Penguin Ranch Spotlight: Caleb

(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

(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

( 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

(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....

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.