Adelies

(Written Thursday evening) In my last entry, I mentioned Adelie penguins. But I hadn't actually met any Adelies. Since then, I've had the pleasure to see these classic tuxedo seabirds up close & personal. The Adelie penguins are a truly Antarctic penguin, closely tied to the pack ice, and a krill specialist. Unfortunately, more years of reduced winter ice recently means that in the northern part of their range and areas with lower pack ice, the Adelie populations are declining. And from some sites I am working, you get a snapshot view of the decline - more gentoo and fewer Adelie breeding colonies. Perhaps in my next post I'll talk more about the gentoos.

Thursday was a lot of field work, hiking through deep snow (not THAT far) and continuing our surveys. Friday, perhaps data entry and seminars - we'll see. No field work planned, at least for now. Maybe seal-watching - along with seabirds, the marine mammal list is growing - Orcas as well as Elephant Seals and Weddell Seals.

In honor of my blog's name, it's about time I talked about chocolate and dessert. We're fed well down here - today I chose desserts of carrot cake (with lunch) and cookies & cream ice cream and chocolate sauce (with dinner). Admittedly, their ice cream toppings are not the best. But, dessert is always yummy. and chocolate sandwich cookies (like oreos but with chocolate filling, and .. in their own style) make an excellent afternoon snack. I haven't had any brownies yet - but I'll keep you posted. Just picked up my first cocoa of the day - and its almost bedtime! I'd love to be up for a sunrise or sunset sometime ... but probably not tonight, I'm pooped.