Snow Petrel activity on Reeve Hill: long term monitoring data set (1984-2003)

Brief description

Long term data sets are useful for identifying temporal changes in the abundance of breeding populations of Antarctic seabirds. This data set is one of only two long term data sets existing for Snow Petrels. The data set comprises records of snow petrel activity for up to 109 nests clearly marked on the colony of Reeve Hill (near Casey station)between 1984 and 2003. A map of the exact nests locations is available as Arcview shapefile.

In the database, the following information was recorded in an Excel worksheet:
- For each colony check: observer(s) name(s), date and time of the nests check, weather before and during observations
- For each nest:

1/nests condition (whether filled with ice/snow or (partially) accessible)
2/activity level in the nests: presence/absence of birds, what sex if known, other signs of activity (footprints, guano, stomach oil)
3/presence of an egg or chick, live or failed
4/presence of old remnants in the nest(egg, chicks)
5/Any specific comments

No data are available for years 1987-1988 and 1988-1989. Data are only available for the early part of the breeding season for 1991-1992, 1992-1993 and 1999-2000.

The fields in this dataset are:

Field
Season
Date
Type of Observation
Time start
Nest Number
Nest condition
Old Remnants
Activity
Egg/Chick
Comments

Lineage

Progress Code: completed

Statement: Data were collected on a volunteer basis by observers with varying levels of experience. A set of instructions provided by Jan van Franeker defines the way to conduct observations at the colony and record data systematically. Varying numbers of nests were checked from year to year; frequency of observations also vary from season to season.

Data should therefore be treated carefully.