Wildlife Galore!

7 Jan 2014
The internet is back up and running, which is good for now, but it may not last. Such is life on base (more about that after the field). For now, I’ll jump into my Antarctic Animal Checklist. There aren't too many larger animals that live on the continent, so my animal wishlist was not very long. I had heard that there would be seals and penguins that I would see whether I wanted to see them or not. They live on base and you sometimes have to consciously avoid them rather than seeking them out. However, there are 3 types of seals, 2 kinds of penguins, 3 types of birds, and several whales that are all seen here at Rothera. However, some of these species are weather/season dependent and the whales seem to be seasonal, but you also need a bit of luck. I went down here hoping for at least Weddell seals and Adelie penguins.

Rothera is situated on a little point of land and you can leave the main base and walk around the shore of the whole point in about an hour. It is mostly cobbles and gravel, but there are still some areas with snow as well. As we started off on a very calm evening, which was made all the rarer by the blue sky, we took tons of scenery photos of the ice in the bay and just offshore. The reflection of the icebergs on the ocean was stunning by itself (I have a feeling that I’m going to need to look up synonyms for stunning - majestic, beautiful, breathtaking, awe-inspiring, amazing? Yeah, it’s all of those things…).

It wasn't long before we came upon two penguins. Photo shoot ensued by all members of our group. We finally tore ourselves away and continued on. Two more penguins with an even more majestic background, so we took some more photos. Then came the seals who were nice enough to smile at us for the photos. I bought a nice camera with a good zoom lens, but apparently I didn't need that for seals and penguins since they weren't far away at all (you can't approach within 10m, but they aren't much further from the trail than that anyway!). On this same walk, we also saw some play-fighting elephant seals and managed to get a great view from the top of the hill on our way back to base.

Wow! What a day full of wildlife. Head for a drink in the bar to relax, decide to head to bed, then my roommate comes running into the bedroom: “I think I saw an orca fin! Look out the window and see if they’re still there!” I stared out the window for a few minutes as I put away some clothes and then I saw the fin. Bed is completely forgotten, exhaustion is put aside, and I ran out the door with the first shoes I could find, some gloves, and my good camera. There were at least two orcas and they were circling a chunk of ice in the bay. Perhaps there was a seal up there? The stayed in the area near base for about an hour and my fellow animal enthusiasts and photographers (about 30 of us) were loyal followers as they moved from the area near the runway over to the wharf on the other side. By the time we could no longer see them, it was 00:30 and DEFINITELY time for bed now.

But I went to bed completely amazed by the cooperative animals of the day. Despite the natural beauty on base, I’m looking forward to the field work in the mountains, although the only animals we are likely to see there are the unwashed and unshaven members of our field party.