Orcas

 Last week we saw some orcas in the harbor! It was a pod of 5 or 6 whales. They did a quick swim by and poked there heads up through the brash ice looking for seals and headed out of the harbor.

 The whole station stopped work for 10 minutes to run outside and see them. Orcas are a pretty rare sight here and usually only happen once or twice a season so this was pretty special.

Baby Wedell Seal

I haven't had any luck getting a photo of the baby Weddell seal in the backyard. Everytime I go out my camera dies or runs out of space so here is someone else's photos of the seal when it was a few weeks old:

Gentoo Tracks

This is a Gentoo penguin track in comparison to my hand. They a bit over knee height, they are not a small bird but they aren't outrageously big either. They have been touring around the back yard lately looking for new breeding grounds. I even saw one that walked all the way over the glacier (a half mile or so), he even stayed inside the safe flagged area!

Ice Fish Science

There was a fish science group here over the winter. They manage to get some ice fish eggs and watch them develop and hatch. The ice fish are pretty cool they have interesting adaptations that allow them to live in the freezing waters of the Antarctic. Here is what an artist and writer from last season had to say about them:

Here are some hatchlings.

Frozen specimens.

Some eggs that are about to hatch.

And an ice fish in a tank!