Between August 2008 and April 2018 I spent a number of years working on Signy Island (South Orkney Islands) and Bird Island (South Georgia) for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). I worked as a Zoological Field Assistant on the penguin, seal and albatross long-term monitoring programme. After a 5 year break, i'll be heading back down to Bird Island in Janary 2024 for another dose of penguin work.

This blog gives readers an insight into my day-to-day life in the Antarctic, from my first trip south in 2008 to the present day.

Tuesday 29 March 2016

Home Time.

The RRS Ernest Shackleton is due on Thursday lunchtime.  It will be taking us away (probably on Saturday) when we have finished closing down the station for the winter.  We have spent the last week or so boxing up cargo, recording everything we have here (so we know what needs to be ordered for next year), and starting to close the station down.

We are travelling home via South Georgia and Bird Island- you can keep track of my progress by looking at the Ships webcam which is updated hourly and can be found at: https://www.bas.ac.uk/data/our-data/images/webcams/rrs-ernest-shackleton-webcam/ and on the ship tracker website which can be found at: http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=ZDLS1 

It has been a long and busy season, but a good one.  I managed to keep up with the blog until nearly the end- apologies for the lack of posts in the last few weeks however!  The recent weeks have flown by.  My penguin chicks (and most of the adults) have all gone, and many of the seals have departed for the winter too.  Every creature that needed counting/weighing/measuring has been counted/weighed/measured and I am all finished and ready to start my northwards migration.

I will leave you with a few seal pictures to complete my Signy Season.  A big pile of snoozing elephant seals.



A small Antarctic fur seal.



And finally, a very content elephant seal, using his companion as a pillow.



I am looking forward to getting home in time for Spring!  See you all then!