Moving along

Morning view.

Hard to believe that we are already already half way through the year and I'm half way through my couple days off work.
Feels like just yesterday that I was riding around Johannesburg and then walking across Albatross Plain watching the little chick emerging from the safety of his egg to brave the world.
Makes me think that's what it may be like when I arrive back home. Gough has become this little egg. Kept me isolated from what happens outside allowing me to grow and mature, and as soon as I arrive home it will be like hatching. Breaking out to see this magnificent world that is seemingly so unfamiliar. It's exciting, yet rather daunting.
Got to wonder how much one loses touch with reality when living in isolation.
Let's hope not too much, because it's getting closer and closer to the end, and appears to be happening faster and faster.
I am told that things really start moving from now. Scary thought actually!
Will be hatching and will then discover if we have all grown and developed enough to face what awaits us outside this thin shell.

We get on with life and do what needs to be done. And this past week what needed to be done was seal weighing.
Jack and I were at it again.
Was a rather busy day. Was up early as I was on day shift, then was into skivvy to clean the base, then racing to get all the gear ready to go weigh the pups, chasing to catch up to the rest of the team so we could get a few tries for our team photo, then having to get to Tumble Down, weigh all the seals and get back to base in time to start cooking dinner. All the while hoping the clouds that were blotting out the warm sun would hold off just long enough to allow us to stay dry.

Was an extremely busy and tiring day.

But I'll tell you how the seals went. Something always happens when weighing seals, or leaving the base in general for that matter.

Arrived at the access rope and started my decent down toward the beach. Nice and slow, and then the soft ground gives out underneath my feet. Sees me griping to the rope as tight as possible to stop myself falling. Didn't work out as hoped, and still I kept sliding all the while being alerted to the burning sensation rushing from my hand. Lovely start to the day. Rope burn on the fingers and almost taking a nasty tumble. Guess I would take sore hands over a sore body any day.
Upon finishing my decent I touched down amongst a flurry of feathers from the rockhoppers, which  are once again moulting. This being the remainder of the colony that was still out at sea when moulting took place in January. This group included a very unique looking individual which had rather unusual colouration. Where the rest of the penguins are black along the flippers and back, this unique individual was white. Karen mentioned that they had seen another individual similarly coloured at Seal Beach on a previous occasion.

Peculiar penguin.

Interesting looking indeed

After this observation and taking hold of the fact that I had safely made it onto more horizontal ground despite the unfortunate incident, I thought back to skivvy duty earlier that morning and the mouse I had to catch. How just after catching it by the tail it made one last gasp attempt for freedom, and snapped back and bit my finger. Obviously I dropped it and it scuttled off with a new lease on life.
Not painful, so much as it is annoying.
This thought along with the burning sensation which was coursing through my hand had me wondering if this was a precursor as to how the rest of the day was going to pan out.

The little incident coming down the rope did create for a less than ideal time of weighing the pups. Salt water coming into contact with an open wounds is never going to be pleasant. But we push through.
We got into things slowly, but soon got a rhythm and before we knew it we were close to finished. Seems Jack and myself are getting pretty good at catching seals, and the time in the gym is good for something. Considerably fitter and stronger than last month, which meant weighing the heavier seals this month was in fact quicker and easier than before.

The bulls are still acting extremely territorial. This meant Jack was out playing defence and poking the bulls with our former broom handle, to keep them at bay, whilst i was playing offence and grabbing hold of the pups and weighing them.
One of the bulls gave a very threatening charge and was getting a bit too close for comfort, which saw Jack giving it a swift knock to the head.
I have to assure you that it is not as terrible as it may sound. If one only sees the way the seals get battered around in the surf and how violently they defend their territory it becomes clear that a knock with a pole is of little concern to the large bulls. It is more the shock that stops than anything else.
Even with the males being kept at bay it still doesn't stop the pups themselves from trying their luck.

They don't come easy.

All of this was seemingly well rewarded when we sat down for a break and saw a cow feeding her pup. First time either of us had seen this, and when looking at how the pups are seemingly left unattended it proved to be a very unique sighting. When Jack mentioned he had never observed this despite having assisted with the seals on Marion Island as well as having been part of a previous Gough expedition a couple years back put into perspective how this is not seen terribly often.

Suckling pup.

All up it was just another normal day on Gough Island, and my fears attached to what happened earlier that day were thankfully not realised. All appendages remain in tact.
We even made it back to the base before the clouds fell prey to the laws of gravity, and further had time to spare before getting started with dinner.

As for the pups themselves. After about a hundred days they are averaging 9.0Kg's.
Males are slightly heavier on average at 9.2Kg's. Heaviest being 15.0Kg's and the lightest 5.1Kg's.
The females averaged 8.0Kg's. With the heftiest also being a solid 15.0Kg's compared to the lightweight which was sitting at 4.0Kg's. Despite it's small size it was still looking healthy and well looked after.

Now we wait till the 10th May when we at it again.
In the meanwhile I will have to keep busy somehow.
Open to suggestions?
Will let you know how they work out.

The clouds roll in.