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ePostcard #49: Penguins, Penguins Everywhere!
ePostcard #49: Penguins, Penguins Everywhere! Penguins undeniably assume center stage for most visitors to South Georgia, and the cast of characters includes king, gentoo, chin-strap and macaroni penguins. This pre-dawn trip (2018) to the enormous king penguin colony...
ePostcard #48: Zodiac Landings! (South Georgia)
ePostcard #48: Zodiac Landings! (South Georgia) The first surf landing in a Zodiac at South Georgia is always exciting, the beaches dotted with Antarctic fur seals and bull elephant seals defending their respective strongholds and harems, the noise of their bellicose...
ePostcard #47: Bound for South Georgia!
ePostcard #47: Bound for South Georgia! You never forget your first glimpse of South Georgia—the Antarctic oasis where alpine glaciers give way to tussock-dotted headlands and beaches covered with thousands of king penguins, elephant seals, and Antarctic fur seals....
ePostcard #46: Ice Requiem
ePostcard #46: Ice Requiem In this time of accelerating global climate change in polar regions, we need to think about the complex and interdependent ecosystems that have evolved in association with ice in all of its forms. What I’ve shared in these East...
ePostcard #45: Adélie Penguins at Risk
ePostcard #45: Adélie Penguins at Risk Understanding the impacts of global climate perturbations on penguins is especially complex in polar regions. Adélie penguins are critically important as ecosystem sentinels because they are sea-ice dependent and their survival...
ePostcard #44: Crabeater Seals (Cape Denison, East Antarctica, 2006)
ePostcard #44: Crabeater Seals (Cape Denison, East Antarctica, 2006) The Adélie penguins and crabeater seals that share the ice landing at Cape Denison (photo #2) appear to coexist as if the phrase "Peaceable Kingdom" still has some validity in the natural world....
ePostcard #43: Snow Petrels (Cape Denison, East Antarctic, 2006)
ePostcard #43: Snow Petrels (Cape Denison, East Antarctic, 2006) Seeing your first snow petrel on a trip to the Antarctic is always exciting, but for my group to see this one perched like a sentinel at the foot of the cross Mawson’s team erected at Cape Denison in...
ePostcard #42: Mother’s Day in Adélie Land
ePostcard #42: Mother's Day in Adélie Land It is “mud season” in the Adélie penguin colony at Cape Denison. As you can see in this ridge-perched colony of Adélies, sunny spring days have left a few lingering patches of snow. As I sat and watched, Adélie penguins were...
ePostcard #41 (Mawson’s Australian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914)
ePostcard #41 (Mawson's Australian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914) Dedication and Biographical Notes: This ePostcard is dedicated to the extraordinary Antarctic exploration legacy of Sir Douglas Mawson (above) and expedition photographer Frank Hurley (photo #3,...
ePostcard #40: In the Footsteps of Douglas Mawson (Commonwealth Bay, East Antarctica, 2006)
ePostcard #40: In the Footsteps of Douglas Mawson (Commonwealth Bay, East Antarctica, 2006) Cloud Ridge’s first trip to the Southern Polar Ocean in 2003 included the Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. I knew that we would go back but that I...
ePostcard #39: Introducing the East Antarctic Ice Sheet
ePostcard #39: Introducing the East Antarctic Ice Sheet I decided to travel south from the Subantarctic Islands and head to the East Antarctic for this next series of ePostcards—from megaherbs to the White Continent! Certainly a study in contrasts. With the East...
ePostcard #38: Megaherb Discoveries
ePostcard # 38: Megaherb Discoveries You know how much I enjoy questions! Yesterday’s ePostcard #37, Megaherb Mysteries, prompted lots of questions and encouraged me to dig into the most recent literature to find out what botanists are discovering about these...
ePostcard #37: Megaherb Mysteries
ePostcard #37: Megaherb Mysteries Botanists continue to be puzzled by the prevalence of outsized leaves and flowers—the so-called megaherb flora—of the subantarctic islands. It is not known whether the megaherbs are relics of an ancient, more widespread flora that...
ePostcard #36: Crested Penguins (Royals and Snares)
ePostcard #36: Crested Penguins (Royals and Snares) Crested penguins, every species, just make you smile—you can’t help yourself! The large and fascinating genus Eudyptes includes both crested and rock hopper penguins. The first two of my photos are of royal (crested)...
ePostcard #35: Yellow-eyed Penguins
ePostcard #35: Yellow-eyed Penguins The yellow-eyed penguin is a New Zealand endemic and one of the rarest and most endangered species of penguin in the world. The Maori name for the yellow-eyed penguin is “hoiho,” which means “noise-maker.” This makes me...
ePostcard #34: Fascinating Tubenoses
ePostcard #34: Fascinating Tubenoses Seabirds live at the mercy of wind and wave, superbly adapted to thrive in one of the most demanding but productive environments on Earth—the ocean. For millions of years, the global ocean has served as “home away from home” for...
ePostcard # 33: Gray-headed & Southern Royal Albatrosses
ePostcard # 33: Gray-headed & Southern Royal Albatrosses One of the highlights of hiking up through the grass tussocks on Campbell Island, was spotting a gray-headed albatross just settling into a mixed species colony near some southern royal albatrosses. With its...