End of the section

The first piece of work for the trip was a CTD section from the Falklands to the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, to measure the flow around Antarctica (which is about 130million tons per second, or 600 times the flow of the Amazon). This involves lowering the CTD package (the oceanographic equivalent of a weather balloon) to ten metres off the bottom at thirty stations across the Drake Passage. The last two stations took a bit longer to get to than expected due to fairly heavy sea ice, but we got there eventually and finished the section by 3am. Now time to get off night shifts.

Ice at midnight

Ice at dawn

Piling supplies for repairing the whark at Rothera, also some fuel. Not much space left on the back deck.
More sea iceLayered ice from an ice sheet, calved from the large tabular berg that was nearby

Pushing through a dense patch - it was all broken enough to push out of the way, though we are likely to need to do some proper ice breaking to reach Rothera.

Dense sea ice means Snow Petrels (and Chinstrap Penguins) have been added to the bird list. Sea ice is often discolored by ice algae, which in turn is eaten by zooplankton - petrel food. Any bergs that the ship turns over are quickly investigated by the birds. No whale photos yet but 17 Fin, 1 Minke and 1 Southern Bottleneose yesterday. First cruise ship today.

Cape Petrel, always some behind the ship.

Some work, some wind

Trip down to the Falklands went largely to plan. The announcement at Brize Norton that they had to reduce the weight of the plane and some passengers wouldn't fly was a bit worrying but it was soon announced that those left would be military. The plan was to sail on Tuesday morning but it was blowing 40knots in the harbour so we stayed tied up - we were never going to get any work done, or make much progress to where we wanted to work. We ended up leaving 6am Wednesday in wet but not very windy conditions. Wildlife was good as always on the passage away from the Falklands, highlight being two Commerson's Dolphins that escorted us out of the harbour. Got on to nights OK through sleeping a small amount at night (1.30am-5.30am) and then again after lunch. Mangaed one full shift of work last night but blowing again now so we're sitting around doing not a lot (well, actually 2 knots sideways in a strong current and trying to work out the best use of the time we have left).

Some good light this morning so got the camera out for the first time:


Wandering Albatross

Black-browed Albatross

Southern Royal Albatross

Wilson's Storm Petrel

The rest of the year

May

Not a lot, getting things organised for June, including buying a car. A couple of calm sunny days to take the macro lens out to Fen Drayton for Scarce Chaser and damselflies

Scarce Chasers (the second picture is worth looking at full size, I think)

Common Blue Damselflies with food

Variable Damselfly


June

First weekend went to Plymouth to do a seabird and cetacean survey to Roscoff and back. One group of Bottlenose Dolphins and some good seabirds.

Next weekend took the car, tent and mountain bike (fits easily inside the Yaris) up to Scotland for a couple of weeks. I managed four days of timed tetrad visits for the Bird Atlas, in amongst a quick trip to the Outer Hebrides, a day looking for dragonflies and some rain.

The longest and hottest day, Beinn Dronaig. 8 miles in on the bike (320m climbing) and then 6 hours surveying. 8 miles back. The penultimate photo shows the bridge - two bits of wire. Result: it's pretty but there's not many birds.

A much more productive day (Golden Eagle, Ptarmigan with chick, Ring Ouzel) up Sgurr a Chaorachain, seen here from Bidean an Eoin Deirg. Thankfully the latter is seven metres shorter than the former so is a subsidiary peak to it rather than a Munro. Therefore very few people walk along the ridge and disturb things like the Ptarmigan. I probably ought not to say that it's a far nicer top than the actual Munro.

One Munro to another, so a well developed path. Munro bagging is another realisation of the collecting/listing instinct that is so obvious in birding. The discussions amongst the walkers in the hostel were almost identical to those heard amongst birders. To use birding terminology:

Ticking - seeing species/reaching the top

Dipping: to not see a bird. Equivalent to being beaten back by bad weather or being a complete idiot and accidentally climbing the wrong hill.

Splitting: Considering two races of a species to be two separate species, those allowing you to tick both and have a longer list. Equivalent: deciding that a subsidiary top should have been a Munro itself so climbing it as well (unlike Corbetts there is no absolute definition of a Munro other than what Mr Munro decided)

List blindness - OK, so not a real birding term but there should be some term for people who don't bother looking at interesting/pretty birds because they're not rare. See above.

Four days on the Outer Hebrides (Oban -> South uist, North Uist -> Skye) were very pleasant. Stayed it the Gatcliffe Hostels at Howmore and on Berneray. Interesting bunch of people in them. Any conversation that goes between renewable energy from the sea, sea kayaking, oceanography, and recollections of accompanying convoys across the Atlantic in WWII is not bad.


Had one day, sunny but quite windy, looking for dragonflies around Loch Maree. I managed to see the three main species - Azure Hawker, White-faced Darter and Northern Emerald but only got photos of the latter (which was the one that I already had a decent photo of)


Back via a few hours in Speyside: Osprey, Red Squirrel and Crested Tit.

July

Day out at Strumpshaw early on for Norfolk Hawker and Swallowtail Butterfly.

Several evenings out getting breeding records for the Bird Atlas, including several broods of Little Owls

August

Week at Boxtree, the family cottage in Herefordshire. The view from the Twmpa


September

Two trips up to Norfolk but by far the best bird, a male Pallid Harrier, was in the Fens just north of Cambridge.

The Fens where the harrier was, unfortunately not quite in this light.

Norfolk, nice light, few birds.
Beach at East Hills

The third and fourth weekends in September I went to Bilbao, firstly as one of the guides on a Whale and Dolphin themed cruise and secondly to do one of the monthly surveys with Biscay Dolphin Research Programme. Some excellent sightings, largely on the themed cruise, which made guiding very easy. Highlights were two groups of Sowerby's Beaked Whales and very good views of Cuvier's Beaked Whales, especially on the survey crossing where five came past very close to the ship in the short spell of calm seas, allowing them to be seen very well underwater. No photos, but see last year. Another highlight of the first trip was the boils of Yellowfin Tuna in the southern bay. They were up to 50m across with tuna jumping out continuously chasing bait balls of Anchovies at the surface. They continued until sunset with a Fin Whale appearing near one bait ball and some Striped Dolphins joining in with another.

October

First and third weekends were more seabird and cetacean surveys, to Roscoff and Santander this time. No photos and, frankly, very few interesting sightings. Otherwise not a lot.

November

Little Owls found for the winter atlas list and two days of timed visits done. Second paper of the year accepted.

Ascension on the way home (April)

The MOD flight we get back from the Falklands stops on Ascension Island for refuelling. This means that if we sort it ourselves we can stop on Ascension for 3 or 7 days. A tropical/equatorial (8 degrees south) island is something of a contrast to the Southern Ocean. The temperature is 26-30C but the south-east trade winds mean that hydration and sunburn are bigger problems than absolute temperature. April is an excellent time to visit as the Green Turtles are still laying eggs but early clutches are beginning to hatch, ten minutes from the hotel. I contacted the seabird researchers and went out with them on weekdays. Daria and Ruth also stopped and were excellent company and a very good way of finding out what was happening on the island, aided by the mainly male demographic of the US and UK air bases and aerial technicians. Some of these photos are theirs (thanks).

Laying Green Turtle

Hatching nest

Dead hatchling the next morning

Crab on the beach

Octopus in the rock pools

Turtle pits on one of the many sandy beaches

Turtle Pits, from the days turtles were sold to passing ships. The turtles were turned on their back when they came in to lay eggs and then the following day a float was tied to them before they were turned back over. They dragged themselves to the sea but couldn't sink the float. A small boat then approached them and towed them to these pits where a small crane lifted them into these pits. Thankfully someone realised this was too easy and there would soon be no more turtles so hunting was scaled back and then stopped. There is now a healthy population of Green Turtles breeding on the island, with Hawksbills seen around the island but not breeding.

Some of the volcanic landscape and surprisingly pale sand.

The seabird guys are studying the effects of the removal of feral cats from the island in 2001/2. The cats preyed on the seabird chicks and pushed all but one of the breeding species to just a few offshore rocks. The species than stayed on the mainland, Sooty Tern, survived by synchronising it's breeding cycle, to produce a mass defense against the cats and a glut of chicks so that some survived. They breed every 9 months, including a couple of months absence before they start again. This is in contrast to all other colonies where breeding is continuous through the year with pairs coming and going on their own cycle. Interestingly the 9 month cycle appears to be starting to break down now that the cats have gone and also Brown Noddies have joined the Sooty Terns at their 'Wideawake Fairs' - Wideawake is the local, onomatopoeic name for the terns

Wideawake Fair, doing very well without feral cats around.



Most of the seabirds that remain, including the entire world population of the Ascension Frigatebird, are confined to Boatswain Bird Island, a few other small rocks and some inaccessible cliffs.
Masked Boobies are one of the species that have spread onto the mainland. There were 'spare' adults in the population that couldn't find space on Boatswain Bird Island so breeding pairs have increased rapidly now that the mainland is suitable. A German film crew was on the island for a few days to film the seabirds before joining a German research ship (RV Meteor) to film research at a nearby deep sea vent that was discovered five years ago by a team from Southampton.

Filming Stedson, with a White Tern coming in to investigate. White Tern has been on my want-to-see list for as long as I can remember and they didn't disappoint.


Crossing an amazing recent volcanic landscape

One of the endemic plant species

The path back (the lower line across the slope). Full respect to the Germen who did this with a large tripod across his shoulders.

It's 26C or so, the landscape is fairly unforgiving, so obviously you go on a hash house run with the locals. The loose lava means that you can only run a few bits. Good fun and good to meet other people there. The white staining on the rocks (other than the arrow) is sub-fossil guano from pre-cat times when there were extensive seabird colonies on the island.

Finishing with a cool drink and a bonfire. I felt the kids needed 'supervising' playing with the fire, so I joined in with them.

Comfortless Cove, one of the two bays considered sheltered enough from the breakers to be safe to swim. I got in the water once, but to call it swimming may be an exaggeration.

Comfortless Cove (originally Comfort Cove but changed for obvious reasons) was the place where sick crew members were put ashore to avoid contaminating the islanders. they were given food and water and left to fend for themselves. Not surprisingly there is a cemetery here.

Our catch of three Yellow-fin Tuna from a morning's sport fishing. Also good views of Madeiran Storm Petrel and some spectacular jumps from a Bottlenose Dolphin pod (the latter being more widely appreciated than the former).

Sunday afternoon windsurf lessons, I stuck to the surf kayak.

Yesterday's tuna

We brought the tuna, others had charcoal, plates, knives, sauces, drinks etc. Good evening.

Some people wondered if there was enough on Ascension to fill a week. There is.

Falklands in April

We arrived back in the Falklands late on the 18th April, with one Sei Whale and a few Peale's Dolphins seen on the approach to the islands. The next morning we packed the containers. Encouraged by the prospect of some time off and a walk we managed to get the zarges/box container full by 9.30am and the gear container done before 11. After raiding the duty mess for lunch we spread out our separate ways into a very pleasant but also very autumnal afternoon. I headed out to Cape Pembroke, about 5 miles each way along a very Hebridean peninsula.

Bird Island

We did some base relief, honest (food and new batteries for the power supply in, waste and empty oil drums out). Then we went for some walks and took some photos. Amazing place:

Thankfully it didn't eat the ship

The corollary of so much life is a rather large amount of death. In the summer this beach is packed full of Fur Seals.

A warm seat. Not many pups survived this year due to a lack of food in surrounding waters, possibly linked to the very high temperatures this year.

Other people working, moving waste into the cargo tender to be taken back to the ship.

Death in action: a Sheathbill pecking at an open wound on a soon-to-be-ex Gentoo Penguin. Being a science base, there is no intervention to help or save the animals (there are tens of thousands of penguins and 10 scientists max, 4-5 in winter so it would be impracticable as well as messing up the science)

Anti-seal fence. Fur Seals are excluded from a small area to study their effects on the tussock grass. Antarctic Fur Seal numbers have rocketed from low thousands (maybe hundreds) globally (due to incredibly thoughtless and unsustainable hunting) to approximately two million around South Georgia now. Being Fur Seals theys are far more competent on land than 'true' seals so can climb high up the island, trashing the tussock and destroying breeding habitat for burrowing petrels as they go. It isn't clear whether the current population is back to 'normal' and the lack of damage was a positive side-effect of the hunting or whether the removal of huge numbers of baleen whales (competitors for food), also by thoughtless and unsustainable hunting, has allowed numbers to overshoot. The extremely low numbers that they reached may also have made predators (mainly seal-specialist Killer Whales) die out, move away or reach very low numbers from which they haven't increased as rapidly as the furries. Many scientists would like there to be fewer, due to the damage and the fact that they try to bite you while you do base relief.

Wandering Albatross brooding its chick with the base behind.

Wandering Albatross chick, ready for the winter (hopefully)

Some adults were still brooding the chicks while others were left as both adults foraged.

Black-browed Albatross chick almost ready to fledge - the smaller albatrosses raise chicks within one summer so are out of synch with the Wanderers.

Not quite ready for sea. Note that all these photos were taken with a short lens (this one at 85mm, the top end of the zoom)

The endemic South Georgia Little Brown Job (Pipit). Mostly restricted to rat-free islands around South Georgia.

I have mentioned the death haven't I?

Yves at 'Big Mac' - the large Macaroni Penguin colony. Breeding is over but many birds are still around moulting or mooching.

I wish I could fly...
I just wish I could swim! Penguins have to come ashore to moult as they lose their waterproofing and insulation. They obviously have to fast through this period.

Skuas playing king of the castle, waiting for another penguin to die.

Displaying Wanderers. They return to colony at about 7 years old and display for a few years before breeding with a lifelong (normally, they do 'divorce') partner. They live to 50+ so there is no rush, unless huge numbers die on long-lines trying to catch fish, which they currently are - see http://www.savethealbatross.net/ but there are recent encouraging results significantly reducing the bycatch around South Georgia and South Africa.

Cute, just stay away from the bill!

Less cute - Southern Giant Petrel chick.

Overall an amazing day with amazing sights and sounds - being on the ship you hear very little bird noises (engine, forced air ventilation, music and each other is about it) so hearing them call is very pleasant. You can also hear the air over the Wanderers' wings from about 50 yards as they come into land (the wingspan is about 10ft). Walking was also a novel experience but I just about managed to keep up with the guys from base over/between the tussock and around the Fur Seals (dead and alive).

Past South Georgia and onto Polar Front

Icebergs again, plenty around South Georgia after few in the open water north of South Orkneys

Now tied up at Fipass in the Falklands so will catch up with the happening of the last couple of weeks (or at least the more photogenic aspects - I'll spare you the physics cruise report, which is possibly the dullest piece of writing I'll ever produce. We got to the Georgia Basin, the site of the South Georgia bloom (fertilised by iron coming from the island and/or shallow shelf around the island) and the end of our transect - a line north-east(ish) from South Orkneys to west of South Georgia. The aim of the transect was to sample different environments along the way - from ice and Antarctic Peninsula influenced water to the south, through 'open water' (low iron as not downstream of land) and into warmer and South Georgia influenced water to the north. This year has been very warm - 1.5 degrees Celcius warmer than the same time last year. Not sure yet why it is so different but will be an opportunity to see what effects the temperature has (but also cause some problems comparing between this autumn and the summer cruise last year).

After two stations in the bloom we set off for the Polar Front to see why King Penguins go there, swimming for several days through areas with seemingly higher productivity (plant growth). The Polar Front is a transition zone between Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic water masses, a region of strong currents and also an important habitat zone in its own right. Most people define it as a single line rather than a two-dimensional area so I was hoping to use finding the King Penguins and Grey-headed Albatrosses all lined up to identify the front! As it was we had to rely on my satellite work and a series of eXpendable BathyThermographs (XBTs) to get us to a suitable bit of the Polar Front. We had to hove to and do nothing the first night as there was too much swell - we have to deploy the nets at night or otherwise the fish see it coming and swim away. However, in a break with the past couple of years we could work the next couple of nights, getting three net hauls done per night and hopefully some interesting insight into the myctophid fish (penguin food) of the area. Then it got rough again - force 10 for a day. We managed to run slightly across the wind and tack back to South Georgia to do the Bird Island base relief call (pick up summerers, give food and other supplies to the winterers). See next post.

Windy, but it got windier. Force 9-10 winds aren't too bad - not dangerous and you know you're not going to work for a bit so can relax for a bit and watch some films.

What you get for steaming across the swell.

One of these happened to fly past - young (3years?) Wandering Albatross. They stay at sea until they are seven, then attend the colony and display for a few years and start breeding at 10-12.