A Dancing Penguin from Skua

After adding some new batteries to this little guy, I had a Dancing Penguin. He starts up pressing his nose and listens to my music while dancing and flapping his wings (quite cute). Periodically, his belly will light up with various patterns that indicate his "mood" which includes: hungry for more music, happy, sad, and sick (in need of more music). I can also press his nose again as any of these moods are displayed and he will reply with various chirps, songs and dance moves. And this, my friends, is how winterovers stay entertained.

Luckily, the instruction booklet was still taped to his foot, otherwise rather
than cute and entertaining, he might have been annoying and maddening.

Belly lights!

Dance penguin dance!

Down by the Sea

Having the opportunity to go down by the sea and snap a few pictures, I did.

The Royal Society Mountains.
I really love the composition of this photo:
lots of clouds, far-off snowy mountains with
blue sky and a blue thin layer of new ice with open water.
So many different blues in one picture!

Royals on the left, Hut Point on the right. Lovely.
(*Click on the photo to see a larger version!*)

A lone Adelie penguin down by the sea...

Right?

Dinner at Scott Base

On Thursday, I received a special invitation to Scott Base for dinner to meet Jana, a lovely Czech-Kiwi, with whom, I will be sharing the winter. The evening included greenhouse collaboration, a delicious Indian meal, hokey-poky ice cream (YUMM!!), marinating by the fire, spectacular views, penguins, friends, feathers, rat tails, scary stories and fun for all.

DELICIOUS! Spinach Saag with Tofu, Tandoori Chicken and
Indian Yogurt and Cabbage Salad all la Chef Lance!

Sully was the first to be feathered!

Then Mel...

and Kory

and Jana (what a pretty blue!)

and finally, Lance, who got a feather rat tail!

Jana and Mel looking at all the feathers and color choices.

Emily and Lance talk about hydroponics for growing greens during the winter.

An amazing view of the permanent (or not so permanent) ice shelf.

Steam coming off of the open water as the setting
sun casts a low and lovely glowing light.

Mel and Jana share some scary stories.

They've got Kori and Sully wide eyed and on the edge of their seats!
What a nice toasty fire!

The sun is a settin'.

Penguins frolic and squawk out by the remaining pressure ridges.

Picturesque Antarctica. The perfect end to the perfect night!

Open Water all the Way Over to Scott Base

The massive amount of open water continues to break up the ice shelf.

Kelli takes a walk down the plank to get a better look.

Looks serene right? Tropical even? Think again.
It was wicked wicked cold out and windy as hell.

Which is exactly why I bundled up to walk the plank!

Most of the Pressure Ridges near Scott Base have melted,
these remain, along with penguins and seals.

Kelli against Mt. Terror.

Erebus on the left, Terror on the right.
Visible also is the transition and the beginning
of the road to Pegasus Airfield.

Panoramic view of Mt. Erebus, the transition and
the road leading to Pegasus Airfield.

Hut Point and Open Water Videos

This year, I'm making and effort to take and upload more short videos.

Here are few of Hut Point and open water.



In this video, you can see little chunks of ice floating in the
bay and two Adelie penguins hanging out at the base of Hut Point.



Standing on the base of Hut Ridge and looking out, one would normally
only see ice for miles and miles. The channel usually is opened up by the
Icebreaker for the supply vessel to come in. This season, however,
there is an abundance of open water, with crashing waves even.
Listen to the sound too - there aren't many sounds in Antarctica
other than wind, which of course you can also hear on the video!

Open Water, Ice and Penguins...Oh My!

After work, in the gloriousness of little wind and still present sunshine, I decided to walk down to Hut Point and take in the open water. Last year, there was a fair amount of open water around Hut Point and in the channell, but this year is unbelievable. Not only is there open water in entire bay, but all the way over to Scott Base and all around Hut Point, streching way out into the Ross Sea.

I could hear the surf crash at Hut Point. Take a look:

Ahhh...MacTown. This is the view from my new work center up in B140.

The vastness of open water will picturesque chunks of floating ice!

The new (and already broken) ice pier and Hut Point.

A closer view of the pier and the ice!

Crack!

Look at all those ice chunks!

I claim the middle one!

Slosh, slosh! So much water!

Ice, ice, baby.

Incredible!

As far as the eye can see, Ice!

Looks so glacial, doesn't it?

So blue and white! (There are only so many ways to describe ice and water!)

Vince's Cross at Hut Point overlooking the Sea Ice!

Mountains, Ice and Sea!

Sun, surf, ice.
Penguins! These Adelies are molting, so not the usual animated and playful sort I've seen before. I've heard that molting is painful for them and these little guys were hunkered down on the point.

One, Two, Three!

What does it mean when a penguin sees his shadow on February 25th?
Winter FOREVER!

What up?

I generally have the dialogue of the Madagascar penguins
running in my head every time I see the little Adelies!

Take that!

Awww...penguins!