Out on the water

 The water has been very clear lately. 

 Nice light on glassy water.

 Modern art bergy bit.

 Caught this skua having a second harvest. (Eating seal poop). Gross. 

Touch Tank

 I went down to the divers touch tank to see what they had hanging around.

 Itty bitty star fish!

Some sort of big isopod, about four inches long. Looks like an alien.

The hairs on it's legs that it catches food with.

 Star fish legs. 

Mushrooms and Moss

 I went out to two different island to service a peat moss weather station. This weather station has all the normal  weather instruments plus a probe down inside the moss. 

 While servicing the the weather station I found a mushroom. Mushrooms were last seen in 2012, on an island 10 miles from this island. And this is the only one we found here.

 I got a little lens that works like a marco lens, I have been playing with some very close up photos.

I also had to go to the island where the mushroom were first seen eight years ago to download data off of a temperature logger in a bore hole. And the mushrooms there were out in full force. 

 This one was the biggest one I saw.

 Also some cool looking moss. The marco lens is fun.

 More mushrooms! These mushrooms are called Galerina autumnalis and they are toxic. 

 Here is a photo to show how small they are.

 More moss.

 View from the top.

 A leopard seal checking us out.

Recent Wildlife

 Skuas are very curious. I was laying down taking photos of waves and this one decided I might be food. Or maybe it was interested in the shiny bits on the camera, I didn't wait and see, I didn't want to get pecked.

 A fur seal getting in a good shake and terrifying the fledgling penguins.

 Elephant seal's propeller.

 One big guy taking a nice nap.

 They always looks so happy napping. 

 Big chonker. 

Giant Petrels will come back to the same nest site and same mate for decades. Sometimes they will keep the same mate but move islands together if they find a nest site they like better. The bird scientists keep track of who is who and where they are nesting and which couples are successful at raising a chick. They have been keeping tabs on the local birds social lives for decades. 

Mid February State of Things

 There are only two flowering plants in Antarctica. One of then is this Antarctic Hair grass. You can see it's flowers/seed stalks here. 

 The baby sheath bill from the next under the carpenters shop is getting adventurous and has started to lose it's down. It's in a very ugly stage right now. 

 The GSAR team went up the glacier to deal with the radio repeater. which probably should have been moved a lot earlier in the season before it got stuck on this ice pinnacle. 

 But with some mechanical advantage and an ice chipper we got it moved and leveled again.

 It will be good in this location until it starts to snow again probably.

 Actual waves and a rocky beach on the far side of the glacier, about a mile from station.

The fur seals are back in full force. This one was yawning, but it looks like he is yelling at the waves.

It's been almost two months since we have received a fresh food shipment, so tonight's dinner was brought to you by the color beige. Usually cruise ships will give us small box or two of fresh food during this time of the year but they have closed the station to visitors because they are worried about cruise ships bringing us the coronavirus.