Snow Geese

One of the nice things about Summit is the lack of wildlife. Not that I don't enjoy all the sights and sounds a forest or field has to offer, but not having to worry about bugs, killer animals, or poisonous plants sure is nice. Especially since I'm sleeping outside every night.

While there are no native species to Summit, we will, on occasion, get animal visitors. Most of these visitors are of the avian variety, though there has been rumor of an Arctic fox or two that wandered on to camp in the past. These animals' Summit vacations are never intentional since Summit is so far from any food source; to get here, they had to either got lost or, in the case of the birds, were blown in from the more animal-friendly coast. Sadly, since Summit is so far from the coast (~500mi), without food and with such low temperatures, Summit will probably be the resting place for these animals. Some exceptions exist, however. For instance, because of their size, larger birds, have a good chance to make it back to the coast. Us human Summit dwellers have also tried to help out. Earlier this week some Summit folks caught a small bird, boxed it, and brought it with them to Kanger on the C-130 that was here to take a bunch of passages out of camp.

There have been a few little birds at camp since I arrived which is both lovely and heartbreaking. It is nice to hear their little chirps and see them flitter about after a week listening and looking at a silent and lifeless landscape. But knowing they have days to live is depressing; I feel guilty enjoying their music but not doing anything to help them. The past couple days, however, I've enjoyed the company of some big bird visitors guilt-free; snow geese (native to Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Siberia; they do migrate south in the winter though) have stopped at our field site for the past two days. It's likely these birds will make it out of Summit (though I suppose it's always possible they won't) so I've decided to enjoy their companionship while it lasts. Here's a few pictures.

From yesterday:

Hunkering down, trying to stay warm in yesterday's 20+ knot (~25mph) winds.

From today:


Hanging out by one of the instruments. Apparently, snow geese love science just like me!

We're in the middle of a 24 hr sampling period where we're sampling for the albedo project every 2hrs until tomorrow at 11am. The picture above is actually at the site we're doing the sampling. Fortunately, I only have to take one snow sample (different kind than the OC/EC) every 2hrs so it'll be a pretty easy day. It will be a late one though; hope I can keep my eyes open!