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

shrimping net. He put up the terns, which were roosting in a hollow, but they were
too near to shoot. I followed them along the shore and got three of them with two
shots as they were flying out to sea; they are most beautiful creatures and I hated
killing them. The flock returned and hovered above and one bird landed beside one
of the killed. I took them into the lab and in the evening made paintings of head, foot,
tail and wing.
Another day Derek had brought along the 12 bore on one of our walks and shot a
shag which unfortunately fell into the sea. Immediately large numbers of petrels
were on the spot but soon flew off. Derek and I climbed round in the hope that the
body might be washed ashore, but the backwash from the rocks prevented this.
Ralph meanwhile was stalking sheathbills and penguins with a butterfly net! He
caught several penguins but no sheathbills. When we returned to the hut he was
standing outside waiting for them. Derek shot at and missed several snowies and
Cape pigeons.
I went over to North Point on 11 April and in a cove to the East of the point
found some 200-300 chinstrap penguins, some on nests, indulging in their usual
behaviour. There were also a few gentoos on nests; they were much more timid than
the ringed and scuttled away when approached. The chinstraps invariably stood
their ground and ‘barked’. Some even went so far as to attack one's shins with beak
and flippers. On North Point itself there was a large chinstrap penguin rookery and I
had to make my way through this causing considerable upset to the occupants.
Those birds not directly affected showed a surprising lack of interest in an intruder.
Giant petrel colonies were sited on the flattish area above the steep sea cliffs
West of North Point and I noted a large number of white downy youngsters. In one
colony of 13 birds there were four white individuals. This was a rather higher
proportion than usual, a more typical colony might contain about 10-20% of the
white form. I saw very few of the intermediate form, black appearing to predominate
followed by white and perhaps 5% were intermediate. This was interesting because
most of the adult birds had intermediate plumage. I saw several chicks being fed by
adults; some of the parents remained by their young and vomitted the red oil at me,
probably, only because they had no clear run for take-off.
Many birds of the year were congregated on the seaward side of the colonies and
attempted to fly away. They lumbered along, desperately beating wings and crashing
into rocks in their abortive attempts. Then, coming to the cliff edge, they found
themselves airborne for a few brief seconds, landing with a crash on the beach or ice
below, or with a great splash in the water whereupon they paddled furiously out to
sea. In such a large bird this ‘cowardice’ was a little out of place and no one had
harmed them. The small snow petrel is much braver and usually stayed at its nest or
retreated a little way inside when disturbed. I watched a couple of snowies in a rock
cranny, evidently a nesting site. They were rubbing bills together, bobbing their
heads alternately from side to side and uttering a trilling note. Cape pigeons are
more wary and fly off on approach.
In late afternoon a band of eight terns flew Northeast above me, mostly with
adult markings of S. hirundinacea, but one was an immature individual with mottled
back. I had found time to skin only one of the terns collected earlier and now was
able to skin the two others, which had been awaiting my attention for some days. All
three were females and weighed about 200 g each.
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