Island Hopping

Current Weather
Temperature: 38F
Wind Speed: 5 knots
Conditions: Overcast

I'm exhausted. Yesterday was our day off, and after seeming weeks of wind or rain, we finally got a beautiful day. GSAR rallied at 10:30AM. By noon, PQ, DeVal and I were lowering the first of a long queue of intrepids into a crevasse. A well-oiled machine by 8PM, we closed up shop, packed and hiked home, arriving at 9:30PM. Whew, I need a day off. I didn't take any pictures, so I'll have to await their appearance on the shared drive.

February has been reasonably uneventful, aside from Kim's return from the LTER cruise, of course. Between ships, we've enjoyed a smallish station population and seeming weeks of wind or rain, as I already mentioned. It's given me a bit of homesickness and cabin fever lately, looking out the window into the drear and thinking about the things I miss, like mountain biking and kite boarding and kayaking and... Yesterday's outdoor excursion helped, though.

I did find a few pictures worth posting (I haven't taken nearly as many as last year). These were all taken on the same day, just a couple months ago, when the weather was still turning nice. A group of us loaded up for some island hopping. First stop, DeLaca, which was swarming with Antarctic Terns. They didn't seem to be breeding, but they occasionally swooped at us anyway, much like the Skuas in the back yard lately. Actually, it's turning into Hitchcock's The Birds back there. Every time I go up the glacier (which is a lot lately, because the VLF antenna is fubar), it seems that two dozen Skuas circle overhead, most of which follow me half way up the hill taking sporadic, half-assed territorial dives at me. It's really weird, because I know none of them claim the back yard (they're almost exclusively non-breeders back there). I can only imagine that they're practicing. Anyway, an incoming Antarctic Tern:

They're beautiful birds, and one of my favorites here. This one took an interest in hovering above, which I didn't realize they could do, to keep an eye on me:

I soon noticed this broken Skua egg nearby and wondered if that's what he was keeping an eye on:

Kim and I found a high ledge to sit on and watched Humpback whales spout in the distance. No, no, of course she didn't climb up there in her cast (which finally came off a couple weeks ago).

On our way to Spume to have lunch, we encountered a small pod of Humpbacks and followed them around for a bit:

And after lunch, exploring Spume, I found this Chinstrap displaying its flexibility:

It did a nice warrior III next, but I missed the photo...