Thursday, December 29, 2011

Bones, Penguins, Zorro and a Mouse


Day 2 of the pre-expedition birding trip began not exactly after dawn (sunrise was at 4:57am this morning, sunset 10:13pm tonight) but early enough at 6am. While rushing through my breakfast I noticed two Crested Caracaras on the roof right next to me. They are hunters and scavengers and we played a game of cat and mouse after the owner of the hotel put out some meat on the window ledge.







I pretended to look intently at my cereal as I ate while sneaking a peek to see if my feigned inattentiveness would lure him into super close range, but then I got distracted by a fox running down the neighbor's driveway. I stepped to the corner of the second floor window and snapped photos of two Zorro Gris (Gray Foxes) looking at each other across the street. I'm sure the Caracara grabbed the meat while I was paying attention to the foxes.

Today was quite a special day - our first penguins of the trip! Magellanic Penguins and Gentoo Penguins (with the red bill, running to the right, above) are common breeders on Martillo Island.

King Penguins are out of their normal range here but one was on the island (the largest penguin in the picture with all 3 species of penguin and the 2nd largest in the world, bested only by the Emperor Penguin). A special treat. We'll see hundreds of thousands of King Penguins on South Georgia Island, but it's nice to have a picture of the very first King Penguin I've ever seen. The penguins and Chilean Skua (spreading its wings) are habituated to the stream of mainly quiet (shutters snapping!) tourists. 

One of the Magellanics even walked along behind me in the path after visiting several neighboring burrows. The chicks are mainly large and fluffy, as seen with the two peering through the grasses.


Braying took place quite often - placing the Magellanic Penguins in the group known broadly as jackass penguins because they sound like a donkey.






At the take-off point for our zodiac trip to the island we visited the Museo Acatushun de Aves y Mamiferos Marinos Australes. An intern (students - you too can work here for free - beautiful setting, smelly work!) told us about his job so far - walking beaches to find dead animals, bringing the carcasses back to the museum, storing them in barrels until the flesh rots off, and doing the final scraping and cleaning in the bone building before bleaching the bones to remove remaining oils, then reconstructing the skeleton for storage and display. It's really an amazing resource with all the bones they have of common, and not-so-common, species. The box of skulls is primarily of Commerson's Dolphin skulls waiting for the skin to fall off. They are numerous because they get caught in fishing nets and drown, then wash up.

The bleached set of two skulls shows the final display quality - dorsal and ventral views. Notice the tiny teeth, all the same peg-like structure (homodont dentition, handy for eating fish - grip and swallow).


The big whale skeletons on the lawn are juvenile Sei Whales (baleen whales - no teeth).

One of the neat features of this museum was the articulated skeletons on the wall in front of a life-size painting of the species. The Southern Right Whale Dolphin (could a name be more confusing? There is such a thing as a Southern Right Whale and it looks nothing like this because it's an enormous baleen whale - we have an etching of a Right Whale or a Bowhead on the main floor of Swindells Hall). I liked the King Penguin skeleton too.

















On the penguin island, we saw several skins of Magellanic Penguins turned inside out. A Leopard Seal had come to shore not long ago and ate a lot of penguins. I included a Leopard Seal skull above so you can see the odd shape of its teeth - three cusps. BIG canines - heterodont dentition but still a little blend of dolphin-like teeth with pre-molars and molars being quite similar and pointy. Grab, thrash, peel and swallow...



Another fascinating display is the bone abnormalities. On the left is the femur of a guanaco (a camel/llama-like fluffy animal - I hope to see one in the wild tomorrow) - it probably broke its leg but the fracture became infected and the bone kept trying to heal - look how much bone deposited in the middle! It looks like a plaster of Paris project gone bad. The middle three bones show healed fractured ribs. And the right two vertebral columns show two animals with a congenital defect - probably mom and calf or sibling dolphins - the fusion of the spines (6th from left) is identical on both animals. Weird stuff.


And finally, a few fun pics from sights en route to the penguin island. We stopped for a flock of Austral Parakeets and found a family of Austral Pygmy-Owls! Watched them for a long time - so entertaining especially as other species came in to see what all the fuss is about. I haven't identified the mouse yet but it sure was hilarious watching all of us trying to get pics of it with our enormous lenses and the mouse literally running right up to our feet! He was a fast one.


The fungus is Darwin's fungus - gets into the Beech trees (Nothofagus spp.) and they make a gall to boot it out. The little balls of fungus drop from the trees and litter the forest floor.



And the last species is an Upland Goose - one of the prettiest species of goose I've seen, except for possibly the Bar-headed Goose on Hovsgol Lake in Mongolia - they were pretty special! Tomorrow we're going to a sheep farm.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Arrival at Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia, Argentina







I made it! After mechanical delays on two different routes, each resulting in a missed connection to my big flight to Buenos Aires, a night at the Marriott in the Houston airport, and a disaster barely averted when a baggage claim agent who found my checked bag (in Houston and booked on the correct flight) noticed that I wasn't booked on that same flight - my ticket listed the following day!! After a couple of hours of really getting to know the Houston airport and nice and not-so-nice agents, I was overbooked (this is how flights get overbooked btw!) on the flight. The good news for me: that same SFO-Houston flight that was delayed and resulted in me missing my flight the previous night was once again delayed, so I got one of those poor passenger's seats. The bad news for me: for the first time ever I was booked on an international First Class seat (reserved back in Feb as a saver miles award - that never happens). Ever since then, I've just been waiting for United to find a way to boot this free-loader out of First Class. Now, I don't think they had to go so far as to find a dented engine rotor right before we pushed back from the gate, but that did the trick! Economy aisle seat for 10 hours. Not tragic, just below expectations. All of that is but a distant memory now that I'm here!! Ushuaia is simply stunning. Tucked into a little notch of land below the Andes. Today (Dec 28 I believe!) was our first birding trip - we went over to the other side of the Andes and had a delicious lunch at an isolated lodge (Fagnano 54°S) by the side of an enormous lake (Lago Fagnano -100km long and windy, just like Beagle Channel). The best bird of the day: an Andean Condor!! Stunning as it cruised (way) overhead. One of the things I'm always reminded of when I'm a participant on field trips (and not in my usual leader/professor position) is how carefully you have to pay attention. When Esteban ripped through the ducks on the pond, I probably asked him about 5 times about the specifics - was that a Yellow-billed Teal or Pintail? (Pintail!). What's that other yellow billed duck - is that a teal? Yes, a Speckled Teal (with a yellow bill incidentally). That's a Rufous/Red Shoveler? It doesn't really look that much like our shovelers, but ya, now I see that enormous bill. I'll have to remember this feeling the next time I rip through the names of 10 species of ducks for my Vert Bio students on a field trip. A good look and a field guide are essential, but even then, it's a steep learning curve, especially for many of my students who have never really noticed birds before. And speaking of birds, the silhouetted bird is a Southern Giant Petrel against the mountains of a Chilean island right across the Beagle Channel from us. The view over some houses is from my room at Mirabeagle (look-beagle) Hosteria. The house with all the lupine out front is where we had a gourmet lunch today - even managed to make me a spinach quiche and pasta. Others had a first course of trout caught from the lake with salad and then beef (we are in Argentina after all) with potatoes. Flan with a big dab of dulce de leche on top for dessert. Dulce de leche has to be one of my favorite things. Tomorrow: boat trip to a Magellanic Penguin colony!

Friday, December 23, 2011

The Route

I posted this map outside my office (from a British tour company - I added a little snippet red line south of the Antarctic Circle b/c we are scheduled to go there - 24-hr sun!). That's the Polish icebreaker, The Ortelius, I'm on - spartan decor inside but it's the strength that counts and this puppy has the strongest ice-class rating, 1A. According to the tour website (link at bottom of picture), we could plow through solid one-year sea ice in this - no destination denied by ice pack I imagine!
http://www.cheesemans.com/boats/ortelius_ship.html#decks  I'm in cabin 448 - I think that's the equivalent (port side instead of starboard side shown in picture) of the third set of double windows at the bottom of the white-painted area (right below that stairway down from the bridge and at the same level as the observation deck). Nice view from the room not that I imagine I'll spend much time in the room. Just picked up my seasickness prescription today (the patch you put behind your ear, good for 3 days per patch, 10 patches ought to more than do it!). I only expect potentially rough seas on the big open ocean crossings but when we're by the islands or the peninsula things should be calm. The peninsula in particular apparently often has glassy conditions. And of course I'll be on shore a bunch of the time - lots of landings and many will be 8 hour opportunities for birding and photography. Of course, back when I was doing my PhD I got seasick on a Zodiac!! Not because I'm extremely susceptible - years of sailing with my dad on wonderful trips to Catalina Island indicate 5 hours is no problem, and more is usually OK, but b/c I was using my binoculars the entire time to count murres. Optics plus swells = barf-fest. And what will I be doing on The Ortelius? Of course trying to ID every single animal I see and spot the super rarities after I get very familiar with all the common ones. Luckily the camera will help - quick photo, zoom, zoom, zoom on the little screen, ID! That's how it's supposed to work. How it will actually work is likely zoom, zoom, zoom, hmm, still not sure, download to already overloaded laptop (note to self, must make room on hard drive before I leave), full screen, zoom, zoom, zoom, consult multiple field guides, tentative ID. Ask expert. Solid ID. Become expert by end of voyage.