tiabunna's photos with the keyword: rock

The Little Pied Cormorant is quite common and found around the coast of Australia except the Great Australian Bight.

Looking across the village of Central Tilba (where I found the 'Telaphone' box -see earlier image) towards the ocean.

It was good to have some blue sky when I reached the glacier. Best viewed large. Explored.

The "Lake George Mine" in Captain's Flat closed in 1962. Mining for gold and copper had begun there almost a century earlier. In later years, large quantities of silver lead and zinc also were extracted. This was just across the range from our property. HFF!

Best on black. As the Antarctic ice sheet heads toward the ocean it grinds across the underlying rock, in the process being worn to the profile of the rock it crosses while also gathering powdered rock dust which causes this chocolate discolouration. This berg (larger than it may appear, at about 20M high) has capsized on reaching the ocean, making the colours and diagonal wear from rocks visible. Glaciers often pick up rocks known as "erratics" and transport them for considerable distances where, on land, they are deposited into moraines. When they are picked up by ice that becomes icebergs, they become "dropstones" and eventually fall to the bottom of the ocean - potentially thousands of kilometres from their origin. The closer shot in the insert note shows one. Explored.

Larger version in note. Dumont d'Urville is the main French base in Antarctica and the stepping-off point for expeditions to Concordia, the joint French-Italian base 1100 kilometers inland. This is immediately to the right of my previous panorama at the station: www.ipernity.com/doc/tiabunna/29909935 Those ropes in the foreground are blizzard lines. When it is pitch darkness, with the wind blowing at 150km/hr and visibility reduced to arm's length by drifting snow, it is imperative to closely follow (ie keep holding) these very specialised fences. Happy Fence Friday!

Following the interest in my previous shot (link in note) of the pair of South Polar Skuas Stercorarius maccormicki , here's a wider shot to give more context. Although it's easy to dislike skuas because they predate on penguin chicks and eggs, they also fill a very useful role as scavengers, keeping the area clean: natural decay in Antarctica is very slow indeed.

A pair of South Polar Skuas Stercorarius maccormicki which have just laid claim to a spot in an Adelie penguin colony, screeching defiance to other skuas circling overhead. With neighbours like these, you have to feel sorry for the penguin in the background! I later showed this to a French biologist, who told me he had banded the nearer skua several years previously and appreciated the information on its location.

Plant life is remarkably resilient. It can be found growing even in the permanent cold of Antarctica in the form of lichens and mosses, such as this. On the right is a section of Adelie penguin egg shell. Contact with moss, such as this, probably explains the green stain on the penguin seen in the note.

Nesting Adelie penguins, with the plateau ice cliffs in the distance behind. We're accustomed to seeing these penguins wearing their 'dinner suits' - sadly, when at home, they aren't usually so immaculate. :) If viewing the location, I recommend changing to 'satellite' view.