The Gough Bunting
Another month dropped off the calendar and we find our- selves one third through the expedition.
We celebrated Gerald‟s birth- day on the 14th of December and had a rather great day on the island with Michelle cater- ing this time around. I was wondering who is to blame for the fat rolls that have sud- denly started to appear on some of our bodies, or is it the washing powder and „tea coloured Gough water‟ that crimps our clothes?
We have also celebrated Christmas day and it was really a great day with the team gathering around the braai that we have specially built for the occasion. When we arrived on Gough that was immediately put on my „to do‟
list to have a mobile barbeque which we could move either down to crane point or to the
front door of the base where we can at least „braai‟ with a sea view. We shared a great meal together and opened our
„secret Santa‟ pressies. This was a great day which ended with a big screen movie which was my gift from the team;
„Lone survivor‟ – based on a true story.
This month brought some challenges but I am proud to report that the team has played a part to make it better all along. We were running low on water that supplies the base due to extremely dry and warm weather. Max and Ge- rald walked up to the dam (more like a little pond as it‟s just a stone barrier in the little stream) to clean the strainer and to place it a little deeper.
That has added a day or two worth of extra water in the water tanks. We have then also filled the bath and some
extra water containers in or- der to be able to have drink- ing water as well as enough to flush toilets.
We also had some challenges with communication system but David our radio techni- cian discovered another de- vice/replacement part which solved the problem.
What the team proved is that despite challenges we can come up with brilliant ideas, and every bit helped to make this team and the project thus far complete.
A final word to start the New Year: „May the team, all rela- tives and loved ones as well as all our readers and the DEA‟s panel who made this happen and who selected us to be the fortunate team members have a blessed and prosperous 2015!‟
Tom
From the team leader’s office by Thomas Mc Sherry
I trust that you have had a great festive season and happy start to 2015. We have been very busy here and the time is flying by at an alarming rate.
We have decided to revamp the newsletter and give you more bang for your buck.
After a disappointing re-
sponse to the photo competi- tion we have now raised the stakes and decided that every person who responds to the photo competition (email [email protected]) will be entered into a draw to re- ceive a post card all the way from Tristan da Cunha. So
please play along with us and don't forget to vote.
We have also added in a rec- ipe of the month slot and dirty jobs. Along with some DIY activities that have taken place.
Have a great read, Michelle
From the editor by Michelle Risi
Christmas on the island 2 Gerald’s birthday 2
Dirty jobs 3
Those things we miss 4 From the bird lab 4-5
Photo competition and cutest chick competition 6-7 Upgrading the braai 8 Inside this issue:
In this issue:
Recipe of the month
Gough Island sea temp and climate stats report for December 2014
Team outings in the field– dinner with a view
Last month’s photo competition winner–
Soaring with Sootys by Christopher Jones.
Last month’s cutest chick winner– The Skua chick
Christmas from a South Afri- can point of view
The typical South African idea of Christmas revolves around the family and spending time together. It is a time to spend money on presents and on whatever will make the day special for family, friends and loved ones.
For those people who remem- ber the birth of the Messiah it is a day to go to church as a family and to give praise for this wonderful gift. It is also a day to remember the inspira- tion of all families: the holy family. After church the fami-
lies usually gather for a braai or to enjoy a meal out or a meal that was specially pre- pared for Christmas.
For some people Christmas is day to retreat to a holiday destination so to relax and be merry in the company of loved ones.
For others it a day for the traditional braai. For others it is day to slave over pots pre- paring delicacies that are pre- pared once a year- on Christ- mas. It is also a day that some kids get to wear their new clothes.
For each of these groups of people Christmas is a day to
be spent specially with a fam- ily. It a day to braai, go out or to slave over pots. In sum- mary it is a day like no other.
I will conclude with saying that Christmas here on Gough Island was not much different from that which I have become accustomed to back home in South Africa. I felt like I was home. Could it be because of the braai or because of the wholesome meal that we enjoyed together in the evening in each other‟s company, I‟m not quite sure, but it all felt like home.
Christmas on the island by Morgan Mugeri
A lekker braai for Christ- mas day
Gerald’s 24th birthday
On the 14th of December we celebrated Gerald‟s birthday and the theme was– Vintage Swag. So we tried our best carry off a bit of swag in our
Vintage clothing and enjoyed playing Kings and Beer Pong.
Gerald particularly enjoyed his cake in the shape of a flat peak hat and his birthday gifts which consisted of a custom made beer label and a wooden sign engraved with Chaplain–
his nickname on the island.
Gough 60 brings the vintage swag
“Was my best moment ever receiving present from Chris and Michelle, awesome night on Gough”
Dirty jobs by Werner Kuntz
Dirty job equals dirty clothes narrow cave tapering towards
the end of the cave.
The cave gets its name from the local bird populace of the cave, the Prion (Pachyptila vittata). We have about 140 breeding pairs in the cave. We have a monitoring colony in the cave, which we use to monitor breeding success of the prions. In order to com- pare the different jobs, certain categories will be scored to determine what is the dirtiest of the jobs.
Prion Cave
Dirt: Prion Cave is a muddy cave, with running water in- side the cave. This makes It quite messy. Everything you touch is covered in moist soil, so chances of entering the cave with its small crevasses and cracks; you are guaran- teed to have mud smear off on you. So for dirt I score Prion Cave an 8
Smell: Although there are birds in the cave, the smell in the cave is quite peculiar, that of when soil and detritus, but overall not unpleasant. I won‟t go and buy air fresheners that smell like Prion Cave, but as far as dirty jobs are concerned it‟s not too bad a smell. So for smell I give Prion Cave a 3.
Biological goo: As we all know, birds are known to sit in trees and cover our newly washed cars in white excre- ment. Many birds use this as a
defense against predators, so as you can imagine, whenever we work with birds, they tend to let go when we work with them, often covering the lucky field worker. The poo stinks, and is messy, and also differ in quantity depending on the bird species.
For Prion Cave I am scoring Biological Goo only at 5. This is because Prions are relatively small birds compared to what‟s on the island. And as such they don‟t really poo that much. The quantity is rather small, and as far as smell is concerned, pungent, but not unbearable.
Lastly the exposure to the dirty job. Just how dirty do you get on the job? Well this will be different depending on the size of a person, as well as how agile a person is. A small agile person can come out of the cave with very little dirt on them, where as the next person may be covered from head to toe in dirt.
So for the exposure to the dirty job, I score Prion cave a decent 7. Every time you exit the cave you just walk back to base with that shower in mind. Its one of the few jobs where even your hair is full of mud, so the cave really does a number on you with that one.
Overall Prion Cave scored a good 24 out of 40 and it will be interesting to see which job is the dirtiest job.
Next month’s issue will cover every- one’s favorite flightless bird, and Disney character Lovelace, the rock hopper penguin.
People often look at pictures on facebook, twitter and other social networks and think that the work we do on Gough island is awesome, and often people tell me that I‟m very lucky. I agree with these peo- ple in regard with being lucky to be here on the Island. But there is more to the work that we do here than what is repre- sented on facebook.
Working with birds is a pleas- ure, and I would recommend it to anyone, however it re- quires a certain ability to deal with messy situations.
Throughout the year I am going to write about the vari- ous dirty jobs that we the field workers have to endure dur- ing the year, in order to fully capture the experience of Gough. Don‟t get me wrong, I love what I do, all of it, but I just want to show that it‟s not all sunshine and rainbows.
And so here is my list of dirt- ies jobs of Gough Island.
Dirty Job #1
Prion Cave is a little cave formed by running water, that carved a depression in the soil, secured by large boul- ders, it‟s a site to experience.
From the outside the cave just looks like a pile of rocks, but when you crawl through a small gap, you are greeted by a fairly large cavern, easily fit- ting at least 5 people com- fortably. Prion Cave is a long
“Working with birds is a pleasure, and I would recommend it to anyone, however it requires a certain ability to deal with messy situations. “
A Prion sitting on an egg Entrance to Prion cave
We had this conversation around the table as well as the
„braai‟ a couple of times al- ready, what do you miss other than your family and friends?
I cannot answer for every team member here and expect to see similar articles through- out the year in the Bunting, but I sure can give you a view of what I miss!
I have always been a motor- bike fanatic, and since child- hood years, I ran around the house kicking up dust and hum on top of my voice like I was a true „Kork Balling- ton” (legendary Kawasaki racing champion). Through-
out the years I have owned many motorbikes, but was more into the faster road and later „superbikes‟ with their high revving inline four cylin- der machines.
Later years after working in Africa and enjoying riding off
road with 4x4 vehicles I have finally decided to give DS (Dual Sport) bike riding a go and if I knew it was so much fun I would have started rid- ing them years back already! I went through a range of bikes and did not really want to spend too much money on a bike that will be standing a lot of the time while I am work-
ing abroad. However, I could not stop myself from falling in love with a Triumph 1200 Tiger XC back in 2012. I have toured around SA on her, as well as Sani pass together with Kobus Joubert who was the expedition leader of Marion 63. To stand on top of Sani pass in Lesotho is just a mo- ment which every DS rider should experience.
There is more to miss I sup- pose but I find it hard some- times to think of something other than of course like men-
tioned our families and loved ones back home as well as our pets. We would have loved a dog on the island, true what they say:‟ a dog is man‟s best friend‟ as they are just so lov-
ing. Here Kobus and I are enjoying a „cold Malluti‟ This takes me a few years back to the day and era before cell phones and digital cameras.
Although cell phones can irritate me and although not needing to develop camera rolls with the excitement of
„what pictures did I take on this roll or will they look good?”, now simply download digital pics and edit them to your liking. Yes I suppose life gets better, regardless of all the challenges that comes with the digital era as I can sit here and „click‟ through my memories…..sometimes it brings back an emotion.
Please, whatever you do:
„Never stop dreaming‟!
the previous bunting issue are quite spritely now and will fledge soon. As they lose their down feathers progressively, some end up sporting funky hairstyles (see photo).
Seeing Yellow-Nosed and Sooty Albatross chicks hatch- ing in late November/ early We birders have had a busy
but exciting time in the field over the last two months.
Having spent almost every day becoming fit in the field, it has been incredible to see how the dynamics on the is- land have changed over the summer. The Rockhopper penguin chicks mentioned in
December was rather exciting (see cutest chick competition photos) and I
think their bills clapping at us as we walk past them will always be a fond mem- ory of the is- land.
Those things we miss by Tom Mc Sherry
From the bird lab by Chris Jones
Gough Bunting adult male Caption describing picture or graphic.
“To stand on top of Sani pass in Lesotho is just a moment which every DS rider should experience. “
Tristan Albatrosses doing a mating display and in flight.
An interesting occurrence we noted while deploying track- ing devices on the Yellow- Noses was a nest that had two eggs, with two chicks hatching (see photo). This is quite rare in Yellow-Nosed Albatross, occurring in about 1% of breeding attempts and is a result of two females laying in the same nest, either because of two breeding pairs on one nest or a philandering male mating with two females.
Exciting new discoveries…
Recently there has been some exciting discoveries on Gough Island that we have been able to contribute to on our expe- dition.
One of the discoveries origi- nated when the field team from 2011/12 noted the pos- sibility of two types of Prion on the island (previously there was thought to be only one
species of Prion breeding on Gough).
Prions are small petrels that nest in burrows or caves on Gough. These birds filter-feed on zooplankton using special- ised filters in their bill called lamellae, giving them the nick- name “whale bird” likening them to filter-feeding whales.
In 2013 it was confirmed that there are at least two separate populations of Prion on the island that breed at different times of the year. So we are currently collecting data on the two different types in order to further understand the differentiation between them.
The other more recent dis- covery was from when Prof.
Peter Ryan found Blue Petrels in burrows around the South- ern Giant Petrel monitoring
colony during the take-over period in September this year.
Blue Petrels are also a type of small petrel that nest in bur- rows. Previously thought only to be an uncommon non- breeding visitor to Gough, known to breed on islands much further south such as South Georgia, Prince Ed- wards, Crozets etc. So after the ship left we searched the area every time we visited the Giant Petrel monitoring col- ony hoping to find some Blue Petrels incubating eggs in order to confirm their breed- ing on Gough. We finally succeeded having eventually found some incubators in early December, interestingly suggesting that the Blue Petrel breeding season on Gough starts slightly later than typi- cally recorded on islands fur- ther south.
“Recently there has been some exciting discoveries on Gough Island that we have been able to contribute to on our expedition.”
the field with our takeaways and enjoyed watching the sunset with a view of seal beach.
It was such a beautiful eve- ning and definitely something we would like to do again as a team.
So after 4 months of being on the island some of our team members had not left base before. So we decided that one night we would do a take- away dinner and have dinner in the field.
We are lucky enough to get the real deal Nando‟s sauces so we decided to make Nando‟s chicken burgers and chips. And so we trekked into
Team outing, dinner with a view….
It’s a tough life as an elephant seal Upstream colour Noddy through the cave
Naughty Noddy Mollies and clouds
Great Shearwater Atlantic Petrel
Sooty Albatross Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross
Gough Island sea temp and climate stats report for December 2014
tools were gathered and with great labour brought to the construction site, and the project slowly took off. The problem was raising the floor of the ground to the height of the walkways (cat walks). The ground is very soft and we had to come up with real en- gineering ways to secure the uprights from sinking into the ground, but solutions were found and off we go. Finding suitable days to work in was also a challenge as the rain could catch one unexpectedly.
Under the lead of construc- tion manager and foreman, Tom, work begun with me (David) giving a helping hand Africans, you will find a braai
in some form or another.
Gough Island is no different.
When we arrived here we saw the braai area in the court yard and knew this had to change. It was under a small roof, but standing on the ground way below the raised walkways and not very invit- ing. Several „informal meet- ings‟ were held round the braai. Plans were made and lots of ideas were thrown around and thought of before any construction could begin.
We had a limited supply of material and options as what to do and how to go about this, but where there is a will,
cial thanks to Max, Werner and Chris for the help in the project as well. Now we have a very inviting and user friendly braai area and new braai to spend many happy hours with our team mates.
Building team spirit and good memories. Thank you to all who made this project a great success. I shall let the pictures do the talking for me.
Method:
1) combine dry ingredients in large bowl.
2) In a separate bowl, beat wet ingredients and then add to dry, stirring just until mois- tened.
3) Cook on pre-heated waffle iron until waffles are brown.
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups flour 2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder 2 eggs
1 3/4 cups milk 1/2 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
You will not be disappointed, these waffles are delicious and best served with some honey or syrup or ice cream or even caramel treat. Did you know you can make your own cara- mel treat by cooking a can of condensed milk? Just 40 mins in a pressure cooker or 90 mins in a normal pot of water.
Recipe of the month– Island waffles!
Delicious waffles are great smothered in honey or syrup or both even plus ice cream
Before
After
Ave. Max Pres- sure
1015.2 hpa
Ave. Min Pressure 1006.9 hPa Ave. Pressure 1011.2 hPa Max Pressure 1028.2 hPa Min Pressure 986.0 hPa Ave. Max Temp 19.4 ºC Ave. Min Temp 12.4 ºC Ave. Temp 15.9ºC Max Temp 26.5 ºC Min Temp 7.5 ºC
Ave Humidity 76 % Max Humidity 97 % Min Humidity 36 % Max Wind Gust 36.8 m/s
132.1 km/h Total Rainfall 72.2 mm Highest in 24
Hours
39.4 mm Total days with
rain
16 days Total days
>1mm
10 days Total Sunshine 200.1 hours Date Sea
temp
Date Sea temp
Date Sea temp
01 11.4 11 12.6 21 14.6
02 11.9 12 13.0 22 14.3
03 12.6 13 13.3 23 14.5
04 12.3 14 13.6 24 14.5
05 13.1 15 swell 25 14.3
06 12.6 16 13.7 26 13.4
07 12.3 17 13.7 27 13.6
08 12.3 18 12.6 28 14.0
09 13.1 19 13.0 29 14.6
10 12.5 20 13.2 30 13.7
31 14.0
