Here's Paul photographing the colonies for the census count. He is taking the photos through an open window. Brrrr....!

Penguin Colonies - Part 1

2007-10-30T10:41:00.000+13:00

Two factors that can affect the stability of the emperor penguin population include stable sea ice and food availability. Both of these factors are subject to environmental changes and to human perturbations. Jerry Kooyman and Paul have monitored the populations at six of the seven colonies in the Ross Sea since the mid-1980s.

Cape Colbeck, located far to the east of Ross Island along the Ross Ice Shelf, has rarely been visited for censusing. Ironically, I understand that at least one passenger expedition goes there.

As an aside, having boatloads of tourists in the Antarctic is a really bad idea. Antarctica is too fragile an ecosystem to have tens of thousands of tourists tramping around it. Unfortunately, this type of travel is increasing exponentially each year.

In 1990, the colonies had the following chick populations: Cape Roget – 6,921, Coulman Island – 27,930, Cape Washington – 23,379, Franklin Island - <2,000, Beaufort Island - <2,000, and Cape Crozier – 324. Recently, both Beaufort Island and Cape Crozier colonies were devastated by iceberg B15 and its fragments.

We want to monitor the recovery of the two colonies disturbed by B15 (Crozier and Beaufort). We also continue the census of the four other nearby colonies to determine the general trends in the emperor penguin population in the Ross Sea. Paul, Cass, Jessica, and Cory went by Twin Otter (see below) today to three colonies, while Matt and I and two volunteers from McMurdo held down the fort at Penguin Ranch.

Paul and Cass are in front of the Twin Otter. The Twin Otters are a Canadian company. Each year they fly down to McMurdo from Canada to the tip of South America, and then, cross the Antarctica by way of the South Pole.

Here is an aerial view of Cape Washington, which is one of the largest emperor colonies in the Antarctic. From the air, this vast colony looks like a series of smudges. There are numerous sub-colonies at Cape Washington, as you can see.

Here is an aerial view of Franklin Island, which is a much small emperor colony -- more "smudges".

And, finally, here is the Beaufort Island colony, which this year is again situated near a small iceberg on the sea ice close by, rather than by the island itself. As was previously mentioned, this colony was hit hard by the massive iceberg B15 a few years ago. Most of the chicks of the year died, probably because the adults had a rough time reaching the open water to go hunting for food. However, unlike the Crozier colony, the adults didn't die. Once the huge iceberg left the area, the colony came back to its pre-iceberg levels.

This an interior shot of the Twin Otter with Paul, Jessica, and Cass.

Cory in the back of the Twin Otter is below.

Tiny Visitors

2007-10-29T10:20:00.000+13:00

In the morning, after Wendell's Mawsoni feast, we discovered a swarm of krill in the dive hole under the hut. I suspect that they might have been doing mop up duty of Wendell's dinner, although many species of krill are mainly herbivorous (i.e., plant eaters).

Krill is a non-specific term used to describe open-ocean crustaceans known as euphausiids. Their importance in the Antarctic ecosystem cannot be overstated. They are the food source for numerous species, from fish to whales. They are so important to the health of the ecosystem that they have been protected by a special treaty.

For more information on Antarctic krill, see: http://www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=1540

Erratum: These tiny creatures are not krill. They are amphipodes, which explains why they are feasting on the leftovers of Mawsoni. For more information on these creatures, see: http://museumvictoria.com.au/crust/amphigal.html It seems that they are relatives of fleas.

Frankly, they look like the krill photos to me, but what do I know....

Wendell Catches A Fish

2007-10-28T17:08:00.000+13:00

A Weddell seal has adopted the dive hole beneath our lab hut. Cass calls him Wendell.

When everyone was away picking up the last three birds, Wendell made some odd vocalizations and there was a tremendous amount of thrashing in the water. When I looked down, he had brought up this huge, headless body of a Dissostichus mawsoni, or Antarctic Toothfish.

Here's Wendell with his fish.

Wendell must have caught and beheaded the fish below the ice, hence the thrashing that I heard. Wendell was justifiably proud of his fish. (I suspect that most human fishermen would be, too.) It was one of the largest Mawsoni I had ever seen. Paul and Cory dragged the body out of the water to look at it while Wendell was away.

Mawsoni are interesting fish. They possess a type of "antifreeze" in their blood that prevents their blood from freezing. (Remember that the sea ice is about -2 C, or below the freezing point of water.)

Wendell took his fish away by the next morning. I assume that he ate it.

Looking For Penguins - Part 2

2007-10-27T14:39:00.000+13:00

It's a new day and a new opportunity to hunt for penguins.

This morning, our friend Marcus Horning, who heads one of the Weddell Seal research groups, called us and told us that he had spotted several emperors on the sea ice near Tent Island. So, we geared up and headed out once more.

Sure enough, we saw one bird almost right away once we were near the island, and then, two more. Soon, we had three birds and then we found an additional five more.

Below, we are surrounding some of the birds.

Jessica catches her first of two penguins.

And, Cory catches one.

And, so does Cass!

Since we are limited by the number of boxes that we can carry on the snowmobile sled, Matt, Paul, and I return to Penguin Ranch with five birds, while Cory, Cass and Jessica watch the remaining three yet-to-be-captured birds (below).

Matt drives very carefully all the way home with the birds in the snowmobile sled. It's hard to believe that , he had never driven a snowmobile before. He plots a very careful route back to the Ranch.

Once there, Paul and Matt release the birds in the corral.

Penguins are amazing. They walk out of the boxes, look around a bit puzzled, and then start to preen themselves. Nothing seems to faze them. They don't pace, they don't fight with each other, they just settle down and clean their feathers. Their view of life seems to be when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. We could all learn from them.

Looking For Penguins - Part I

2007-10-26T12:57:00.000+13:00

We have good weather at last. The sun is shining and there is no wind. This is an ideal time to go out to the ice edge and look for non-breeding birds. Since parent birds are busy feeding their chicks at this time of the year, any birds hanging out at the ice edge, far from the colony, are non-breeders. They include birds that might have lost their chick during the winter and sub-adults that aren't mature enough to breed.

Parts of the emperor penguin life cycle are poorly understood, but it is generally acknowledged that emperor penguins do not reach sexual maturity for several years. In the meantime, groups of non-breeders occasionally wander the sea ice. It isn't certain whether these non-breeder groups are looking for new food sources, new colony sites, or are simply looking for adventure. (Probably not the latter, but it does make a nice story.) I like to think of it as their "walkabout" phase of life -- not very scientific, I know.

To reach the ice edge we need vehicles with less weight that our Pisten Bully. Snowmobiles are perfect for this. They are lighter, faster, and more nimble on the ice. They are also noisier and a lot colder than the Pisten Bully. Everyone loves the snowmobile, except me. As I mentioned, I don't do cold. Even with tons of layers on, the wind manages to leak through some small gap in my neck or wrist. I generally end a long snowmobile ride cold and miserable.

We loaded up our snowmobile sled with penguin boxes (the orange boxes, see below). Each box is padded inside to prevent the bird from harming itself when it stands in the box after capture. We have five boxes, so we can only capture five birds at a time.

We drove out onto the sea ice, many miles from camp, and come across a Weddell seal hole (below). The seal is gone, probably to hunt fish, but has left behind an imprint of its body in the snow. Those signs alert us to cracks in the area and we stop to drill the ice in order to determine the thickness. The ice here was thick enough to continue.

Below is the group with the snowmobiles as we stop to drill. Left to right, is Paul, Jessica, Cory, Cass, and Matt.

A second shot of the group is below. We had to drill yet another hole to determine the ice thickness.

We came within 3 miles of the ice edge, but had to turn back. The ice is too thin for our snowmobiles to travel over. During the last storm, the ice extent increased and we now have this new, fragile ice between us and the edge. It's very frustrating to come so close, and then, have to turn back.

Stymied by the thin ice, we headed back home and hoped that we would chance upon a group of penguins wandering closer to our camp. Looking for penguins on miles of sea ice is akin to searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. We see lots and lots of Weddell seals at the Barne Glacier (below). They are the wrong species, unfortunately, so we head back to the Ranch without penguins today. We have been bested by the ice.

The Sound of Silence

2007-10-25T17:08:00.000+13:00

Now that the latest storm is over (and our wi-fi has been restored), things are settling down to normal at Penguin Ranch.

Matt is checking his email . You can see Jessica's lab bench in the background.

Paul, Jessica, and Cass are working on the penguin corral. We are hoping to catch birds tomorrow if the weather is nice, but we need to secure the corral first.

Below is another photo on the corral work. Cass is using the Jiffy drill to make holes in the ice to secure the bamboo poles that hold up the fencing. Bamboo is incredibly strong. So strong that it can stand up to the fiercest winds. In fact, I've read that certain types of bamboo have the tensile strength of steel.

Cory is catching a few rays. His feet are on the ob tube lid.

I suppose it is not surprising to those of you who live in northern climes, but it is a marvel to me that if the sun is shining and there is no wind, it's actually not that bad outside, even if the thermometer is reading -10 C. I'm a native Californian and I don't do snow normally.

Here's a photo of me and our huts after the latest storm -- more snow. Sigh....

Below is the view from our huts across McMurdo Sound. What you see in the distance are the Royal Society Mountains, named after The Royal Society -- the national academy of science for the UK. It is similar to our National Academy of Science, but much older. The Royal Society was founded in 1660 by scientists like Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, and Robert Hooke. See: http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=2176 (Since this area was explored by the English, they got to choose the names -- it's only fair. )The mountain range looks so close, but is actually about 50 miles away. Scale is terribly hard to judge on the sea ice.

On quiet nights like this I enjoy walking out on to the sea ice near the camp. The silence is so incredibly profound when the wind has died that the only sound I hear is my own heart beating. I am always struck by the "sound" of silence. We live with such noise pollution most of the time. It's amazing that we can keep our sanity.

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

excerpt from The Sounds of Silence, by Paul Simon

Yet Another Storm

2007-10-23T16:09:00.000+13:00

We had a brief respite from the bad weather and made a dash for Penguin Ranch. Jessica and I were the first ones out at the Ranch. It laid partially buried in the snow. This is how the Ranch looked from our vehicle.

Here's Paul shoveling snow.

Here is our first sunset from out at the Ranch, looking at Mt. Erebus.

Our new sleep hut (the box car with the tent sides) is okay on a calm night, although the blue tent walls make everything inside look as if it is lit by a uv light -- very strange and slightly disorienting, see below. The propane cylinders went out just as Paul and Jessica were about to go to sleep. They had to stay up and change them. I'm embarrassed to say that I slept through the whole thing. Note that Panda Monium, Junior, and Betty Bunny (in background) have joined the camp.

We had the GAs (general assistants) from town help install snow fencing. Here's Paul working on the fencing.

Alas, the nice weather was short lived. Another storm started the next afternoon. Here's our solar pod buffeted by the wind and snow.

The Ranch in another storm. Paul is in the photo.

The snow fence was only partially done. The GAs left for McMurdo soon after this photo was taken. This fencing should keep the bulk of the snow out of the Ranch, although we still need to finish that fence.

Here's the sleep hut/tent in the storm That sleep hut in a storm is awful! It's cold, it flaps in the wind and it leaks snow in several places. We all miss our old Jamesway.

At the height of the storm, below is what you could see out of the window. I can see why it is called a white-out. It only lasted for a few moments, but you could easily lose your way. Losing the horizon is also very eerie.

Storm Day

2007-10-22T08:17:00.001+13:00

We were all set to go to the ice edge to catch penguins, but the weather had other ideas. So, we are stuck in town until the snow and wind stops. Matt is delighted since the bad weather means that he might be able to watch the Red Sox play their 7th game for the American League Championship.

It's Condition 2 in McMurdo, which means certain types of travel are restricted. Condition 3 is all clear. Condition 1 is a white-out or dangerously low temperatures.

View from the loading dock window.

Paul, the PI (principal investigator) and MD1

Jessica (GS1 - first graduate student)

Cass (GS2)

Cory (GS3)

Matt (MD2)

Katherine (PC)

Panda Monium, Junior, and Betty Bunny (all FF - furry friends)

Cape Crozier

2007-10-17T08:50:00.000+13:00

10/17/07 - The weather at Cape Crozier has finally settled down, so Paul, Jessica, and I arrived early this morning for our one-hour helo flight. We are going to Crozier to census the emperor penguin colony there. This colony was devastated a few years ago by several enormous icebergs (B15 among them) that calved off the permanent ice shelf near the Cape.

You might be wondering how an iceberg could affect an emperor colony. The emperor penguin is the only bird that lays its egg on the sea ice in the Antarctic winter. To do this, the colony needs to have smooth, flat ice for chick rearing.

When large icebergs move into the area, they can jumble the flat sea ice and either kill the adults outright when the ice heaves suddenly or block access to the ocean. If adults can't get out to the ocean, they starve. If the passage is merely difficult, a lot of the chicks starve. Either way, the colony is disrupted.

In 2001, Jerry Kooyman and Paul found no chicks and no living adults at Crozier. The few adults they found had starved to death. The colony has been coming back from that devastation, but its recovery is slow. In the natural course of things, a colony can lose a year of chicks, but recovers quickly if the adults survive. In this case, since many of the breeding adults died, as well, it may be a long time before the colony returns to its pre-iceberg levels. In 2000, there were 1200 chicks at Crozier. Since 2001, there have been less than 500 chicks every year.

Here's a photo of the helicopter pad with McMurdo in the background. The largest building in three sections on the right is Crary Lab.

Here we all are in the helo with our flight helmets.

This photo is the "back" of Ross Island and is described in Cherry-Garraud's book on his winter trip to Crozier, The Worst Journey in the World.

Here is the landing site near the Crozier hut. The hut is no where near the emperor colony and is located far up the hillside above the sea ice. Cape Crozier is an ASPA (Antarctic Specially Protected Area) because of the emperor colony and an even more important Adelie colony.

Here's Paul using the Iridium phone to make contact with Mac Ops. The helicopter pilot cannot leave us until he is certain that we make contact with the town.

This is Jessica with the Crozier hut in the background.

It's a fairly long walk from the Crozier hut down to the emperor colony as you can see in the photograph below. The Adelie colony is located in the brown areas near the shoreline.

Unfortunately, there were only a handful of early arrivals in the Adelie colony. In a week's time or so, there will be thousands of Adelies in their colony.

And here are the three of us walking over to the colony. We are walking down snow and ice covered mountains and then walking on sea ice, so we are all wearing crampons and carrying ice axes.

Jessica was particularly delighted with the crampons since she felt as if she could walk up a vertical wall with them. Actually, come to think of it, with the right kind of crampons and the right kind of climbing skills, you can.

The trickiest part of wearing crampons is not catching your pant leg with them -- a particularly treacherous thing to do when hiking down an icy slope. That's why we all have that stylish duct tape wrapped around our ankles.

We encountered some birds on the sea ice even before we got near the colony. Penguins have a natural curiosity and little fear of humans, so they frequently make a beeline to look at us.

Here's a photo of the emperor colony we found. The fluffy, gray emperor chicks are so cute that they are simply off the cuteness scale.

Another colony shot. If you look at one of the birds on the front left, you can see a chick mostly tucked into the brood pouch with only its head showing. The chick is resting on its parent's feet. It must be very warm. When the wind increases, even the large chicks try to tuck themselves back into their parent's brood pouch. Of course, they no longer fit and content themselves by only hiding their heads with their fluffy rumps out in the cold.

Most of the time, the weather was really nice, but when we reached the colony, the wind came up and we had to protect our faces from the cold. That's Jessica and me. We look as if we are about to rob a bank.

Paul and I slogged up the slope (below) while Paul's physically fit graduate student bounced up another slope to take our photo. (Hey, she's almost 30 years younger than us!)

We spent the night in the Crozier hut. When we went to sleep the weather was beautiful. When we woke up, there were tremendous gusts of wind swirling around us.

We staged all our equipment down the hill near the helo landing site, but the winds made it impossible for the helo to land, so we had to haul everything back to the hut and wait out the wind. Getting all that equipment back to the hut above was difficult because the wind gusts were so strong that some of the bulkier stuff, like the sleep kits, acted like sails. It is hard to stay upright when wind tries to blow you over with each step.

Resigned to wait out the wind, Jessica below is looking for beaked whales. None were sighted, however.

Our camp photo.

Fortunately, the winds quieted down sufficiently for the helo to make a landing later in the day. The pilot had to crab his helo into the landing site. "Crabbing" is flying forward with the helo at about a 45 degree angle. It's a very strange thing to see and a bit unnerving.

Dustin was a very experienced helo pilot. I only became worried when he started talking to his helo, "C'mon, girl, you can do it. We need a little more power." The winds aloft were still fierce and made for a very bumpy ride back home. I didn't kiss the ground when we landed, but I thought of it.

Camp put-in

2007-10-17T08:20:00.000+13:00

10/16/07 - Today we saw Penguin Ranch constructed. This is our site without any of the huts. I think that is Matt in the distance (yeah, like you can tell, I know) and Mt. Erebus is in the background.

Here we are at the start of the day. Left to right, Paul, Jessica, Cory, Cass, and Matt.

First, they drill a hole in the sea ice. The ice is about 6' deep in this area.

The group clears the ice out of the drilled hole with nets. It's back breaking work. Notice the crafty PI "supervising" in the background. (There are only 4 nets, after all....)

The finished product is a hole about 4 feet across.

A Pisten Bully equipped with a blade clears out the bailed ice and a tractor drags a hut over the dive hole. Two of the huts will have a dive hole under them and then there will be four more holes drilled outside. Two of the outside holes will be for the birds in the corral, one will be for the observation tube and one will give the human divers access to the water.

After the huts are all in position, they install the observation tube ("ob tube"). Below are photos of the installation. The crane operator was very skilled and it was mesmerizing to watch the installation.

First, the lead weights are placed near the hole. It's surprising that the metal ob tube needs to be weighted down with so much weight, but the tube would never stay in the water otherwise. The glass enclosed chamber is brought over, attached to the weights and slowly lowered into the water. They slide bars into the side arms to hold the chamber in place and then attach the tube to the top of the observation chamber. You need that extension to reach the chamber hanging below the ice. I'll include photos later of what you can see when you sit in that chamber.

Notice in the last panel all the people working on the camp. If only home remodeling could be so coordinated ....

This is our new sleep hut -- basically, a tent incorporated into a boxcar. We are the guinea pigs for this new type of sleep hut. I believe that similar units are used as emergency medical operating rooms. As you can see, the construction is fairly instantaneous. Actually, adding the vestibule took three times longer to install than the hut itself.

Here we are in front of our new sleeping quarters. Left to right: Cory, Matt, Cass, Jessica, and me.

The solar panels are being installed. These panels and a wind generator (not yet installed) will supply most of our electrical needs.

Okay, I know that you have been dying to ask. Here's the biffy. It, too, has a drilled hole, but the hole only goes part of the way down the ice. I bet that a couple of you are wondering why the hole does not go all the way through. The answer is simple; you don't want a penguin or a seal to surface inside the biffy at an inopportune time!

When a door closes, a window opens

2007-10-16T07:52:00.000+13:00

We weren't able to go to Cape Crozier to do our penguin census because of bad weather, so Jessica and Paul decided to do their mandatory check-out dive with our Dive Safety Officer, Rob, instead.

The dive hut is near Cape Evans (more about that in another post). Cass and I tagged along to help with the dive tending.

This is Cass in the dive hut.

She is looking at the Weddell seal that had claimed the dive hole as his. He was totally unconcerned that we were in the hut with him.

Weddells are some of the calmest and most unflappable animals I've ever met. Their curved mouths make them look as if they are perpetually smiling.

Come to think of it, maybe they are. We humans can be pretty hilarious at times, especially when we enter the water.

Here's a photo of the seal that Cass took. Can you see his second "face"? His name should be Janus after the two-headed Roman god.
(see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janus_(mythology)) if you aren't up on Roman mythology.

Part of their mirth may be watching us get ready for a dive in a dry suit. It is a long and complicated process. First, you put on the suit liner, and then, pull on the dry suit, as Paul and Jessica are doing in the photos below.

Next, comes the double boots, double hood, triple gloves, tank and masks. (Remember it's -2 C water.) Here's Paul with most of the assembly on.

When Paul, Rob, and Jessica were ready to jump in, up came the Weddell seal again. They share a moment, pictured below.

The seal was quite happy to share the dive hole with our divers and looked a little puzzled at (and maybe a little sorry for?) all the gear that the humans had to wear. Our three divers waited until the seal left before they went into the water.

Paul and Jessica were in the water (below) once the seal decided to leave. While Jessica descended, the seal shimmied up past her so quietly that Jessica wasn't even aware of him.

Paul

Jessica

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of what they saw, but both Paul and Jessica raved about how beautiful it was below. Many of the species are vividly colored. If you are interested in seeing some beautiful photographs of the Antarctica sea life, try finding Norbert Wu's book on the topic. He has a masterful eye. See: http://www.norbertwu.com/galleries/Antarctica.html

Cape Evans

2007-10-16T03:43:00.000+13:00

Cape Evans is the site Scott's hut from his 1910-1912 expedition and was just around the corner from the dive hut. Here is a picture of the historic hut. It was fairly cold and very windy day, so face protection is important. I think that I look like Cousin It with the face mask on.

The hut is in the process of being conserved and restored. This hut was also used by Shackleton's ship party when they were stranded after the Aurora blew away. Sadly, the men in Shackleton's group that survived their disastrous expedition, returned home to Europe during World War I. Many of them died in the trenches.

Here's Paul in the vestibule to the hut.

Some interior shots of the Cape Evans hut. The snow blocked all the windows and we needed to view the hut using the dive flashlights.

The hut is quite large with a massive table in the center.

Chair at the table - obviously homemade, but rather nice.

The race for the South Pole was the moon race of its day. Scott died on the return from the Pole, having been bested by Amundsen of Norway.

Scott's expedition also supported a full range of scientific experiments. Below is a shot of the laboratory corner. That reminds me of a famous quote.

"For scientific leadership, give me Scott;
for swift and efficient travel, Amundsen;
but when you are in a hopeless situation,
when there seems to be no way out,
get on your knees and pray for Shackleton."

attributed to Sir Raymond Priestley

And, of course, they collected penguin eggs! I think that they might be Adelie eggs since they look a bit small for emperor eggs.

Here's a Primus, which is a small, portable stove. We still use something quite like it even today.

A couple of shots of the kitchen. The supplies are in remarkable shape, considering they are about 100 years old.

This is Scott's table with the emperor carcass and a copy of the Illustrated London News.

Scott's bunk.

The Scott expedition also had a number of pony's with it and we went into the stable, which is on the side of the hut. Below is a wall of tools that were left behind.

Each of the pony's had their name stenciled in front of their stall.

This was a snowshoe for a pony. I don't think that they worked very well since Scott abandoned the idea of using ponies to pull the sleds. In the end, the expedition man-hauled everything - unlike Amundsen, who used sled dogs.

And, last, but not least, a photo of Cass, Jessica and me in front of the Pisten Bully, parked near the Cape Evans hut.

The highest, driest, coldest, windiest place on earth

2007-10-15T10:13:00.000+13:00

"Scott used to say that the worst part of the expedition was over when the preparation was finished." Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World

Above is the equipment that we are taking to Cape Crozier. It's the second time that we assembled the stuff and hauled it down to the helo hut, but Paul, Jessica, and I didn't leave this morning. The wind decided not to cooperate. It's not a storm, per se, since we see patches of blue sky at times, but there's wind blowing. More importantly, the weather people say that Cape Crozier will have wind gusts up to 40 mph today.

Works for me to stay home until the wind dies down a bit. Walking on sea ice to reach the emperor colony with those weather conditions would be no fun. There's little to block the wind on flat ice.

Come to think of it, even if the conditions are ideal, it's still not going to be big fun climbing down an icy mountain with crampons and mountain boots, and then, walking all the way to the colony. It means that when we finish taking the census, we will have to reverse that steep climb up the mountain to the helo landing site.

Besides, roads and weather permitting, they are going to try tomorrow to put in Penguin Ranch, our research camp, again. Paul and his group went out on Saturday and found a new route into the camp site that avoids all that dangerous, thin ice.

Matt and Cory are out on the ice this morning, as I write this, with one of the F-Stop people (field safety) checking our new road. Assuming that everything looks good, we are set for the put in of our camp .

I hope I haven't confused anyone. The Cape Crozier trip is to census the emperor colony there. Crozier is on the other side of Ross Island from McMurdo and is the site of Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World. If you are interested in Antarctic history from the heroic age, I recommend the book. It's well worth reading. Fortunately, we are doing the trip in the Antarctic spring, rather than the winter, like they did, and we have a helo to pick us up when we want to go home.

Anyway, Penguin Ranch is Paul's research site out on the sea ice on the same side of the island as McMurdo. It's in a completely different area from Crozier. We are keeping our fingers crossed that everything goes as planned. If it does, then we will try for Crozier one more time. Third time is the charm, they say.

Here's map of the area with all the emperor colonies on it.