An unexpected visitor - 18 April to 24 April

This week has been rather a failure on the achieving anything work related front. Firstly, Richard finally (I say finally because it has taken three months) decided what I should do with the remaining sixty GLS trackers, deploy a quarter on the penguins now, a quarter on the Great Shearwaters now, a quarter on the Atlantic Petrels in July and the last quarter should be held in reserve. So, off I went to Seal Beach, and discovered that I was too late and all the penguins have left after the moult and will not return until September...

The Base, seen from Richmond Hill. My room is the window on the extreme left of the large building.

Next, the Great Shearwaters: now these birds still have chicks in their burrows and the adults must come in to feed the chicks, so the first thing is to determine which of the two hundred marked burrows in the Shearwater transect still have chicks and are not too deep to prevent me being able to get the adult out. So after much groveling and getting muddy, I was left with twenty seven occupied, short burrows. Now of course the adults only come in briefly, about twenty to forty minutes, to feed the chick and this happens every four to eight days. Of course this has happen at night so that the Skuas do not catch them. Now, it is impossible to see anything at night here, it is pitch black, and using a light will distract the birds so I cannot simply watch and see which adults arrive, I had to come up with another idea. I put toothpicks in the mouth of each burrow, forming a small barrier. Hopefully, the adult when it arrives will knock over the toothpicks and make it obvious that they are home. Then all I have to do is walk around, checking each burrow in turn and grab the adults. It shouldn't take more than four hours a night for a week...

I have some good news, I have been given (at last) the captive husbandry plan for the moorhens. It is necessary to establish whether it is possible to keep moorhens in cages for at least six weeks during an attempt to eradicate mice from Gough as they are at risk of either primary poisoning by eating the poison or secondary poisoning by eating dead mice. Therefore a representative sample of the population will be kept in cages to provide a starter population should the wild population be wiped out. So I have to put on my carpenter cap and start building cages. It will give me something to do when the weather is bad.

The Black Rover (www.royalnavy.mod.uk)

We had an unexpected visitor this weekend, yesterday the Royal Fleet Axillary tanker R.F.A. Black Rover sailed past. Normally we have weeks of notice of ships passing our little home but she was not logging a track on the maritime database that John checks, so it was a great surprise to look out the window and see a large grey ship steaming by. It is amazing how something like that can excite everyone in the base, we are really starved of new experiences and anything out of the ordinary is really appreciated.

A tree fern "branch"

I hope all of you will becoming to my birthday party next Saturday, I appreciate that it is quite a distance to travel but I think that if you make the effort, you will be well rewarded. Remember it is a dress-up party and anyone without a costume will be asked to leave.

I trust you all had a great Easter holiday and will enjoy all your public holidays in the next weeks.
Cheers
Nic

Mad Birds and Englishwomen - 11 April to 17 April

...go out in the midday sun...

South West Island from Cavern Head. Before all of you rock climbers get excited, the rock here is worse than the 'Berg. Still impressive though.

At least that is how we roll on Gough Island. Actually it is not just the midday sun and not just the Englishwomen, Prince hardly fits that definition and they have to do weather observations every three hours whatever the weather. I'm really glad I don't have their job, even though the four days off, two days on working schedule has some appeal, the getting up at 03:00 does not.

South Point from Cavern Head. I'll have to go there soon to collect penguin feathers

This has been a rather lonely week for me, I've been visiting parts of the island where I've never been before and seeing beautiful sights and I have no one to experience them with me. So much of the enjoyment of these experiences comes from sharing them with someone else. I don't mean to insult you, dear Faithful Reader, I do value your reading of this blog and your comments greatly but it is not the same as having someone with you. Michelle would have come along but she has been catching up on her missed shifts and recovering from her illness. It seems silly to be here, doing this on my own, when I know of so many people who would have jumped at the chance to come and work here in Ross' place had they been given the chance. It was too much admin to replace him, so they took the easy way out, I guess.

Juvenile Antarctic Tern

Anyway, I have now been to Richmond Hill (the hill in every one of the sunset photos I have posted), Cavern Head and the Serengeti (the plain to the north of the base on the far side of Hill 960) to count the Sooty Albatross fledglings. I also revisited Admirals, which was easier than last time because I didn't have to teach anyone how to jumar out this time. Mere words cannot express what a special place (on this island of special places) Admirals is. There is something undefinable about it. It would be perfect if it wasn't covered in ferocious seals.

The Admiral sea stack

Anyway, my bed is calling me. I miss all of you a lot and I cannot wait to come home although I will miss the island. Under five months now :-)

The bottom of the rope

The Admiral, the Midshipman and the penguins...

The Glen and Elephants of the Sea - 4 April to 10 April

This has been a great week here on Gough...

Looking south from roughly due east of the Glen, the Admirals sea stacks are visible at the far left.

Firstly, I have made my final visit to Seal Beach (hopefully I won't have to go back in takeover). I went there to deploy GeoLocators on the penguins before they depart after the moult. I am really glad to not have to go back and brave the seals by myself again. It is quite scary sitting concentrating on something, like how to get a furious penguin into a capture bag, and realize that a seal has come within a meter or two without you noticing. Then the seal sees you, barks loudly and you nearly die of a heart attack. Not fun at all!

The coast to the north of the Glen.

Next I found out that the last big storm we had managed to remove a 200kg pump from Snoekgat. It was about ten meters above sea level and at least thirty back from the sea. The pump was used as part of the Sagina control, it was used to remove top soil and thereby remove the seed bank in the soil. So that part of the work plan gets scrapped too...

Local inhabitants greeted us as we came ashore. The male Elephant Seal was about 6m long.

Then we got news that the Edinburgh had been released from its charter assisting with the cleanup of the oiled birds on Inaccessible and Nightingale islands and would be arriving on Friday, bringing with it parcels for the team and the Tristan Chief Islander and his Assistant, who were coming to pay us a visit during their fishery inspections. This was wonderful news because you cannot believe how nice it is to see new faces and hear different voices in the Base! They only stayed for a day but they were able to organize with the Edinburgh for them to give Michelle, Robyn and I a lift to the Glen. The Glen is the site of the old Meteorological Station on Gough from the '50s until the '60s when it was moved to its current location. It is also where the sealers used to stay, where the passing ships collected water and has a large number of engraved rocks to commemorate their visits that date back as far as the 1700s. There is also a large penguin colony there that I needed to visit to check that there are no oiled penguins and to collect feathers from some of the birds as part of a population genetic study.

Male and female Elephant Seal. The male appeared to be moulting.

So, bright and early on Saturday, we left the island on the crane and got into one of the power boats from the Edinburgh. They took us around to the Glen, passing between the sea stacks at Admirals. The island is particularly beautiful from the sea, with towering cliffs and tumbling waterfalls. It is very reminiscent of the opening scenes of the Jurassic Park films with overgrown cliffs disappearing into the mist. The powerboats are fibreglass and so they could not get too close to the pebble beach at the Glen for fear of holing them. So we had to bail over the side and swim ashore, no easy task when fully clothed and with a heavy pack. At least the sea was calm and warm.

Michelle was trying to give picture some scale and it wasn't really working because she wouldn't go within 5m of it.

We staggered ashore and were greeted by the sight of a pair of Elephant Seals. Words cannot convey how massive they are and pictures do not do them justice at all. It is simply astonishing! Robyn's eyes nearly dropped out of her head when she saw the male. His head is so massive that my entire head would fit inside his mouth if I would put it there (Not a chance of that, their breath is bad enough to kill from five meters away). They are surprising quick for something so large, when they move they look like massive wobbly caterpillars.

A concrete plaque commemorating a team from the '50s.

My dad had asked me to visit Sophora Glen, which is just next to the Glen, to take pictures of the Sophora trees that grow there. The copse there is the only one on the entire Tristan group of islands and their native range is limited to South America. How they came to Gough and why they have not spread beyond the one stand is a mystery. Sadly, while getting on to the top of the ridge separating the Glen from Sophora was relatively easy, the descent into Sophora looked beyond ridiculous and I abandoned my plans.

The sealers cave, ironically now filled with seals and temporarily, us.

The plan had been to walk back from the Glen to the Base via South Peak but Michelle came down with a stomach bug that evening and she would not have been able to manage the difficult and strenuous walk. So the Edinburgh kindly delayed their planned departure on Sunday morning and sent a zodiac to collect us and return us to the Base. Michelle is recovering well and hopefully should be right as rain soon. It seems she picked up the bug from one of the Tristaners as several people on Tristan have also been sick.

Archway Rock and the Edinburgh. Sophora Glen is on the other side of the arch.

It was an interesting and truly special experience again. This island keeps on delivering magical times and I am really going to miss it when I have to leave.

The Edinburgh retrieving its power boat.

Edinburgh Peak 3 - 1 Gough 56, 28 March to 3 April

Well, we did it! On April 01 2011, at 1604 GMT Michelle, Robyn and I stood on the highest point of Gough Island, Edinburgh Peak. When we saw the weather forecast on Wednesday, predicting good weather for at least a week, we knew we had to try again, so despite Michelle having just completed her two day shift as Met Officer and Robyn starting hers, we persuaded Prince to stand in for them, I grabbed my bird ringing kit and counter and early Thursday morning we set off for Gonydale. We arrived there, propelled by Michelle's singing of "If I was a fit (rich) man" and with several hours remaining before supper we began to do nest checks and ring adult Tristans.

A Yellow Nosed Albatross "barking"

John Cooper, a zoologist with many years experience on Gough claims it is possible to ring a Tristan on your own but I really cannot believe it. They are incredibly strong and have really sharp beaks (I have the scars to prove it!) and I am really worried that if I try to ring one by myself I will end up hurting the bird or it will panic and hurt its chick. So I was really glad to have them both along to help.

A Tristan with its chick

Most of the eggs have now hatched and few of the remaining ones will successfully hatch. Words cannot convey how sad it is to see the nests fail one by one. The Tristans are a critically endangered species and it breaks my heart to see nests built in stream beds, eggs that have been trampled by a careless adult or, worst of all, where the chick has been killed by the introduced mice. When people tell you that Gough has a mouse problem, it does not convey the sheer scale of the mess that humans have caused. To give you an idea, most nights in Gonydale are not the peaceful, still nights that you would expect. The mice are everywhere you look. They climb the walls of the tents and run along the guy-ropes, looking for a way in. They even sometimes gnaw holes through the nylon to get inside. Any food left outside is quickly consumed. It is truly terrible. There are plans underway to attempt to eradicate the mice but given the nature of the islands terrain and the sheer scale of the problem, it will be a Herculean task.

Gough Buntings

We had been told by Llewellyn and Martin, two members of the 2009 - 2010 team that the best way from Gonydale to Edinburgh Peak was to go straight up South Rowett from Gonydale and then walk across the ridge to North Rowett via Central Rowett and then descend Windy Ridge to Waterfall Camp (there is a map showing the route here). This route allows you to bypass Albatross Plain, which is a huge mire and impossible to cross in anything other than a hovercraft, and takes you along the spine of the island with spectacular views over to the Eastern and Western sides of the island. So when Friday dawned bright, clear and still we set off. Two hours later, with considerable amounts of energy expended we reached the top of South Rowett and got our first view of the Northern end of the island. We were incredibly lucky and the weather was perfect, you could not have wished for better. Not a breath of wind and no cloud, weather conditions that are not supposed to exist here, ever.

The Western side of the island, looking towards Edinburgh Peak from South Rowett

The Eastern side of the island, Albatross Plain in the foreground, looking towards Edinburgh Peak from South Rowett

After stopping briefly to recover and do a count of incubating Tristans (Ross and I were supposed to count these in February but he left before it could be done and the weather has prevented it from happening until now) we pushed on over the Rowetts and onto Windy Ridge. It has a fearsome reputation, the lee side is a massive drop off towards the sea and as it is the lowest point on the island's central ridge, the wind howls over it. Martin had said that once the wind was so strong he had to lie down and crawl and even then it still lifted him up! We were lucky and it was more like "Slight Breeze" Ridge.

Michelle and Robyn on Windy Ridge with North Rowett in the background

Tarn Moss mire from Windy Ridge

Waterfall Camp is aptly named...

We arrived at Waterfall Camp and after a leisurely lunch we realised that we still had time to climb the peak before dark. After some deliberation Robyn convinced us to go and so we started up the final stretch. As we climbed, the cloud started to form and when we reached the top it was almost a whiteout. Fortunately the cloud came and went and as we waited we were able to see the whole island by parts. Boy oh boy, was it ever worth it! Simply incredible! It was such an amazing sight, we could see the Atlantic all around us and it was apparent that our island is very, very small and lonely. At just over 900m Edinburgh Peak is not much by even our modest South African standards but very few people have ever had the privilege of standing on top.

Panorama from Edinburgh Peak

The next morning we were so happy to that we had climbed it because the mist was so thick that we could hardly see ten meters. In light of the rather poor conditions we scrapped our plans to explore the Tarn Moss area and headed back towards Gonydale via a different route, one that follows the Baseline Ridge (so called because it was used as the trigonometric baseline during the survey of the island in the 1960s) and skirts around the Western edge of Albatross Plain.

Sunlight on the sea

It was quite eerie walking along in the mist with strange, eroded lava pinnacles appearing suddenly from the mist. After a quick detour to rescue a sleeping bag from going mouldy in the tote bin at the Giant Petrel colony, we made it back to Gonydale with plenty of time to do more nest checks (again with the assistance of the long suffering Robyn and Michelle). As always working with the Tristans was a special experience and Michelle was even groomed by an amorous albatross! Come the evening and we headed up to Coopers Col in the hope of seeing the sunset but our luck had finally turned and the clouds came in, denying us a chance to see it.

Michelle and Robyn crossing the bottom of Albatross Plain

So on Sunday morning it was three tired, damp and very smelly hikers who returned to Base to sample the joys of hot food, drinks, comfy chairs and soft beds. What a wonderful experience it was, the best yet!

A rock pool, filled with some of the nicest tasting water anywhere

The albatross on the left was the one that preened Michelle

Sunset from Coopers Col

I am going to go and get into my bed for a well deserved sleep now so good night to you all.

Some of the island's vegetation may be small but is still stunning

Have a wonderful week.