Avian Island

[Written by Elizabeth Leonardis for our old blog, So Civilized]

Avian Island

An annual stop on the LTER cruise is at Avian Island, to drop off the birders for a 5 day stay. There are over 60,000 breeding pairs of Adelie penguins and the birders spend their time on the island tagging penguins with satelitte tracking devices, diet sampling, blood sampling for Kristin’s isotope work, and doing general censuses of the penguins and other local birds. The island is located near the southern tip of Adelaide Island at the mouth of Marguerite Bay.

Oscar and me on our way to Avian Island

We were fortunate enough to be included on the birders permit for this specially protected island and along with the PI’s of the project were able to accompany them for a short walk around the island. The sheer number of penguins there is a pretty unbelievable sight. While on the island, Kristin and Rick (the birders), sleep and eat in a small run down shack. By the time they get back on the boat 5 days later they are covered from head to toe in penguin guano (penguin poop) and stinky! They are promptly hosed down before we let them inside.

The birders shack on Avian

Alex & me on Avian Island

In addition to the enormous number of Adelies, there are also piles of Elephant seals on the island. Krisitin reported about 200 that they were able to count.

Stacks of Elephant seals amongst the penguins

Sweet faced Elephant seal

Unfortunately, we were not able to explore the entire island, but while Rick and Kristin were out and about for their 5 days, they saw numerous other birds. This included breeding Blue-eyed Shags (commonly known as Cormorants), Giant Petrels, Skua, and of course thousands of adorable penguins. Rick provided me with these next photos from his time on Avian.

Comorant Family

Giant Petrel nest

Kristin being dive bombed by an angry Skua

Adelie penguin with chicks

Upon returning to the ship, Rick and Kristin began sorted through the diet samples that they collected while on the island. Essentially they are sorting through penguin vomit to determine what it is that they are eating. The majority of their diet consists of krill, that includes Adelie penguins at Avian and in the Palmer area. This is a change from years past when the Adelies diet contained about 50% silverfish and now it is rare to find many fish in their diet at all.

Adelie penguin diet samples (mostly krill)

Live krill fresh out of the nets (photo: Andrew McDonnell)

Something funny we observed while on Avian, were the chicks chasing their parents around in order to get fed. Evidently, it is intentional on the parents part, although Kristin is not sure why exactly. It could be to lure the chicks from the nests so they are comfortable leaving the nests in the future, perhaps to give them exercise, or maybe to teach them that getting food is not always easy. Whatever the case, it is pretty hilarious watching the chicks running like mad after their parents.

Adelie penguin feeding their chick after the big chase

Chubby chick and parent

Alex and me enjoying the view