Livingston Island, January 16, 2013

I awoke to a beautiful sunrise over the Antarctic Peninsula.  The sky here takes on some amazing hues.  The colors are not stunning but the range in tones is incredible between the sea, the land, and the sky.

Low clouds over sunlit, ice-covered mountains with the sea in the foreground.

Landing at Hanna Point. The beach cobbles were carried
to their location by glaciers and rounded by the action of the waves.

We have begun our journey northward to Ushuaia and port.  Our last two landing sites will be on Livingston Island, one of the South Shetlands.  The landings were to be at Hanna Point (in the morning) and Hurd Peninsula (in the afternoon).  Hanna Point had never been visited by a cruise ship (to Ted’s knowledge).  The site was selected by the geologic expedition leaders. That is one of the nice things about this expedition...We are going to places that tourists never go to.

Ian and Hunter (geology student at Georgia) atop the nearest
peak. That's our ship in the background. Look at the thick growth
of fruiticose lichens on the rocks.

It was a very beautiful and peaceful day.  The sun came out while we were there and the temperature reached the mid-40s.  We had some great exposures of bedrock, glacial moraines, sea terraces, and a lounging elephant seal in the surf.  More on the elephant seal below.

One of the more interesting things here was the development of a soil profile on the upper terraces above the surf line. Soils form with time and need organic matter (plants) to assist in the decomposition of rock and sediment. The profusion and color of lichens was amazing.  According to Anne Hooke there were three different lichen variants found. These included crustose lichens, which form a thin crust on the surface of the rocks; foliose lichens, which form leaf-like lobes; and fruticose lichens which have a shrubby growth habit and have fruiting bodies.

We also had a great opportunity to go “sledding” on our rears, as there were several slopes of fairly fresh powder.  I took full advantage of the chance to “sled” as I made my way down the upper slopes on my "bum."

I was able to take several photos of a female Elephant Seal lounging in the surf.  She was there for the entire hour or so that I was there.  Just rising and falling with the waves.  She was so close to the rocks that I was within ten feet of her, watching me as I was watching her.

Molting female Elephant Seal.

Our second stop of the day (and final one on the voyage) was to the Hanna Point near Walker Bay.  Walker Bay is an area known to have abundant plant fossils.  The fossil locality was approximately one mile away. We warned, very strongly, not to remove fossils. I did not make the hike over.  Instead I helped the young Czech couple with their geocache effort.  I was intrigued since they were showing pictures of red “Jasper” as one of their clues.  The photos showed a brilliant red band of jasper (chert) cutting across the rocks. Well, once we found it I noticed that it did not have the intense red shown in the photograph they had as their clue. 

This was an entertaining site from a biological standpoint because we were able to find the only two flowering plants native to Antarctica! These were a grass (Deschampsia antarctica) and Pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis).  Neither, of course, would be impressive outside of their locality as they are less than two inches high. More on plants in Antarctica can be found at the British Antarctic Survey website: http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/about_antarctica/wildlife/plants/index.php

Actual flowering(?) plants! That is Deschampia on the right
 and Pearlwort on the left.

In addition there was a colony of Gentoo Penguins performing their usual antics and a clutch of Elephant Seals.  The Elephant Seals are very touch sensitive, preferring to spend their time lying on one another in huge piles on the land.  Occasionally, they belch loudly.  It is difficult, however, to tell from which end the sound emanates.

One of the other passengers got some incredible shots of predation by a Skua on a live baby Gentoo.  The series of shots shows the Skua sweeping in and plucking the baby from its pebble nest by its neck, taking it several feet away and decapitating it.  The mother penguin is seen in some of the sequence approaching it and scolding the Skua.  Which just ignores it and continues to consume its prey.  Nature at its finest! You are lucky that I don't have those photos to post.

Gentoo feeding one of its two chicks. Look at the pebble nest they built.

I wandered away from the main group to see what was going on within the tide pools.  I found a small cave in the rocks inhabited by a Snowy Sheathbill (Chionis albus).  These birds are brilliant white but are somewhat gross. They are not picky about their food, eating carrion, live prey, and scat.

Scattered about this one's cave and in front of it were the remains of several penguins.  It was pecking at some of them while I photographed it. Again, nature at its finest!

Sheathbill eating carrion.