A life less ordinary
Living here at Macca absolutely rules. In no time at all, your normal weeks are an experience that people will pay thousands to come ashore and live like us for a couple of short hours. The out-of-the-ordinary weeks are something that very few people ever get to see and I know I will never forget.
As part of the new normal, just this week, we saw a large male orca teaching some juveniles to hunt, while big fat elephant seal weaners drifted in the kelp, blissfully unaware that they were supposed to be the prey. A 3am sunrise with the most stunning peach colours stretching all the way across the sky. As this was a school night and the weather came in rainy only a few minutes later, I was likely the only person lucky enough to witness this particularly grand display of magic. Three types of albatross and four penguin species just in and around the station.
One of the out-of-the-ordinary weeks was helping the biologists count northern giant petrel nests out on the west coast featherbed. Seeing these big birds and their hefty beaks up close was very impressive. Even more impressive was how quickly myself and the other volunteers found ourselves discussing the birds' behaviour and saying things like “oh they don’t usually do that” when none of us had even heard of these birds a month ago.
Some of these birds have since successfully hatched their chicks and these little white puffs of feathers with eyes sit on the nests waiting patiently to be fed. I feel proud to see the chicks even though I had nothing to do with it, other than perhaps entertaining the parents while I sunk to my belly and flailed to get out of the bogs.
We still have a few months left and I can’t wait to find out what happens to me in that time.
Dom Smith
