Fresh Faces and Old Friends

The RRS Ernest Shackleton dropped us off at Signy on the 9^th November and left on the 14^th November. During this time the base was refueled and all the incoming cargo sent ashore, plus the all important food of course! During this time all hands are required to prepare the base for the season, especially at Signy which is a summer only site and so the base has to be started from cold! All systems: generators, water collection, communications etc. have to be restarted and tested before the base is declared ready and the ship can leave.

A view down to base from the top of the stone-chute (the main path to the rest of the island)

Of course, during this time we are itching to start the regular long-term monitoring work and so it was great to start catching up to the season on the 12^th and 13^th November before starting in earnest on the 15^th November. This is particularly important for the Adelie Penguins! This new study species for me arrived at Signy in late September and started laying eggs in early November so the start of the season for us is to establish our study colony as quickly as possible.

Adelie colony

The Adelies were already on eggs by the time we arrived at Signy

With the Adelie’s caught up on we could turn our attention to the Chinstraps. Although a few of these did pass by Bird Island they were in very low numbers and don’t breed there. So for me this is another new species to study and enjoy.

Chinstrap penguins hanging out with an Adelie colony behind

Signy is larger than Bird Island and has a glacier in the middle of it! So getting to and from the various study sites can take quite a bit longer – unless the island Skidoo is available that is! Not only does it cut down on travel time quite a bit but it is a lot of fun as well.

Ali, our field guide, showing that you have to wrap up very warm on a skidoo

Despite the extra time gained by using the Skidoo, Signy is large enough, with plenty of work at the distant colonies that overnight stays in field huts will be a regular occurrence here.

Foca Hut in the shadow on the Signy landscape

Of course, by staying in different places around the island it allows more chances to see some different wildlife.

Weddell Seal

It is fantastic to have new species to study and see like the Adelies, Chinstraps, Weddell Seals and the Snow Petrels; these latter flying around in greater numbers and breeding on Signy meaning that I am lucky enough to regularly watch them rather than having just the odd individual I managed to see during my Bird Island winter. But it is also brilliant to catch up with some familiar faces.

Southern giant petrels

Signy is home to Southern Giant Petrels, Brown Skuas, Blue-Eyed Shags, Snowy Sheathbills, Gentoo Penguins and Elephant Seals. All of which bred at Bird Island in varying numbers but are here as well.

Blue-eyed shag colony

There are also plenty of Fur Seals at Signy later in the season but a few have popped up already (although the Fur Seals don’t breed at Signy, it is a hangout for adolescent males!); and to complete a game of seal bingo we also have occasional sightings of Leopard Seals.

A fur seal and a couple of elephant seals hang out next to a very old whale bone

Leopard seal

The highlight for the seals at the start of the season has to be the Elephant Seal pups. Although they don’t breed at Signy every year – and when they do it is in very low numbers, <5! – we have been fortunate enough to have 3 pups nearby to base and one of them in particular is still very much reliant on mum.

Elephant seal and her pup

Suffice it to say, with so much fantastic wildlife – both familiar and new – it is set-up to be a brilliant summer at Signy, snowstorms included!

A short blizzard quickly covers the penguin colonies

Frosty looking penguins!

The Adventure Begins Again

About a year and a half ago I returned home from Bird Island, a place and experience that will always stay with me as an incredible time. The whole experience around working with such fantastic wildlife in a location like Bird Island with the people I met there was something I have hoped to recreate ever since but was never sure if the opportunity would arise. Fortunately, the opportunity has come long and I am now starting a new adventure... 6 months on Signy!

But to get back to the South and working for the British Antarctic Survey again that means there must be a trip through the Falklands and another opportunity to see the impressive sights of these islands.

The whalebone arches at Stanley are a sign of the town being twinned with Whitby, the only UK town to have a similar whalebone structure

Even though I have spent some time in the Falkland during my previous time South there is always more to see and on this occasion that meant a trip to Volunteer Point and the colonies there of Gentoo, Magellanic and King Penguins.

Volunteer Point, home to three species of penguin including Gentoo (foreground) and King (background)

What struck me most of all to begin with was the realization that species I had worked closely with for so long, such as the Gentoo Penguins, could instantly make me feel like it was all new again. Then with Giant Petrels flying past and Brown Skuas raiding the colony for an egg or two it all felt so familiar and still so exciting again.

A Brown Skua checks out the Gentoo colony for potential eggs to prey upon whilst a sheep grazes in the background!

It was fantastic to see the familiar species again, but with my time on Signy set to be filled with Gentoos, Giant Petrels and Skuas (among many others!) I spent more time at Volunteer Point with those species that cannot be seen at Signy.

Magellanic Penguin

It was brilliant to see a few Magellanic Penguins again but the highlight for me was the King Penguin colony. This is a species I only saw in small numbers on Bird Island, had a brief view of a small number during my visit to King Edward Point and that will not be seen on Signy. So to see a good-sized population with a lot of chicks nearing the time to moult and fledge was an entirely new experience for me.

This chick may look a bit sad, but I was certainly excited...

...the chick perked up after a feed and started calling away!

There were a few hundred chicks at least in residence at the colony and they were spreading out across the field, but many of them were very curious and gave us some amazing views.

The King chicks were originally thought to be a separate species due to their very different brown and fluffy look!

Very striking, but they will soon moult and look like the King adults.

King penguins take around a year to go through their full breeding cycle, from courtship to chick fledging and as such are not ready to breed again the following year. This means the adults only breed once every other year and have the longest chick rearing of any other bird.

This chick is almost fully moulted but is hanging on to the brown feathers around the head for a bit longer.

To access the colony the adults have to cross white sand beaches and fields of sheep, neither of which are what you expect to see with penguins but are regularly all together on the Falklands.

Making their way to the colony.

The colour on a King Penguin is very striking!

Of course the Falklands is home to more than penguins. With plenty of other species to see there is a lot for any naturalist to be excited about.

A Dolphin Gull on the periphery of the King Penguin colony.

Turkey Vulture

Ruddy-Headed Goose

Upland Goose (male)

South American Snipe

With another trip through the Falklands to be enjoyed it was the perfect start to my second stint with BAS. Onwards to Signy!