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

one's fingers are anywhere near their beaks and they too vomit, though with less
devastating effect than the giants. It was evident that they attacked each other in this
way, and I saw pairs of which one member was freely spattered with the orange oil.
It shows up very well on their white plumage of course.
During Winter l948. On 28 April the pack came in again and in half an hour the bay
was full of large floes - on one of which was an elephant. The floes helped the many
young giant petrels struggling in the young ice which was too thin to bear their
weight. One white bird headed for a flattish area of floes and thicker ice before taking
off successfully. Others just floundered for a few yards and slumped down again.
There were Cape pigeons - a few - many snowies, Dominicans, skuas.
Next day I watched a giant feeding on the head of the Weddell carcass, tearing
bits off with the end of its beak by pulling and rocking its body weight backwards.
The neck muscles seemed to play a large part. After each piece was torn off there was
a vigorous rattling of the bill as the morsel was maneuvered back and swallowed; the
wings were half extended, like a vulture. Skuas, Cape pigeons, snowies, sheathbills
and Dominicans were the only other birds about.
At the beginning of May Derek had a look at the giant petrel chicks and found 11
ringed fledglings on Knife Point - all dark. On 5 May there were 22 terns on the edge
of the brash for most of the day. The sea was in a fury and the swell at the edge of the
ice was substantial. (It was weather very similar to that on first day we began seeing
flocks of terns.) There were two immature birds but the rest were adult. While
watching them through the glasses I saw red crustaceans in the rough water breaking
on the ice; this was what the terns were diving for. Derek went to collect an
immature bird for me but came back with a mature tern and later he brought in a
Cape pigeon and I found time to paint the head before dinner.
On 8 May there were a number of snow petrels on the young ice near the shore. I
counted ten in a bunch and others flying around. The birds on the ice were squatting
motionless but occasionally two would raise their wings and bicker. The ice they
were on was consolidated pancake ice, frozen in a matrix of new ice. I watched them
for some time but their behaviour didn't change. Nor did they eat or drink at the iceedge.
Some others were flying amongst the brash occasionally alighting - perhaps to
drink or feed?
Two days later five gentoos came out of the sea and walked half way up hill to
settle down there. All were large and in good condition.
A radio message came from Bill Sladen saying 20,000 snow petrels had passed
over Hope Bay (Base D at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula), flying Southeast - very
unexpected. On 20 May he sent another message saying that snowies had been
passing South-southeast down Antarctic Sound (near Hope Bay) between 10-19 May
and he thought this was a migration. According to my diary I thought it unlikely:
“Possibly it is a local movement to feeding grounds in the Weddell Sea. In that case it
gives rise to interesting possibilities of open water in the Weddell in winter, …” I
gave Bill my ideas in a message . . . " (Many years later, in the l970s, American
satellite imagery showed that an extensive polyna – an area of open water) occurred
in some winters in the Weddell Sea pack ice). With us the pack now stretched as far
as the horizon, covering 9 10ths. In Normanna Strait there were some lanes of open
water but all the bays were frozen over with new ice. Paal Harbour was solid but
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