I woke to the jolting and whoosh of the ship going through pack ice. We are working the CASO grid south again but the ice has forced a change, so we head westwards to skirt the pack and come in on a parallel that offers open sea.
Icebergs and floes are the habitat of the beautiful, pure white Snow Petrel. It is hard to say which of the Antarctic birds is the most captivating but this small bird is a striking sight against sea or sky.
The Cape Petrel (someone called it the 'magpie' of Antarctica) has careless splodges of black and white across its wings while the Antarctic Petrel has neater more symmetrical markings. The smaller and darker Wilson's Petrel is satisfying to see just because sightings are rarer. On the other hand the Light Mantled Sooty Albatross is like an old friend and the Southern Giant Petrels always make you smile to see them settled like ducks in the water.
I like them all.
I often see Thomas on the bridge with his camera zoom poised, ready for that elusive shot - a bird in flight. (Thomas is a biologist with the French team.) His dedication paid off when one day he saw a Cape Petrel crash land on the foredeck. He watched it try to take off but to his horror it fell onto a lower deck. If you watch petrels on the water they become airborne by flapping and sort of running across the sea, but the surface of the ship is too hard and unfamiliar and space too confined for a proper runway so Thomas' bird was stranded.
A posse went to help the little Cape Petrel. Thomas gathered the bird carefully in his jacket. He saw that it had a leg band and while he held it Tim noted the details. 'Museum de Paris FL3 1466'.
Then came the delicate task of helping the bird on its way. Held too tightly it might be crushed and if you are unlucky you may catch a stinking projectile vomit in the eye.
With the greatest of care Thomas carried the bird to the rail and with a silent prayer threw it skywards from the ship. With a swoop down and a few flaps, (and could it have been one fleeting look back?) Thomas's Cape Petrel became a speck in the sky.
Catherine leads the French CEAMARC team and she emailed an ornitholologist wintering at Dumont d'Urville with the band details and location of the find - vital information for mapping the range of birds. An elated return message advised that the bird was born there in 2005 and banded as a chick.
I have heard it said that connections made in Antarctica are often enduring.
Pics:
Sarah Merefield's Snow Petrel
Thomas Silberfeld's Cape Petrel
Margot Foster is a journalist currently on board the Australian Aurora Australis, an Australian research vessel currently participating in the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML, IPY project 53). She works with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).