Petrel pics

Its the last few weeks that we have alone at the base. Pretty sad to start packing up everything and getting ready for the masses to invade. The fact that we have so little time of peace and quiet left makes you appreciate the little things even more, like an evening of perfect weather and a once in a lifetime view. Here are a few more Snow and Antarctic Petrel pics. 

Snow Petrels

Finally got a picture with a Snow Petrel in (note two white specks on right hand side of photo).

We first noticed some birds flying around while we were prepping for the Grune Hogna field trip, and upon consulting Google, we found out that they are Antarctic Petrels. These were around for a few weeks, but then disappeared and were replaced by Snow Petrels. Both types are ridiculously fast, and by the time you have your camera ready they are already gone again - so that is the reason why they just look like two specks on the pic. The Snow Petrels are much more inquisitive and flies really close to us, but of course this only happens when nobody has a camera close. 
Hopefully I'll get a proper photo soon...

Grune Hogna photos

A few of the pictures I took while we were away on our field trip to Grune Hogna.

2am sunrise

The night before last I was fortunate enough to be awake to witness one of the prettiest sunrises we have had since winter. The sun now starts to rise at around 1:45am and is completely up at around 3am. The blowing snow created the illusion that the ice was on fire. Sadly the same wind that causes this beautiful phenomenon  also meant that going outside to take pictures would not be a good idea, so I spent the early hours of the morning lying in the upstairs lab, taking pictures through the window - not exactly my idea of a romantic sunrise, but still awesome..