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

slowly and heavily than the other birds. A club of 26 skuas was bathing by the outlet
of the First Lake. A few days later I went around the nests again. All the Cape
pigeons except one were paddling in the sea near Knife Point; and the chicks were on
their own. I saw a sheathbill, the first around base for several weeks, because they
had been nesting at the penguin colonies and feeding there on eggs and chicks. There
were still no snowies around during the day.
Next day, 6 February, after the Ob, I went around the nests and found that all the
Cape pigeon and snowy adults were absent from the nests, but I did see one snowy
alight and enter its nesting cranny. Most of the giant petrel chicks were unattended.
The prions were all sitting tight, and in a Wilson’s storm petrel burrow above the
triangular boulder I found the egg was hatched and held a diminutive, less than a
day old, chick in my hand. It was a black ball of fluff - eyes closed and hidden under
the down, only the bill and the small yellow-webbed feet showed. The Cape pigeon
young, when disturbed, half opened their wings, body slanting downwards and
forwards at an angle of 30°, quivering and ejecting their oil at me; it was comparable
to the adults’ threat display. They were also beginning to make low chattering noises
very like the adults. I came back over the top and down by the bridge and found a
prion in one of the numbered snowy nests! Next day all the snowies and Cape
pigeons were away, but they returned at 9 o’clock in a body.
The weather cleared a little on 11 February and I did a seal count which was two
days overdue, taking Derek over in the dinghy for geological work, going on to
Stygian Cove and walking back. The numbers of seals were falling off now and it
was becoming easier; even so it involved a walk of some 10 miles with frequent halts
to count them. The young birds were now getting quite large. The Dominican gull
chicks were leaving the nests and taking to the water. I visited several skua nests and
the adult birds swooped down on me in the usual fashion, screaming shrilly and
almost hitting my hat as they dived. To protect oneself it was wise to lift a ski-stick
above one's head, to which they diverted their attentions. The older skua chicks were
reminiscent of those old cartoons of anarchists clutching bombs under their cloaks -
with their dark plumage and skulking habits. The young terns had all left their nests
and were almost impossible to pick out from the background. Several penguins had
commenced their moult; the feathers fall out in great bunches and they were very
chary about entering the water.
In early March, near Stygian Cove, was a flock of 13 young gulls emitting their
mewing cries, and in Ternery Bay the young terns' plaintive piping drew attention to
a score of them. At various points there were numbers of chinstrap and gentoo
penguins in moult - the surrounding rocks being hidden under a deposit of feathers.
One of the skua chicks above Balin Point beach was dead and had been partly eaten;
were the parents or another pair of skuas responsible?
A few days later I decided to walk over to Gourlay Peninsula where the main
penguin rookeries were situated, in order to see whether it would be worthwhile to
pay another study visit. A short glissade down the ice slopes and then a walk over
the moss- and scree-covered covered slopes took me to the small colony I was
studying. There I found only about a third of the tenants. The rest, along with all
except one of the youngsters, had left. The one remaining chick was an amusing
sight: the brown nestling down had all been lost except for patches on the rump and
one on the head which looked like a wig. The adults were all in moult, and feathers
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