Thanksgiving In Antarctica

November 27, 2008

I spent this holiday counting penguins. Aerial photos taken of the colony two days ago will be used to make an exact census (someone has to count 300,000 dots on a photograph), but, today, our task was to ground-truth the imaging technique. We took four hours to quantify about 7,000 individual penguins in several subcolonies, ticking along with handheld tallywhackers. The totals will be compared to numbers from the same areas on aerial photos.

The real highlight of this Thanksgiving, though, was our first Orca (Killer Whale) sighting of the season. Fifty mile-per-hour winds yesterday broke up ice on the Ross Sea and blew much of it away, leaving ragged patches of open water, and we spotted more than 18 different whale spouts and dorsal fins along the new ice edge.

The three techs stranded here last night by bad weather (Cape Crozier storm video) were lifted away by helicopter after breakfast, still cheerful after their unplanned stay. One of the guys had called a favor over the radio, after listening to our food fantasies, and, unexpectedly, we received a small brown paper bag on the flight this morning, containing one fresh onion, which went straight into Thanksgiving stuffing.

I found a fresh dead penguin in the colony today, in excellent shape (somewhat unusual, not sure why it died), and collected it for a museum study specimen; this involved cradling the 10-pound body against my chest, like an infant, during the mile-long wind-blasted trek up-glacier back to our hut. Of course, it was Thanksgiving… We didn’t eat the bird, but our palates appreciated its irony.

Cape Crozier is on New Zealand time (a day ahead of the New World), so, although it’s not Thanksgiving yet in the U.S., we are already digesting dinner. Kirsten served Cornish game hens, stuffing, green beans, and mashed potatoes, and Michelle added a raspberry chocolate crisp dessert. All is well on a happy stomach.