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

appeared to be formed but occasional interlopers were seen to approach a pair and
be driven away. There were no other birds about except the sheathbills.
Four days later, while sledging along Coronation Island I saw a snowy flying
strongly towards the Southeast low down over the ice - the first for over a month, but
during most of July and August we saw no birds other than sheathbills. On 17 July
however, a Dominican was flying around during the day and I hoped to cook it for
dinner, but every time I went out with the gun it flew off. Sheathbills and about half
a dozen giants were present. Exactly a month later the snowies returned and the
giants were back in force - in twos and threes. Influenced we thought by retreat of the
ice edge? This was confirmed on 27 August, the ice-edge was cutting back, drawing
nearer to us, and snowies and giants were present in force.
Next day they were abundant everywhere and the following afternoon I went
round the snowy nests, but ringed only one bird. Snowies and giants were in force,
but only one sheathbill. I re-installed the terragraph, which was clicking merrily next
day. It continued working well and indicated that the snowies were up and away at
about 6.30 am and back again at 8.30 am, then out all day returning at 6.30 pm. I was
now very satisfied with its performance and it continued to demonstrate the
regularity of the birds' movements, influenced presumably by pack ice changes. On 1
September, in bright moonlight, there was much activity; now that it had proved
practicable I decided to build and install terragraphs at a giant petrel and a Cape
pigeon nest. Snowies, giants and two Dominicans were present, but no sheathbills
(they were probably off to the breeding seals by now); Dominicans and a large flock
of shags were sighted in Clowes Bay.
I brought in the snow petrel terragraph because it wasn't working - thawed it out,
put in screw connections and replaced it. On 5 September I spent some time making
a terragraph for a giant petrel nest - necessarily somewhat more massive than for the
snowies - using the spare barograph clock and drum from the met supplies. I
climbed the crags to the West of us looking for a suitable nest for it, but with no
success.
The birds continued to fluctuate in abundance, but still just the same few species -
snowies, giants, gulls and sheathbills. On 14 September I spent the morning drawing
- in black and white - various postures and behaviours of snowy petrels from my
field sketches to illustrate the bird report, and in the afternoon and evening I began
on a similar sheet of drawings of Cape pigeons. That day I saw the first Cape pigeon
for some time. Next day I ringed and measured three snowies with Charlie's help,
but it took a couple of hours as we had to look for nests and didn’t always find the
birds at home. When they were it was often difficult or impossible to draw them out.
We briefly sighted a single Antarctic petrel. Another day Charlie and I went to
Gourlay in a blizzard to inspect the chinstrap penguin colony, and found the nest
identification numbers still recognizable in most cases. On the way back we saw
another three Antarctic petrels at a range of about 100 yards; in our two years at
Signy we saw only five of these birds. The nearest breeding colonies were on the
Antarctic continent [X miles] to the South-east.
The snowies were now present in force, also a fair number of Cape pigeons,
whose bubbling cry sounded above the harsher chatter of the snowies. One very
large snowy near Observation Bluff was very dark on the upper surface so that it
resembled a very light coloured prion in the markings. I had for some time wondered
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