Why is there no snow and why is it so sunny?

Posted January 15, 2015 2:27 AM

What are those straw things under the penguins?

Posted January 15, 2015 2:27 AM

I love penguins. They are cute. Do different breeds live in different places? I wonder how many photos scientists take per day of penguins?

Posted January 15, 2015 2:28 AM

by AvastMH moderator

Hi GLOAR09,
The number of photos taken per day does vary between cameras, but I think that they work every 4 hours at least. There are at least 65 sites being studied. There's a brief map of where the sites are here: http://www.penguinwatch.org/#/science. Each site has more than one camera working. It is almost impossible to see, but in the top right corner of this picture is another camera-on-a-pole watching another group of penguins.

Sometimes you find mixed groups of penguins, there are a few sites with Gentoos and Adelies together.

The straw is nesting material. It looks like those nests have built up over years. The white streaks on the nests, and just around them, are penguin poop.

The date shows 8th December - so nearly the longest day and close to high summer down in the Antarctic. So it's +10C (I've seen +23C before!) and a nice hot day. The snow has melted in this area, but not all has gone. There is a distant patch of snow right in the top right-hand corner.

They are cute, and often we get pictures of quite cute or comic scenes commented on. They are very endearing and I hope that our help with Penguin Watch will help them in the future. THANK YOU for counting!

Posted January 15, 2015 6:07 PM