Cheese-its

 This is the highest the sun gets now. In a few weeks it won't even get above the glacier and we will not get direct sunlight (only for a few weeks though).

 I wanted a good cheesey salty snack so I looked up a recipe for some cheese-its. They turned out very good, they did not last long, (I shared them).

The sunrises and set set have been very dramatic and fun to watch. 

Under sea critters

 I had to pull up the tide gauge to take a measurement and found out that I should be cleaning the tide sensor at least once a year because the underwater critters are quick at taking up residence.

 Sorry, you guys can't live here.

 Nice day to be working outside.

 All the weird soft cold water corals.

 Sea spider did not want to be disturbed.

 Moon this morning through the telescope in the galley.

 Frost on the hand rail this morning.

 Fog-bow made an appearance while working on the pier.

 My office with the full moon yesterday morning.

The days are getting shorter, this is at about four o'clock in the afternoon. very beautiful weather this week!

Giant Petrel Chicks

Winter is steady setting in, the sun doesn't come up until I've been at work for a couple hours and it sets at dinner. 

I got to go out with the volunteer birding team that is doing the bird work for the bird science group while they are not here to check on the progress that the Giant Petrel chicks were making. They are almost ready to fledged and are awkwardly loosing all their down.

 Their down kind of smells like dryer sheets, it's weird.

 About one in thirty giant petrels is white. Their down is white as well so this one is a little harder to tell that it is a chick.

 Stretching the wings.

An adult Giant Petrel, these are the largest birds in the petrel family. They are huge, one might even go so far as to call them giant.

 My hand next to one of their foot prints.

 This lady petrel was very curious and walked up to me and stuck her head in my camera lens!

Sun Rises and Leopard Seal Feeding

 The late sunrises mean I'm already at work when the sun comes up over the glacier.

 When the weather is good it is pretty spectacular to watch.

 A few weeks ago a leopard seal attacked and killed a crab eater seal and spent the whole day eating it in the inlet next to station.

 I didn't see the action, just the feeding and the kelp gull frenzy. Here is a juvenile in the water and the smarter adult up above. The juvenile was lucky and didn't get chomped.

 

 More sunrises!

Sun after the Storm

 We had a week and a half long wind and rain storm and had not seen the sun in about a week. Then the sun came out for a rare rainbow appearance!

 Double rainbow!

 First clear day in a over a week. The sun is going down earlier and earlier now. We have about nine hours of day light now.

 Pretty clouds!

Pretty light!

End of the season?

This photo was from the last time the vessel left, about a month ago with the last of the summer science groups. I was supposed to leave last week but we have been delayed. It is pretty much business as usual on ice.

Chef made a very fancy cake!

 It has been very stormy lately, we are definitely moving into winter.

First snow of the year! Not enough to go skiing, but maybe soon!

Wilson Storm Petrels

 These little birds dance on the water and pick up little bits of food. They are very quickly and difficult to take photos of. They are the smallest of the petrel family and they are one of the most abundant bird species in the world. They mostly live in the southern hemisphere in all oceans, but in the northern summer they will expand their range into the northern hemisphere as well.

 They have very pretty yellow feet.

Ground Truthing Drone Imagery

 I have been working with a PhD student to take highly accurate GPS points of rocks that are visible in his drone imagery to anchor his drone maps in to reality.

This means we get a walk all over islands to find corners of boulders or cracks that can be identified from the surface and also in the imagery. It's a very fun project and kind of like strange rock scavenger hunt. It's also a great project to work on on nice days because you get to be outside! And take fun photos!

 Some skuas fighting over a fish head.

 Looking back at station while working on Torgerson Island.

 This is a male fur seal.

 This is a female fur seal, you can tell by the less defined bridge of the nose area, the lighter color, and the sleeker looking fur.

Nap time.

 Somebody dropped a snack a while ago and forgot about it.