Category: Antarctica
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Near the North Pole, examining a submarine. When we were getting ready to go to Antarctica, people warned us about polar bears. Polar bears, they pointed out, are fast, big, smart, dangerous. They are more inclined than other bears to view humans as fabulous taste explosions. No, we said. We're going to the Antarctic, not…
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Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) started arriving in late January. At first just a few. Some people saw one. Others hoped to see one. More and more showed up, and soon everyone saw them. They're mostly subadult males. Teenagers. I worried about them because many seemed skinny. Eat more krill! They're eared seals, in the…
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Before coming to Palmer, we knew that sheathbills are ingenious seekers/thieves of every possible scrap of nourishment, and that seals are one source of opportunity for them. We'd read of sheathbills eating bits out of seal poop, snipping off scabs and dead tissue from seal wounds, and even of sheathbills snatching milk from the…
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Mid-morning break at Palmer Station, in the galley, somebody on the All Call said “Whales.” Then someone said “Minkes” but as the whales hurtled closer, everyone said “Orcas!” People rose and exclaimed. We could see tall fins of orcas racing toward us. They swam into Hero Inlet. Palmer overlooks Hero Inlet, and the deck on…
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(Artist Terri Nelson and I have gotten an NSF grant to observe a fascinating little-known bird, the Snowy Sheathbill, at Palmer Station, Antarctica. Mysteriously, the NSF sent one of us down before the other. Terri arrives in January, and we'll both be here until mid-March. ) As the ship from Punta Arenas drew in…
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