One of the bigger tasks of the Penguin monitoring program this summer was to perform a Tiris Tag search of all the birds on Bechervaise, Verner, Peterson, Welch & Klung Islands. Tiris tags are the tags which are embedded under the skin of the penguins so that the APMS can recognise them when they walk over the automatic weighbridge. Each year approximately 600 penguin chicks on Bechervaise and Verner Islands are tagged. A lot of these penguins return to Bechervaise & Verner Islands in later years, some disappear altogether and some migrate to other islands.

The purpose of the survey was to determine how many birds migrate to other islands, and to do the survey we had to manually attempt to read the Tiris Tag in all the Penguins on these islands. If you add up the number of Penguins on the islands near Mawson, you would get a number around 30,000!, so the task of trying to read the tags in 30,000+ birds is a daunting one. To help in this task I had spent a number of months back at Kingston making the special high power Tiris Tag readers for the task so it was good to see my efforts being put to use.

The task of sweeping the penguins colonies (twice!) took about 8 days. We did it once at peak male occupation and once at peak female occupation (the penguins swap over the task of incubating the egg). It was quite difficult work as we had to keep track of where we walked through the middle of the penguin colony, pressing the tag reader button for each bird and also avoiding being pecked or whacked by an angry penguin, and also making sure that any birds that left their nests made their way back quickly. On top of that was the roar of penguins squawking at you all day! Needless to say I was glad when we had finished, as my thumb was quite sore from pressing a button 10,000+ times.

During summer, Phil, a Weddell Seal biologist from Canada found a dead Weddell seal on a tide crack near the Rookery Islands. He wanted to perform an autopsy on it in an attempt to determine how it died, so a few weeks later he obtained the necessary permits and we towed it on a sled out to a tide crack in the middle of Kista Straight. Megan and Phil did the dirty work, while Jacqui and I took notes and helped out with the photography. It certainly was a messy and smelly experience to see the internals of a Weddell Seal - especially since it was a few weeks after it had died. The smell quickly spread at it seemed as if the entire local Skua and Giant Petrel (GP)population descended on the scene in a matter of hours.

A week later we revisited the carcass to see what had happened with it, and it had been stripped of most of the flesh by the Skuas and GP's, and then started to sink into a pool of water in the tide crack.

The time when the sea ice was closed to vehicles was fast approaching so Andy, Florian and I set off for Auster on Quads for the last time this summer. Luckily the day was quite a nice one with bright sunlight, no clouds and little wind. We reached Auster mid afternoon after getting bogged in a few spots where the snow cover on the sea ice had become quite soft and full of holes.

The colony had split up into a lot of groups and spread out over quite a large area, at least 3 km from end to end. The chicks were growing very quickly, and some where almost as big as their parents. I spotted on chick on the outside of the group that had started to loose it's chest down (from sliding around on it's belly) so I started to walk towards it, but I didn't need to get close because it seemed more interested in me!.

Lying down on the snow I watched as it came up close to me, checked me out from a few angles, and called a few times.

It was a very hot day for the penguins so they were eating a lot of snow and panting a lot to loose heat. We had to be careful that we did not upset them because they get very hot easily inside their fluffy down coats!.

After spending a few hours at Auster, watching the birds and talking to the inquisitive chicks we headed off for a cruise around the icebergs near Macey Island. In front of one iceberg was a large pool of water about 1 metre deep that looked like it had been formed when part of the iceberg collapsed and punched a hole in the sea ice. We could hear the ice creaking and groaning in time with the swell - reminding us that we were still standing on top of an ocean, with a few hundred metres of water below us!

The arrival of Voyage 2, the RSV Aurora Australis marked the next stage in the summer. V2 was the changeover voyage so a lot of the 2002 winterers were packing ready to go home, and a surge of new faces from the incoming 2003 winter group started to be seen on station. Helicopters were flying long hours carrying cargo from the ship and personal effects on their return. Along with the winterers were a stream of round trippers and new summerers. Colin was heading home on this voyage, and coming to replace him was Lisa who had been down before in the 1999/2000 summer.

One of the most talked about round trippers were the ABC TV crew, consisting of Nicole and Peter. We had been reading about their journey down on the ABC website. They were intending to use the footage in stories for TV programs such as the ABC News or the 7.30 Report or just for general background material. One of the things they wanted to take some footage of was the Beche Penguin program, so Megan, Lisa & I accompanied them as we walked out over the sea ice from Mawson to Bechervaise Island. On the way we stopped for numerous 'staged' camera opportunities (comes with the territory of being a TV star!).

Peter shot a lot of footage on Bechervaise compared to what he would have normally done for a news feature. Mainly of the penguins on their nests and some of the penguins crossing the weighbridge. Megan did a radio interview with Nicole (which would probably be destined for Radio National), and then later that evening I walked back to station with Nicole and Peter while Megan and Lisa stayed on Beche because I had slushy (kitchen hand) for the next two days.

A few hours after the last helicopter flight to the AA departed, preparations were being made for the arrival of the PCMEGA Twin Otter from Mt Cresswell. The TO had come to drop of one passenger from Davis who needed to get on the AA, aswell as bringing back Lindsay after the PCMEGA traverse earlier in the summer. On the return trip the TO was taking Malcolm, the 2002 Mawson doctor to Mt Cresswell to become the PCMEGA field doctor.

The TO arrived while Megan, Lisa & I were part way across Kista Straight. It landed on the sea ice in front of the station and started to disgorge it's load of cargo and passengers. A hour or two later after it had refuelled it climbed up into the low cloud as it departed for Mt Cresswell.

Hot on the heals of V2 and changeover was Christmas and New Year. Christmas marked the mid point of the 2002/03 summer. With a station full of new faces it was not quite the same Christmas as I have experienced before as people were still getting to know each other. In previous years changeovers have followed Christmases and people have generally made presents for each other, but as we hardly new each other it was a little more difficult. Luckily this had been anticipated and a stash of presents had been bought for Santa to give out on Christmas day.

Santa arrived in his sleigh (the red Fire Hagglunds) lead by a team of elves riding the reindeer (quads). After posing for a group photo, we headed inside for Santa to give out the presents and then settled down to a sumptuous multi-course dinner prepared by the chefs, Richard and Michele. Dinner was fabulous with all sorts of mains and plenty of sweets. The afternoon was very quiet, but not as quiet as the following boxing day when the station seemed deserted.

A few days after Christmas & Boxing day, Megan & I walked the 50 minute walk across the sea ice back to Bechervaise Island. We were preparing for the eventual closing of the sea ice to all forms of travel by making sure we had all we needed for the next few weeks, and possibly next month until the sea ice breaks out and we can use the IRB's (Inflatable Rubber Boats, with outboard motors) to get back to Mawson.

Megan and I also used the opportunity to walk across Kista Straight from Bechervaise to Verner Islands to download and calibrate the APMS's. Looking back over the sea ice we would see how rotten it had become and hoped that it would not be too long before it was gone.

Life on Bechervaise Island is very palatial compared to some other field camps. The reason for that is that Beche has been occupied every summer for the last 12 years. We have a number of huts. Two are called "Googies" or "Smarties". One is the 'Lab' which we use as an office / workshop. The other is the living googie which is the kitchen / dinner area and sleeping accommodation for 3 people. A small 'Apple' hut houses one or two people.

We obtain all our electrical power for laptops, radio, communications and lighting from a bank of solar panels with batteries and a wind generator. We have a bread maker and a microwave oven which we run occasionally from a small portable generator.

We can communicate with the rest of the world by a number of means. By voice we use the standard VHF radio, (generally only for sked with Mawson) and a special UHF radio telephone that is tied into the Mawson phone system. For data communications, we have a 2.4Ghz wireless Local Area Network that ties us into the station network, and gives us the ability to send and receive e-mail or access the numerous resources on the Internet. My main task this summer has been to upgrade and modernise the solar / wind power systems as well as the communications systems. We are also experimenting with a new 'bleeding edge' phone system using 'Voice over IP'. All this makes Bechervaise Island probably the most well connected field site at any of the Australian Antarctic Stations, and maybe in Antarctica?

There is usually no fresh snow about during summer so we rely on fresh water which we have carried across from Mawson previously. We have to be careful that we use it wisely. This goes for food aswell, so our meals are usually simple, but not so simple as straight ration packs!. If we start to run out of water for drinking we have to use sea water for washing dishes.

While we are locked on Beche we carry on the work of the Penguin Monitoring Program. The biologists, Megan & Lisa, work daily on a nest census (noting which nests have birds on them, what sex they are, if they have chicks etc) as well as other tasks such as stomach flushing some birds, and placing satellite trackers and temperature, time, depth recorders on others.

My role is to support them and ensure that the electronics behind all the Automated Penguin Monitoring Systems, and the solar power, radio telephone and computer networks runs smoothly. When I am not doing that I help out with their fieldwork.

Everyday on Beche we witness the life and behaviour of the 4000+ Adelie penguins that call this island home. Most of the time the scene is very tranquil, but sometimes things can get quite heated and contrary to popular belief the penguins can get very vicious and blood is split.

Fights regularly occur over nest sites, or when another penguin tries to take over the role from another - ie an 'interloper' arrives to try and sit on a nest where it is not the real mate of the penguin already there. Fights consist of a lot of noise, pecking and some furious flapping of flippers against each others head or chest. The Adelies has very strong flippers and when they hit you with them it can hurt quite a bit. We saw one fight that lasted for at least 5 minutes where the penguins were drawing blood from each other. This continued until one fell off a rock and down on top of another on it's nest. Luckily no eggs for chicks were crushed.

Well that about wraps it up for the moment. Hope you've enjoyed this update for the first half of the summer.

Cheers,

Kym