Nov 26, Orne Harbor

Orne harbor is surrounded by steep glaciers. Unlike at Almirante Brown and Neko, in Orne we experienced more typical antarctic weather, cloudy and windy. The wind blew the ice against the shore where we had planned to land, so we were unable to land there. In other areas where we might have come ashore, the snow had melted the day before and refrozen overnight, so was too steep to climb safely. Instead of going ashore, we took a zodiac ride around the harbor.

Some of the glaciers were tall walls of ice.

One mountain near the entrance of the harbor is called the Spigot, and is rather distinctive.

At the base of the Spigot were nesting chinstrap penguins and blue-eyed shags. The chinstrap penguins get their name from a thin black line that crosses their face below the beak.

There is only one kind of seagull that lives in the Antarctic. It is called a Kelp gull.

Kelp gulls eat a variety of food, including sea urchins. This is what was left after a gull ate and discarded the animal.

As well as the birds, we saw a Weddel Seal.