Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

came to within six feet of us, then diverged and I wasn't able to find it again with the
beam. Later I dazzled a sheathbill with the beam, so much so that it fluttered to
within a couple of feet of us before it managed to avoid the light. It seemed that this
might be a good way of catching them for ringing and later I found that they allowed
one to approach quite close so that it was sometimes possible to catch one by the
neck with a free hand. A month later I caught a sheathbill, which flew into a window,
and ringed it with size 3 ring, no. 301058. Evidently light had dazzled it.
In the middle of March we watched a flock of some 400 blue-eyed shags moving
around the bay inside Outer Islet. They were very closely packed and dived
simultaneously - evidently following a shoal of fish. On 20 March, after lunch I made
another ten rings for the giant petrel young and Ralph and I took the dory across to
Knife Point and landed in the cove just behind it. The number of giant petrel young
had now dropped to 28, of which 2 were white. We ringed all these and painted a
number at each nest for future reference. Ralph held the birds by the back of the neck
while I ringed them. In general they required at least six preliminary coughs before
they were able to eject their noisome red oil, so we had time to take avoiding action.
After these preliminary efforts they were able to eject oil a considerable distance - up
to seven feet or more. It varied in colour, consistency and amount among the
individuals we handled. Some vomited krill in addition. I escaped with only spots of
the oil on my trousers but Ralph was unlucky and the sleeve of his anorak was
drenched in it. On the way back we towed the anorak and my gloves over the stern
so as to minimize the smell. The old seamen's term ‘stinker’ was an appropriate name
for these birds! It was getting dark as we ringed the last one. Wilson's petrels, a Cape
pigeon and prions were flighting along the cliff face and the chirring of the young
petrels increased as darkness fell.
On 25 March, Derek and I went over to the small giant petrel colony on Berntsen
Point quite close to our hut. I ringed four young birds with his help and painted
reference numbers by the rocks with red-lead paint; these were all that remained of
that colony’s nestlings. Other birds of the year were practicing take-offs below,
running along into the wind like a pro-avian reptile, bouncing and landing heavily,
careering from side to side, before some stronger gust of wind made them airborne,
or they came to the edge of the cliff.
Another day we spotted a blue-eyed shag sitting on a nearby rock and decided to
shoot it for the pot - and to provide a specimen. Derek got the 12 bore and some no.7
shot which unfortunately was really far too small, being intended for snipe etc. in
Britain. After two attempts he had only succeeded in winging it, and it flew and
swam across the bay. Ralph and I rowed round to try to catch it and it made its way
back to the digesters, where Derek shot it with the .22, a sitting bird, at six yards! I
took it into the lab and painted, sexed and skinned it. It was a large and beautifully
plumaged male and in its stomach was a large Nototheniid fish the tail sticking out
of the bird’s throat. I also found a yellow and black striped parasite attached to the
mucous membrane of its mouth. It might be an anopluran I thought.
At the end of March - coinciding with an influx of pack ice - a change in the birds
occurred. Snow petrels were around all day and I watched four flighting above the
crags; several Cape pigeons were flying among the floes. Over the next few days
large numbers of snow petrels flew in to their nesting sites in the crags. On the crag
en route to the Bluff I found two snow petrels. My attention was attracted by a
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