Tuesday, November 15, 2011

First Ice

Yesterday (11/14) we saw the first ice of the trip. And with ice comes more Ivory Gulls, over 30 in fact, including a nicely patterned young bird.
First ice flow in the Chukchi Sea
It was fun watching the boat crash through the ice, making it look easy.
Healy Icebreaker doing what it does best.
Previous to the ice, the 30+ knot north winds created some respectable waves. The Healy handled it like a champ.
And this wasn't even near the biggest of waves.
Not a whole lot of birds besides Ivory Gulls, the occasional Ross's Gull, and a Glaucous Gull and Murre once in a while. I will be surveying less and less as the boat approaches our destination off Barrow. The other scientists will be hitting station after station in rapid succession so we can move south. And with sunrise now at noon in Barrow, soon the sun will not even rise. Looks like I might have the week off.

1 comment: