WILDLIFE ENCOUNTERS

Temperatures are warming, the sea ice is thinning and breaking up, and wildlife is beginning to appear around McMurdo Station. In the past couple of days, I've had the opportunity to take trips away from the station, and each time I've been lucky enough to encounter some Antarctic icons.

From top to bottom, these are:
The skua, a scavenging bird, which feeds on other birds' eggs, various young animals, and many other things too disgusting to mention here. They are adept at spotting food being carried from the galley across McMurdo Station, and commonly swoop down and snatch items from peoples' hands. It pays to look up when leaving the galley, as they tend to perch above the doorways.

A Weddell Seal, lying next to the hole it's made in the sea ice. The seal lay on its back and peered around at us. The Royal Society Range is visible in the background.

An Adelie Penguin, which crossed the road as we were travelling in a Mattrack across the sea ice. It was alone and seemed to be lost.

PROJECT ICEBERG VIDEOS

Megan Berg is putting out a series of videos documenting ANDRILL and the history behind it. There is a new one each week. The videos may be found at:

http://www.andrill.org/iceberg/videos/2007/index.html

There are different download options, depending on whether you have a quick connection or a dial-up connection.

Chris and I are in the 2nd video, entitled "Antarctic Geology." The first video provides a good overview of what it's like to travel to Antarctica and work at McMurdo Station. The third video talks about the history of Antarctic exploration, and emphasizes the last International Polar Year, which took place in 1957. Several of the scientists who took part in some of the first Antarctic research efforts are interviewed.

FRESHIES

Fresh vegetables and fruits are much sought after down here. We depend largely on military transport planes to bring fresh food to us. However, when the weather is bad or other types of cargo take precedence, we may not see fresh fruit and veg -- called "freshies" -- for weeks at a time. Today, after about 14 days with no freshies, we were happy to see some lettuce laid out for the evening meal. What a treat!

McMurdo does have a greenhouse, pictured above from outside and inside, but it isn't big enough to supply the ~800 people here now. The greenhouse was built in 1989 from existing buildings by a group of volunteers. I'm not sure where the produce ends up, but whoever gets to partake is lucky!