Penguins!!!! Whales!!(maybe?)!!

Today was a Sunday, which is technically a day off in Antarctica. But, for science teams, it's rarely truely a day off, just a switch in tasks. For me, though, a "day off" did at least mean a very slow start to the day. I slept late, ate brunch, and then took another nap. Now, you might think I should feel a little lazy after this, but I think it was actually a good use of my time as I woke from my nap feeling more alert than I have since my arrival and my cold symptoms were greatly diminished. So, I'm calling it a win.

My next few hours were spent debugging some codes, writing on a paper, moving some more batteries around, and then *cough*watchinganepisodeofdowntonabbey*cough*.

But, the big news of the day is that I saw quite a lot of wildlife. It's not uncommon to see penguins and Weddell seals around McMurdo, but they are often scattered. Today, they were grouped closely. I'm not entirely certain why, but I think it may be due to the changes in sea ice that occurred overnight. Due to a combination of an ice breaker coming through McMurdo Sound and some pretty strong winds blowing the ice away from shore, there is limited ice nearby, and I suppose that this forces the animals closer together. [On a side note, the icebreaker was preparing the sound for a cargo ship due in on Tuesday as well as other ships following it. These ships will dock in the McMurdo snow dock shown here. Apparently this is a deep channel, where the "dock" is made of ice covered by a thick layer of dirt to prevent it from melting. Pretty neat, huh?]

So, basically I saw many, many penguins. Some were far out on the ice, while others came quite close. (We are forbidden from getting too close and/or from touching them.) I also saw a white seal (I've only seen dark ones before.) [Update: After a little research, I think the seal I saw was a crabeater seal - different from the Weddell seals I've seen before. Kinda neat. Here's a photo: ]

...and I saw whales surfacing in the distance in the sound. I couldn't say what sort as I only saw the steam from their exhalations, but it was still pretty amazing. I'll end with a few penguin pictures. If it seems like too many, you should know that I took more than 300!