Sunday 16 December

Bird Island was named by Captain James Cook in 1775 ‘on account of the vast number of birds that were seen upon it.’ I can only presume that he did not discover it between the months of November and January or it most certainly would be known as ‘Seal Island’ today.

To the West lies Willis Island, approximately 3km away. It is named after the first of Cook’s crew to sight the islands. Willis, like South Georgia, is considerably higher than Bird Island and on a fine day its snow-capped peaks can be clearly seen from the north cliffs. It provides a stunning backdrop for views of ‘Big Mac,’ the largest of Bird Islands Macaroni Penguin colonies.

The wildlife on Bird Island has been attracting the attention of human visitors since the 1700s. However conservation has not always been a priority. By 1822 the Fur Seal population of South Georgia has been decimated by the sealing industry. The skins of these animals were in great demand for the manufacture of winter coats. They have a thick pelt with an outer layer of guard hairs that protrude beyond the more densely packed inner coat. The males develop a thick mane around their neck and shoulders through which tiny (and I think comical) ears protrude.

The seal population on Bird Island has now recovered thanks to the cessation of sealing and also to the (tragic) success of the whaling industry, which reduced the Southern Ocean’s whale population to less than 16% of original levels. This saw an explosion in krill stocks, which are the main food source for the seals and subsequently supported their recovery.  

Today the expanding seal population is very much in evidence. The beach outside the research station is packed with territory-holding bull seals and groups of females who come ashore to give birth and raise their pups. The bulls fight for territory and breeding rights constantly and when it comes to their regular, violent encounters the fur, quite literally, flies. These males will fight to the death in order to preserve their position in the beach hierarchy. Defeated males who survive these encounters may retreat back into the water to linger offshore and devise their counter-strategies while others head up the numerous valley streams onto higher and hopefully less well defended ground. Those who are not so lucky spend their last days in quiet demise around the base and provide a plentiful (and gruesome) food source for the many birds that rely on carrion to raise their own families.  

These unfortunate seals also provide a constant source of work for Craig, our base technician. One of his primary roles is the preservation of the base water supply. This includes the inspection and maintenance of the collection system from streams and roof-water, the cleaning of candle filters on an almost daily basis and the operation of the UV treatment system that provides safe drinking water. Craig is also in charge of removing seal carcasses in varying stages of decomposition from our water source. At over 200kg, a male fur seal can prove quite a challenge when it comes to dragging it over steep rocky ground to a more acceptable resting place. Fortunately the birds can soon dispose of such a carcass and the ivory-coloured bones that litter the stream beds around the base are a morbid testament to their efficiency. However, it is important that Craig gets to any newly deceased seal before the birds make it impossible to move the corpse in its entirety out of our water supply. Stepping outside the back door to find that the birds have left you an impromptu anatomy demonstration is not an unusual occurrence.   As you can imagine this has lead to the development of a rather dark and irreverent sense of humour amongst the base personnel.

Today being Sunday there is a less frenetic atmosphere than usual here on base, however work continues. The seal team are occupied in the lab and on the seal study beach (SSB) while some of the bird biologists catch up on their data entry in the office. Jerry (penguins and petrels) has just headed out onto he hill, taking advantage of the blue skies to do some more work on the long term monitoring projects and his colleague, Ruth, is already out searching for birds fitted with GLS tracking systems for retrieval and data analysis. I am off to Cobblers Mound to search for and record the location of nesting Skuas. This piece of tussocked high ground is relatively close to base and I plan to be back in a few hours as it is my turn to cook the Sunday roast and bake our daily bread ration. All of the base personnel take turns to cook evening meals, and culinary standards are impressively high. The base is well supplied with frozen, canned and dried food and at the moment we are still eeking out our supply of fresh produce that was delivered by the RSS James Clark Ross with the arrival of the new staff at first call 4 weeks ago.

So I’ll sign off now and pack up my camera in the hope that I might be able to take advantage of the good weather and the spectacular views. I hope that I will be able to post some photographs soon.