Stacey in Antarctica: End of January/Early February.

Since I last wrote there has been lots of work going on here. We've been busy collecting diet samples from both Gentoo and Macaroni penguins, which is then followed by a couple of days in the lab, sorting through the samples to determine what the penguins have been eating (usually fish, krill or other crustaceans). This data is important as it shows us what the adult birds are bringing back from the sea to feed to their chicks and highlights any problems of food shortages. The South Georgia Government can take this into consideration when setting fishing quotas for the following season to ensure wildlife does not suffer at the cost of commercial fishing.

The Gentoo penguins have struggled this season, but the chicks that have survived this far are looking healthy and are moulting their soft down, for feathers. The Macaroni penguin chicks appear to be doing better, and are also moulting well, many supporting weird and wonderful hairstyles as the down moults away in patches, leaving random tufts and stripes.

We've also been busy with the weekly check of all the Giant Petrels in the study area, checking each nest for failure. The last of the Southern Giant Petrels have now hatched so both species are now feeding chicks. Some of the Northern chicks are almost as big as their parents, and are feathering nicely. Also this month, everyone on base helped out with the monthly fur seal pup weighing (to compare pup size with previous years at this time of year) and the monthly albatross nest census (we have over 800 wandering albatross nests on the island and monitor each nest individually for success).

Although it's continued to be pretty busy for us here, things are finally starting to tail off a bit with work and there has been a bit more time for things like playing with kites and cameras and exploring new bits of the island. We celebrated Burns night in style, dressed in tartan and starting with Highland games, which involved tossing the haggis and welly-wanging. Then we went inside for a full Burns night feast, done in traditional style, with our resident Scotsman in his kilt recited the full Ode to a Haggis poem from memory. It was a good evening.

We've had some days of rain and gales when it's been hard work outside, but we've also had some stunning sunsets, and a few lovely snow showers. Sadly nothing as exciting as you all have at home, but I'm sure there will be more than enough when winter arrives here.