Bird Island Diary-
By Robert Fry, Base Technician at the BAS Research Station, Bird Island.December was a busy month for the team with the base’s new additions - Adam, Jess, Cian and Rob - getting happily settled into the Bird Island way of life.
Early December saw Jerry, the penguin Zoological Field Assistant (ZFA), heading home for a well-earned break. He will be returning to the island to carry on with his penguin work for the winter of 2014.
Our resident albatross ZFAs, Jess and Steph, had a busy month checking on all the albatross nests across the entire island, in addition to heading up to the Wanderer Ridge study colony every day to take measurements of all of the colony’s newly laid eggs. They are also keeping a close eye on the grey-headed and black-browed albatross colonies, where the hatching of new chicks is well underway.
The penguin breeding season is now in full swing so the scientists also spent a day counting new penguin chicks at Big Mac and Little Mac, two of the island’s macaroni penguin colonies. Skuas have also been under the spotlight this month – Adam , the Base Commander, conducted a skua census for the entire island and Steph and Jess surveyed the skua study area and took measurements of all eggs. The petrels have been busy as well – all of the northern giant petrels’ eggs have hatched and are already being left unguarded while the adults head off to find food.
On Christmas morning we woke up to the smell of a full English breakfast cooked courtesy of Adam and squeezed in a traditional Christmas film before heading out for the day’s work. Some hours later we were all dressed in our finest and sitting down to a beautiful Christmas dinner. A great day had by all.
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