Well, it’s been a few days so I thought I ought to update about what’s been going on. The last four or so days have been pretty odd–as I mentioned, the majority of the seabird work is drawing to a close, so we are left with a lot of odd jobs and data entry/proofing. One might think that this would make the time drag, but it’s been just the opposite. Despite the fact that I spent at least three hours a day for the last five days repairing mistnets, the time has flown. I can’t believe it is already Saturday!
Saturday out here is chores day. Seeing as there are six of us, there are six chores. I’ll list them here for posterity: (1) Bathrooms–pretty self explanatory, just clean the bathrooms; (2) Floors–sweep and mop the entire house, pretty time-consuming; (3) Kitchen–this is the most labor-intensive job, involving cleaning out all three of the refrigerators and disposing of old food, cleaning counter tops, cleaning out the stove/oven, and basically anything else that needs doing in the kitchen; (4) Windows–between salt spray and bird guano, the windows get pretty dirty, so the windows get washed every week, at least the downstairs ones (with the upstairs, the washing is a little more sporadic); (5) Shoe Room/Tidy Up–Clean the shoe room and tidy up all over the house; (6) Compost/Recycle/Trash/Burn/House Laundry–basically, take care of all the waste. Burn what can be burned, compost what we attempt to compost (although it doesn’t really get warm enough out here to work), place recyclables in action packers to be taken on the next boat, and then do all the communal laundry (sheets, napkins, dish towels, etc.). Chores aren’t so bad, especially when the days aren’t too busy.
Mostly Feathered Rhino Chick
Today was also a five-day Rhinocerous Auklet chick check, meaning we went around to all of the inhabited boxes (the official deadline to stop checking empty boxes was only a few days ago) to weigh chicks, take wing cord measurements, and band any that are now big enough. A few rhino chicks, like this one at left, are now mostly feathered, and big enough to band. You can just see how the sleek black feathers on his face are starting to replace his fluffy down. Very cute.
Banding rhino chicks means there are now some rhinocerous auklet daily checks, which have replaced my Cassin’s daily checks. Only yesterday, my very last Cassin’s chick fledged, and so daily checks have finally stopped. It feels weird not doing them, since I’ve done them every day since the second day I got here. Also, last night we started our last round of rhino netting, so we’ll have nightwork for the next few nights. We’re also trying to get in two more sessions of netting for Ashy Storm Petrels, but the weather is being wet and uncooperative.
Other than mending mistnets and proofing data, I’ve also been getting work done analyzing the TDR data from earlier this season. I finally have some time to start writing material for the poster I will have to print once I get back to school.
Finally, I thought I’d put up a couple of pictures of my room, since I haven’t yet (although just because it was chores day does NOT mean my room is clean, so beware!!):
My Bed and Shelf. The wall next to my bed is all that separates me from the outdoors, so I frequently hear gulls running around on the roof just beside my head. Don't worry though, I sleep great out here no matter how much noise the gulls make.
The Armchair. As far as I know, neither Jordan nor I ever actually sat in the chair...we just threw stuff on it. That's my towel hanging on the lamp to dry.
The dresser, and a bit of Jordan's bed. As you can see, the fourth wall of our room is actually just a curtain. That door leads out onto a staircase down the backside of the house, but I've never seen it used.
Alright, that’s all for now! Thus begins my final week on the island.
Best,
Eleanor