Paddy has sent in the first news update from Rona……
Sunday was our arrival day, and after 4 hours of hauling the gear to the hut, we started the job of getting the hut into shape. It has survived another year in one piece and it’s great to be back.
This year we have a completely new team backing me up. I asked them to describe each other as an introduction for the blog, here’s what they said.
Amelia Saxby – Amelia has excellent etiquette, and newly braided hair, which one would be proud to sport. Amelia has just finished her Master’s degree with a thesis on Rona grey seals. This is her first chance to visit Rona in person, and she will be in charge of photo identification as well as the nightly recitals of Mrs Beeton’s Household Management.
Charlotte Cairns – Charlotte is the only veggie of the team! She recently finished her Master’s at Durham University and this is her first season on Rona. She will be undertaking behavioural work with the female grey seals, when not knitting her scarf or quizmastering musical intro games!
Luke ‘Skywalker’ O’Connor – is part Jedi knight: forceful and determined. He may not have flown the Millennium Falcon, but he is indeed a fly boy and will be involved in a pilot study using a new piece of equipment to get remote photo-id pictures.
I’m Paddy Pomeroy, scientist at the Sea Mammal Research Unit and I have the pleasure of once again leading this expedition. We have a very busy schedule this year and we’ll be trying to keep you in the loop with how we get on, what seals we see from previous years and any odd things that occur. It looks like there may be a few of those………..
best,
P, A, C, L.