In preparation for the summer season we have now visited all the accessible cameras trained on breeding colonies around the Windmill Islands.
Rob (our Supervising Communications Technical Officer) organised groups who then set off with service kits and, if going into an Antarctica Specially Protected Area, the appropriate permit, to visit each camera. They checked the condition and operation of the flexible solar panels, batteries, the protective case and the camera itself. Broken equipment was replaced and panels and lenses cleaned. The cameras are now ready for the busy job ahead of them, recording the daily life of the Adélie breeding colony without disturbing the inhabitants.
After a visit to the Odbert Island camera near Robinsons Ridge, Dan and Rob also replaced a sign blown down during a September blizzard. The sign directs vehicles and foot traffic away from the rare and fragile moss beds just starting to come out from beneath a blanket of winter snow.