New Antarctica Season, New Animals

I came back to McMurdo Station, Antarctica in Oct, 2009 for a second 4-month season. I finally got what everyone wants most--to see emperor penguins and baby seals out on the sea ice.
To go out to see the animals, a person has to go on a special excursion out of the station. About 20 of us climbed into the back of an old Navy truck called a Delta. It has hard bench seats, the windows get completely steamed over, and the 2-hour ride out there can be very rough and bouncy. Sometimes you get to see animals, sometimes you don't. This time we did. We got stuck in the in the snow a lot and had to dig. One time, there were four black spots on the horizon. Could it be penguins? Yes it was, and they were coming toward us. The rule is that we are not allowed to approach the penguins. But if we stay still, and they come to us, that's fine. So we got down on our knees and quietly waited for them to come to us.
Emperor penguins don't waddle like in the cartoons. When they want to move, they flop down on their bellies and push themselves along the ice using their back feet. They look just like the water birds that they are.


When the penguins got to us, they stood up to look at us. They probably came to see if we had any fish to eat. And when we didn't, they flopped back onto their bellies and moved on.
Everything you see in this pictures other than the penguins is ice, probably more than 20 ft. thick.



We also saw seals out on the ice. These pictures were taken with a telephoto lens--we aren't allowed to get as close as these appear.
Seals come up through ice holes and flop out onto the ice. Then they just lie there, barely moving, looking like garden slugs. The only way to know from a distance that they are not big gray rocks is that there aren't any rocks out there on the ice.
The babies are just slightly more energetic than the moms.




Isn't this baby just the cutest!

Penguin!

I saw my first penguin in Antarctica! They say that the penguins arrive after the icebreaker comes in. The icebreaker arrived Sunday. The penguin was here Monday. It's a little adelie penguin. I watched it for about an hour an a half. First it was asleep in a ball like a little black cat. Then it stood up, stretched a wing. Later it raised both wings. Later yet it crowed like a crow. Still later it took a few steps, got into the water for a short swim, got out, and stood some more.

Below is the penguin with the icebreaker that arrived from Sweden.

How Cold Is It?

Just how cold is it in Antarctica? Not very right now--January. Temps are in the high 30's F just about every day. And with the sun up all the time, it feels very nice. Above is Pat fixing some field camp equipment. Kind of looks like a palm tree, doesn't it?

Above is Matt, our dorm's janitor, in shorts and a parka. Notice that he's standing on dirt--not ice and snow. McMurdo station has been more dust than ice for a couple months now. In the background is the frozen sea ice and mountains.

At the New Year's music festival, there was some warm weather dressing. Note the Hawaiian shirt.

Also at the music festival were sandals and shorts.

Just had to include this music festival guy.

Here are two of the guys that Carol works with--Tom the plumbing foreman and Don the boiler mechanic. The wind came up at the music festival, so even though the temp wasn't so cold, the wind was!