Category: Sheathbills

  •   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…

  • Several sheathbills live right around Palmer Station, which is handy. Especially since pack ice has prevented me from leaving the station by water ever since I got here. I am getting some useful photographs of sheathbills, documenting their behavior. It's important to focus on things they're doing in this part of the breeding season, which…

  •   (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…