American Night at Scott Base

So last night was American night at the Kiwi base. Though with this photo, it looks like ghost town...spooky scary. So every week the Kiwi base hosts "American" night, which is an open invitation for the McMurdo crowd to go the 2.2 miles over to Scott base. The station store over there is open and of course the bar. I didn't have the opportunity to go into the store, but I did walk around the Scott station. Basically the whole unit is connected. They also have fire gear hung up in the halls. Since the whole station is made up of a volunteer fire brigade, a secondary job for the base personnel. The brigade does not have any apparatus but they do have air-packs in the hallways as well as hose connections. Whenever an incident happens at Scott base, they notify us since we are their primary back-up. And the same is true for us, we notify them if we have any serious incidents that would delay us for responding over to them.
The "American" night has been a tradition between the two bases down here. I can only imagine in the winter, when they both have bare bone crews, that they appreciate it more. The bar layout is a little better than the American bars, they actually have a very large window that looks out onto the ice runway and Williams field, which is 5 or so miles away. The bar serves a slight variety of liquor and beer, and the prices are set at the Kiwi dollar. Beer is $1.80 American, and mixed drinks are $2.50. I would have used my kiwi money, but I only have $10 kiwi left. I wanted to save that money for my return to Christchurch.
This is photo is the view from when you get off the bus and arrive at the station. You can't see them in this photo, but seals often sleep on the ice ridges. The ridges are caused by the shifting plates and glaciers. American's aren't allowed on or near the ice ridges, but the Kiwi's are. I couldn't get a good photo of the seals due to this, but to my understanding, the seals will increase in numbers. So later this season I will try to get some good photos.


Speaking of wildlife, I met an old friend yesterday. No, not the penguin. It is another friend, of the avian variety. That is the Skua. The Skua, is a medium to large sized bird, brown in color. Think of a sea gull and a Hawk mixed together. The skua are aggressive and swift. These guys are no joke, the smartest birds I've seen. They have learned to live on this harsh continent by being resourceful and also being a great scavenger.
Skua's are located all over the world, but we have the brown variety down here or if want the technical term, the Catharacta antarctica. The Skua's around here have total air superiority around the McMurdo station. Due to their presence, people can develop a unhealthy fear of going outside with food. The Skua have learned what buildings we have our food in. Often, two of them will perch outside said structures and wait for unsuspecting people to walk out with food on either trays or in their hands. The Skua will then dive bomb the person and either grab the food or while you are swatting at the bird, another skua will come in and steal your food. They are crafty creatures. Think of the Velociraptors from Jurassic Park.

I witnessed a skua attack yesterday. I will try my best to describe it, so bear with me. The man was walking out with his cheesecake wrapped in plastic on top of a bowl of food. He was carrying it close to his body, but that didn't stop the Skua. He swooped in behind the guy, so there wasn't a shadow and from his right shoulder the bird came around the body and grabbed the cheesecake. The startled man dropped the bowl, in surprise. The other bird then dive bombed the bowl and picked it up and carried it away. Within 10 seconds this man lost all his food. The birds work so quickly its stunning. In hindsight, the group of us should have yelled something out to warn the guy. But where would the fun be in that? The Skua is quite an awesome creature. It has no fear of humans, because we can't touch them. They are protected under the Antarctica treaty. So for now my feathered friends, you win...for now. That's it for today, so hope you all enjoy this little wildlife lesson. I'll hit you all up later. Adios!