Emperor Penguins

Out on the sea ice the other day we ran into these guys.  I don't really have much to say except this was an amazing experience.  

Weddell Seals

Each day we are on the sea ice there seems to be more and more seals.  It is birthing time here for the seals, and we have already seen one baby.  The seals can be found at cracks in the ice, where they work to keep holes open by chewing on the ice.  We watched one seal attempt to get out of a hole three times before it started to make the hole bigger by scraping the ice with its teeth.  Many of the seal holes have blood around them from the males who guard their holes from other males.  It is not uncommon to see bloodied male seals outside the holes covered in snow having not appeared to move for many hours.  These seals are exhausted from fighting for their holes.   As soon as they are rested they return to the water to continue to guard the hole.  Below are a few photos from one of the hole we saw the other day.

Mother and pup.

An exhausted male.

A seal looking up through its hole.

This seal took four tries to get out of the hole.   The one in the background had a blood trail from the hole to where it was laying.  There are several large wounds on its back flipper and around its genital areas, which is where the males bite each other.

A seal rolling in the fresh snow after getting out of the hole.

A seal carving the hole with its teeth.

Resting.

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McMurdo Station, and My First Glimpse of Wildlife.

A couple of photos from yesterday.  It was an amazing day here and I was able to walk up the hill above McMurdo Station to shoot some photos.  The second photo is a high resolution shot of all of McMurdo Station.

Looking over the sea ice from McMurdo.  Hut Point in the foreground and a Kiwi Hagland driving by behind.

McMurdo Station from the hill about Hut Point.

Weddel seals lay out on the ice.  These are most likely pregnant females .  They birth here.  They will often come out of the water where there are cracks in the sea ice.  Here the crack is clearly visible as an "s" shaped deformity in the ice.

The Scott Hut

Today after work I went for a walk to Hut Point here on Ross Island.  This is where Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery Hut is located.  The hut was used for the 1901-1904 expedition.  It was later used by Shackleton during his 1908 expedition.

Also located on hut point is Vince Cross.  This is the cross to commemorate T. Vince of the expedition who died in an area close to here.

The Hagland

Today we went out on the sea ice to set up our class room for the Happy Camper course.  This is a course that everyone has to take prior to going out in the field.  It was a very overcast and foggy day, so I did not shoot many photos.  The sun did come out later in the day right as we were leaving, so I shot a few photos.  

The Hagland we use to get around.

Ben and Ned enjoying the ride.

Chandra doing the driving.