Penguin Watch Talk

Happy milestones during the PenguinWatch Project

  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    Happy First Anniversary PenguinWatch! 17th September 2015.

    Thank you to Tom and Caitlin, the intrepid scientists, for running this project. You're probably packing your bags for the next season of work 'down South' just now. It's been a great year for us helping out!

    In the last year we've managed to sort out 2581294 images. 'We' are 21318 volunteers in total! Coldcounter worked out that: Presuming you average two minutes per image and with 2573959 images done is the equivalent of 5147918 minutes spent on PW …. that is 85798 hours (rounded off!); which is 10725 days (if you work an eight hour day!) which is 41 years work for an individual (if they have weekends off to go and identify plankton !) That’s one scientist lifetime of work.

    The PenguinWatch community is very diverse, and much enjoyed. And it's wonderful to share our volunteers with so many other Zooniverses -especially PlanktonPortal.

    We've put some images together including real artwork by Yshish and Annika, and messages and poems to celebrate PenguinWatch Year1. We hope you enjoy them. Many thanks to the contributors who were: bienle123; coldcounter; gardenmaeve; GizmoMischief; Motherjoanne; Nthrockmorton; Stinu; Whereizmom; Wildmonster; Yshish; Zilli (I hope I haven't forgotten anyone!)

    The pictures are left to right:

    Top Row - Celebrating the family eggs on Egg_Rock; Maestro Pingo conducting the Antarctic Youth Choir with its special Soloist Agatha Peng; Egg turning at midnight; Macronies in snow

    Second row: Scientist walked here; Gentoo family; A penguin with a nice orange beak and feet; Magellanic Waldo getting the place ready for the Rockhoppers to arrive

    Third row: Ah - the RIGHT footprints πŸ˜‰ ; Planting the penguins again; 'When I nursed baby penguins'; A nice peaceful morning on The_Rock

    Bottom row: Stunning sunrise at The_Rock; Dance for joy and because you can; Not everyone on show is a penguin!

    http://imageshack.com/a/img905/8376/Ag7H4T.jpg

    http://imageshack.com/a/img540/147/A4PhyL.png

    http://imageshack.com/a/img673/7321/5jy8cy.jpg

    Posted

  • caitlin.black by caitlin.black moderator, scientist, admin

    To our dedicated volunteers,

    A HUGE thank you to all of our volunteers and discussion moderators for making our first year so successful! As @AvastMH's beautiful statistics show, it would have taken our team a lifetime of work to accomplish what we have collectively done in just one year!

    We are busy writing scientific papers based on findings resulting from the website and your volunteer efforts, which would not have been possible without your help.

    We are also heading back into the field in just one month, so there will be more pictures to come when we are back from fieldwork in March, 2016. In the meantime, there are plenty more images that need your help- so do not fear if you, like @coldcounter and our science team, are addicted to counting penguins.

    Again, a HUGE thank you for such a wonderful year!

    Cheers to many more years to come!

    The Science Team

    Posted

  • coldcounter by coldcounter

    Congrats all .....

    and those who found time to draw something ... (sigh) .. (if only ....) what has been brought together by our dedicated moderators reflects what a supportive, enthusiastic and caring group of volunteers PW is. Happy birthday to all concerned with PW ..... and Tom and Caitlin .... we are really hanging out for those new pictures !!!!. πŸ˜ƒ πŸ˜ƒ

    Here's to doing the work of two lifetimes next year !!!

    coldcounter

    Posted

  • Zilli by Zilli translator

    Congratulations to all, and kudos to you, AvastMH, for your beautiful and humorous assembly of pictures and comments! Good luck to the scientists for their next expedition! And when there, please, could you adjust the camera at "Nessieline" a little bit, so that the ocean isn't leaking out on the right side of my monitor? πŸ˜‰ . Thanks and many pebbles!

    Zilli

    Posted

  • gardenmaeve by gardenmaeve moderator

    Dear Caitlin,
    Thank you very much for taking time to write on behalf of the Science Team. We all feel fortunate to be part of this project. I am continually amazed at the drive and devotion of the volunteer counters and by the sheer beauty of the photos. I'm with Zilli on the crooked camera- makes me feel seasick πŸ˜„.

    In gratitude,
    gardenmaeve

    Posted

  • gardenmaeve by gardenmaeve moderator

    Thank you to AvastMH for making such an interesting and well-placed display of creativity and reflections by all who contributed from many places in the world. I loved the thoughtful comments, the favourite photos, the beautiful, original artwork by Annika and our wonderful yshish, and laughed out loud reading coldcounter's account of PCA (penguin counting addiction πŸ˜„ ).

    Happy counting to all, and keep those questions, observations, and creative offerings coming.

    gardenmaeve

    Posted

  • yshish by yshish moderator, translator

    Great, guys! Thank you so so much for participating, and to @AvastMH for her time and for her ideas how to put that all together!

    I'm so happy to have you all here πŸ˜ƒ You're awesome!!

    Best, Zuzi

    Posted

  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    Penguin Awareness Day 20th January 2016

    I feel a bit silly not knowing this until today, but it is Penguin Awareness day today. I suspect that we are all aware of penguins, penguin chicks, penguin eggs, penguin pebbles and so on. Lucky us! πŸ˜„

    April 25th will be World Penguin Day πŸ˜ƒ

    Happy pebbles to you all,

    Joan (AvastMH)

    Posted

  • gardenmaeve by gardenmaeve moderator

    Who knew?? πŸ˜„
    Some good photos here: Penguin Awareness Day

    Posted

  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    Wonderful photos @gardenmaeve. I loved the 5 lane highway picture especially πŸ˜„

    Posted

  • gardenmaeve by gardenmaeve moderator

    I thought you might, @AvastMH. The open jaw, full frontal penguin view was familiar, @yshish!

    Posted

  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    That view still alarms me! πŸ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • yshish by yshish moderator, translator

    Haha.. great snapshots! Thanks for posting @gardenmaeve πŸ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • yshish by yshish moderator, translator

    Oops! Yesterday, Penguin Watch had its 2nd anniversary (and we missed that)!

    Anyway, here's our quick thank-you-art for you because there's never enough of that! πŸ˜ƒ

    Your Penguin Watch team

    Posted

  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    How did I forget that? Too busy clicking penguins I guess πŸ˜„ πŸ˜„ πŸ˜„

    Love your penguin art 'thank you' yshish πŸ˜„

    And I absolutely agree with saying to all of our volunteers 'You are awesome'. They are wonderful and make such brilliant science for the scientists.

    Well done volunteers πŸ˜„

    Posted

  • grannieannie by grannieannie

    Congratulations PW - Happy 2nd birthday

    Posted

  • gardenmaeve by gardenmaeve moderator

    Thank you faithful volunteers!

    Posted

  • coldcounter by coldcounter

    I seems that my addiction has really taken hold,

    because I missed our birthday – now we’re two years old.

    How could I have forgotten that?

    How did I miss that day?

    Was I marking penguins in our special way?

    That’s my excuse, I was here, chasing down that light

    and sorting out the birds still refusing to take flight.

    In two years we’ve seen many things

    in the images presented.

    Life and death, joy and grief and lighting unexpected.

    There’s much to learn, there’s more to do

    We’re charging on with marking

    for once we’re through this data set

    new scenes we’ll be applauding.

    Congrats PW and all concerned

    πŸ˜ƒ πŸ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • yshish by yshish moderator, translator in response to coldcounter's comment.

    Oh, what a nice poem! Thank you @coldcounter and don't worry you 'missed' that. All of us did πŸ˜„

    Posted

  • gardenmaeve by gardenmaeve moderator

    Hurrah for coldcounter's poetry inspired by PW! πŸ˜„ πŸ˜„ πŸ˜„

    Posted

  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    Oh hey - that's really cool coldcounter!! I'm sorry I didn't spot it sooner - and I so agree with the idea of applauding new scenes, I can't wait to see where we are travelling to this time. πŸ˜„

    Posted

  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    A little (very short) light entertainment in between our bigger events. Just as you work hard, here's Dr Tom Hart dealing with cameras in Antarctica.
    I'm not sure, but it's possible that the wind won the battle for being heard on both snippets. See what you think πŸ˜„

    https://www.facebook.com/PenguinZoo/videos/

    Posted

  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    A massive thank you to all of our volunteers. Today at about 2.00pm Greenwich Meantime we passed an amazing landmark of 4.5 million images classified.

    Posted

  • yshish by yshish moderator, translator

    Wow, really cool! πŸ˜ƒ Thanks, everyone. You're the best volunteers ever!

    Posted

  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    Dear PenguinWatching Volunteers,

    Almost like a 'thank you' for your hard work this year, and recently reaching 4.5 million, we've made it onto the wonderful Zooniverse Advent Calendar. Not just as an entry in a window, but as the whole background image!

    As you can see - I've been busy opening windows already. Open it yourself here: advent.zooniverse.org

    So I thought I'd say a little more about it as follows:

    Very happy for PenguinWatch that one of our favourite sites has become the calendar background for 2016. This is the Boat Shed at Port Lockroy and the colony of penguins there have given us more than a few laughs.

    If you'd like to see a stunning panorama of Port Lockroy (and, youngsters, if you have permission to view a site other than this one) which is breathtaking:
    https://www.antarctic.eu/wp-content/panoramas/antarktis_2013/port-lockroy_en/Port-Lockroy.html

    We've discovered interesting things including that penguins might be superstitious (they don't walk under ladders):

    Example Alt Text

    They clear away snow (they've parked their shovels for a 3 pm tea break)

    Example Alt Text

    and they have great taste in views from their home:

    Example Alt Text

    But best of all they played their part in the statistics from PenguinWatch that Dr Hart used to protect a large area of Antarctic waters from human fishing.

    And finally I'll use this chance to thank the thousands of wonderful volunteers who mark penguins for PenguinWatch - you're tremendous! πŸ˜„

    And those last words are on behalf of all of the moderators, you really make it a pleasure to work on PenguinWatch πŸ˜„

    Onwards to 5 Million classified pictures πŸ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • Hatschi by Hatschi

    Oh wow!
    Yes, let's aim for 5 million classified pictures.

    The advent calendar is very nice and very interesting. Thank you to the Zooniverse team for putting it together.

    And a big thank you to AvastMH for showing those amazing pictures and to all the moderators here for just being you πŸ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • gardenmaeve by gardenmaeve moderator

    πŸ˜„ We moderators all are so happy to be working with the wonderful volunteers here. πŸ˜„

    Very attractive announcement, @AvastMH. πŸ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    Thank you Hatschi and gardenmaeve - it's the inspiration of the project coming out in me πŸ˜„

    Posted

  • yshish by yshish moderator, translator

    πŸ˜ƒ I can only agree. Thanks to everyone for all you have done for penguins and for this amazing project! You are awesome πŸ˜ƒ (and lots of thanks to AvastMH and gardenmaeve for all their time spent on the Talk!)

    Posted

  • wildmonster by wildmonster

    20 January 2017 is Penguin Awareness Day!
    The Royal Society in the U.K. has tweets about it, and even has a link to Penguin Watch!
    https://twitter.com/royalsociety/status/822363109486710784

    Posted

  • gardenmaeve by gardenmaeve moderator

    Thanks, @wildmonster ! Ingupina reminded us this morning with a friendly greeting. πŸ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    Thank you wildmonster! Lovely to see you here, and especially bringing us this news πŸ˜ƒ One of the British TV programmes tonight featured the SANCCOB penguin sanctuary in South Africa (but sadly didn't mention penguinwatch).

    πŸ˜„ πŸ˜„ πŸ˜„ Well done everyone helping here, you've just come to 4 million and 620,000 pictures classified.

    enter image description here

    Posted

  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    As I write this note the wonderful volunteers of PenguinWatch, which started in September 2014, have worked so hard that today's total is:

    5640483 images classified by 45777 volunteers

    That's a lot of work that has informed the science team. Thank you citizen scientists of PenguinWatch!

    Posted

  • yshish by yshish moderator, translator

    Today, it has been 3 years of fun on Penguin Watch!

    anniversary pic

    More fun is coming soon! πŸ˜‰

    Z.

    Posted

  • gardenmaeve by gardenmaeve moderator

    Oh, how wonderful, yshish! It's so encouraging to see what can be accomplished by many people working together.
    Thank you, @yshish , @AvastMH , and each one of you who has helped by classifying even one image- or thousands.

    Posted

  • Melakmen by Melakmen

    Yay to all of us. Been over on the other webpage doing some hurricane support looking over the before after satellite photos. Terrible to see the level of damage (and I live in a cyclone area).... But amazing that this level of technology can allow us to all work together to help those on the ground. Anyway, I keep popping back in to see if we have more pictures. Kinda miss the cute little penguins. πŸ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    How could I forget our birthday!!! Thanks so much for putting up a birthday picture @yshish πŸ˜ƒ And I also thank @gardenmaeve and all of our regulars and the unknown thousands of passing helpers who do such a great job helping out the penguins. πŸ˜„ πŸ˜„ πŸ˜„

    (I love this picture of Egg Rock - it is beautiful)

    Posted

  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator in response to Melakmen's comment.

    That's great work Melakmen - helping the hurricane area. I hope that you don't get hit by anything horrible yourself! There are times when we moan about the internet, and it can be a meddlesome place to be. But the power of support that it can bring to millions through citizen science at times of devastation - well that's so wonderful that it's almost impossible to put the benefits into words. We've done hurricanes, the earthquake in Nepal/Tibet, and others. We used to feel almost helpless to help in the pre-citizen science days...now you can be so effective in organising help. Wonderful. πŸ˜ƒ

    Posted