I apologize first off for being so slow at adding posts here. Days continue
to be long and I've generally just been tired at night and not felt up for
writing much. Plus, we have been losing daylight at an alarming rate (down
to only about 17.5 hours a day). With the earlier sunset, its actually
getting dark here for the first time, which is strange, but also makes me
more inclined to actually go to bed at a reasonable hour (that and the
constant work). We actually were able to see a planet the other night,
though still no stars really. We should be seeing stars by the time we
leave in March. Well, that is if its ever clear enough to see the sky,
which is rare.
As for the chicks, they are starting to be everywhere. Thats penguin chicks
of course. Unfortunately, a lot of the penguin nests failed this year,
largely due to the increased amount of snow making actual nest building and
egg incubation tough. There were actually some hilarious (though somewhat
sad) penguins that ended up in a hole about 3 feet deep where their little
butts melted the snow down while they sat on their eggs. But that being
said, the ones that were successful now have chicks, and boy do those
chicks grow fast!
Gentoo and chinstrap penguins both typically have 1 to 2 chicks each year
(not like the emperors you always hear about with their one). Like other
penguin chicks, these chicks do look like fuzzy, grumpy little old men with
big bellies and their pants pulled up way too high. They are pretty cute
when they are clean, which is never. More often, they are covered in a
highly coordinated smattering of feces, mud, and feces soaked mud. Much
like their parents, gentoo chicks can projectile poo several feet, with
almost pinpoint accuracy often targeted at their nearest neighbor (in truth
they aren't really aiming, but when the colonies are as crowded as they
are, its almost inevitable that someone receives an unwelcome surprise).
In the next few days/ weeks the chicks will also begin to creche. If you
ever watched March of the Penguins, or Frozen Planet, or basically any
documentary on penguins, this is where suddenly all the chicks are huddling
together/ running around like the weirdos that they are while their parents
go off to forage. Its supposed to be a pretty entertaining time in the
penguin mines. Even more exciting is the penguin dash, when a parent comes
back and is subsequently chased halfway around the colonies by hungry
chicks. At first its often ALL the chicks, which then get whittled down to
just that bird's offspring. Its kind of like walking into a college party
holding half a pizza. Chaos.
As I mentioned, the chicks are usually covered in mud (among other things).
Thats because 1) penguins are filthy birds that live in their own waste and
2) because much of the Cape is now covered in it. We have gotten several
days of rain this week, which has left everything just kind of soggy. The
plus side is that a lot of the snow is gone now, making snow shoes and skis
unnecessary (finally!). But now you just kind of slurp around in a
different medium that leaves more of a mark on your clothes, hands, face,
whatever it can find its way onto.
Mud here is also true mud. Its not that "oh I was jogging in the park and
stepped in a puddle and some dirty water splashed on my perfectly white
running shoes" kind of mud. This is the "i'm gunna steal your boot and
maybe part of your leg if you don't move quick" kind of mud. Often times it
feels more like walking in quicksand than on dirt. A common strategy to
avoid the sinking feeling (get it?) of going nowhere is to jump from rock
to rock. The only problem is when you step onto a rock the size of your
head thinking, ah this will surely act as a good base of operations as I
plan my next step, only to find that now you AND the small boulder are
suddenly becoming part of the earth around you while those little puppies
are all somehow growing remarkably tall around you. Fortunately I have
managed to enhance my cat like reflexes, allowing me to scamper from rock
to rock without losing any limbs or major articles of clothing.
As for the puppies, they continue to grow. Unfortunately, so do the bellies
of the leopard seals and we have lost a LOT of pups. Its getting to the
point of being a little depressing actually. On the upside, the remaining
pups are hopefully a little wiser than their leopard lunch counterparts,
which gives them a better chance of making it back here someday. In
addition to getting big, some are starting to molt, meaning they are losing
their jet black coats in favor of the more grownup silver. I haven't fully
pet a molted pup yet, but apparently they get SUPER soft right after the
molt.
Unfortunately for the pups, as they go through the process, it makes them
look a little ridiculous and borderline creepy. If you dont know who
skeletor is, theres this new thing called Google (though I'm probably
spelling it wrong). No no, you dont actually have to go look, he looks
creepy anyway, but he was a villain that I think was originally part of the
legion of doom from the old super friends cartoons (EDITORS NOTE: I clearly didn't have google, Skeletor is actually from the He-Man cartoon series. Legion of doom leader was just bald...) . I am pretty sure the new Captain America also had a Skeletor looking villain as well. Basically
its a man with essentially a skeleton head. While the puppies do still have
fur, their molt tends to start on their heads and move backwards. The
result is an all black pup with a sleek, silver head that kind of makes
them look like Skeletor. They are still pretty cute though, at least the
few that are still around.
Thats it for now. Its late and I need to sleep. Its my birthday on
Saturday, so we are having a little celebration (I dont like making a big
deal of my birthday, but others insisted. Plus its just an excuse to have a
bbq and stay up late. Its also the last weekend that the Dutch science team
will be here so we can celebrate with them.)
Stay warm east coast, and stay cool west coast (seriously 70 degrees?!)
Also! I highly recommend checking out a singer named Old Man Ludacate (or
Ludacit?). He has a few good songs, but when much of your world revolves
around food and cooking as it does here, his song Joy of Cooking can really
hit home…
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