Location: Lake Hoare, Antarctica
Weather: Overcast, 32F

Catharacta Antarctica

Yesterday while I was doing a test core I noticed movement in the air. In Antarctica only two things can be seen flying: a NSF helicopter or Catharacta antarctica, the Antarctcia Skua. The Skua is a bird, something like a seagull with a mean streak. As I said, I was screwing down my core barrel and I noticed a two Skua CAP (combat air patrol) circling above me. Now these birds might be dumb but they know one thing: a person in a red jacket equals food. Lucky for me, they did form up in attack formation, they just investigated me and went towards camp.

Well, I am moving into phase two of sampling: ice cores. I am starting Monday to extract eight ice cores from Lake Hoare, and then move over to Lake Fryxell to repeat the process. I will analyze these cores in McMurdo, and then ship them back to the US for more advanced analysis.

Thanksgiving was great. The only way you couldn't tell it wasn't a thanksgiving meal at home was the fact we had a few people that had never encountered the holiday before and Detroit wasn't playing on the TV.

Picture: A group picture at Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving pies.