Week 17: Sa 17 February 2018, 19:34. Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica After months of careful observations and thought, I’ve figured it out. Between Antarctic fur seals, penguins, and brown skuas, I know which animal’s offspring-rearing strategy is the most appealing. Though penguins are diligent parents, they don’t offer their chicks any freedom. Their protection from skua predation is essential for the first 3-4 weeks of the chicks’ lives, but…
Week 18: Sa 24 February 2018, 15:42. “Little Chile” aka Guillermo Mann Chilean Base, Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica Here I am in Little Chile, proofing data in the depths of Microsoft Excel while drying my face of tears. The “Lord of the Rings” soundtracks are what kept me ticking through the studies of college life, and today they’ve carried me along through Rite in the Rain notebooks of data….
Week 16: Sa 10 February 2018, 18:18. Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica Considering chinstrap penguins and gentoo penguins come here for the same purposes – procreation and chick rearing – it’s pretty entertaining to see the number of ways in which they differ. I generally prefer gentoos to the chinnies, but Nai feels the opposite. In terms of appearances, I consider gentoos to be one of the bird species I’ve…
Week 15: Tr 1 February 2017, 23:21. Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica SDH: It’s what I call the fur seal puppies that are especially Small, Dark, and Handsome. 2 January: Today Doug, Adam, Sam, Nai, and I had face-to-face interactions with about 10 new people for the first time since we were dropped off on 24 October. Doug and Sam somehow knew how to have conversations with strangers. The other…
Week 9: Tr 21 December 2017, 19:15. Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica From “Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage” by Alfred Lansing — “Returning from a hunting trip, Orde-Lees, traveling on skis across the rotting surface of the ice, had just about reached camp when an evil, knoblike head burst out of the water just in front of him. He turned and fled, pushing as hard as he could with his ski…
Week 8: F 15 December 2017, 20:49. Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica In celebrating the holiday, last night we toasted our midnight suns with a hearty “Skol!” and feasted on fårikål, lefsa, kringle, and pepperkaken. God had provided the proper weather overnight and into the day; we awoke to lightly howling wind and a coating of snow blown against the northeast-facing doors of camp. Small snowdrifts had built up at…
Week 6: Sa 2 December 2017, 22:10 … through Week 7: Sa 9 December 2017. Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica And suddenly it’s December. In just another month we’ll be at the halfway point when we get our resupply and camp leader swap. What have we been up to since our arrival the last week of October? For the first few days we focused on opening camp, which included lots…
Week 5: Sa 25 November 2017, 18:29. Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica Possibly never in my life have I had such mixed feelings on blue sky and sunshine. This is Antarctica. It’s supposed to be snowy and cold forever, right? Actually, no. Little by little, the sunshine is melting the snow and tearing our camp apart. Nai and Sam are on Team Melt. Adam and I are on Team Snow….
Week 3: F 10 November 2017, 23:54. Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica This past summer on Buldir I was entertained by factoids shared by Kevin and McKenzie from the book “The Last Place on Earth: Amundsen and Scott’s Race for the South Pole.” At the time, my working in Antarctica was still in the hopeful phase. However, I’ve been interested in the Antarctic for ages, and the information I was…
Week 2: F 3 November 2017, 22:38. Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica Plenty of people dread waking up on Monday morning and starting their work week. The concept of driving through traffic to sit at a 9-5 desk job for the next 5 days is so painful that sorrows get drowned in mug after mug of coffee from the nearest drive-through coffee stand. Fortunately some of us are smart enough…