Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1999 17:05:44 -0400
Subject: Bird Group and computer frustrations...
Pictures: Penguin Search

Saturday, June 26

As I write, we are on our way again: we left our "home" of the past three days earlier this afternoon, after concluding all the experiments which needed to be done there, and are heading northeast to a new station which we should reach in the morning. Let me just talk for a moment about the very last "obs" (observation) done today, before taking you on a tour of the ship with my guide, J-P.

Among the scientists on board are two "bird people", as everyone here calls them: Eric is from Australia (Hobart,Tasmania, precisely), and Peter works in Maine. The two of them have been conscientiously scanning the horizon for days, hoping to see birds, but very few ever came around, except for one lonely snow petrel, which they came to know as "Jeremy"... he was their pet! [Their group has a special Antarctic permit which specifically defines the scientific research they have been allowed to do with penguins.]

So today, they decided to use some cod liver oil to attract, hopefully, a few more birds. What they need to do is examine the content of their stomach, which of course, gives important information on their diet, and therefore on their life. BUT... that means shooting a bird or two, a necessary act which, they are well aware, goes against the sensitivities of many people. Not wanting people around when a firearm was being used (for safety reasons), and also because that's the "protocole", they asked the captain to lower a zodiac in the open water left in the wake of the departing ship, and move away out of sight for a while. They then put the oil on the water, and waited, in fact for quite a while, for a few birds to be attracted by the smell, and Peter shot one of them. I asked him about the gun, and he told me that the captain, who is the only person on the ship allowed to have a weapon, loaned it to him, taking it out of a locked trunk on the bridge.

Mission accomplished, they radioed us to come back and pick them up. Observing the way this maneuver was done was quite interesting: as we got near them, the open water had almost totally re-iced (temperature today has been minus 20, the lowest we've had so far), and the ship went back and forth around them, until it had freed them from their floe and opened up enough water that they could motor up to the side and be picked up by the crane. It is very impressive how such a large vessel can turn on a dime!

As we were watching the "rescue" from the bridge, the scenery was also spectacular: the moon is full, and rose big and red over the expanse of snow- covered ice, broken here and there by darker leads of open water or thin ice. I should also mention that we had the most beautiful sunset we've seen so far.

So now, the snow petrel sits in the laboratory, where I went to look at it: it is a pretty bird, snow white as his name indicates, with a black bill, which I was told is technically called a culman, which gives an indication of the gender of the bird. This one was, apparently, a male.

Eric and Pater removed his stomach, and examined the contents, which showed a good amount of krill (they look like little shrimps), as well as some minute red dots, which they thought were fish eyes. I learned that these birds have two stomachs: one of them digests the food, which is then stored in the form of a very rich oily substance in the second one: it is this anatomical feature which allows them to survive in these extreme conditions of cold and minimum food, as well as to nest as far as 400 kms away from the water: the parents can come back to their chicks and regurgitate the oily goo for them.

As to the bird, it will be preserved frozen and will eventually be sent to a museum in Alaska which requested a specimen of snow petrel.

Hours later... It is now close to midnight, and I have been busy non-stop with one thing and another since I wrote this! So, I will just send it as is for today, and tomorrow, I will take you into the entrails of the ship with its engineer, J-P.

Sunday, June 27

By the time I finished the previous story last night, my computer and I were on the brink of a major battle...It just would not do what I wanted and attach the desired pictures. In disgust, I picked two different ones, and went to bed... to find out this morning that the file had been too big and was not accepted by the "postmaster"! Grrrr....

So here's my second try: hope it will work this time! We stopped for a while in a very beautiful place, where the moon rose over a big island on the horizon, and icebergs, which we had not seen since Palmer, suddenly appeared in the distance. A few moments ago, we started moving again, and I think we will get closer to shore, in the hope of seeing more birds as well as finding different types of ice: the place where we stopped was in shallow water(350 meters) and the ice was very thin. People had to use the zodiac to go and collect some samples.

Visit of the ship story on hold, but coming soon... stay tuned!