Midwinter on Bird Island

Midwinter in the Antarctic is steeped with tradition, some starting with the early explorers who celebrated the shortest day which marks the slow return of the sun over the coming months. Nowadays winter isn't quite as extreme, we live in nice, comfortable heated bases with showers and internet that can even handle downloading pac-man via satellite. Despite these modern comforts, winter can take its toll on body and soul, so it is important to take some time off and midwinter is the perfect excuse. It is the main holiday for those South, as Christmas is the busiest time of year for our fieldwork, and personnel movements for those on the continent. This year midwinter fell on a Tuesday, so we took a week off, Saturday to Saturday. The only fieldwork that needs to be done at this stage is my leopard seal round, which others on base were kind enough to take on for the week, giving me some time off. I still had to go out when a seal is seen, but it is great to have a break from the daily 2-3 hour walk I do whilst looking for them.

Beach party
We started off the week with a beach party. On the icy beach outside we played frisbee, boules, did unconventional 'ice swimming', and hit a ball around. At the end of summer when we played french cricket, we had to chase down the ball to stop snowy sheathbills and skuas from stealing it, a problem which isn't as prevalent in winter. We moved inside to have dinner: a starter of vegetables and dips, followed by a very tasty sausage roll and chips in rolled up paper! For dessert we hopped in the outside hot tub and ate fruit juice ice lollies under the stars and an almost-full moon.

Ice-swimming is tiring...

Beach party games

You can't have a beach party without kicking a ball around

Hot-tubbing

Mid-winter Olympics
We returned to the beach on a foggy and windy day to play more games. This time we went curling (with 'stones' made from saucepan lids frozen into the top of a ball of coloured water), did welly whanging, bodger tossing, and a spot of 'archery'. Ian won, I came second, Tim followed, with Lucy taking the wooden spoon.

Curling stones and food colouring to paint a target on the ice

Ian showing us how it's done

Whanging a wellie

Tim expertly throwing a bodger

Mid-winter day
Most of us managed a lie-in whilst Lucy (winter station leader) got up early to make sure the generator hadn't grown unhappy overnight, and to start an amazing breakfast. It's tradition for the SL to make breakfast for the base, which can be a bit of an undertaking for larger bases like Rothera, and I think Lucy put in a similar amount of effort, creating some very tasty items. Over the preceding days, we had been receiving midwinter greetings cards from other bases, from many different countries. We even got an email from the Minister of Science in Japan, and Barrack Obama.

We spent the day cooking several courses. I was in charge of desserts, so had done the majority the day before, but had a few bits to finish so joined the others when there was space in the kitchen. We were all organized, and managed to sit down for a board game before dinner.

After dinner, we sat down and listened to the midwinter broadcast, where family record messages which are introduced by celebrities, specially for those wintering South. It was broadcast on BBC World Service, and is available on Iplayer. We also opened a surprise package from home, which was amazing to receive. I got a 'Marine Biologist because Badass isn't an official job title' t-shirt, and an 'I love counting seals' mug. Presents are always great, but even more so when South as there are no shops, and for some unbeknownst reason, Amazon doesn't deliver. <3 always="" amazon="" and="" are="" as="" but="" counting="" deliver="" doesn="" even="" it="" lovely="" more="" mug="" no="" options="" other="" p="" presents="" receive="" s="" seals="" shops="" so="" south="" t="" there="" to="" when=""><3 always="" amazon="" and="" are="" as="" br="" but="" counting="" deliver="" don="" for="" great="" more="" mug.="" no="" presents="" reason.="" seals="" shops="" so="" some="" south="" t="" there="" unbeknownst="" when="">

Pouring champagne for dinner

Appetizers

Starter accompanied by exchanging cards

Enjoying a feast which created leftovers for a week

I was happy with the outcome of the desserts

Happy with my new t-shirt

We also made presents for one other member of base, drawing the recipient out of a hat during our 'winterers night' at Fairy Point Hut in March, before the summer crew departed. Everyone has been working hard in the workshop, and all of the presents were wonderful, showing some very talented woodwork.

Ian made me a brilliant box, with fold-down front and a drawer

My present to Ian, a box / stand with a carving of BI on the top

Tim gave Lucy an Albatross coat hanger

Lucys' presents for Tim: A barometer, thermometer and clock

After dinner had settled, we danced the night away, spending a good 4 hours on the 'dancefloor'. We may not have a club, or a bar, but we do have a living room with a partially functional disco ball and strobe light, and no neighbours to annoy.

Group mid-winter photo

Listening to the broadcast

Wigs have a habit of coming out when dancing occurs

The day afterwards was spent huddled under duvets watching a variety of films, until I had to brave the elements and do the leopard seal round.

Fieldwork FIDS
Falkland Island Dependency Survey (FIDS) was the precursor to BAS. Earlier in the year we had a FIDS food night, sampling some of the old emergency field rations that had gone out of date (by 10 years in some cases) and had now been replaced with newfangled field food. Apparently punishing ourselves with camp food wasn't enough, so we decided to have a fieldwork FIDS day, wearing itchy flannel shirts in freezing winds. Ian and Tim went out to do the lep round together, and myself and Lucy headed up the ridge to check on the wanderers.

Apparently these are FID poses.

Shocked to see a wanderer chick, and feeling quite cold

Who needs a sledge when you can slide down a frozen stream on your bum?

It was a brilliant week, one that will keep us happy for a while. 

A brilliant four days: Whales, leopard seals and the sun!

The last few days have been simply amazing. Each day has consisted of the same central routine, with an additional added bonus.

Day 1: 
 I've started going out for the last hour of daylight before dinner, enjoying the pleasant light levels and hoping to see a leopard seal attempting to grab a penguin as they come ashore for the night. My favourite spot for this is called Iceberg point, an outcrop of rocks in the bay where base is situated. It presents decent views back into the bay, across to main bay, and also landing beach and beyond. I didn't see any leopard seals, so I spent my time taking photos of feeding terns in the slightly reddish light. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something big in the water, and then it was gone. I assumed this was a large rock being uncovered by an extreme low tide, until I saw the distinct blow and arching back of a whale. I called everyone out of base, and we spent half an hour watching it from ~15m away on the intertidal rocks, until we lost the light and had to make our way back to base before there was a chance we'd trip over seals and rocks in the dark. From the behaviour I think it may have been feeding, which is corroborated by hundreds of terns, giant petrels, gulls and pintail ducks feeding in the bay earlier that day, so clearly there was a lot of food around. This was the closest sighting of a whale to base, to my knowledge, since 1991. It was an amazing encounter, and rivals that of my Orca sighting from the Farallones last year (http://naturesfreedom.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/rounding-up-last-adventure-and-starting.html. ). It highlights the fact that you'll miss such encounters if you stay inside all the time. I was toying with the idea of watching an episode of walking dead (very kindly sent down on a USB by my parents in April), and I'm glad that I decided to sit out in the cold instead.

Day 2:
Sunlight is a rarity on Bird Island at the best of times, especially in winter when the sun doesn't hit base for several months.  I went on the lep round as soon as it was light to allow the other guys a chance to head out and enjoy the glorious weather when I got back. Jerry and Ian did a bit of winter climbing around the higher peaks on the island, armed with ice axes and crampons, and Tim went up the meadows to spend some time with his birds. Once the climbers came back (we have one person on base at all times to respond to any emergencies on-base or in the field), I headed out to Tonk, a hill that I hadn't been up before. It doesn't take long to get to the top, kicking steps into the snow and ice as I climbed, but the view was spectacular. It's always nice to see a place you live from a different perspective. As I was sitting on top, I got a radio call from Ian alerting me that two leps had been seen off SSB, so I started to make my way down. The easiest way back down the snow slope seemed to be bum sliding, stopping myself periodically so I didn't gain too much speed. It was also very fun!

It was sunny, but -6C, so grease ice formed into pancake ice in the bay.

Having a chat with a wanderer chick on the way up the hill

The view from Tonk.

The same panorama, in spherical form. I quite like this one.

Day 3: 
The weather turned, returning to the standard BI foggy slush. The day continued as normal, until I got a call from Ian once again reporting a sighting of a leopard seal off SSB. I went to meet him, expecting the usual mid-distance sighting where the seal shows her back and her upper face above the water. I climbed out onto the intertidal rocks once more to get some close-up shots, when she swam towards me, coming within a few metres and making full eye-contact. I've made eye contact with them before on land, but they are in their element in the water, and seem a lot more powerful when they're swimming about with ease. It was great to have such a close encounter with an inquisitive seal.

There are usually terns feeding in the bays, which I see daily on the lep round

Adult female leopard seal says hello

I also somehow managed to upload a video over our limited internet!

Day 4:
I was working on my mid-winters present in the workshop, and had just finished and was leaving to go have another look for leps around iceberg point and SSB, when I saw a big splash next to iceberg point itself. I've seen a few leopard seal kills already, and instantly recognized the splash as they throw their prey from side-to-side, ripping chunks of flesh off with their powerful jaws. I sprinted to the rocks, with a quick detour to grab my camera, running through ankle deep slush whilst counting the number of thrashes and splashes. I got to the rocks, and was perhaps 5 or 6 metres from the lep as it continued its post-mortem processing of a fur seal. It was the longest processing I've witnessed, totaling 24 minutes, allowing us to take hundreds of photos and several minutes of video. It may sound odd if you aren't a field biologist, but we are constantly surrounded by life and death, so it's not odd to find watching a predator rip apart its previously cute and furry prey, very very cool. The raw power they exhibit is really impressive.