Back to Breaker

This iceberg I call Big Ben.

Big Ben from another angle.

And another angle.

And another angle with some orange lichens.

A giant petrel over station.

They look very archaic.

And majestic.

There is a nice ridge they like to soar back and forth over on breaker so zoom 5 feet over your head when you stand in the right spots.

I like the layers in the ice. Ancient, ancient ice that fell as snow high on some plateau. 

There are two flowering plants in this area. This is one of them, Antarctic Hairgrass.

And this is the other one, Pearl Wort.

Whales!!

We spotted three humpbacks on our way back to station!

What an amazing place to live!

Photographers Paradise

 A huge cruise ship came by and hosted a few of the station crew for lunch.

A gang of Gentoo's have been hanging out around station a lot recently.

 Adn a pair of sleepy elephant seals have moved in on our pier.

Bergs out across the harbor being majestic.

Hardly a dull moment around here.

More bergs sneaking up on the harbor.

 A Wilson's Storm Petrel, a small petrel, swoop over the station outfall (sewer outlet). They are the smallest warm-blooded animal that breeds in the Antarctic region.

Setting up for Christmas.

Skua keeping watch over the inlet.

Bergs blocking the entrance to our inlet.

Elephant seal fingernails are a bit disturbing.

Big berg. Little boat.

LMG navigating around the icebergs in the harbor.

 Another amazing sunset!

 Antarctic sunsets are the best! This one was around midnight.

 Almost looks like Monument Valley in Arizona if you didn't know those were icebergs in Antarctica.

I call this one big ben.

More awesome lighting. 

GSAR Training

The glacier search and rescue team went out for another training. This time we practiced walking roped up, setting ice anchors, belaying and setting up a z-pulley system.

Pretending to haul someone out of a crevasse. 

Food

The food here is pretty great. The cooks do a really good job and we get a fairly regular supply of freshies.

Indian night!

Mashed potatoes, salad, and a curry hummus, pumpkin stack that had a fancy name.

And a cheese platter. Mmmmmmm!

Adelie Rookeries

 I got a chance to go out with the communications guy to do some fix up work on the penguin camera and penguin tracker on two different island and got to see the Adelie penguin rookeries!

 Adelies are very silly and smell bad.

There are skuas around, looking for a penguin to make a wrong move and give them an oppertunity to snag an egg.

This one was unlucky, the skuas got it.

 There is a seal hanging out around the penguins, just saying hi.

 These two are chinstrap penguins.

 Adelies look fake to me, like some put googly eyes on them.

 On the way back to station we stopped by the elephant seals.

I feel like I'm living in a National Geographic Antarctic issue, and it's awesome.