When the rain's away the planktoneers shall play!

Well the rain finally subsided and the weather has become a little more fieldworker friendly. The last few days have been spent catching up on field time lost by rain days, and our efforts were successful!

To do this catching up we required the ability of a strong willed vehicle. We were lucky to be able to obtain the elegant "lightly prancing" chauffeur, Earl, to take us to our site on a daily basis.

Behold Earl:


Earl, the extra large, propane fueled, Chevy suburban looks as though he's been around the block maybe a few too many times. And although extremely reliable, has proved unhappy with multitasking. For example, when doing a three point turn, the windshield wipers slow down. But he has enlightened us with a strong sense of security when needed the most (as long as you prime him with the key before trying to start the ignition) and has accompanied us with a new, strange, noise to greet us daily.

So...with the help of Earl we were able to get back out on the bluff and do some serious sampling and pool manipulations. Even though it had only been two days, our "bluff" legs and agility on the rocks seemed to decrease.
Below is a picture of Ingrid struggling with a boulder, she would have won but I think the salinity meter was on the boulders side in this battle.


We were also able to recruit a volunteer to come help us one evening when we went out after dinner. We opted to take the heavy salt on this trip seeing as we had an eager planktoneer contender who was willing to carry it...excellent strategy ladies!



We also had the opportunity to see some more wildlife on the same evening, including a fox of some sorts we saw running across the bluff and then across the ice.
Even though I was unable to get a picture of the frolicking fox I was lucky enough to finally get a picture of a ringed seal!


This, very detailed and descriptive photo of a common pinniped of Churchill, reveals a very happy and lazy seal basking in the sun on the ice...see him? see him basking? ... hopefully there may be a better photo later.

And despite the fact that we went out between the hours of 730- 9 pm that evening, I was able to get my very first sun burn of our trip!

The evening was also really enjoyable and there were some really pretty views


On our way back to the research station we stopped by the shore to take a closer look at some ice breaking up.
What we found was grasslands accompanied by a rocky beach, red algae all over the place and large ice chunks which meant for an excellent picture taking session.










Our volunteer, as it turned out was also a photographer and took some great pictures too, we hope to get those shortly.

The rest of our time these last couple days has been trying to find an increased amount of active hobbies to balance out all the yummy food that's being fed to us. As a result, some of us our becoming a pro at skipping!


Yesturday, we took a break from our sampling and went to the shooting range to prepare for the incoming polar bears with our shot guns and some slugs.
A prize goes to Amanda for hitting the target close to the bullseye!! but that was only after we put a picture of a worm up for her to hit...






We were inspired by the chance to use the shooting range, for the most part, as we please. So we went into town to pick up some more ammo to perfect our shooting skills and practice some "bear encounter" scenarios. I suggested that we could incorporate summer-saults and quick kung-fu action moves but wisely we all decided that may not be appropriate with loaded firearms. It sure is good we took that safety course!