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

gentoos and Adélies - stopping and starting like trains shunting. A few days later we
saw three skuas at the Gourlay penguin rookeries and visited the Adélie rookery.
The nests all appeared to be occupied. I watched a pair ‘treading’ - the male standing
on the female’s back - but copulation didn't follow. They were indulging in their
usual activities - stone-stealing, mutual display, fights and much noise and smell! I
saw some snowies squabbling over an extensible nemertine worm – pulling two
ways - that one had caught. More terns arrived - some in small flocks of 6-8, and half
a dozen sheathbills. Snowies, Cape pigeons and giants were in force, Dominicans in
greater force than usual, the usual sheathbills, and yet more terns. We saw a skua at
the elephant seal ice harem, and there were three in Elephant Flats.
A week later there were snowies, terns (including immature) and skuas and gulls
out at the ice edge and two skuas were displaying on the slope below the hut. Parties
of penguins were now going to and from the water - the rookeries thronged (and
ponged!). Around our base there were Cape pigeons, terns, gulls, giants in fair
numbers, very few snowies, and one or two sheathbills; no prions. Two days later
Adélies were still moving to-and-fro in fishing parties. Prions were burbling in their
burrows that night and there were five skuas in Stygian Cove. At dusk two days later
several prions were seen and four more days later several were in their nests during
the day. On 27 October Charlie patiently caught eight sheathbills for me with a noose
and I ringed them with numbered and coloured rings. Most of the birds were in
force. Snowies were entering nest 39 morning and evening. There were a few skuas
and Dominicans but mostly in Three Lakes Valley and parties of penguins were
moving over the ice.
Derek shot two skuas and I examined and collected them - male and female. We
had one stewed for supper - the meat tough but good. The pair of snowies in nest 39
was moving a lot - the terragraph clicking constantly. On 30 October I constructed
and installed a terragraph in a Cape pigeon nest, spent some time adjusting it and by
next day it was accepted by the birds and working well; I still hadn’t been able to
build a workable one for the giants. (But then I had much ‘on my plate’ with the
elephant seal research going on at that time.) Snowies, Cape pigeons, giants,
Dominicans, sheathbills were in force and many prions, terns, skuas. Some penguins
were on the ice. Next day we ate another skua, roasted.
When Charlie and I went around the nests on the crags on 5 November we found
no eggs. The chinstrap penguin rookeries were about 10% reoccupied by then - and
some of the nests were almost complete. The Adélie rookeries were full, as were the
gentoos, and most of the gentoos had eggs, some two. We also saw one of our redself-painted
sheathbills from earlier in the year! This season there were 13 shag nests
near North Point and most of them had eggs, some had three. When we arrived a
large flock of immature birds flew in and was standing among the nests when we
observed them. We returned with shag and gentoo eggs.
Next day the prions came in early in the evening - about 6.0 o’clock - and snowy,
and Cape pigeon terragraphs were active. The birds were tripping them all day.
Three days later the first giant eggs were on Knife Point that morning but none at the
other nesting sites; we went up to the crags over the next few days to check on their
dates of laying. On 11 November there was a giant petrel egg in the colony South of
base and nine in nests above the crags.
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