Monday, December 30, 2013

59 - Christmass Macca Style and the wildlife...........

Hello Friends,

Left a little gap in between this one and the last as there was a little info in the last blog to chew over. I have realised though that I might waffle on a little, Ahhhh well I'm sorry but that isn't going to change as I'm writing this blog and your not! LOL

I thought in this blog I would give you a little taste in whats to come so here it is......

 Pic: Michael Goldstein
Pic: Michael Goldstein

More about them later, now I'm going to waffle on a little bit.

SO last blog I left you and all I had done was a little walk up the Doctors viewing platform. Well Lots been happening and the first thing is of course xmas. So a quick 3 pics on that. Firstly in someones wisdom they decided that an extra elf was needed so here is one seriously messed up elf. Why the elf's needed guns and swords Im unsure of but I'm thinking there was many bad kids here and they needed sorting out.

 Pic: Lionel Whitehorn
Pic: David Hawley

Have you ever seen a table for 41...........the biggest table I have ever seen and managed to all sit at the same table together for a meal together.

 Pic: Lionel Whitehorn

Nothing to do with me this year but a couple of the girls decided a gingerbread house was in order and believe me it was MASSIVE.....

 Pic: Lionel Whitehorn

Not going to drag this one on too much as it was pretty much exactly the same as
2012 Xmas
2011 Xmas and
2010 Xmas.
However the Chef Jimmy did as good of a job as normal and we all gorged ourselves all day along with much lubrication of wheels that I didn't know I had........

Moving right along now, so we went for a little walk up Gadgets Gully but before we made it to the base of Gadgets we came upon a small King Penguin colony.

  Pic: Michael Goldstein
  Pic: Michael Goldstein
  Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
  Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein

As you can tell these guys are very photogenic and its easy to loose an hour trying to take the perfect shot.


 Pic: Vicki Heinrich

About half way up here and believe me I'm realising how really unfit I am!!

 Pic: Vicki Heinrich

Finally at the top and below is the little dam where we get all our water from......


 Pic: Vicki Heinrich

Good spot to let me sit and recover.........what was about to come well you know what it was!!!!


Pic: David Hawley

Very low lying vegetation up top......I guess even lower than I had imagined.

 Pic: Vicki Heinrich

Gives you an idea of how far we climbed to get up there.........


 Pic: Vicki Heinrich

Great aspect looking toward North Head the Isthmus and station...........quite a view!!!


Pic: Michael Goldstein

Now its time for one of my favourite things to do when I come south. BOATING!!!!
So its a little different here as Macca has a swell but basically the same as at home. Both Fridgy and myself are Coxswains and needed a little induction on how to handle the boats. Friday we were ready but the weather had different ideas, wasn't playing games with us. There has been a sometimes heavy fog/mist been hanging around but once we had checked with a field party further down the coast and it had lifted enough on station the boats were in quick smart. 

Below is on the beach nothing but Royal Penguins............It was only a short ride down the island before we reached  Rookery Creek near the Nuggets. As the name suggests, Rookery Creek has many rookeries upstream, how many I don't know as I didn't get off there!! A little bit more about the history or this location HERE


Digressing again, an interesting article on the last oil boss of Macca HERE.

 Pic: Michael Goldstein


Can just see some of the rookeries behind the old digesters...........

Pic: Michael Goldstein

Lots of GP's of Giant Petrels mixed group of Southern and Northern GP's.......including a white one!!!

 Pic: Michael Goldstein


A Blue-Eyed Cormorant endemic to Macca........

 Pic: Michael Goldstein


More of the stuff we needed to dodge in the IRB's.......

 Pic: Michael Goldstein


An Antarctic Fur Seal..........

 Pic: Michael Goldstein


AND then it happened..........been waiting to see these guys but I didn't think I was going to get this close!!! We were cruising along when we saw a pod of Orcas and after a little more digging they are either type A or C Antarctic Orac's. ANYHOOOOOOOO there they were, where I decided to pull up and kill then engine. Standing up in the boat to take a couple shots I saw a flash of white where i managed to after a few profanities take a series of three shots........here they are!!!!

 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein


As you can imagine we were all a little pumped to say the least!!!!!! Then there was the one watching us from afar!!! Now there is more interesting stuff on all the different Orcas which i only thought there was 4 but there is actually lots lots lots more have a look HERE and HERE TOO and HERE AS WELL as well as HERE ALSO.

Pic: Michael Goldstein


So Sunday on Fridgy and myself want for a little walk to Garden Cove which is literally just behind station, within 5 min walking. Great spot as I have a new favourite and i bet you'll never guess. Below this Sub Antarctic Skua annoying the Rock Hoppers................. 

 Pic: Michael Goldstein

Ahhhhh the Rock Hoppers.................

 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein

These little buggers are VERY photogenic as you can see.............we sent a lot of time just quietly sitting and taking pictures of these guys.

Now the pic below was taken about 20 meters away from the Rock Hoppers and it is a King Penguin the same as the ones we saw when we climbed Gadgets earlier in this blog however this one is a juvenile........

 Pic: Michael Goldstein

Little fatty this guy was but cute.......

 Pic: Michael Goldstein

This was my first close look at the Fur Seal as I'm not exactly sure what type of Fur Seal it is. There are three main types here, Antarctic, Sub Antarctic and New Zealand however there is also another and its call a hybrid as they have been interbreeding and it gets even harder to know what type they are. I was a little apprehensive about seeing this guy on land as I had been told that they are aggressive as you would be too if you had been almost wiped out from sealing.These are the guys that in 18 months had had 120,000 taken for oil.Along with hearing a few stories that they can be aggressive I wasn't planning on getting bitten!!!


 Pic: Michael Goldstein
 Pic: Michael Goldstein

Also happened upon some Royal Penguins just sitting there I'm guessing taking a break from foraging for food for the little ones!!

 Pic: Michael Goldstein

These guys weren't in the mood to want to let us get too close but there will be ample opportunity to get some better shots of these guys later I'm sure.......

 Pic: Michael Goldstein

Always a couple dozen eyes on you and even from the water!!!

 Pic: Michael Goldstein

As well as the eyes form land. These guys aren't in the slightest worried with our presence however there are three good signs to when you do.
1 The eye.....looking at you with these massive puppy dog eyes
2 The silent scream.....(to quote Dr Clive) they open their mouth and begin to arch up and move around a little
3 They get vocal.......

 Pic: Michael Goldstein

Its quite interesting that the biggest of Elephant seals that are here are able to almost reach every part of their body with this little flipper.............quite funny at times too i should add.


 Pic: Michael Goldstein

The vibrant green of one of the mosses of the island.........Don't know what type as yet but I'm sure by the end if this trip which means you'll know too..........Change of plans, just had one of the Rangers walk past my room and found out what it is. Its called Colobanthus and HERE is an interesting web page on some of the plants of the island. I notice a name on that page Jenny Scott she has been coming to Macca for many years and this year she is back to do some more research CLICK HERE to look at some of her many many many many papers FULL TEXT to read article! 

Ill make sure I have a talk further to her about her visits here over the years and see what she thinks of the changes here and report all in coming blogs!!!!

Pic: Michael Goldstein

So I'm thinking this one was a little less painless than normal however I really did have lots of pics to make the masses happy. 

Hope everyone had a nice holiday season and you all are handling the heat well as I know I would't be if i was there. Don't really have too much more of a wind up today but then again its Monday and first day back at work. We did have a tourist ship arrive today but didn't include any pics as the fog was that think you couldn't see the ship and they couldn't land on station, but there will be another 9 tourist ships arriving before i leave so you'll be sure to get one in my blog!!!

One more day of work then another day off......................

Id also like to take this opportunity to wish everyone that gets this far in my blog the very BEST, SAFE, HEALTHY of New Years and the wealth will come rolling in!!

Take Care

Michael


P.S................Being a baker doesn't necessarily mean you need to bake, being a plant operator doesn't 
                     necessarily mean you need to operate but with the two you can do things and go places 
                     this operating baker never thought he could. Maybe one day you can go places too,
                     how about you make a start tomorrow!!
                    Michael Goldstein