A day out

On Saturday the RRS Ernest Shackleton came to visit.  She was on her way down to Halley, and stopped off to help out with a few bits and pieces on the way.  One of my tasks this year was to visit Moe Island and Lynch Island.  These are two small islands, just off Signy, that are ASPA sites (Antarctic Specially Protected Areas).  They are designated for the pristine nature of their flora and fauna.  One is particularly noted for the abundance of grass!



Visiting the islands is normally not allowed, but every few years the condition of the islands has to be assessed and we were issued a special permit to land.  Their condition largely does not change, but the steady increase in the number of Antarctic fur seals around Signy is considered a threat to the vegetation as they spend a lot of time hauled out on land, and can cause a lot of damage.  To visit the islands we needed boats, so we boarded the Shackleton, then used their small inflatable boats to reach them.  It was great to visit some new islands- here is Signy, looking across from Moe Island.



We had a fantastic day out boating over to each island, landing, completing the survey and then boating back to the ship.  Whilst on board we circumnavigated the whole of Signy, caught up with familiar faces and had a couple of nice meals.  Most notable was the presence of things such as cucumber, tomatoes and grapes- none of which I have seen since November!  

For me, the highlight of the day however was the boat trips to get us to there.  The icebergs around Signy are incredible, and from a small boat, the icy pinnacles seem to stretch right up into the sky, in shining shades of silver, blue and grey.  Here are just a selection of the best, but they sadly still do not do justice to what it was really like.







Note the small boat for scale in these two...







I find icebergs utterly mesmerising.  To be able boat around these beautiful towering giants made this day one of the definate highlights of the season.     
  

       

Suns, Moons and Clouds

I have got a little behind with my blog in recent weeks, so here are a few random images to keep you entertained until I get time to give a proper update!

On a sunny day at Signy, we sometimes get halos forming around the sun.  These occur when there is a thin layer of cirrus clouds in the upper atmosphere- cirrus clouds are made from tiny ice crystals, instead of raindrops, and these refract the light to form the halo.  According to the internet the correct term for it is the 22 degree halo, as apparently this is its radius of the circle- I've never actually tried to measure it!



Sometimes we get low lying layers of mist at Signy.  These occur when the air at ground level is colder that that above it, and are known as temperature inversions.  Some days it looks like a dull grey day down by the sea, but if you climb up onto the icecap you can look down upon the top of the fog bank, and the islands peaks all stand out above it, in bright sunshine.



This is the moon in Anarctica.  Yes, it is exactly the same one as at home, however, as we are at the bottom of the earth, it appears upside down.  If you look at the moon at home, then turn around and look at it upside down, through your legs, you can see how we see it here.  The stars also appear to be upside down, and we largely get a different set of constellations, although we do see a few familiar ones such as Orion (upside down), low down in the sky near the ground.  Higher in the sky we get different constellations such as the Southern Cross.



All of these however require clear skies!  In reality, all too often here it is exceedingly windy, cold and snowy.  On these days I tend not to take my camera out with me, so my pictures are always misleadingly biased towards the sunny days! 

Ice

One of my favourite things about Antarctica is the ice.  People frequently say to me "well I'd love to see Antarctica, but I don't think I'd like the cold".  It is cold, but without the cold none of the ice would exist, and the beauty of the place would be completely lost.  Ice comes in beautiful shapes, forms and colours.  The ice at Signy changes daily, moving with the large ocean currents, the winds and the tides, and for me is a constant source of wonder. 

Ice plays a significant part of our lives here.  If there is too much ice in the bay the ship can't get in and we have to find another way to drop off people and supplies.  Here is the bay, still full of sea ice when we arrived this year.  Too thin to walk on, yet too thick to drive boats through.



The salty sea ice tends to break up fairly quickly in the spring, which allows the larger freshwater icebergs, carved from glaciers on the Antartic continent to drift northwards to us instead.  This creates new challenges because bergs can ground in the bay, squashing our water inlet pipes, meaning we cannot generate fresh water.  



On a sunny day, the ice turns various shades of blue. 



Generally, the clearer the ice, the older it is.  Some of it will have fallen as snow on the Antarctic continent thousands of years ago, slowly getting compressed over the years until all the bubbles have been squashed out of it, forming completely clear glassy lumps.



The action of the waves then forms beautiful scalloped surfaces on the ice, which can create lovely patterns.





Even small chunks of ice can look pretty.  This one is only a couple of inches high.  The water in these is very pure, and if placed in a gin and tonic (or other drink!) will pop and fizz as the compressed bubbles escape.  



The wildlife enjoys the ice too.  Weddell seals can frequently be seen sleeping on the ice, and penguins use them as a place to haul out of the water or as a means of travel.



A good iceberg sunset is hard to beat.

January

In the summer, Signy benefits from long hours of daylight.  This means that to get a nice sunset, you have to wait til quite late in the evening.  As the season wears on however, the sunrises and sunsets start occuring at more civilised times of day!  We were treated to a beautiful evening of pink pastel colours a few weeks ago.



We have also been lucky to have some lovely weather this season.  The view from Signy is second to none when the sun is shining and the sea is full of ice.



January is always a busy time at Signy, both for myself and for the wildlife.  The chinstrap penguin chicks are busy hatching, and the Adelie penguins are busy rearing their chicks, some of which are now very large.  It will only be a few more weeks til the Adelie chicks leave the colonies and head for the sea.  Already the most advanced of these are starting to lose their grey fluffy down to reveal their feathers underneath.  When it is cold they huddle together for warmth and protection.



On a hot day the chicks overheat in their thick fluffy jackets, and can often be seen sprawled out flat in the colonies panting, trying to keep cool.



The Giant petrel chick have just started hatching too.  These birds can be either white or grey with the percentage of white birds increasing the further south you are.  This adult is waiting for its egg to hatch.



The sea ice brings in the Weddell seals.  When fully grown they can look rather odd- as if their head and flippers aren't quite large enough for their body.



But when they are youngsters, they have to be one of the most endearing creatures around, with their smiling cat-like faces and soft spotty grey fur.





 

   

Happy New Year!

Firstly, thanks very much for all my Christmas emails and greetings.  They are always lovely to receive when UK Christmas is so far away!  I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and 2016 has started well.

It's been a busy few weeks here.  Just before Christmas, the RRS James Clark Ross (the ship that we travelled down on) returned to Signy.  It stayed for the day, refuelling the station.  This involved pumping fuel from the ships tanks, into a big rubber flubber in the cargo tender, then bringing it to the jetty and pumping it back out again, into our large fuel shed.  Here you can see the full flubber in the bottom of the tender waiting to be pumped ashore.  We couldn't do this the day we arrived here as the bay was still frozen into the sea ice so we couldn't get the tender to the end of the jetty.



At the end of the day, the JCR left, taking away 4 of the Signy residents (who had finished their science), and exchanging them for 4 new ones.  With only 8 of us on station at any one time, taking away half of them feels a bit odd to begin with but it is suprising how quickly the new faces settle in and become part of the Signy family.  The ever changing group is just a normal part of life here.   

Christmas followed only a couple of days later and we all took some time off to celebrate.  On Christmas morning, some of us ventured out onto the Orwell Glacier to see if we could find any crevasses large enough to abseil into.  We didn't find any quite big enough but it was a nice adventure anyway.



Afterwards we returned to base for a very large Christmas dinner.  With roast turkey, christmas pudding, a tree and decorations, mince pies, christmas cake, and snow falling outside, our Christmas contained everything you would want it to, and we all enjoyed it.

Back at Gourlay, the penguins didn't seem to realise it was Christmas and continued busily rearing their chicks and going about their daily business.  This meant that once Boxing Day was over I had to get back out to work to keep up with them.  The Adelie chicks that were so tiny only a week ago are growing at a very rapid rate.
 


The Adelie breeding season is very short as their nest sites are under snow for most of the year.  This means the chicks seem to grow visibly bigger on a daily basis.  As soon as they are large enough to defend themselves from predatory skuas, the adults will stop guarding the chicks, and instead the chicks form creches, huddling together for warmth and protection.  This allows both parents to spend the day at sea, searching for food to bring back to their chicks in the evenings.



The Skuas are also busy nesting, taking advantage of the abundant food supplies available to them in the form of penguin eggs and small chicks.  While this may seem harsh, the skua chicks have to eat something, and I personally think they have to be one of the nicest chicks on the island.



Skuas are fiercely protective of their young, who unlike penguins, are very mobile as soon as they hatch.  The parents will stay with the chicks as they explore their surroundings, defending them with and open-winged display of aggression.