Catching them means we use a corral to surround the crèche and then move in hopefully herding them into the pen. Stepping inside the pen, we sort out any adults that were caught by mistake, then the smaller chicks we will not band. Now the work begins. Catch a chick, hold it between your legs, place the hard metal band around its wing and press it closed. It is very important to make sure the ends of the band are flush and together otherwise the band may interfere with the swimming ability of the bird.

This pen is used to catch the chicks. We get inside and sort out the adults and small ones, then band the big ones.

Banding the chicks. It’s important to get the band on exactly right, otherwise it will interfere with the birds swimming.

We now say good by to these chicks, leave them alone to finish their molting and find their way to the open ocean and food. Many of the adults have already left, these chicks are on their own.

These chicks have been banded. It may be two or three years before we see them again.

The adults have left these chicks to finish molting on their own.

It’s hard for us to say goodbye. The pile of equipment is the last load of the season. Our amazing helitech solves the puzzle, and still there is room for all five of us. We are covered in penguin guano, feathers and dirt after a day of banding, but feel good as this last task of the research project brings this season to an end.

The last trip of the season. All this equipment must fit into the helo, and the five of us too.

All that equipment made it; now we have to get in. It is goodbye to Cape Royds for the winter.

Ms. Ellwood, a veteran science teacher, is also an accomplished ice diver working with a science research group in Antarctica’s Dry Valleys. Headed by Dr. Peter Doran from the University of Illinois, they are studying the fresh water lakes of that remote region. The lakes form primarily from glacier runoff, as it rarely snows and never rains in this part of the continent.

This year the team brought down the Endurance, a large robotic camera and data collector, or ‘Bot’ as it is affectionately called. Gathering data in larger amounts and in a shorter time than humans could do from the surface or diving, this sophisticated machine will map the floor, and provide water analysis of these remarkable lakes. You can learn more about their project and see pictures of the Bot here.

Not to be left out of the project, the Rye students designed and built their own robotic camera which had to be able to function in the extreme cold salty water of the Antarctica ocean. Getting the neutral buoyancy just right and using materials that were appropriate in Antarctica’s fragile environment provided many challenges, but all were well met.

“ScubaDoobaDoo” was successfully launched in the ocean and took its first underwater video in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, November 2008. Its performance was outstanding, it was easy to maneuver and the videos were excellent, reported Ms. Ellwood.

The students can be very proud of their accomplishment. The students’ project was funded in part by the school’s PTA.

ScubaDoobaDoo.

ScubaDoobaDoo’s camera in front uses the LED light source next to it. Under the ice in Antarctica it is not only very cold, but very dark. The switch box houses the controls: right and left motors for turning and forward and back motion, the top motor for up and down motion. The video is sent to the DVD player through the 100 foot cable attached to the camera.

ScubaDoobaDoo taking a video of me taking a picture of it.

Close up of one of the motors.

Robin Ellwood getting ready to launch ScubaDoobaDoo in the fish tank, Crary Laboratory, McMurdo.

ScubaDoobaDoo at neutral buoyancy in -1.6 C ocean water. Ready for action.

ScubaDoobaDoo next to the ‘Bot’.

Next to the Bot, ScubaDoobaDoo was overheard saying “When I grow up, I want to be like him.” He is well on his way.

In the video below, see ScubaDoobaDoo perform in one of the large aquarium tanks in McMurdo.

A single Antarctic snowflake. Two things have always given me headaches: the number of stars in the universe and the number of these in Antarctica.

Prisoners in time, these frozen gas bubbles give pattern and beauty to the ice.

A different pond and a different pattern.

Ice crystals obey their own rules of pattern formation.

A different place in the ice, these formations did their own thing.

These frozen ice waves remind us, the wind will be heeded.

The large ice structures of Antarctica remind us of the power of this place; the small ones, how fragile it is.

Icebergs are broken off pieces of glaciers and contain snow that fell 10 000’s of years ago. When you move close to one, what you see is several 100 feet tall and yet only 10% of its actual size and you come to understand not only how much ice there is here, but also how long it has been here.

Sea ice to the horizon.

The end of a glacier as it comes off the land. Here you see frozen ocean holding the edge of the glacier ice in place. This wall of ice is 200 feet high with 9 times that much under water. That’s a lot of ice!

This is also part of a land glacier which has moved off the land over the ocean. It is called an ice shelf because although it is still attached to the land portion of the glacier it is floating on water. This shelf is the size of France and a couple thousand feet thick. That’s a lot of ice!!!

Icebergs off the coast of Beaufort Island. What you see is several 100 feet high, and only 10% of its size. These are enormous pieces of glacier that broke off from the ice shelf above, floated around for a while and are now grounded. Much of the year the frozen ocean holds them in place.

There is a lot of ice in Antarctica.

View of Cape Royds.

As a backdrop to our camp and the colony is Mt Erebus, a true living, breathing, belching, active volcano whose plume is only visible when the atmospheric conditions are just right.

View of Mt Erebus form Cape Royds.

Days will pass and we will not see another human being nor hear any sound other than our own and the birds. No, I do not get lonely, and I look forward all year to this two month time frame when I am given the gift of living at the edge of world with these remarkable creatures who adapted themselves to this harsh environment so they could have the place to themselves.

It is all about the science, and my job is connecting it to classrooms across the US and around the world, sharing the experience of Antarctica and the lives of these birds with children and others who may only see penguins in zoos. Many people do not have a sense of Antarctica and do not understand the role this large continent plays in our ocean and climate systems. Most will never set foot on this, the most remote place on Earth.

Many people do not realize how pristine and unspoiled the entire continent is. It is the only continent that has never been continuously populated by people, and except for the northern tip of the Antarctica peninsula, there are no land plants or animals above the micro level. The southern ocean that surrounds Antarctica is the last unspoiled ocean on the planet. If we are to maintain the unspoiled, untouched nature of this extraordinary place, people must have a connection to it and care about it. Our project reaches out to children and adults in an effort to create that connection and sense of stewardship.

Teachers in classrooms all across the country use our website to engage students about Antarctica. We have developed classroom activities, an educational DVD, webisodes, background information for teachers, and many activities designed to engage children in penguins, Antarctica and global climate change. One of our projects is about postcards. Many children have never received a piece of mail let alone a postcard from a foreign country, let alone a postcard from Antarctica. We have received and sent back over 10000 handmade penguin postcards from children around the world. Here are some examples.

Penguin postcards made by children.

Every year we select 6 breeding pairs (one from each pair is a banded bird) to follow along on a daily basis allowing children in classrooms a chance to be field biologists. They keep a field journal, recording the dates the eggs are laid, when the chicks hatch, how long the female or male is on the nest, how long the foraging trips are and other factors effecting the chicks growth. We hope some of these young biologists will make education and career choices that will propel them into the science and engineering fields. Here is an example of these nests from the beginning of the season to the end of the season.

Penguins on nests and chicks.

Other students connect with us by making a flag to fly at the research station.

This flag from students in Maine serves as a wind speed and direction indicator for our penguin cam.

A flag designed by a student flew on our research hut last year.

Some send us questions about penguins, Antarctica and the Polar regions, we have answered thousands.

We have also produced an educational DVD about how penguins are coping with global climate change. You can order a copy from our website penguinscience.com.

Yes it is about the science, and my job is to share that science with the world.
To see the webisodes visit http://www.penguinscience.com/media/video/webisodes.php.
To learn more about the postcard project, design a flag or other classroom activities visit http://www.penguinscience.com/classroom_home.php.

At Cape Royds we watch to see what the adults are feeding their chicks. If it is pink, then the main portion of the food is krill, if it is silver then it is fish. But what kind of fish? That is where the penguin poop tray comes in. At the end of last season we set out a large tray with a fine mesh in an area where penguins have regularly nested. After the breeding season was over and the nesting adults and chicks were gone, the tray was full of penguin guano. Several washings and sortings to eliminate the large stuff later, we sift through the rest looking for otoliths (fish ear bones) which will tell us what kind and how old the fish is. The bones do not get digested so they are passed through. It’s messy work, but important knowledge to gain about Adelie Penguins and their eating habits.

A new otolith tray set out in the field waiting for penguins to make their nests.

Luckily two penguins decided to nest in the tray. Lots of guano for us.

A season’s tray of penguin guano washed and sieved and ready for sorting under the stereoscope.

Now the work begins. It takes hours to look for the tiny bones.

An otolith, less than a millimeter long.

CAPE ROYDS, ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA– Male Adélie Penguins were seen this year at Cape Royds on Oct 21. First a trickle then a flood, by mid November most of the nests had been built, the males had found a mate and the eggs were laid. Cape Royds has a short breeding season; there is no time to waste in this process. Many penguin breeding pairs will return to the same nest site year after year re-bonding with each other and raising their chicks together. But not all penguins find their mates from the previous year. Some did not survive the winter, some may have found a new colony to breed in, others may simply decide not to breed this year and stay out near the ice edge. In these cases new mates must be found.

To attract a mate, males build nests out of small rocks then stand nearby bowing to females as they pass by. Females may just walk by, or step into the nest for a while then move on, or they may stay accepting the male as a partner and his nest as hers. What causes the female to select the nest she wants? There is no way to know for sure, but one thing for sure, not all Adélie Penguin nests are alike. The rock structure, although not warm and soft like other bird nests, provides a barrier to keep the eggs and small chicks from rolling or falling out. It also keeps the eggs above melt water that will flow through some parts of the colony as the weather warms and snow patches turn to small rivulets. Perhaps the females sense the merit of each nest to provide this protection for her chicks, maybe it is random, or maybe there are other factors we do not know about. Either way there is great variation in the nests as you can see by the pictures below.

This year the penguins must walk 50 miles over the frozen sea ice to get to their breeding ground at Cape Royds.

Once they arrive at Cape Royds, the males find a place that suits them and start to build their nests.

This is a well built average nest, the male is waiting for a female to join him.

The female is inspecting the nest.

She enters the nest to see how it works for her.

She decides to stay, the bond is made and this pair will raise some chicks.

Some nest builders use big rocks.

Some prefer small rocks.

This Adélie Penguin built a large nest.

Some penguins build small ones.

Perhaps this female chose this nest because it is well protected by the rocks. Skuas will have trouble attacking here.

This nest is out in the open and very vulnerable. It will be difficult to fend off the Skuas from taking the eggs and chicks.

This nest is very tidy and organized.

This nest is not.

As long as the snow stays frozen this nest will be okay, but when the weather warms up these parents may find their rocks washing away.

This penguin may have trouble finding a mate to join him in this nest.

As you can see, not all Adélie Penguin nests are alike, and just like people they all have their own sense of décor.