 |
| Mark holding Adelie penguin before removing tracking tag. |
 |
| Ian returning Gentoo penguin to nest. |
Today was going to be a pretty boring day in terms of a normal day down here. The weather didn’t look very good so we decided not to deploy the REMUS since we have already had a great trip and we don’t need to risk losing the thing at this point. I was planning on taking care of all our shipping lists and hazardous requirements when Mark came and asked me if I wanted to go out with the birders again. Mark and Matt were supposed to go out, but Matt forgot he had a video conference with his daughter’s class so he wasn’t able to go. I rushed up and ate a quick lunch and got dressed. Fifteen minutes later we were riding out to go find a couple of tags and then redeploy them.
It took us about 15 minutes to get there and then we looked around for one penguin who had a tag that we needed to remove.
In the area where we were visiting, there was not a single Gentoo breeding pair in 1993. Most of the breeding pairs were Adelie’s then. Now there are only a couple Adelie pairs and almost 2,000 Gentoo breeding pairs. This is part of the shift that we are trying to understand and document during our stay down here.
In the area where we were visiting, there was not a single Gentoo breeding pair in 1993. Most of the breeding pairs were Adelie’s then. Now there are only a couple Adelie pairs and almost 2,000 Gentoo breeding pairs. This is part of the shift that we are trying to understand and document during our stay down here.
Mark ended up finding the penguin and got to hold it while they removed the tag. They downloaded the data and then we moved to the next island and looked for a Gentoo penguin to put the tag on. The birders are going to start putting the tags on Gentoos instead of Adelies, since the Adelies are nearly done raising their young and will be leaving the area soon along with any tags that are on them. Once they picked out a penguin, I got to hold it while they taped the tag to the penguins back and then we let it go back to its nest. It is pretty amazing how strong these birds are and how they can survive in this environment down here.
Once we finished up we headed back to station and ran into some very strong winds. It was fun, but pretty bumpy. Everyone at the station was a little worried, but we never in any danger. It seems like the wind may stick around for a couple of days so it will be interesting to see if we can get any more REMUS deployments before we have to pick up.
Have a good weekend everyone.
Good night,
Ian
No comments:
Post a Comment