The second week of fieldwork: more from the RA

Another week has passed. Hear more about the Codfish Island experiences from Jesse, the Research Assistant (RA), in retrospect!

"Gone are the long, sunny days and dark, moonless nights.  Now our days are overcast, raining, and often windy.  The nights are now lit with the moon’s bright reflection of the sun as it slowly approaches the full moon stage.  Diving petrels prefer dark, cloudy, and misty nights.  Even in the overcast evenings with clouds, the moon shining brightly few.  We’ve learned to adapt to the new conditions on the island. Johannes and I are working split shifts during the night – soon after sunset, then a few hours before sunrise when the moon has generally set over the horizon.  This effort maximizes our chances of collecting diving petrels for banding and data collection.

 

Jesse in action

Some nights we’ve had to quit early from high winds creating poor visibility with sand swirling around us, or any condition of rain that might soak the birds or burrow traps.  Our luck has held out most nights, with the weather changing just after we’ve finished.

The South Georgian Diving Petrels are also developing brood patches – featherless patches of skin where the birds lay upon their egg to provide warmth.  No longer are they flying and calling about at night.  They have paired up and started laying eggs.  Now each partner takes their turn incubating the egg, or feeding out at sea.  This further reduces our chances of collecting GLS tags, but we keep going and stay hopeful. 

Other seabirds are starting to return to their burrows on the island.  We now infrequently see or hear Cook’s Petrel, Sooty Shearwater, and Mottled Petrel.  Twice we spotted a Morepork owl in the dunes or perched on driftwood. 

When we aren’t working, Johannes and I pitch in with cooking dinner for everyone on the island or help out the kakapo rangers with chores around the hut.  Sometimes we get a chance to scan the water off the dunes for seabirds like White-capped Albatross, Sooty Shearwater, and Brown Skua.  On clear days, the snow-capped mountains of Fiordland can be seen with the naked eye."