East Rookery
December 20, 2008
We had a late morning, as a helicopter brought out two fire guys to inspect our hut for safety (we passed). Mostly, they were happy to be away from McMurdo Station for a while. At the end, the two guys lined us up and took photos before getting back on their helo to civilization. We have sunk from observers to the observed, from tourists to the attraction. I didn’t know we were quite that dirty yet!
After seeing off our visitors, Michelle, Kirsten and I packed up and struck out for East Rookery, about an hour and a half hike one way. Though the penguins at Cape Crozier are mostly in one contiguous valley, a few thousand nest over the next mountain pass, and we have to check on them every week or two to search for banded birds. To get there, it’s an alternate scramble across ice fields, snow fields, and scree slides. We put crampons on and took them off eight separate times today (I counted) as we crossed ever-steeper ice slopes. It was a long, productive day afield, and we arrived back at the hut at midnight, the sun shining as bright as ever.
The most interesting wildlife sighting today was a Crabeater Seal, normally an inhabitant of the ice pack, and our first of the season at Cape Crozier. We haven’t seen a Leopard Seal yet, but there’s still time. We’ve found a few mangled penguins limping around, so the Leopards must be somewhere nearby…
Noah Casts A Long Shadow Above The Ross Ice Shelf
Adelie Penguins At 25mm
A Penguin With A White Throat Patch (Either A Young Bird Or Just Odd Plumage)
A Talkative South Polar Skua
5 Responses to 'East Rookery'
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A photo with no hat! It must be really easy to lose track of time with the daylight lasting ‘forever’. Great images.
vickie
21 Dec 08 at 2:52 am
Now you can finally be in the ATP tour like you’ve always wanted to!!!! Your shadow will dominate them all.
fluffy cloud
21 Dec 08 at 5:42 am
Absolutely love the photo of the Adelie Penguins at 25 mm. Perfect.
Clare
21 Dec 08 at 6:24 am
And I just realized that solstice is less than 24 hours away. Doing anything to celebrate the sun reaching its apex in your sky?
Perhaps contribute a post to David Ringer’s Birds of the Solstice meme? http://birdstack.com/solar-birding
Clare
21 Dec 08 at 6:27 am
You have the punk rock look down pat.
The no water/no bathing thing probably helps with the spiky hair style!
Sarah
21 Dec 08 at 4:30 pm