Firstly Happy New Year!
I hope you had a very nice Christmas.
I’ve been pretty busy here over the last few weeks and I’ve not had the
chance to write as much on here as I’d hoped!
Hopefully this will bring me up to date a bit.
We have been on a number of trips out and about around the island, including a couple of nights out to stay in the field huts when we needed to count things that are too far away to do as a day trip.
The west coast is lovely on a sunny day, with rich green moss and snow and icebergs.
The island turns to black and white on a cloudy day.
I still visit the penguin colonies at Gourlay every second
day to keep track of where the birds have got to in the breeding season and record laying and hatching dates.
The chicks are growing very fast and already
the Adelie chicks are big enough to hbe left alone, with both parents now
at sea hunting for food for them.
As well as my own tasks, i've also been helping a visiting scientist with blood and feather sampling and tracking snow petrels with tiny tail mounted GPS devices.
Over Christmas we had a very nice time and I enjoyed a
couple of days off work which was a bit of a treat as we are usually so
busy. We all enjoyed a very tasty Christmas
dinner of turkey and all the trimmings.
We also seemed to end up baking a vast amount of Christmas goodies which
we are still working our way through (mince pies, gingerbread houses, chocolate
brownie, penguin shaped biscuits, Christmas cake)- none of us will starve any
time soon! To see the new year in we enjoyed a BBQ, on probably the calmest night we've had here yet.
The time has been passing very quickly and already I am less
than 2 weeks from being picked up by the ship and setting off on the journey home.
I am only doing half a season this year, so someone else is coming in to continue the work to the end of the season.
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