In addition to my research using stable isotopes to examine the diets of penguins, during this trip I am also assisting my colleague Dr. Tom Hart from Oxford University. Tom is placing time-lapse cameras in penguin colonies all around the Southern Ocean. This is part of his “Penguin Lifelines” Project which you can learn more about at www.penguinlifelines.org. These tiny cameras last the entire year, are pointed at the breeding colony and programed to take one picture every hour.  This allows us to determine when penguins return to their breeding colony at the start of the summer, when they lay their eggs, when chicks hatch and how fast they grow, and when chicks are abandoned by their parents and become independent. I am excited to work with Tom this season to collect feather and eggshells samples from colonies that also have cameras to relate the above indices of breeding biology with dietary information derived from stable isotope analyses.

We spent the day working at several penguin colonies around the Errera Channel along the Western Antarctic Peninsula.  We first went to Orne Harbour to collect samples and replace the batteries and memory card of a penguin-cam that has been taking pictures of a chinstrap penguin colony (pictured above). This location was also special because it was the first time on the trip that we were able to set foot on the continent of Antarctica. The previous research sites we have visited up to now were all small offshore islands. It was a warm and sunny day and because these chinstrap penguins are breeding high up on a ridge line we had a beautiful view of the mountainous coastline that dominates this part of the Antarctic Peninsula. 

After working at the Chinstrap penguin colony in Orne Harbour, we visited nearby Cuverville Island which is home to a large colony (about 4,000 breeding pairs) of gentoo penguins. There was a penguin-cam at this site which had been taking pictures of this penguin breeding colony for over one year!  However, while this camera was still working after more than a year in Antarctica we decides to replace it with a new one just in case. We also constructed a stronger base for the camera, which is made with a thick aluminum pole set into a chicken-wire basket filled with rocks. This is an easy-to-make but strong camera mounting system that can stand up to the harsh climate of Antarctica. It will be great to come back next year and see all the great pictures that the many cameras we set up have taken!