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Published: December 1st 2007
A visitor from across the ice.
An Adelia Penguin visiting our group of travelers on the way to Cape Evans.Cape Evans (77°38′S, 166°24′E) is a rocky cape on the west side of Ross Island, forming the north side of the entrance to Erebus Bay. It was discovered by the Discovery expedition (1901-04) under Scott, who named it the Skuary. Scott's second expedition, the British Antarctic Expedition (1910-13), built its headquarters here, renaming the cape for Lieutenant Edward R.G.R. Evans, Royal Navy, second in command of the expedition. Scott's headquarters building still exists and is known as Scott's Hut.
Located about fourteen miles from McMurdo, The hut at Cape Evans is known as the Terra Nova hut, named after Captain Scott's ship and was used on Scott's last Antarctic Expedition from 1910-1913. Shackleton later used the hut on his attempt to cross Antarctica in 1917. It's amazing how well preserved the hut and its contents are, even after 100 years of passage. The dry, cold air here preserves things for years in Antarctica.
Even though this was a exploration expedition, it was also a scientific expedition as well. Lots of equipment remains, including beakers and a box of penguin eggs. There were also a lot of personal artifacts as well. Newspapers from London, food supplies and clothing are inside.
Adelia Penguin
Adelia Penguin trying to figure out how to get around our group of travelers. The Terra Nova Hut was prefabricated in England. It is rectangular, 50 feet long and 25 foot wide. Insulation was provided by seaweed sewn into a quilt, placed between double-planked inner and outer walls. The roof was a sandwich of three layers of plank and 2 layers of rubber ply enclosing more quilted seaweed. Lighting was provided by acetylene gas, and heating came from the kitchen and a supplementary stove using coal as fuel. The hut was divided into separate areas for sleeping and working by a bulkhead comprised of boxes of stores. A stable building (for nineteen Siberian ponies) approximately 50 feet by 16 feet was subsequently attached to the north wall of the main building. A utility room, approximately 40 feet by 12 feet was also added later, built around the original small porch at the South West end of the main building. Considerable effort was made to insulate the building, and to extract the maximum amount of heat from the flues from the stove and the heater, based on lessons learnt from the Discovery expedition. Terra Nova expeditioners described the hut as being warm to the point of being uncomfortable. During the winter of 1911 25
Adelia Penguin
Adelia Penguin eye balling our group of travelers. men lived in the hut.
Skuas
Skuas are very intelligent predators, feeding mostly on marine life and penguin eggs and chicks, although they don't hesitate to rummage in the trash or even enter the cuisine to steal. One of them once got drunk drinking a cocktail bowl the chef had left out to cool down ! It couldn't take off anymore and kept hitting buildings. If one walks outside with food in your hand they will try to steal it from you.
Skuas don't nest, they just lay their eggs on some flat ground and defend it fiercely against intruders. The chick wanders around as soon as it can walk. If you get too close, they start posturing and screaming, then they attack you from behind, eventually hitting you on the head or sometimes stealing your hat to throw it in the sea.
Skuas will not usually attack adult penguins or even chicks protected by their parents, but they keep an eye for abandoned chicks. Usually chicks are abandoned when one parent fail to relieve the other. A parent will spontaneously leave the nest and eggs/chicks when the motivation to feed overcomes that for incubating the eggs
Penguin crossing
Why did the penguin cross the road? or caring for the chicks. The abandoned chick then wanders around issuing heart wrenching 'Piu! Piu!' calls. The chick gets rejected and even attacked by other adult penguins, and when it starts being weak skuas usually attack.
In my photo's are Skuas bathing in a freshwater lake after returning from the sea, in order to remove the salt.
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