Anna and the Ark

See it there, in the dirt, to the right, a little lower down . . . .

Like Noah today I saw the return of a prodigal bird. A Skua, a brown non descriptive bird was just sitting there in the dirt road. I didn't even notice him at first until suddenly he moved his head. The dirts moving I thought and was two steps past the idea before I stopped. Dirt doesn't move.

I looked again as I was nearly upon it and realized it was wildlife. Real wildlife that I was about to step on. Skirting to the edge, nearly plastering myself against the chilled blue walls of 155, I slowly made my way around it, transfixed by its presence. It's a bird I kept thinking. A real bird here in Antarctica.

I'd heard the rumors days before, but wasn't sure to believe them. Yet here was one, living, breathing, studying me with its dark beady eyes. I stared back, from what I thought was a safe distance. Don't harass the wild life has been brain washed into my head, and the words kept pushing me back bit by bit. But like a small child I was drawn closer, wanting to see if it was real. Other people strolled around it, most not evening turning to stare. I wanted to point, to dance, to shout, "Look, Look a bird," but figured I wouldn't past my psych test if I did.

The Skua simply sat there on the ground, as if laying an egg and would turn its head ever so often. Soon I was too close, pulled in by it's presence and glaring at me, it got annoyed. Rising up off the ground, wings flung out flapping, beak open in a scream it came towards me. More frightened of the "Do not harass wild-life warning" chanting in my head, then the bird itself, I stumbled back inside the building.

It's still sitting there now, even as tractors, bull-dozers and giant red parkas come within inches of it. Perhaps it has found the one warm spot on the continent. Or maybe it is just too lazy to move. Who knows, but like Noah's dove, the Skua has returned to McMurdo heralding the true return of summer and the freedom that will soon follow as we are able to walk the streets of the station parka free.