Update #5
20 Jan. 2005

Before we left McMurdo Station, we were able to get out in the field twice more.  First, we returned to Beaufort Island for one more day of sampling of the abandoned colonies there.  We excavated into a large pebble mound, but could not complete the work because we hit permafrost after 40 cm depth.  Permafrost is where the ground becomes frozen with depth and is common in deeper soils in polar regions.  So, we had to give up on this particular location.  On another day, we went to some abandoned colonies near Cape Royds (below, left), on Ross Island, by a small lake called Clear Lake.  The pebble areas here were shallow (below, right) and it did not take too long to sample two different sites.  There was no worry about permafrost here.

On Jan. 19, we flew by twin otter (below, left) to the Italian Station, renamed Mario Zucchelli Station this past year in honor of the man who founded the Italian Antarctic Program.  This station is located in Terra Nova Bay (below, right) and is much smaller than McMurdo with only about 90 people stationed here.  We moved into a lab space in the main building and organized our gear for more field outings from this base over the next 10 days.

The next day we were able to fly by helicopter to Edmonson Point (below, left), a 20 minute flight from the base to the north, where there is a small Adélie Penguin colony (below, right) as well as some abandoned sites that we sampled last year.  We surveyed more of this area since there was less snow cover this year than last.  Soon, I found more abandoned sites that we did not see last year and we will return here for another day of sampling later in the week. 

We also examined the active penguin colony where the chicks all seemed large and healthy (below, left).  Parts of this colony, though, have gotten smaller in recent years and may be abandoned in the future (below, right).