Devil's Island and Vega Island

Today's trip was taking the helicopter out to Devil's Island with a walk across the sea ice to Vega Island and the adelie penguin colony.  We were first out today, which was nice because when we arrived the walk was almost pristine.

The helicopter trip was again great with even more fabulous views of different types of sea ice, including parts where initially it looked like open water, but when you got closer you could see that it was still ice, but just very clear, perhaps with a layer of water on top.

We landed next to a huge lump of rock and some icebergs that were frozen into the sea ice.  It was a strange feeling to know that you are walking on sea ice and seeing those trapped bergs.

The expedition team had already set up a tent on the ice as an emergency shelter, just in case we got stuck there for any time, and they had been out to check out a safe route across the ice, marking out any huge crevasses that we might be in danger of falling down.

I'm not sure that some people took that entirely seriously until they realised that the only way the seals that we saw would be this far inland was if they had got up through a hole in the ice.

Being amongst the first to cross, we had the advantage of being almost completely alone in a mostly untouched landscape. We also had the disadvantage of treading the path, which meant that we - or more accurately I - kept managing to tread in the really deep soft snow where you sink in up to your knees. Very glad I had on my waterproofs. 

Aside from being quite a tiring way to walk, there was always that split second when you realise that your foot is going down further and can't help but think of those seal holes and wonder whether you will just be up to your knee in snow, or whether you are about to end up with a very wet leg!

Part of the way across the ice we came across the seals hauled out by a small iceberg.  There were three weddell seals and a crabeater, none of whom seemed the slightest bit concerned to see us.  They had a quick look at us then went back to their dozing.

We just about managed to stay on our feet on the really icy bit, avoided the crevasses, and after about forty five minutes reached the penguin colony.


We clambered up the very slippery edge (we saw one person come a cropper there later) and were face to beak with the adelies.

Last time we were in Antarctica, the chicks were almost grown up and so except for the penguins that were moulting, we could get quite close.


This year though, the penguins were on their eggs, so we had to keep a bit more distance so that they didn't get disturbed and possibly abandon their eggs.

We still were pretty close, and once they could see we weren't a threat, quite often a penguin or two would walk right by us.

We did see quite a few abandoned eggs around the nests.  Most of these were probably from young penguins that weren't ready to breed yet, or inexperienced parents.  But most eggs were safely tucked up under an adelie, protected from the skuas that were flying above looking for a meal.

Mind you the skuas had their own eggs and were highly protective of them.  We must have walked a bit too close for them at one point, as when we stopped, we were buzzed by the skua.  I told Nic to duck and he did so just in time; otherwise I think he may have felt the skuas claws on his head.  We moved away a little and they seemed satisfied with that.

We watched the penguins for a few hours, both the ones in the colony and those that were making the long trek across the sea ice to get to the water and hunt for food.

 
You have to admire the way these little creatures waddle such distances over the ice, often having to leap up to get over a ridge, or toboggan themselves along with their flippers to save a bit of energy.

They are clearly so much better adapted to the water, but they are far more fun to watch on land.

Eventually we made the trek back to the helicopter, pausing again to look at the seals that were still resting.

When we arrived, we discovered that the helicopter flights had had to be suspended due to bad weather.

This was a surprise, as we were having lovely sunshine, but as the expedition staff always said, the weather in Antarctica can change very quickly and be very different only short distances apart.

Ten miles away back at the ship they were have strong cold winds, some snow, and had had to move the ship into a calmer area both to enable the helicopters to fly, and to prevent the ship from getting iced in.

They only had to suspend flying for about an hour, but it reminded us all that Antarctica can be an inhospitable, unpredictable and therefore a dangerous place to get caught out in.

Thankfully, we were stuck in the nice weather area.

Petermann Island and pink snow

In the morning we were on the move again, this time just a little way back north to Petermann Island.  It was very windy and to start with it was doubtful whether we would be able to take the zodiacs out to make a shore landing.  But the captain and expedition leader pulled out the stops for us and sent extra crew out so that the zodiacs could be launched and we could get on to the island.
As the group I was with was waiting to board a zodiacs, we could could see the sea being whipped up by the wind and sprayed distances across the surface.  We watched the people  in the zodiac ahead of us getting very wet as they left, and we prepared for the worst.  However we were lucky, because as we set off, the wind dropped slightly.  It was still a bumpy ride, and we still got wet, but not as much as we'd expected.


Petermann  island has been used by whalers and scientists in the past, but there is no base here.  The only building is an old Argentine red refuge hut from 1955.  There are a few other signs of human life though.

There is a cairn on the hill, and a cross that commemorates three men from BAS who died in 1982 attempting to cross the sea ice back over to Faraday Station where we we we're yesterday.  It just goes to show that even with relatively modern technology, Antarctica can be a very dangerous place.


Nic did the hike up the hill, he is the one in the green jacket in the phots, and spotted a few Adelie penguins, while I did another photography workshop.  The Adelies are recognisable by ompletely black head with just distinctive white rings around the eyes.

Adelie Penguin

The majority of the penguins here were gentoos again, but this is as far south as they go. They are not the hardiest of the species, so they don't get as far into the depths of Antarctica as the Adelies.



We both managed to spend some time watching the fur seals on land.  When I was watching them, they had a little spat, but it seemed to be resolved quickly without any real trouble.

Unlike the leopard seals, the fur seals are not predators of the penguins, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are completely at ease together. I was watching while a penguin started to approach a fur seal, but as soon as it got close, the fur seal got up. The penguin turned and fled, with the fur seal giving a half hearted chase.

It isn't just the seals that bother the penguins though. The skuas will go after the penguin chicks and sometimes even an older penguin. They are often flying over and around the colony, and the penguins understandably get quite het up when they fly overhead. The penguin doesn't have much to defend itself with, but they have a good go with running about, sqwarking and flapping their wings wildly. Of course sometimes the skua wins and we saw a few eating their prize.


I quite liked watching the penguins here as the little bit of sun that we got had obviously woken them up nicely. They were playing in the rockpools and jumping around on the rocks.


I managed to get myself into a good position to watch a few make their way over a pile of rocks that clearly took some effort.

It amused me the way that they prepare themselves to jump, getting they body all arched, and then launch themselves. Most of the time they made it, but I did see a few desperate scrabbles to right themselves when it went wrong.


 The snow on Petermann is amazing. I know that we all know about that rather dubious phenomenon of yellow snow, but here they have pink and green snow.

This is caused by snow algae which are single cell organisms that live on the snow at high altitudes or latitudes.  It can also make the snow red, orange, yellow or grey.

Of course sometimes the pink or orange snow is because of the guano. But here it was the algae, and it looked fantastic.


The plan for the afternoon was to visit to Charcot Island and Pleneau Bay but the wind hat got up even stronger after lunch, so it was too windy to disembark.  We had to wait a while for the mountaineers to make it back, and take the ship as close as it could get to shore to make it possible to collect them, but after that we sailed back up through the Lemaire Channel.

In an earlier posting I mentioned the winds of around 20km per hour at the South Pole, but that is nothing here.  Antarctica is considered to be the windiest place on earth, with katabatic winds creating force 8 gales for over one hundred days of the year.  For those of us less familiar with the ranking of gales, the katabatic winds reach speeds of  320 km per hour.  And there is very little warning when they approach.

Fortunately the winds we were experiencing weren't at that level, but they were pretty strong.  I went out onto the lounge deck at one stage and quickly had to come back in because it was so cold, but I couldn't close the door on my own.  It took all the strength of both Nic and me to pull it shut.


Our anchoring place for the night was Paradise Harbour.  This was a very sheltered location, and we weren't the only ship hiding out here tonight.

A tour of Sea Lion Island



Sea Lion on Sea Lion Island

In the lodge we had tea and coffee waiting, but we were somewhat more interested in looking out of the lounge windows to see the hundreds of Gentoo penguins about a hundred and fifty metres away.
In the afternoon, Jenny drove us around the island to show us where the various wildlife could be found.  Our first stop was at the top of the cliffs where we could look down onto the sea lions.  At first you think you can just see the rocks, and then one of the rocks moves and you realise it is a sea lion after all. Once your get the eyes accustomed, you can spot them all.  And you can easily hear the males' loud roars.  You just have to be a bit careful not to get too close to the edge as the winds are pretty gusty and it's a long way down.

Elephant Seals

Next were the elephant seals and a few Magellanic penguins.  We took a bumpy drive through the huge tussac grass, and came out onto the beach to find the penguins running along in front of us.  They mostly kept their distance, but not far from where we stood was a small group of elephant seals and a big male sea lion.

Sea Lion roaring

Elephant seals (and sea lions) can move a lot faster on land than you would expect, and they can be quite nasty if they feel threatened, so the rules are to keep at least three of their lengths away from them, and don't get between them and the sea or their cubs if they have them. We kept the appropriate distance and didn't seem to bother them, though we could see that there was normally at least one of them keeping a watchful eye on us just to be sure we didn't need to be seen off.

King and Imperial Cormorants

Our third stop was heralded by that horrible fishy smell that you get around big groups of seabirds. It was a large colony of king cormorants with some imperial cormorants in amongst them.

With the number of birds flying around, we regarded ourselves very lucky not to have been pooed on by the time we left.

Rockhopper penguin

Then it was off to see the rockhopper penguins. They were nesting alongside more cormorants and it was strange to see the two very different birds sharing the space.  It seemed to confuse one of the baby rockhoppers, it was standing looking up at the cormorants flying above it, and was flapping its wings as hard as it could as if it thought it should be able to fly too.

Rockhopper chick feeding

We spent some time watching a couple of chicks chasing around one of the adults for a feed.  The adult was happy to feed one, but not so keen on the other.  We weren't clear if the second was supposed to get food from it or not, but eventually another adult seemed to intervene on the second chick's behalf and persuade it to feed that one too.

Porpoising Gentoo Penguins

Back towards the lodge, we stopped off at the beach to watch the adult gentoo penguins coming back from the sea.  From being little black and white specks, bobbing around out at sea, you could gradually see them a they got closer, porpoising in and out of the waves.

Gentoo penguin

Some of them timed it right so that they came in gently and were able to waddle out of the water, but others came crashing in on their stomachs and slid up on to the sand.  Most of them then hung around the beach for a while, perhaps swapping stories of what they had caught and the ones that got away, before tottering their way up to the grass by the lodge.

Gentoo penguins coming to shore

We didn't want to disturb them as they walked back, so we took a wider route around, only to suddenly realise that we were in the middle of the magellanic penguins burrow territory.  The magellanics make little burrows in the ground rather than nests, and we were now picking our way through a multitude of them, trying not to step on the shallow entrances that could easily collapse.

Magellanic penguin and chick in burrow

Most of the burrows are empty by this time of year, so walking through was not going to disturb them, and we took care not to get too close to those where a penguin was still standing sentry over its chick. These ones were quite amusing as they watched us get nearer, twisting their heads around so that they could see us better.  They seemed to realise that we weren't a threat, and were going to pass by, but still they would dip into the burrow just to be on the safe side.

We made it through without stepping on a penguin, or getting attacked by the skuas that also had nests around and are quite vicious if you get too close to them, and got back to the lodge for tea and cake.