Penguin Pictures For Ian

The past few days have been packed full of fun. Saturday night the Shuttles group went on a boondoggle (fun trip) to Cape Evans, so me and two other GAs covered for them. I was "Shuttle Ops" also known as dispatch. It was fun to sit in the shuttle shack with them in the morning to learn how to do the job. There are a lot of cute shuttle drivers and for some reason they seem to like me. After an uneventful evening covering for shuttles, I headed to see the bands play at Gallagher's (non-smoking bar). It was a ton of fun but the night ended with a little too much drama for me (Adult material best suited for email).
I woke up early Sunday morning and went to church. I have to say it was a nice service and it helped me start the day off right. After church I headed to brunch and then filed my "e-foot plan" with the fire department. In order to travel off station I must first file a plan letting them know where I'm headed, when I'll be back (ETR), a point of contact, and who else is going (no solo trips). We also had to carry a radio with us just in case something were to happen. Myself, Eric (roommate), and Bill decided to go sledding down the Castle Rock loop trail. One issue with this is that we don't have any sleds, but we discovered that cafeteria trays work just as well. The loop is about an 8 mile hike but we also made a quick detour up Castle Rock which was amazing. My camera died at the start of the hike but Bill is suppose to send me some good photos. The ride down was a great rush and my butt was very sore. It was a perfect day with no wind and a hot sun. When we got back, we ate dinner on our same trays before I volunteered in the Galley's Pot room scrubbing pots.

Monday turned out to be a great day too with a short trip on the sea ice with the Piston Bully, and then shoveling at the Aquarium. I got a quick tour of what was in the tanks and it made me feel like a scientist again.

Today however was an amazing day. Everyone else on our team was out of town at cool places and Tirzah and I felt a little left out. Then Barb (supervisor) let us know we were headed to Hutton Cliffs (seal hangout) and the Penguin Ranch.

Hutton Cliffs was first on the list to re-fuel so after 1.5 hr down the Cape Evans trail, we turned onto the un-tracked flagged route to Hutton Cliffs for half an hour. With the flat light, driving was a little tricky going through the pressure ridges. A couple times I was going a little too fast for the light and we slammed down off some of the cracks in the ice. The picture above is of the field camp and the vehicle to the right is the Piston Bully I was driving.

After we arrived we filled the fuel tanks and then begged the scientists there to take us on a walking tour. There were so many seals. And it was incredible to see how they interacted and called out when their mom's went fishing. We saw many pups (baby seals) and even some old males. One male was recently in a fight and had an eye hanging out (sorry no pictures). Shortly after the pups are born, they weigh 150lbs and will stay with their moms until they are a couple months old. A full grown adult male can weigh 1,200lbs.

Some of the pups put on quite the show for us!

Next it was off to the Penguin Ranch. Well Ian and Cavan O'Brien, here are your Penguin Pictures.

Here, scientist go out and collect Emperor Penguins from the Ice Edge and bring them to this "ranch." Here there are only two holes cut in the ice for them to come in and out of the water (this keeps them in the area). Around the holes is a small pen. When Penguins are on "land" they tend to wander a long ways and the fence keeps them in the study area. The researchers then observe the penguins and their feeding habits. An observation tube is inserted into the ice just outside the pen to observe the penguins feeding under the ice. I wanted to go in the tube, but they were busy filming the mid afternoon "diving" session. It's a long story, but some of their behavior was a little sad since it reminded me of a zoo.

A few great days in a row! As always, I'm still very happy to be here and am still waiting for the novelty of this place to wear off, if it wears off. Cheers!