Aerial photography from the Casey region taken during January 2011 used for Adelie penguin analysis

Aerial photographs were taken at 3 islands in the Cronk group and 3 islands in the Frazier group of the Windmill islands where occupancy surveys in 2010-11 found breeding Adelie penguin populations. The photographs were taken to estimate the size of breeding Adelie penguin populations.Photographs of the Cronk Island group were taken on the 2 January 2011. One flight was made along a northeast-southwest direction across the three main islands, Hollin, Midgley and Beall (see below). The flight started at 02:10:23 UTC and finished at 03:40:45 UTC. The SkyTraders crew were the flight and camera operators. The daily weather observations from Casey Station for 2 January 2011 were 14.0 hour of sunlight, winds from the North at 6-13 knots and 2/8 cloud cover.Photographs of the Frazier Island group were taken on the 23 January 2011. Aerial photos were taken from a CASA C212 airplane (VHA) flying at ~140 knots and ~750m altitude using a Nikon D200 camera with a 55 mm real lens which is converted to a 75 mm lens (including the focal length magnification factor of 1.5 for non-35mm format). The Nikon D200 camera was set to normal which allows for varied speed and aperture and was set on autofocus. A 3-second shutter closure interval was programmed using an external intervalometer. All photographs were recorded on the cameras internal memory card and downloaded after the flight was over.