September: The long Migration

 The journey down to the ice remains extra complicated due to the pandemic. After four days and two COVID tests in San Francisco we boarded the  charter flight to Punta Arenas, wit ha stop in Dallas for refueling. 

Four days with a fun view of the runway from the airport hotel pictured above.

The social distanced flight 14ish hour charter flight is an airline which was showing it's age (my seat recliner broke and wouldn't come back up to it full and upright position). 

Nice views over the Chile and Argentina's Southern Ice field, it will be fun one day to get back to traveling. Hopefully soon. 

A terrible zoomed in photo of a large group of flamingos getting ready for summer in the southern hemisphere.

An old ship wreck on approach to the Punta Arenas airport. 

After another COVID test in the airport upon arrival we boarded a bus for a three hour ride to Puerto Natales for our two week Chilean mandated quarantine.  

The hotel was fairly new. There was a field for wandering about and interesting birds to watch. We saw condors, ibis, lawings, several types of cara cara, an owl, and lots of song birds. 

The internet was slow, if you could connect to it, but the clouds were always fun to watch. 

After two weeks and two more COVID tests and a lot more paperwork we got back on the bus and drove the three hours back to Punta Arenas to get on board the LMG. The LMG is 210 feet long and is nearing the end of it's contract serving Palmer. Once the new pier has been built the NBP, the larger of the programs science vessels will be able to dock at Palmer. This may be our last trip across the Drake on the LMG. We are still in port, waiting on delayed cargo before we can head south. We 

The NBP is 282 feet long, 30 years old, and will be going into dry dock this year to be retrofitted with a fuel system addition to be able to fuel Palmer Station. This will be the future resupplying vessel for Palmer Station.

This year on station will be much different than past seasons. The 50+ year old (temporary) pier that was built by the SeaBees is going to be replaced with a new and larger pier. This means that there will be no scientists on station, just me maintaining the long term land based science while the rest of the station will be in low personal maintenance mode supporting the 20-30 pier builders that will be on station working 12 hours days, 7 days a week, starting in a couple months. It is going to be a busy, crazy, exciting year to be on station. Sadly there will be less science, less boating, and less opportunities for wildlife viewing but that is the price of progress that is sorely needed. 

Closing out April

April was another very stormy month, fitting in with the stormy trend that this whole season has had. The sun is starting to set before work is over. The storm clouds have been making some very impressive sunset's.  

Strom clouds to blue sky in one photo!!

Our Doctor has started growing sprouts because we finished the last of the apples a few weeks ago. They have been a great addition to many of the meals. This was lo mien, fried rice, and egg foo young night. Delicious. 

The rare calm night with nice evening light. Only a few more weeks until the ship returns to bring in our replacements. 
 

Sea Bugs

 

The water science team went out with nets to catch some critters for a water column survey and I helped them take photos of the tiny sea creatures they caught. 

Not sure what they are called, but they are very interesting looking!

Very cool patterns on the back of one of them. 

Bore Hole Project

Up on the highest point of the largest island in the boating area there is a long term project that is looking at the temperature profile below the surface. Basically is a very deep hole in the island and a wire with temperature sensors spaced out along it. I help recover this data once a season. 

The battery on the system needs to be replaced every three years, so this year I got to take it apart and solder on a new battery.

 

Sunny evening

The season is slowly turning into winter, but with the changing of the seasons we have been getting nicer sunsets.

Ice is starting to form in the calm coves of sea water. 

Sediment Traps

At the end of each season when the penguins have left to their colonies and the ground has not frozen yet the bird science group collects the rocks from their "sediment traps". The sediment traps are fine mesh screens that hold the preferred nesting rocks for the penguins with the hope that the penguins will build a nest near or on top of the trap. The mesh and rocks hold on to a breeding seasons worth of penguin colony poo.

The bird scientists collect these rocks and scrape the guano from the mesh into five gallon buckets and bring them back to station. The rocks are then scrubbed clean to remove all the guano. The resulting hot chocolate like mixture is then slowly decanted. A hose in the bucket on low will slowly allow the stinkier bits to float away while retaining the heavier items at the bottom of the bucket. 

What is left at the bottom of the bucket is then dried out and sorted through under a microscope. Most of the detritus left at the bottom of the bucket is smaller rocks, crushed bits of egg shell, and fish bones.

In these samples they bird scientists look for fish ear bones call otoliths and parts of squid beaks. This way they can see what the birds have been eating and feeding their chicks over the course of the whole season.

Fish otoliths are particularly interesting because each species of fish has a different shape of bone. The "rings" of bone as seen above can also be read like tree rings to tell you the age of the fish the bird ate. 

The bird scientists collect these fish bones from several other passive sources as well as from the penguin poop rocks. Here is what a bunch of fish bones look like. 

The clean rocks are then put back into the field for next year. They look a bit like a gross modern art installation. 

Nice Sunset

The back of this ice cave has melted through! I wonder how long the ice arch will last!

The adult Gentoo penguins  are in the middle of their yearly molting, they have to regrow all new feathers and during this time they do not go in the water.

This one has its tail feathers and is ready to get back in the water.  

This one has a surprise reentry into the water.

These little rock piles are the nests that the Gentoo's built this season for the very first time in this location. 

Feet for scale. 

Juvenile kelp gulls and adults. The juveniles can fly and fend for themselves but they still cheep like babies and still beg the adults for food. 

Lone skua keeps watch over the beach.

It's been a long time since we've had a calm and clear sunset. 

Very nice night for a walk.

 

Old Moss and the Glacier

Every year the terminus of the glacier is measured where the ice meets the rock in the backyard. The line is recorded using a very fancy, centimeter accurate backpack GPS. The red line on the right is from this year. The yellow line is last year. The glacier receded on average 8 meters in the last year. 

In some areas where the glacier has receded it has exposed old moss beds from before the last mini ice age when these rocks were last exposed to the air. The moss beds nearest the glacier have been dated to be from around 800 years ago, getter younger the further from the glacier you find them. It took the glacier about 400 years extend itself from the moss patch pictured below near the terminus to the moss patch they found near station. The glacier has taken about 60 years to recede from station to where it currently sits about 600 meters away.

One day 800 years ago this moss had been happily growing for several hundred years (probably) and then one winter it snowed and in the spring it did not melt. Over years snow accumulated and compacted and over time it became part of the glacier. The moss bed was then preserved under the ice, never having seen open air or the sun for 800 or so years. My foot also in the picture above for scale. 

The moss bits are still very well preserved even though they have been dead for almost a millennia. 

 

Out Boating - Finally some nice weather

In the last two months we have had 2-3 times the 10 year average for precipitation. It also has been exceptionally windy so we haven't really been able to get out boating much lately. Last Sunday I was finally able to go explore another part of an island I've only ever seen covered in snow. It's the largest island in the boating area and is known for it's elephant seals. 

This is a huge male, the biggest I've ever seen here, he even has the funny big nose.

This one was sleeping with it's tongue out.

Finally some sun!

A very good comparison of adult and juvenile Kelp Gulls. 

This island is fairly close to the glacier and allows for safe up close viewing of the glacier face.

There is even a long term glacier time lapse camera positioned here. 

Gap between the island and the glacier. 

Cool rocks. 

An impressive glacier face over in Wylie Bay, beyond the normal boating area.

A bit of moss on a nice ledge. 

Antarctic Hair Grass and moss cohabitating. 

Up close with a different kind of moss. 

More types of moss! There are over 111 types of moss in Antarctica. I can identify maybe 5 or 6. 

This white giant petrel was wandering around and was extremely photogenic.  

Pretending to be a swan. 

The sun came out again and it was getting low in the sky, only a few hours from sunset. It made for stunning light. The baby giant petrels are getting much bigger. 

The white Giant Petrel from earlier walked by again, this time just above a shadowed gulley, with perfect sunlight and with much luck on the timing I captured what might be the best Giant Petrel photo I have ever taken! 

The sun lighting up Dayne Peak, 10 miles to the east of station made for the perfect end to a great day out visiting the local islands.