d4Tg: Fascinating scenery: The first time ever all couples are standing very close together and a lot of other threateningly birds around them: suddenly we see large gulls and the sheatbills too. These birds are really sensitive for the changes in the colony. Fascinating to watch...

Laurie in Arizona: I am thrilled that the cams are back online! I'm looking at cam 2 now, and all the penguin couples are together at the nests now. There are also 2 sheathbills hanging around. (I also just uploaded this to the gallery.) Do they lay on top of the chicks after they hatch? I know they must keep them warm, but it seems like they would suffocate them.

Debra in Calif.: 00:45 looks like everyone's heard the good news and is waiting for their eggs to hatch too, or maybe they are hatching. It's a community event.

Kat: Erika, are you watching both panda cubs? Did you see Su Lin this evening being dangled by Mum all the way to the top of the tree? I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. Guess Black & white is the new black lol.

Erika near SF: Congratulations on the resumption of the electricity and the hatching of the new little one. (I guess someone put the plug back into the socket) Great timing!!! (Africa goes off tonight. Eagles not yet nesting, Pandas as cute as ever!!!)

Kat: to Audrey - just go to tinyurl.com, there is a box to copy the long url into and it converts it for you - wonderful stuff.

Kat: How marvellous the cameras came back just in time. I, like you others, was absolutely distraught to think we would miss the first hatching. Thanks for posting the cam shots. Congratulations Martin, you must be so pleased at the response of everyone to this site. Wow, this next phase is going to be fascinating. However will I get any work done now? Merry Xmas everyone.

HER/Denver: One of the more thorough websites about gentoos with some good detail on brooding, chicks and pair bonding I've found (i.e. what we can expect in the upcoming weeks): http://tinyurl.com/5yu7h

Martin (admin - Germany): Hope I can get infos soon what happened exactly. Have no idea why the cams are online again. Debra:Don't know whether father or mother. Both are incubating with having equal rights. But it looks nice how the partner is standing nearby.

Debra in Calif.: How miraculous that the camera came back up just in time to see the hatching. Just amazing. I'm so thrilled.

Debra in Calif.: Is that a proud father standing there?

Audrey (UK): HER/Denver: Have given Phaedra an ear bashing love your sense of humour!!

Martin (admin - Germany): Have you seen the empty egg shell? Have uploaded a pic in the gallery...

HER/Denver: OK in that case, what about something like Penguin Audrey Martina (P.A.M. for short) - hehe

Phaedra - London: No, no, no...you can't call the baby 'Audrey' (she is my mum) and she would be unbearable. Have just read her post and I think Martina or Martin is a jolly good idea. She will be on the phone to me any minute now.......:-)

Audrey (UK): HER/Denver...you can't inflict 'Audrey' on the little babe...how about 'Martina' nor even 'Martin' after our delightful host.

Audrey (UK): Hi Martin, thanks for birthday wishes, reckon I could get used to krill for breakfast. I shall be watching the 'babe' with great interest as I regard him/her as very, very special. Shall we all call you 'Daddy'............... :-)

Linda: which nest?

HER/Denver: Can we "name" this first chick Audrey maybe? :-)

Martin (admin - Germany): Yippiiiiiiiie - happy birthday Audrey and happy birthday little penguin chick!! All your life a good beak full of Krill for you I mean the penguin chick, not you, Audrey ) This is the first time in history that we saw hatching penguin chicks from the Antarctic via Internet...

Audrey (UK): A truly 'magic' moment, today is my birthday, so it is an extra nice present!

Audrey (UK): Help wanted, please. How do you know which 'tinyurl' to go to? Is there something I am just not seeing, any information appreciated.

Martin (admin - Germany): Magic moments: just in this minutes a Gentoo penguin chick is hatching... Have a look at the latest pic in the gallery!

HER/Denver: I have NO idea what happened...sorry for the double post

HER/Denver: Oh wow - I see penguin feet from that egg 20:45

kimmarie/Buffalo NY: Yes DotK this looks like a hatch in progress - try this url (I couldn't get your's to come up with the correct picture) http://tinyurl.com/9vc2n This really is a wonderful surprise and holiday miracle.

Phaedra - London: Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!!!! Everything up and running again, whatever/whoever managed it a heartfelt 'Thank You' - Martin, you must be as pleased as punch :-) Hello and best wishes to all viewers!

Hywel: Hooray - our pals are back :-)

DotK: I think an egg is hatching -- http://tinyurl.com/bhd3y

HER/Denver: Oh wow - I see penguin feet from that egg 20:45

Ulli aus norddeutschland: denke auch das erste küken ! freu freu konnten wir doch noch zuschauen

Pensan: The egg is hatching!??

Uwilin: das erste Kücken ? oder ist das Ei kaputt. Tele2cam 20:45

HER/Denver: Let's all do a little penguin dance - yipee!

Jeanette UK: Oh glucklicher tag! Yippee! Dieses ist mein bestes Weihnachtsgeschen. Gluckliches Weinachten zu jeder. Happy Christmas to all of you and I am sending my best vibes to all the penguins!

Julia in Munich: Hurra, hurra, hurra was eine Freude! ! It's working again! Greetings to all the visitors all over the world

Fani in Greece: Is that our present for Chrismas ? :-)) Nice we got it ten days before Chrismas LOL

Froutsi (France): They are back : greeaaaaaat !

Ana in New Mexico: Thank you Lord! The prayers worked! Can't wait to see the babies hatch. Merry Christmas everyone.

Debra in Calif.: Prayer or cooperative internet servers, it is all good.

Carol in Tenn: They hardly seem to have missed us. Maybe they took advantrage of the privacy to get their Christmas gifts wrapped!! I am glad to see that all is calm down there.

reinhart123: natürlich Grüsse an alle Mitgucker auf der ganzen Welt von mir aus Süddeutschland,Sorry

reinhart123: was für ein Geschenk. Ich bin so happy unsere Frackträger wieder sehen zu können. Schluchz vor Freude Grüsse an alle Mitgucker aus Süddeutschland

Bella: Yay!! The cameras are back!

Audrey (UK): Yippee!!!!!!!!! Hopefully I can now uncross everything...was getting pretty painful. Hope the cams stay active..the time when I checked was 15.45 on the 12-14.2005

Wilhelm Busch: Stets findet Überraschung statt Da, wo man’s nicht erwartet hat.

PinguinKueken: Wow! Schööön dass die Cam wieder Bilder sendet Ich freu mich so sehr,dass ich jetzt auch nicht mehr über aktualisierungen meckere Liebe Grüsse vom PinguinKueken

DotK: and that iceberg is still there! Martin - Annuit coeptis.

Kadi in Los Angeles: I feel same as you Dot...like a kid on Christmas Morning...ty ty ty God...;--)))

DotK: Kadi - despite the nay-sayers and the philosophers, I think it's a Christmas miracle.

Kadi in Los Angeles: that's picture*..grr...if i could type i'd be dangerous...;--)))

Kadi in Los Angeles: Hey...the camera is..or was...back on for at least a minute..?..i am looking at a pciture now dated 12-14-05..13:39...which is only minutes old..?..;--))

DotK: Never underestimate the power of prayer.

Martin (admin - Germany): Communication system seem to be active again, don't know why or how, but there are new pics to see

margs: Martin, so sad to see the cameras not working. Hope the server comes back on line soon. I will still be checking in each day to see if it has. If not January not that far away. To all seasons greatings from Auatralia. This is still the BEST site on the web.

Patty .Mexico city: Martin is so sad but is so clear all the explanation why the cams are gone, thank you for all your time with the nice and beautifull moments with our pinguins ,cu soon ,happy new year for all the pinguins fans!! cu on january..Adios amigos

Lamon: Liebe Pinguine, beim Abschied wird die Zuneigung zu den Dingen, die uns wert und teuer sind, immer ein wenig wärmer...

Audrey (UK): Hi all. My 2nd visit of the day (still living in hope!) but enjoy reading all the posts...to Jiggy from Manchester and everyone.....mwah xxxxx...To Martin keep your chin up, just think how delighted we will be in January!

Jiggy (Manchester, UK): oh well, what can you do (shrugs)! Martin, the site is still wonderful, and i shall look forward to seeing the creche up and running in the middle of January! i'll pop in to see how we're all doing anyway, this shoutbox has the loveliest people! a very merry christmas to you all and wonderful wishes for the new year! (just incase i forget to post...) mwah xxxxx

Laurie in Arizona: The African cam was great until it went down! Another place to watch penguins is Monterey Bay Aquarium. ->http://tinyurl.com/btbgb They still also have the penguins that were rescued from New Orleans aquarium after hurricane Katrina. Not nearly as nice as seeing them live in their natural habitat, however. Martin, thanks for everything you've done on this wonderful site. I'll be checking daily and looking forward to seeing the gentoos again whenever the cams are up and running again!

Erika near SF: Well, this cam is down, the Africa cam is not working or working sporatically, the eagles are not yet in their nest. It's back to that fast growing black and white baby in Washington DC...who often now is out of camera range! Love these cams and the folks who sponsor them...

Erika near SF: Hi Martin. I DO understand the need not to stir anything up with the Chileans...not to worry... I'm wondering if the Germans upon readying to leave simply pulled the switch to the whole station since no one would be there. (Kinda saves on the electric bill, Yah???) I do wonder if they need some warmth at the base so that everything they have inside doesn't freeze up (I haven't checked the outside temps, but believe that food and freezers would be OK. ) And to add my thanks to you...the genius behind the whole project! It is a wonder you can do all this remotely. Pretty soon, one will not have to travel anywhere, but can sit back in the easy chair and transpot by webcam to all the sites in the world!

HER/Denver: "We need a Pinguin with Technical-Knowledge ;-}" ...and ..."I think they need a real long extension cord from the Chilean station!!! Nice to see a few people have kept their senses of humor. Haha funny ppl!" I didn't get to see the hatching last year, so naturally I am disappointed too. But, when we do get the cameras back - we'll get to see many new chicks, yes? That's something cool to look forward to! Nature will proceed whether we're able to watch it or not...

d4Tg: Gentoo Linux, a special flavor of Linux that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need. Extreme performance, configurability and a top-notch user and developer community are all hallmarks of the Gentoo experience...

d4Tg: Let's send GenToox: http://tinyurl.com/9n2qh - http://www.gentoo.org/

Joachim, Germany: I can`t belive it. We need a wonder ... OK ... Whats to do? We need a Pinguin with Technical-Knowledge ... ;-} Who can it be?

cindy: well said scott and martin! By some of the posts I have read, this needed to be stated! :O)

DotK: Well, Martin, maybe it is a predetermined course of events beyond human power or control. I will, however, still pray for the safety of the gentoos and will say a prayer that the cam comes back on line (somehow).

Scott: Martin, I am certainly upset that we lost the feed. However, I fully realize and understand that this base is in a very, very, secluded place. I am sure that there is nothing that can be done until the German crew returns. I am also quite certain that the Chilean military isn't to interested in the German base, or our penguin cams. I hope to see it up again in January, but obviously our camera view is not the highest priority that the German crew will have. Anyway, I hope people realize there is really nothing that Martin, The Chilean Military or the German crew can or will do until (hopefully) sometime in January. I will check back once a day and I suggest all do the same. The penquins will be back! Martin, keep your head up. You have done a hell uva job!

Martin, Germany: I try to explain it: yes, the whole german crew has gone home for christmas at 7 December. Their station is empty and locked. I try to explain some facts. I have no "special personal" infos about the station and what is going on there, all infos I have are from the public german website news. Don't expect that I know more than you. Ok., there is a small german station on this small island (with the name "GARS O'Higgins) and a large chilean base on the same island (with the name "Bernardo O'Higgins"). They are independent from each other: the chilean base is more operated as a military base and the german base is used for scientific reserach. Each station has it's own power management, but the german base is supported by chilean ships, airplanes. There is a joint venture of the chilean antarctic research department and the german base too. During summer there are up to 60 men working on the chilean base, the german base usually is operated with a maximum of 6 men! That makes a big difference. The whole german crew left at 7 December by airplane, a new chilean crew (who will stay for one year on this tiny island) arrived by ship just a few days ago. Expect that some of these new chilean soldiers are just exploring that little island, where they have to stay now for one year! That's what we saw. Unfortunatly it is 120 percent unrealistic to contact any of the chilean staff because of this "unimportant cameras". I'am almost shure that most of them even don't know of the existance of these worldwide first penguin cams. I never had any contact to them too, I found not a single adress (chilean website) in the internet about this chilean base. Please DO NOT try to contact the chilean base concerning anything of the penguin cams, this could cause unpredictable difficulties for the future of this cams! It's just our fate that this major communication problem occured and I and you can do nothing to change anything! Both penguin cams are not involved in any kind of scientific research, so the german base has no interest to fix anything before their new crew members arrive. If the base is connected to the internet again, the cams will be online automatically again too! The existance of these cams and the public transmission of the pics are just based on pure goodwill of the german side. Hope these infos are clear enough to answer all your questions Maybe I receive some news before Christmas, but I am really not shure.

Krissy: Hi Martin- So sorry to hear about the cams but as they say "that's life". Have the men stationed on the Island gone home for Christmas? Anyways, here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas wherever you are but especially you Martin for bringing global conservation awareness in the form of our Penguin friends. Your doing a really great thing here Martin! So Merry Christmas, see ya in Jan.

Laurie in Arizona: The men I saw yesterday were undoubtedly Chilean military personnel, who are also stationed on the island. Also, the Station cams capture shots every 30 min., at 11 min. and 41 min. past the hour. The last weather data was transmitted from the station the same time as the last station cam pictures. More likely, as Martin said, it is probably a power/communications problem.

Erika near SF: I think they need a real long extension cord from the Chilean station!!! LOLOLOL

Erika near SF: I too, am wondering about those humans seen wandering around the station...And isn't there a Chilean station right there also??? I wonder if they could be contacted to check on the cams...after all if we are seeing humans walking around then humans must be able to be there somehow....It's not like the Germans locked it all up and all humans left!!!

Debra in Calif.: And the station shots are at an earlier time. I wonder if the cameras were stolen.

Debra in Calif.: Still trying to solve the mystery of the camera loss :{. Notice how the closeup cam's are stuck at the same time but different time than long shots which are also stuck at same time. I still suspect sabotage based on Laurie in Arizona's post.

Debra in Calif.: The cameras are still down, Laura. I notice the weather looks very extreme at Halley Station. Which was the closest camera I could find. http://tinyurl.com/9xznr

Cassandra: Rent the march of the penguins in the french version. It is a alot better. There is a different soundtrack, and it fits the movie a lot better. The entire soundtrack is written and sung by Emilie Simon. ( By the way, the title is supposed to be The March of the Emperor, not the March of the penguins!)

Laura: I can see pictures, they have a date stamp of 12/12/05...does that mean that communication is up and running again?

cindy: Yikes! No penguins:O( double yikes..no iceberg competition:O( If you need a penguin fix....try renting "march of the penguins"! Even though they are not gentoo penguins{ they are emperor penguins} its still great to watch! Martin I dont know what to say except I'm sorry! You have my email if ya wana keep in touch...Merry Christmas everyone and a super great 2006 much love!

Debra in Calif.: I noticed the penguins were the same on the nests as when I checked last night, or early this morning. Is it possible there is just server down somewhere? I can't help notice that Laurie in Arizona wrote: "22:15 cam1 (wideangle) - 2 men observed between the monument and penguin hill. I saw 3 men there a couple hours ago (20:11 I think) from the view captured on O'Higgins web site. I hope they don't disturb our penguins!" It seems pretty coincidental that the men were there but no one is supposedly there, and now the cams not working....

Audrey (UK): Hi all: So sad about the cams, looks like we shall miss some lovely moments. Fingers crossed (and everything else) that all goes well for the penguins with eggs. I shall keep logging on...call it living in hope!!! Hope all of you have a good Christmas and New Year.... Martin, I feel for you, and many thanks for your explanations of what is/not happening...I think we all feel for you. Somehow I don't think anyone will desert the site...as I said 'finger crossed'.......regards!

Kadi in Los Angeles: Martin and all...I feel so badly for you Martin, in particular...all your hard work to bring the rest of us this vision...only to be robbed by the technology we embrace. I only discovered this site, this year...and i was so thrilled. To not know what happens to these precious little guys is heart-wrenching..but i will pray anyway and check every day. God Bless you all...Merry Christmas and A Happier New Year..;--)

Ana in New Mexico: Hello Martin. I don't know how this particular prayer will be answered but they do help, you'd be surprised,

Ana in New Mexico: To: Dotk Count on me to say a prayer. Not only for the communications to be restored but also for the penguins. Ana

Laurie in Arizona: I'm heartbroken over the loss of the web cams, as we all are! But fortunately, the penguins will go on and hatch and raise their chicks in spite of the glitch in technology. If we are not able to view it live, there are some wonderful pictures of penguins and chicks from previous seasons on the Antarktis Station web site, under Fotos ->http://tinyurl.com/7ke8s.

Martin, Germany: Hi DotK, prayers don't solve problems, they only help to refrain from them... (this is a poor translation of a saying: "Im Gebet lösen sich nicht die Probleme, aber manche Beter lösen sich dadurch von den Problemen.") Time to become philosophically

DotK: Our worst fears. No penguin cam. Think of what it will be like when we run completely out of power (meaning, oil) - then we will all have NOTHING. Maybe if we all say a prayer, somehow this will be fixed. It can't hurt.

Martin, Germany: There was a big problem too before the first crew members returned in September. The station was without internet connection for one month (maybe some of you can remember). During the last weeks it was several times mentioned in the station news that they experience problems with the power supply of the station (they seem to plan a bigger repair after the return in January). Most probably these problems have to do with the power supply of the station... But I know as much as you! All what I know for shure is: all crew members have left the station and the first ones will return in January. And according to the laws of statistics this means: no penguin cam pictures for at least the next 4 weeks. That would just have been the time with the most beautiful impressions. Very sorry about that, but I can't change anything!!

Hywel: Oh no! I hope it can be fixed, otherwise we'll miss the chicks hatching!

Martin, Germany: There seems to be a serious technical problem in the station. Still no connection. But I have no infos what is the real reason. Because all cams send no pics we can be shure that this is NO problem with the cams but with other communication infrastructure. Sorry folks: prepare yourselve to see NO pictures for the next 4 weeks. This means: no pictures of hatching chicks this season, just nothing! I'm very sad...

Kadi In Los Angeles: Of all the times for a storm to be coming and things to go wrong...please, not now...I can barely look away...i just just know it's so close the those eggs hatching...all my prayers for these lovable creatures.

Martin, Germany: Since several hours no picture update of all cams, even no new weather data, hope it's no serious problem. No people in the reserach station till mid-january, nobody there to fix anything.

Jan: Some weather models show a huge low pressure system forming in the west of the antarctic peninsula.

Martin, Germany: This game tests your knowledge of how consumer choices affect the environment. As you answer questions and 'shop green' the Envirometer gauges the cumulative impact of your choices. ==> http://tinyurl.com/7l5xc

Laurie in Arizona: 22:15 cam1 (wideangle) - 2 men observed between the monument and penguin hill. I saw 3 men there a couple hours ago (20:11 I think) from the view captured on O'Higgins web site. I hope they don't disturb our penguins!

PinguinKueken: Hallo Martin,das ist sehr schade Aber vielleicht wäre es eine Idee für nächst Jahr? Also nur ab Kuekenschlupf...Ein Pingi zeigt gerade wieder sein Ei...bald ist es wohl soweit...

Martin, Germany: Hello Laurie, I think you are right, this would be a second attempt for this pair after they lost the first clutch of eggs at 20 november. They are very late, from my point of view much too late, think these chicks would have no good chances to survive... We'll see.

Martin, Germany: Hallo, leider gibt es keine Neuigkeiten. Ob unser Wunsch in Erfüllung gehen wird, ist ungewiß. Herr Wojdziak ist noch auf der Heimreise, ich hatte vor ca. 3 Wochen das letzte Mal Kontakt zu ihm. Stell dich also darauf ein, dass alles so bleibt, wie es jetzt ist.

PinguinKueken: Martin, hast du mich übersehen?

Laurie in Arizona: 12-11, 20:30, cam1: Is that an egg at nest 8? I don't think birds have been sitting there more than 5 or 6 days. If so, wouldn't this egg hatch very late?

Martin, Germany: Usually bird parents can clearly notice when the chicks in the eggs are getting ready to hatch. I know it from those fascinating White Storks (link on the main penguin page), which brood in my region. Several days before hatching the eggs start to "shake" or to "move a bit" when the chicks inside are almost ready to hatch. And at many (or most ) other bird species the chick inside the eggs starts to call or whisper from time to time clearly audible for their parents out of the egg! So if we see the gentoos looking for their eggs, this can mean at least two things: first of all => they roll over (flip) cautiously the eggs, this is very important for the developement of any birds egg (if you put an egg into a special incubator without turning the eggs from time to time, they will die off). Of course in such a cold habitat with stones as nest it its very important to expose each side of the egg the same amount of warmth.... The second reason why they look more and more regular for the eggs might be, that they are interested what is going on inside the eggs. On the other side Gentoo chicks get no help from their parents to get out of the egg... - by the way: I'm glad that penguin cam 2 has a clear view again, this happened without human help (the german station is now without crew till mid-january).

Laurie in Arizona: 18:30: Another egg alert! THREE eggs visible! Two in front, one in back! Check the Gallery. This one and the one Tom reported earlier have been uploaded.

Ana in New Mexico: Hello everybody, I have been watching the penguins since the end of November but had never checked the shoutbox before. It is neat that there is so many people are watching. Can't wait for eggs to hatch! Thank you Martin for all your work with this website. It surely makes my day brighter. Ana

Anne in Savannah: At what time, Tom?

Tom: Egg alert

Laurie in Arizona: Debra: It was the cam's time (cam2-wideangle). Sorry I didn't think to save the picture. The change had already taken place, but I could tell by the "poop marks" that the bird standing next to the nest was the one who was on it 30 min. earlier.

Debra in Calif.: Laurie in Arizona: was that changing of the guard at 4:30 on the time on the cam's or Arizona time? (I am anxious to see the change-over but never have.)

Jo: Beautiful day at O'Higgins; it's been below zero in Denver (hi to all from CO)...doesn't seem right.

Lisa: Diese Seite ist Cool!

Fani: Thanks Martin for your comment below the picture!!

PinguinKueken: Hallo Martin, was ist eigentlich aus meinem Wunsch geworden? Es wird ja immer noch icht öfter aktualisiert :-( Das finde ich wegen der bald schlüpfenden Kueken sehr schade :-(( Macht es doch bitte kurzzeitig öfter, bis die kueken "fluegge" sind, bitteee . Danke, euer PinguinKueken

Martin, Germany:: The iceberg of our little competition is very obstinate: all others swam away last night... The number of potential winners now decreased from 48 to 40. Just wanted to add, that it is possible to write comments for pictures in the gallery (without to be registered). I made a comment below the picture of a W. Sheatbill, where Fani was asking whether it is eating a penguin egg or not... Thanks for the first uploaded pics, think this can develop to a useful feature for all.

Laurie in Arizona: 12-10, 4:30: changing of the guard! Both parents at nest. The "dirty" one that was on the nest until sometime after 4:00 is now standing next to the other who has taken over nest duties. Also, an egg is visible at the nest to the left!

Debra in Calif.: The high resolution photos are fabulous! The technology is amazing.

Fani: I hope you are right Jiggy ...I like more that explanation

Jiggy (Manchester, UK): Hi Fani, looks more like penguin poo to me! lol! i'm sure that i read somewhere that they pick the bits out, lol!

Audrey (Uk): High resolution pics are stunning. Thank you so much, this site just gets better and better!

DotK: The hi-res pix are awesome. Thanks Martin.

Dave--Missouri: Nice changes to the pictures! The cameras really do a good job. My wife is a teacher and her class regularly check this site to monitor the progress of the penguins.

Martin, Germany:: Just received some stunning webcam pics in it's high resolution mode, check them in the gallery, names are "High resolution: pic01-03"

DotK: Thanks Kirssy and Cindy for the further info on dogs. Interesting that they were brought to Minnesota - it's colder there today than in Antarctica (but it's almost summmer in Antarctica).

cindy: No pets allowed. As part of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty , no non-indigenous species (besides humans) are allowed on the continent. The last dog teams on Antarctica were removed in 1992 from Mawson Station. They had been used for decades as a form of transport for exploring the continent. The last dogs were brought to Minnesota, where they could live in the cold conditions they were used to. Several ended up in Massachusetts

Fani: I uploaded the pic on gallery...

Fani: I think sheathbill stole an egg 14.15 !!!

William: The gallery is a great idea!! I have just uploaded 2 images from last month. Thank you for the instructions in English, Martin, I would not have managed without them.

Jeanette in Kent: Thankyou for the amazing albatross pictures in the gallery

Martin, Germany:: Wow, you did upload a wonderful snapshot - thank you! I really want to encourage all of you to test the new gallery, don't worry to do something wrong! I hope my description how to use it is OK. Hmmm, a name for the penguins...male and female are both incubating. One of them has a slightly but significant inclinated beak (only the upper half, maybe he crashed on a rock during a stormy shore leave?) Is "SkewBeak" a proper name? If the penguin is looking towards the camera the upper half of the beak is pointing to the right, maybe you have noticed that?!

Alan in Dorset UK.: Wonderful site, thank you. Has anyone given the penguin in close-up shot a name?

Martin, Germany:: Hello strB: if you see an interesting picture, please upload it in the gallery! => link on this page above. I made an english explanation, would be nice if someone could test it...

strB: now moonset

strB: Moon over astrolabe island, beautiful sight... Jo: at minimum two nests have two eggs

Jo: Anyone have any idea how many eggs have been spotted so far? One in cam2 has two eggs.

Krissy: [Kadi in LA-- LOL, so would mine :P

Krissy: DotK- Hi,what we read was that they were removed in 1993. They were afraid that distemper would spread to the seals. Beyond that I don't know anything about it but I thought it was interesting. It also said that penguins on average swim at the rate of about 15 miles per hour.

Scott: Dot, I too am excited by the possibility of seeing a new-born penguin chick. I sometimes lose sleep because of my excitement. If I see something developing, I'll be quick to post my observation.

DotK: Ohh, Scott - I am so anxioulsly awaiting a hatch that at first I thought your shout said chick visible. Soon I hope.

Peter Berlin Germany: Super eure Bilder die ganze Familie ist Begeistert

Scott: 16:45 egg visible

Kadi in Los Angeles: Martin..thanks for all the little conveniences you have incorporated on the site...brilliant!!!

Kadi in Los Angeles: well...my dog would look at me as insane if i were to take him to Antartica...lol

DotK: Hi Krissy - that "no dogs" policy must be in a new treaty or something because Roald Amundsen along with his party of men and team of dogs reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911.

q: ?

Krissy: Did you know...Dogs aren't allowed in Antarctica? I didn't until my daughter read it in National Geographic kids.

Laura: WOW! Martin, this site gets better and better every day! The gallery and e-cards are fantastic! Thank you!

Jeanette Kent UK: Martin: Thankyou for your thoughtful comment - I fell off my computer stool with laughter at your implication that the human race could ever be that considerate!

HER/Denver: It was -7F/-22C when I left for work today, it is now 8F/-13C at noon, which is probably our high for the day here in Denver. I'm thinking about heading out to the antarctic where it's WARM ...sheeze! Love the new cams! I've been away for 3 weeks and am loving catching up with our penguin friends :-)

Debra in Calif.: Sorry about the URL's.

Martin, Germany: There was too much traffic and I had to put it on an own page. Was done intentionally...

Anne in Savannah: Hi, Martin. Suddenly the "Shoutbox" is not on the same page as before. I wonder is this a problem with my computer or was this done intentionally ? Thanks.

Martin, Germany: The german station is now without crew again! All scientists left this morning by plane. Takeoff was from the glacier! The next crew will arrive in one month!

Martin, Germany: New function: if you see an especial interesting webcam pic you can safe it on your own PC and then upload it into a public gallery to share it with the others. ==> http://tinyurl.com/cvtdw You can even send E-cards from those safed webcam shots, no registration required (maybe later, first check it out)

Martin, Germany: Debra, all those links do not work, you have to take the original links and convert it with tiny-url. You took the corrupted links from this shoutbox and put it into tiny-url? This doesn't work, sorry!

Debra in Calif.: Did not understand before re tinyurl.com. Here are revised references: http://tinyurl.com/bgvbg http://tinyurl.com/92ne5 http://tinyurl.com/dv68r http://tinyurl.com/dcvfe http://tinyurl.com/7sjfg

Debra in Calif.: This is also a good general info site on penguins: http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/Pen guins/ There is a cute photo of gentoo penguin with two chicks under the reproduction section.

Debra in Calif.: Oops, Brigitte from Zurich you are right. I was mistaken on having read about guano nesting in regards to emperor penguins. It is the Humboldt penguins of South America (Chile and Peru) and the African penguins, i.e. Blackfooted penguins often called Jackass penguins due to their braying (maybe related to the South American penguins as they also bray.) Here are a couple of articles I read about the guano nesting in: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ne ws/2004/08/0816_040816_african_pengui n.html http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/efc_splash/ splash_peril.asp http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/Envfacts/ facts/penguin.htm http://www.brookfieldzoo.org/pagegen/ htm/fix/fg/fg_body.asp?sAnimal=Humbol dt+penguin

Jo: I meant to say "thought-provoking" -

Jo: Thanks for info on Astrolabe, ships, and discoveries! The history is fascinating & pics are very though-provoking - imagine the courage it took back then to sail off for Antarctica! Without a cell phone...

brigitte from Zurich, Switzerland: Hello Debra, where did you read this story about the emperors? As far as I know, those penguins don't have any nests, the keep their eggs on their feet and cover them with their special sort of 'bodybag'. As well it would be impossible to have nests in those winter storms!

Martin, Germany: Hello Debra, on the antarctic peninsula the gentoos seem to build only nests from little stones, never heared of anything else. I am very shure that guano was never harvested on O'Higgins, most probably there never was a big colony, just a few pairs on the little exposed rocks, which get early free of ice and snow in november.

Debra in Calif.: I was reading that emperor penguins used to nest in big old piles of guano but that the guano was harvested (and sold) as a prized fertilizer, thus forcing the penguins to now roost on rocks, etc. The old guano piles (to which new guano was added each year) helped keep the penguins and eggs warm. I wonder if there is a similar phenomen going on here with these Gentoo penguins roosting on the rocks. Wondering if the guano might have been harvested or if the conditions are just so extreme at this location that there was never a build-up. Anyone know?

Martin, Germany: Jeanette: You seem to be a professional optimist - your statement is of such a sparkling delicacy of feelings for the penguins intentions if it is true what you suggest, this behaviour would be a real big difference to human beings

Jeanette in Kent: Martin: On the subject of penguins pooping on each other - it would probably be considered rude not to! After all, it is like a calling card to say "I was here" and also, as it dries, it creates a helpful wind barrier and seals in heat and this is so important as these penguins suffer from heat loss and fatigue from being still for so long and not being able to catch food to generate heat for themselves. So a friendly poop could be considered most helpful!

Kat: Oh no! More snow. Strange, as I'm watching snow pile up in my favourite ski resort with glee, I'm hoping is DOESN'T at GARS, Don't we humans just want it all, though?

Martin, Germany: @Laura: And we can learn much from Gentoos poop : if the colour is red then the Gentoos most probably are now mainly feeding on antarctic krill (Euphausia superba), if it is white, they did more feed on fish. No penguin poop is for nothing if we start to think ecoLogical

DotK: Martin, your special way of looking at things really puts it all in a better perspective.

Jiggy (Manchester, UK): Martin, re your comments on human beings knowing better...Bravo! Well said that man!

Martin, Germany: Why do penguins waddle? ==> http://tinyurl.com/a9yv2 ----- http://tinyurl.com/dc6xm

Martin, Germany: if you are a broadband user you should look for some new time lapse videos. link on this page above...

Martin, Germany: @Laura:I think those penguins don't do it intentional, they just do it Maybe we should ask, why they should NOT poop on each other. We human beeings are very much different: we should know what we are doing, but put strange chemicals in our food, pollute the air we breath, the water and the soil, wasting energy (oil, gas, coal... - some countries much more than the others...) as if there was no tomorrow, make war against each other... --- So I really don't worry that penguins poop on each other. Or maybe it is a kind of special esteem for each other? Saying "I love you, my dear neighbor on nest 34" ? - The food of penguins is very much hydrus and so are their excrements. That's just very natural. At the next swim everything is washed away and they return as clean as antarctic water can be ...

Carol in Tenn: looks like nest sitting shift change at 4:00. Ahh, a chance for a bracing swim and dinner.

Laura: Anne, I know that they cant get up, but why poop on each other? Or is it the wind factor, when they poop it comes back at them?

Anne in Savannah: Laura, they can't afford to get up and leave the eggs.

Laura: OK, I can't hold it in any longer...just why do the little guys poop on each other?

Jochen aus Hamburg: Hallo Martin, vielen Dank für Deine ausführliche Antwort. Hab mich sehr gefreut. Biba Jochen

Marita & son: Good evening from Finland! These penguins really make the difference

Peter (Bodelwyddan): Hi from north wales don't those penquins look really cute

Phaedra (UK): Peter in NZ..Welcome to one of the best sites on the web!

Peter in Auckland NZ: I just surfed in, and am enjoying seeing this site for the first time, well done to the site creator(s).

Krissy: These little guys really are amazing aren't they?

Martin, Germany: Good morning from Germany: can't remember we ever could see so huge icebergs in the webcam pics as now. Looks fantastic... The storm has diminished a bit, but still gusts up to 100 km/h, the maximum gust this night was 139 km/h. I always have these data from the little weather site of the german station. Useful: they show the maximum wind speed of the last 24 hours.

Carol in Tenn: Bravo. Well said, Rafael.

Rafael, Peru: Penguins are so hard core. As humans we should learn so much from them, particularly about not moaning about the weather.

Marko in NYC: wow, the sea really looks furious

Anne in Savannah: Kadi, I think the cams only only cloudy because of weather conditions. I, like you, am so thankful for what we have that I shall forgive Mother Nature.

Carol in Tenn: oh, my goodness. They are really hugging the ground, aren't they? I guess those layers of feathers are better than anything we humans have ever come up with!!

Martin (site admin, Germany): At the moment we have windspeed maxima up to 124 km/h ! (this is hurricane force, 77 mph)

Cath (Preston): Hi everyone my daughter Hannah has viewed the pequin cam for the first time and is hooked.The weather looks foggy and ice berg bigger than ever.

Madge: me too

sam: i love genttoo penguins

Kadi: Am i to understand that someone complained about the cams being clouded at times..?...I am so grateful to have them at all..I can't imagine the nerve of anyone to complain...geesh!...lol

Rob in Australia: Hi to all. Hi Martin. When do you think we may see the first chicks?

Debra in Calif.: pesolet spain: try this if you need to translate into French or Spanish: http://babelfish.altavista.com/transl ate.dyn

Debra in Calif.: Thank you, Hywel. The penguins did not look disturbed but sometimes I know other types of birds will abandon their nests if people keep coming around looking at them.

Patty Mexico cty: Hello Martin, of course i will help you gladly with Spanish language .I will write you .

Hywel: To those worried about seeing people in the pictures. Although I don't like the idea of people wondering about in camera shot, I don't think these penguins are unduly concerned about people - they don't really have land based predators like people - only other birds who attack the eggs and chicks so I don't think they view us as a threat. The only distress they'd suffer is if a person would deliberately invade their immediate territory(especially with eggs/young in a nest) or were malicious towards them. I must admit that they're getting very close to some of the nest sites in some of those pictures though. It's how they got such good footage for the March of the Penguins movie (yes I know they were also a different breed) - the camera crew were able to work right in the midst of the penguins - the birds just looked curiously at the camera crew and then ignored them.

Martin (site admin, Germany): Hello Patty, would you please contact me via Email, I have a question where you might be able to help me with a spanish translation! Maybe we should try to write a nice letter to the commander and the soldiers of the chilean base to inform them about the penguin cam and the many viewers worldwide.

Martin (site admin, Germany): Hallo Jochen, ca. 36 Tage - ich kenn den Wert allerdings auch nur aus der Literatur. Leider wissen wir nicht genau, wann die BrüterEi angefangen hat, in Kamera 1 ca. am 14. November. Kurz vor Weihnachten könnten dann also die ersten Küken zu sehen sein, wenn alles gut geht und nix passiert...

PinguinKueken: Oh, danke Martin,das wäre wirklich wunderbar :-)

pesolet spain: hay alguien que hable español Y-a-il quelqu'un qui parle français?

Jochen in Hamburg: Wie lange dauert die Brutzeit?

Patty Mexico city: The men left the place today <s>thanks God.

Patty Mexico city: Im gonna write some in spanish perhaps the 4 soldiers read it. porfavor tengan cuidado con los pinguinitos y sus nidos. gracias .mucha gente estamos atentos y cuidandolos .

Patty Mexico city: Im gonna write some in spanish perhaps the 4 soldiers read it. porfavor tengan cuidado con los pinguinitos y sus nidos. gracias .mucha gente estamos atentos y cuidandolos .

Patty Mexico city: Martin what are they doing the soldiers again!!!perhaps they know about the "candid camera" and want to be on line?..Im worried about the pnguins with this aproching men ,nothing will happen? thanks again.gracias saludos.

Debra in Calif.: Who are all those men walking around the penguins? Does that not disturb the nesters?

Carol in Tenn: Martin, many, many thanks for taking the time to translate for those of us who need English. We appreciate it!!

Martin (site admin, Germany): Hallo PinguinKueken, leider habe ich keinen Zugriff auf die Kameras, kann allerdings mal vorsichtig in den kommenden Wochen versuchen, deinen Vorschlag an die entsprechenden Stellen weiterzuleiten. - Hello, Dr. Rogers, great to hear that the cam is of interest for your students - hello folks! . if you have interest I could send you a DVD with ALL archived webcam pictures from the last brood season! perfect to make your own time lapse videos and so on. Even some scientific research can be done with these pictures (to learn something about the biorythm of the O'Higgins Gentoos...) Just mail me if there is interest!

Anne in Savannah: Ilana, thank you for the wonderful pictures of Astrolabe Island.

Betty UK: Hello Martin> Those two men on the island and so near to the penquins, does it upset them at all. They seem to have suffered enough , what with the storms and snow.I hope from now on it will be easy going and the babies survive ok.

PinguinKueken: Hallo, wäre es vielleicht möglich, wenn die Pingikueken schlüpfen, öfter zu aktualisieren? dürfte doch nicht so teuer sein, während der kurzen aufzuchtzeit die Cams öfter aktualisieren zu lassen? Bitte nicht schimpfen,war nur ein Vorschlag/Weihnachtswunsch. Bis bald,in der Hoffnung, dass mein Wunsch erfüllt wird

Dr. Christine Rogers: Hello everyone. I am a high school teacher in Hendrick Hudson High School (New York State, USA). In my biology and oceanography classes, we are checking the penguins each day. The students love it. Thanks.

Martin (site admin, Germany): Yesterday ilana sent me some of her pics of Astrolabe Island. I made some updates on the Astrolabe-Page yesterday evening, three of her beautiful pictures are added at the end of the page. Check the site, now there are lot of interesting infos about Astrolabes, antarctic expeditions and ships and Astrolabe Island: http://tinyurl.com/du2uu (copy and paste this link)

Mannol: Man spürt den Wind noch auf der Wange (von deinem Vorbeirauschen...)

stocki: +t

stocki: Hi, bin zufällig verbeigerausch!

Martin (site admin, Germany): First chicks maybe in 2-3 weeks

Grandma: where are the chicks - I don't see any

Kat: Hi everyone. Isn't it exciting waiting to see the first chicks. The cameras are great, thanks. Krissy - these Gentoo penguins can grow to 94 cm tall, so I guess your 3 feet woudl be about right. Martin, anything near the penguins we could get a scale from? eg. How high is the wall where the 5 nests are on that ledge?

edit_21: penguin cam 2b at 0400 great view of 2 eggs :-)

edit_21: oooww looks colld,(shiver)

marko in NYC: ooops, just saw that it is every 15 min

mitch: gday does anyone know trev bailey

marko: Hi everyone How often does the image refresh?

Anne in Savannah: Oh, Little Gentoo, take care of that baby.

Hywel: egg alert! - kam 2a, 23:30 wide angle - penguin on the left.

Jaro: Serdeczne pozdrowienia z Polski! Trzymamy kciuki za małe pingwinki. pukpuk@op.pl

Erika near SF: This is the second time this week I have spied "humans"...Wonder if they know they are on "candid camera"??? If they do, this might be a way of sending the loved ones at home a pix of oneself!!! Of course, this is "their" monument!!!

Martin (site admin, Germany): Without any doubt these are members of the chilean army, their base is on the same island (base "General Bernardo O'Higgins") . None of the german scientists or engineers would ever wear camouflage trousers as they do... Hope they don't disturb the penguins, usually those soldiers don't interact very sensible with nature and the animals...

Sarah: Sorry,I mean picture at 8.00pm on webcam 1a

Sarah: Hi Martin, do you know what are the 2 guys doing? webcam 1a at 8.15pm

Laurie in Arizona: These sites have descriptions of the various penguin species: http://tinyurl.com/e4osf and http://tinyurl.com/e4xdm. According to these, the gentoos are about 30-35" (75-90cm) in height.

Krissy: Martin- Thanks for explaining it to me, just about everything I know about penguines (which isn't much) I have learned here so there's ALOT I still don't understand even a year later. I'm glad to hear they can lay more eggs possibly though. On another note I read someplace that some penguines are close to 3 feet tall. Looking at cams like these you really can't get a good grip on real size, they all just look short and fat. How large,or tall, are the eselpenguins?

Martin (site admin, Germany): Krissy:I mean a second clutch (of eggs) as a replacement of the first (lost) clutch. If the gentoos loose their nest/eggs in a quite early stage they might try an other brood... Guess I miss some english words to describe it O.K...

Hywel: Quite the opposite to 22:00 on cam 2 where you get a wonderful closeup of the penguin inspecting her/his clutch.

Hywel: #7 was inspecting its "egg" on the 11:30 image, but there didn't seem to be any eggs there.

Gato: These are the unicorns in the zoo of Krakow (Poland)

Doyle: What are we looking at and where?

Doyle: hello

Krissy: Hi Martin What is a second clutch? MargsYes,It's turning out to be quite a challenging season for them isn't it.

margs: Krissy, Yes it has been a sad time, if you look at the Blog at the top of the page it shows all the nests that were lost. But what about the new Pinguin Kam 2, great pic's.

Martin (site admin, Germany): Hello Krissy: as far as I see nests nr. 1,2,3,4,5,9,15,16,17 are still viable. There might be attempts for a second clutch in 7 + 18. - Hello ilana: This would be completely fantastic, I want to see everything of this island. You find my Email adress when you go to the link "Guestbook" above. I like the sound of this name: Astrolabe - it's just a lot of thrilling history in it...

Linda from Murrieta , California: Not again. I could not believe it when I looked tonight and saw snow. This afternoon everything looked fine.

Carol in Tenn: I think I read somewhere that snow and cold are not so bad when the eggs are eggs, much worse for it to happen after the chicks hatch. I think the adults are used to snow and cold.

Amy (Somerset, UK): I hope they are going to be ok. Iv just been on the weather forecast and it said heavy snow -1!!! Those poor things just dont deserve this!!!!!!

Amy (Somerset, UK): Oh no not again those poor penguins they work so hard and there having a terrible time!!!! I feel so sorry for them!!!

Jo: Oh No! Snow!

Anne in Savannah: Oh, my goodness, so sad. Mother Nature has certainly reeked havoc in so many places this year.

Krissy: I've been gone for a few days and I'm sad to see what's been happening here with the weather. How many nests (of the ones that were numbered) does this leave that are still viable?

mitch: where is trev bailey rayamp@bigpond.net.au

ilana: greetings from israel. dear Martin, I have been on Astrolabe Island 3 years ago. Id be glad to send you photos if you are interested.

Londonrik: Re:current storm - rather them than me..

brigitte from Zurich, Switzerland: Click now on penguin cam 2 and you can see the two eggs!

Linda from Murrieta California: Does anyone know who those men were in the recent picture? What were they doing?

Martin (site admin, Germany): nest locations number 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18 seem to be lost for this year (caused by the storm) => http://tinyurl.com/74tyc

Martin (site admin, Germany): @Cindy: I heared from a station crew member, that the storm caused the lost of many eggs. (guess they saw them laying around, most probably demaged). Maybe some of the pairs at the antenna basement try to have a second clutch. Almost shure is: those penguins which abandoned their nest in the storm lost ALL their eggs. Of course some of them could try once more, but time is running out, summer is very short... I really don't know if these penguins at the basement already have a second clutch... I just had a look in my private archive and could see, there is only one pair sitting again almost nonstop on the nest, the other ones leave the nest sometimes for more than 30 minutes. Then it is very, very unlikely that those have already a second clutch started. Now I only see a chance for one pair (number seven according to my numbers in http://tinyurl.com/74tyc), this nest seems to be occupied nonstop.

Martin (site admin, Germany): Hello Podgor, you lucky one! Did you make any digital photos? Especially I am very interested in any pics about Astrolabe Island, have you seen it? Have you been in this horrible storm around 20 November?

cindy: greetings back to you podgor! @ Martin I see some gentoos have rebuilt their nests..is it possible that some of these pairs have not laid their egg yet? Or is it just for resting? :O)

EARPac near SF: I just went back and looked at the video and at one frame #33 there are two men on the left wall facing outward.

Jan: Uhhh, there is a man sitting next to the penguins, but they look quite peaceful

Podgor: I've been near this station some 5-6 days ago. Greetings to all of you from Ushuaia, Argentina!

Martin (site admin, Germany): Update with lots of infos, faded into the live webcam picture via a php-script: ==> http://tinyurl.com/8cxr6 (copy and paste the link)

Maike: And the Adelie looks like a man who accidentally entered a womens toilet

Maike: The Gentoo to the left doesn't look very happy about the Adelie penguin appearing in their little colony

Pensan: Yay!

Maike: haha, you were faster!

Maike: There is a Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) in webcam 2a now! (12.15 UTC)

Pensan: It is an Adelie penguin in PinguinKam 2a at 12:15pm?

Kadi in Los Angeles: Thakns very much Martin...can't always be here to view and i don't want to miss a thing...;--)

Laurie in Arizona: The penguin at the far left of cam2a is looking at his/her egg now! (29 Nov 00:00)

Carol in Tenn: Martin, are these freckles on the penguins' backs really down feathers that are coming loose now that the weather is so balmy warm (above freezing)? I saw a picture in the archives of another year in which the penguin was shedding some of its down. Just wondering. I read somewhere that cold is no problem for them, but getting too warm is a problem. That sometimes they stand with wings out to help them cool off!!

Fani: Thanks Martin!!! The weather now on cams is much better...In fact I don't like snow and I feel sick when it is snowing (not very often here in northern Greece)! Apparently penguins don't feel the same!!!

Martin (site admin, Germany): Hello Fani! Difficult to ask for the whole, large continent of Antarctica -- OK. - I would definetly say the weather on the antarctic peninsula can provide snow the whole year, nothing untypical. By the way: on O'Higgins december, january and may are the months with the lowest precipitation rate with 27 mm/month, maximum is august with 54 mm/month. Only if there is too much snow (exceeding 20 centimeters, at a rough guess) it can turn into a danger. Usually the big storms as we saw it several days ago are the most important threats for the incubating birds... - *This information is supplied without liability*

Fani: It looks horrible on p.cams now...it's snowing..Is it common for Antarctica to snow in the ''summer''? Is it dangerous for penguins nests

Martin (site admin, Germany): @Kadi: I'm sorry, we have no archived videos (online). But since several days we have the archive for stationcam1 and penguincam 1a+1b working again. Go to => http://tinyurl.com/cd5of and then choose 2005-11 . I will provide a much better visible link to this page soon...

Kadi in Los Angeles: Are the "Review" pages or videos archived anywhere..?..;--)

Susan, Plymouth, UK: This is amazing, looking forward to the chicks.

Anne in Savannah, Georgia: Yes, Martin, nature in all her glory; she gives and takes.

Elke: Hallo Martin, super deine Beobachtung der individuellen Zeichnung!

Martin (site admin, Germany): @Anne: Let's hope that no distaster happens again like to those many pairs in webcam 1. We even had to watch much closer the potential lost of nests, eggs or penguin chicks in the view of camera 2. It's nothing else than the laws of nature...

Webpinguin: More penguins: http://www.webpinguin.de

Martin (site admin, Germany): ==> http://tinyurl.com/9ut8p

Anne in Savannah, Georgia: What lovely pictures of the chicks we'll see when they arrive!

Anne in Savannah, Georgia: 13:15...YES! What a wonderful picture of two eggs! Audrey, thank you for your help in locating the time lapse pics.

Jan: Egg alert in the front nest at 13.15 UTC -- I can see two eggs!!!!!!!!

Laurie in Arizona: Egg alert in the front nest! It is clearly visible on the penguin's feet on cam2 at 10:00 on 27 Nov. (Sorry for repeats of previous message--seems to have happened when I refreshed my browser.)

Laurie in Arizona: Yes, Carol, I saw the egg in the back nest! It appeared at 1500 UTC on 26 Nov. Thanks, Martin, for providing the time lapse photos of cam2. This is wonderful!

Laurie in Arizona: Yes, Carol, I saw the egg in the back nest! It appeared at 1500 UTC on 26 Nov. Thanks, Martin, for providing the time lapse photos of cam2. This is wonderful!

Audrey: Anne in Savannah - just click on cam2 and scroll down and you can click on the 'time lapse'

Anne in Savannah, Georgia: Martin, can you please tell me how I can see time lapsed pictures, since the change in format I cannot find this. Thank you.

Linda from San diego California: I guess we are all doing the "baby chick" watch, sometime after Christmas.

Laurie in Arizona: Yes, Carol, I saw the egg in the back nest! It appeared at 1500 UTC on 26 Nov. Thanks, Martin, for providing the time lapse photos of cam2. This is wonderful!

Linda: It bath time!

vic: is there anymore interesting and beautiful place.

Carol in Tenn: 48 hours nonstop nest sitting!! These guys are devoted to their task. I caught a peek of an egg, I think, which seemed to be off the cold stones and was held up between the legs of its parent. It was yesterday I think and was in the back nest in the close up on cam 2. Did anyone else see that? Maybe they are able to warm the eggs by holding them under feathers between their legs. But this would not work with two of those large eggs. The eggs are surprizingly large for this size bird.

Martin (site admin, Germany): This is interesting, Carol: in fact there was a change of the incubating birds at 21.30 UTC after 46 hours nonstop sitting on the nest. The penguin now has a very significant pattern of "unusual" white feathers above the egg (just at the edge of the white stripe). Now we can clearly identify the two birds, that's really interesting!

Vladimir (S.Paulo- Brasil): Espetacular!

Anne in Savannah, Georgia: Pretty, pretty penguin with the red/orange 'beak?"

Carol in Tenn: Martin, did the ship come and go yesterday? I never did see it come ashore.

Carol in Tenn: I am glad to see the relief helper came back to sit on the nest by Cam 2. The sitter now has perfectly clean back feathers so this must be the partner and the "dirty" one is out for a swim and dinner.

Amy (Somerset, UK): Hi!! I love the new pictures of the penguins. Which one do you think will hatch first? Which nests are still there after the storm? On the link for the nests i remember counting about 18. The links are good too!! i love the one of the snow from Germany, we had snow thurs!!!!

Sylvi (Germany): @ Cindy: This is perhaps a White Sheathbill.

cindy: cam 1 looks like a sheathbill is getting a little chewing out from one of our penguin buddies! and its still sad to see the parents still hanging around their nests that were blown away :O(

Sylvi (Germany): Hallo Martin, seit ich den Link für die Webcam Anfang des Jahres in einer Computerzeitung entdeckt habe, schaue ich fast täglich vorbei. Leider waren die Pinguinbabies da schon groß. Im Sommer habe ich dann die Stochenwebcam besucht und die Stöche aufwachsen sehen. Das war toll. Da man jetzt die Pinguine auch aus nächster Nähe beobachten kann, warte ich natürlich voller Spannung auf das Schlüpfen der kleinen Pinguine.

Martin (site admin, Germany): The penguin of cam2 (tele view) is sitting on the egg since 24 november, 23 UTC (that's now 36 hours). Will be interesting to observe when the next change of incubation with the partner (male or female) will occur. Incubation takes about 34 days, with both parents sharing incubation duties.

Pen1: I c my brothers!!

Pen1: I c my brothers!!

Laurie (Tucson Arizona): Yes, penguin "pooing powers" have even been studied by scientists! I guess they should build their nests farther apart. http://tinyurl.com/32n93

Jan: @hjw: with those "individual poo stripe patterns" we can clearly differ the single penguins from each other. If one incubating bird sitting on the egg is relieved by the partner we can see that very easy without additional marking

Jan: http://tinyurl.com/dgyta

Jan: Better poo stripes on penguin feathers than benzene in chinese rivers ...

hjw: With regard to penguincam2 She now really needs a wash :-) Adjacent penguns have been taking liberties with their toileting to the extend that our international star penguin now has poo stripes along her back! It's not on you know - that's bad manners.

Xiulan: I am watching in Seattle but I live in Heilongjiang China

Ela: Zdjecia wspaniale. Pozdrawiam z Kalisza najstarszego miasta w Polsce :-)

Joyce: Martin, this site is wonderful. Saw the pics of the snow in your area. Beautiful! Thanks so much.

Jiggy (Manchester, UK): Woohoo, fixed my pc and come back after having withdrawal symptoms from missing this site and behold...new and improved! Thank you Martin,absolutely wonderful! A belated Happy ThanksGiving to all in the USA x

William: amazing pictures 20:15 UTC !!!

pesolet spain: hello good job good pictures GREAT

Lola: Thanks Martin for new Cams . Beautiful view.

Martin (site admin, Germany): Yesterday the first snow in my region: - http://tinyurl.com/cuk52

zolly: hello zolly from italy loves so much penguins

C.H.Germany/Sachsen: Hey Hallo hab mal 3Tage nicht auf der Seite nachgesehen schon gibt es was neues.Super ist eine tolle Ergänzung zu cam. Danke und viele grüße aus der Oberlausitz

KD_Los Angeles: The site gets better and better...thank you..;--)

margs: New German Flag in station cam 2.

K.-D. Feige (Germany): Großartig Kamera 2, und das nachdem ich schon von Kamera 1 begeistert war. Kein Morgen ohne martingrund.de. Danke auch!

mai: An egg will hatch soon! It is pleasure. Adult bird fight!

Carol in Tenn: Many thanks for the info. It is great to use this shoutbox to ask questions about what we see out there. I love this site!!

stepa: No, this is the main Chilean Antarctic supply vessel "Almirante Oscar Viel". It has a strengthened hull enabling it to push through pack ice. It has a pennant number "AP-46" and is often identified this way as its full name of "Almirante Oscar Viel Rompehielos" is rather long. The chilean base makes the annual exchange of the staff. This is no tourist ship... You can get more infos about the ship here: http://tinyurl.com/dey8y

Carol in Tenn: Ship out in the water--company coming to O'Higgins?

Fani: Thanks Jan!!!

Fani: Thanks Jan!!!

Anne in Savannah, Georgia: Thank you, Betty!

Betty UK: Tank you Martin for new Cams they are great and so clear Happy Thanksgiving to all in USA

margs: The grandchildren laughed, they realy do sound like a Donkey. Dayna also thinks at the end it sounds a little like a baby Whale!!!!!.

margs: When my grandchildren, Cameron and Dayna saw the Penguin-cam2 pictures for the first time this morning, the looks on their faces were priceless, they were so excited.

Martin (site admin, Germany): Try to open this *.ram audio file: http://tinyurl.com/bucgw This is a call of a gentoo penguin. In german the name of this penguin species is "Eselspinguin", which means "Donkey penguin" - because the calls are very similar!

Dawn: I love the new close-up views of the nests! Does anyone know of any websites that have an audio link, so I can hear what these birds sound like?

Martin (site admin, Germany): After the last violent storm there still is a lot of salt on the lenses of penguincam 1. This is the reason for the greyish, contrastless pictures. Read my info in the FAQ: ==> http://tinyurl.com/8bott (copy and paste this url in your browser)

Krissy: Happy Thanksgiving Penguin Fans

Jan: Right now you can see sitting this species on the red roof of station cam 1

Jan: Fani, this is most probably a Kelp Gull (Larus dominicanus)

Martina: Hallo Martin! Ich keine diese Site zwar erst seit dem Wochenende und heute stell ich fest, dass Ihr eine neue Cam in Betrieb genommen habt! Ich als Online-Tierlexikon-Autorin liebe Tiere über alles und freue mich immer über Bilder aus der Natur. Riesengroßes Kompliment und Dankeschön!

Fani: Can anyone ID the bird flying at the background on the picture of 11/24 at 12.00 ..And I'm sorry, sorry for my bad english...

Wilfried: Dank den Initiatoren für die zusätzlichen Bilder. Wunderschön!

Martin (site admin, Germany): @Hywel: these are no sea gulls. They are White Sheathbills, there are only two species of birds in the genus Chionis in the Chionididae family. Please copy and paste this link in your browser: http://tinyurl.com/dr8ps

Hywel: I thought they were - but I was expecting something a little more exotic!

Debra in Calif.: Hywel, I believe they are sea gulls.

Hywel: Does anyone know what is the breed of the white bird occasionally seen eyeing the penguin nests? Boo white birds! Leave our penguns alone!

Debbie: Martin, thanks so much for your efforts to bring us these fabulous closeups, I love it, they're gorgeous.

Joachim (Germany, Schleswig-Holstein): Bei uns ist übrigens gerade 15:39 Uhr ... Das Wetter ist novembertrüb und 4,2 Grad normal.

Joachim (Germany, Schleswig-Holstein): Hallo. ... Die neue Cam ist ja absoluter Wahnsinn. ich kann kaum glauben, dass das Bild kein Postkartenfoto ist. RESPEKT Ich schaue täglich vorbei ... Mein 4jähriger Sohn ist auch fasziniert. Ist es wahr, das die Pinguine dort auch brüten?

Alison in Austria: This is wonderful, you just keep coming up with new techinical tricks to delight us, Martin. On other foren your praises are being sung as well.

Uwe Encom medical Consulting: Hi Martin, thanks for Your information. Hi to all down south and the other Fans of the Pinguin-Cam2 in the world . We are very happy with the position the guy´s installed the camera. The quality is Mobotix-like. That´s why we deal with it and sponsored it. The birds are really great with all details. Perfect. What about the size 1280 pixel to 960, only one for demonstration ? Have a wonderfull time in "south" and be carefull-. Uwe Krewer Saarwellingen

Phaedra (UK): More thanks to you Martin, and all concerned. The cams are excellent. Happy 'Thanksgiving' to all watchers from USA!

Anne in Savannah: Today is Thanksgiving here in the United States. This site is something for which I am very greateful. Question: Are we still able to see pictures of the past day, the site where we could see pictures every half hour?

Lois: More Thanks Martin, the new cameras are simply great, I love the close ups of the penguins. Thanks to everyone who had a hand in setting up the cameras. I enjoy reading the "Shout" and of course following the progress of the penguins, again thank you so much !!!

robert from paris Norway: Really amazing shouts from new cameras. Martin, you're genious!!!!

William: These pictures are better than expected. The detail is amazing. Thank you to everyone who has made this site possible

Audrey: What can I say? Like everyone else...brilliant! Thank you so much. Love the hidden links on the Stork cam..what a beautiful village!

Laurra_: WOW! These new cameras are grrreat.

Scott: great job with the new close up cams. Thank you for Martin and the guys stationed there. Enjoying this site a lot!

hjw: Egg was clearly visible on cam2 under the penguin in the foreground at ITC08:30, but worringly it was because the penuin was trying to protect it from one of the white birds.

margs: Egg at UTC 08:00

margs: Thanks Martin, I now see where the nests are. Tidy little nest builders arn't they and those close up shots are so good, you can even see each feather.

sirmoloch: Hi. Thanks Martin, the new cams are really nice.

Krissy: WOW, these new cams give us such an amazing view. Thank you to everyone involved with getting them out there and installed. I can't get over the view, wow!

Paty.Mexico city: Thank you Martin again !! and to everybody involved in this beautiful adventure,I can see their little faces !!!.you really are appreciated.

Anne in Savannah: Martin, thank you. You, too, Debra. These pics are wonderful, just wonderful. What great effort!

Carol in Tenn: I looked at the new cam location pics. You can see the men placing it and the date is 11/16. So this cam was up during the wind storm and survived to work. Impressive!! A big thanks to the guys who placed this cam so we can get a closer look. It is facinating.

Sally (NZ): Love the new cam shots - the close-ups are incredible. So nice to see that the weather has settled a little - gives those poor nest-sitters a bit of a breather!! Very sad about the others. I told everyone here in the office about it. I keep the site open all day while at work - only manage to get in to refresh the images 2-3 times a day but then provide an update to everyone as to what's happening. With the time differences, we only get from night time onwards so our viewing ends about 3:00pm (unless we want to look at a black screen - which isn't very exciting). Awesome shots Martin - thanks again!

Debra in Calif.: I notice when I double-click the new cam shots, the enlargements are the old pictures. Is that just my computer?

Amy: WOW! This is amazing all new pics and webcams! I just feel sorry for the ones who have lost the eggs/nests. Do you think any penguins have died?

Jo: How Egg-siting!

debby: WoW!!! The new cams are great!

Martin (site admin, Germany): Wow, look at the White Sheatbill on penguincam 2, this is fantastic! And the gentoo with the beak wide open!! The new webcam location is sheer madness!

Debra in Calif.: Thanks, Scott - Anne in Savannah, the egg "link" is in Martin's post about 12 down from yours.

Martin (site admin, Germany): @margs: go to the webcam 2 page (click on the small preview pics on this page, just above the shoutbox), on the next page above you find a link: Webcam 2 - Ort - webcam location - here you find several pictures of the new webcam location.

Scott: Debra inCalif use this link to see the numbered nest http://tinyurl.com/92bcn

Martin (site admin, Germany): @ Anne: check this url => http://tinyurl.com/cpxhf (copy + paste)

Helga Sp: Österreich (Austria) ..Fantastisch ,die neue Cam,DANKE an das Team,welches diese herrlichen Bilder um die ganze Welt sendet....Liebe Grüße Helga Sp

Anne in Savannah: Where is the egg?

Helga Sp: Österreich,,(Austria)

Debra in Calif.: Love the penguins, terrific to see the egg. I missed the "nest counting" though, can someone tell me how to find it? (For weeks I had no idea we were looking at nests.)

margs: The new 2nd cam is fantastic, i love it. Martin can you give an idea as to which nest we might be looking at.We can see their little faces this is great.

Kevin: Anne, I think it's just bird poop -- the magnified view shows it as the same pasty material as on the penguin's rear end.

Anne in Savannah: The new closeup pictures are marvelous. But, does one of our Gentoo have a bandage on his.....wing?

Kevin: Love the 2nd cam! Been watching for over a year and appreciate all the extra features, explanatory pictures, maps, weather, and now up-close-and-personal nest-cam! Wonderful job -- this is what the web -should- be like!

Carol in Tenn: Martin, yes, I noticed that some pictures were only in the German blog--so I went over there to look at the pics after reading in English.

steve england: great site, look at it everyday to see how the penguins are doing.

Martin (site admin, Germany): There was a big problem with the automatic translation of my little Blog by Google: many pictures were not viewed, most of them were blocked completely if you wanted to see them in original size. I think this is the result of Google's attempt to prevent hot linking of their Blog pictures...

Carol in Tenn: WOW the new cam is wonderful. I do miss reading the blog in English, though. I am afraid I am going to miss something!!

Bella: Aw cool! Love the new up-close cams! How awesome!

Martin: If you want to see the first picture of an egg then copy and paste this url in your browser: http://tinyurl.com/dr47z click on the picture to see it large. The egg is in the nest left above!

Audrey (UK): New webcam...marvellous!! Thank you so much, you really are appreciated!

Hywel: Wow - I love the new wemcam!

jacky from milton keynes uk: the new web cam is absolutely awesome. one feels you could almost touch them... thank you to all involved in setting the new web cam up. I so cant wait for the babies to be born. Lets hope you have no more terrible storms and no more nests are lost. I absolutely love this site........

DotK: The new close up pictures are fabulous. You can really see how beautiful they are

Cath(Preston ): Love the new webcam The penquins are so clear you feel you could touch them.

Fani: Thanks Martin ...amazing pictures from cam No2!!!!

Martin: There is clearly visible an egg!! I do upload it in the blog soon!

Stoerchin: herzlichen glückwunsch zur Pingi2-webcam :-) sie liefert einmalig schöne bilder. ich hoffe,dass sie uns auch einige küken zeigen wird, trotz vieler nester, die leider aufgegeben wurden... viele liebe grüsse ans team der antarktis-station :-)

Ana: Hi Martin this new cam is amazing :-) I LOVE THE PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanx to everybody involved in this beautiful adventure

Solveigh: Die neue Webcam "Ohig-Pingi2" ist wirklich super! Ich gucke jeden Tag, was die Pinguine so treiben. Alles Gute für das Forschungsteam und vielen Dank für die tollen Bilder!! Viele Grüße aus Oldenburg

Martin: Danke --- as you see, the penguin cam number 2 is online now, the pictures are awesome!!!!

Heidrun: @Martin, Gratulation! Die neue webcam "Ohig-Pingi2" ist großartig! http://vlbi.leipzig.ifag.de/ohiggins/

Ulli: ups ja wo denn na in Deutschland Meldorf

Ulli: Hier ist es jetzt 11:54 Uhr und das Wetter na ja Diesig-Nebelig und 5,4 Grad

Joachim von Deutschland: Hier bei Hamburg ist es gerade 10:23 Uhr und das Wetter ist suppi

Joachim von Deutschland: Wie spät mag es denn wohl gerade in Pinguintown sein?

Joachim von Deutschland: Und natürlich auch an das deutsche Forschungsteam!

Joachim von Deutschland: Hallo Pinguin- und Arktisfans!

Christine from Maui: Just wanted to say Aloha from Maui, Hawaii. I look at this site almost every day. It is the opposite climate to Hawaii as you cam imagine and when it is hot here I like to imagine I am there with the penguins. The iceberg movement is extraordinary also. Mahalo for the great website and aloha to everyone out there!

Jo: That wind was all wrong to do that...natural, but not nice. They probably could use a hug...and a tent.

EARPac near SF: You're right, Martin...you can't know all the answers, and boy do I have a lot of questions! I have enjoyed (?) comparing your numbered nest picture and the ones before and during and after the storm... Do you have any email contact with the penguins neighbors...the ones in the "warm" enclosures?? LOL Do they have any opinions about the little ones they share their terrain with? I have been to Antarctica and have walked among the chinstraps, rockhoppers, and I think also Gentoos. I have to go back and check my video tapes of the trip. That was in 1985. It's interesting to also compare the ground, the dirt and rocks before and after. The ground is swept clean right where you showed the wind coming...even a little "step" in front of nest #8 is gone. (I thought a flood had washed over it...but I"m sure now that it was wind.) Shows how humans constructions change nature. I'm worried in the same way about ANWR. (I have been to Prudhoe Bay). Nuff said...I go here first when I come online. Almost have abandoned the Panda Cub..LOL

Martin: @EARPac + Cath: I am as unknowing as you and can't answer your questions. We just have to observe, that's wild nature in all its aspects. Maybe a penguin zoo webcam shows much more idyllic pictures, no struggle for life, no fighting against horrible storms, no loss of nest... I don't believe these gentoos will continue with their brood, but let's hope I'm wrong. Great to see all 5 pairs on the wall's socket still incubating. They own most probably the best nest locations on the whole island. ..... now let's wait for the pictures of the second, new webcam. I have no informations when this will be, again I am as unknowing as you

vic: thats a great sun shot. Would love to be there. Masss.usa

EARPac near SF: Comparing with a picture I printed yesterday, and with the numbered nests picture, #11, and #8 and the one on the ledge above #5 are back sitting on their nests!!!!

EARPac near SF: Hi...Much like Cath, I am interested that some penguins are sitting on sites that were gone yesterday. If they had not yet laid their eggs, could they still rebuild their nests and have a successful season. Do we know if they had laid their eggs yet????

maggie: the update is longer than 15 mins...is it my puter?

VSF:: http://tinyurl.com/clb3m

Cath: Are there new penguins on the abandoned nesting sites? Or are they incubating dead eggs? This is my first season watching the pingoos and I was hoping for lots of fluff, not gore!!!

VSF:: Martin, could the word for the wind be katabatic? Asked the local meterologist

lxlie France: The penguins must be tough to face such storms. We send them our support from France. Fred&Pud&lxlie

Martin: Storm is over!

Martin: ==> http://tinyurl.com/e4egl - This little graphic should show the airflow, the antenna as a barrier, the change of the airflow direction. Behind and under the antenna there should be a zone of extremely accelerated wind during a strong gale. A "natural" windspeed of 180 km/h (which is already much enough to influence the incubating penguins) could mutate with the help of the antenna into turbulances with higher speeds than 250 km/h (this is not mathematically calculated but only a rough guess). Would be intersting to show this problem to an aerodynamic specialist! There are penguin nests on the left side of the antenna, near to the ocean on a small rock, very much exposed to the natural winds. If the penguins there do not leave their nest during the storm (they are not influenced by the antenna) it COULD be a sign that this massive loss of nests in the webcam sight during the last gale was induced by heavy turbulances, caused by the large antenna above of them. But it's just a theory without any scientific proof!

Martin: At the moment I think about the possibility of an aerodynamic influence of the antenna during such very strong gales. Imagine that this antenna has 9 meters in diameter and it is positioned almost above the penguins which we have in the camera picture. During such a storm the air masses should be accelerated to extreme speeds according to the laws of aerodynamics on special aereas behind and below the antenna and also inducing very heavy turbulences under/behind the antenna. I guess, that during a heavy gust with 180 km/h we might be able to measure much higher windspeeds behind and below the antenna (maybe 30% higher just at a rough guess) It would be very interesting to know the impact of such a storm on incubating penguins far away from any aerodynamic influence of the antenna. Maybe the new second penguin cam (which might be installed one day on the very exposed little hill some distance away from the antenna) will show us a different behaviour pattern of the incubating penguins of O'Higgins. At the moment I have much more questions than answers concerning that massive loss of nest locations during the last storm.

Ralf: I am saddened by the loss of the nests too but seeing it from the viewpoint of energy efficiency ( and that is an important factor for penguins!) I have to say I rather prefer things happening now than much later in the season when the chicks are hatched. On the positive side it can be noted that Gentoo penguins are often lay more than one egg and are able to raise both chicks if the enviromental conditions are right. Another good thing is that food ressources are very abundant during the antarctic summer and food problems seems to be the lesser issue. This years season did not have a good start to begin with. There was a lot of snow and I do not remember such nasty storms happening last year around this time. I really wonder if we also see a global weather phenomen happening. Let's say that the warmer ocean surface temperature, that also caused these unusual high number of hurricanes in the Caribbean, could be responsible for more snow and these storms with horrific windspeeds

Ralf: Regi, ich glaube nicht, dass die Pinguine einen weiteren Versuch zum Brueten unternehmen. Der Zeitplan fuer die Brutsaison ist sehr eng bemessen. Die Brut wuerde zu spaet schluepfen und nicht kraeftig und ausgewachsen genug sein zum Ende des sehr kurzen antarktischen Sommers. Soweit ich weiss sind es einzig und allein die Koenigspinguine auf den suedatlantischen Inseln um South Georgia und den Falklandinseln die aufgrund des milderen Klimas alle sechs Monate brueten koennten wenn sich beim ersten Mal ein Misserfolg einstellt. Koenigspinguine haben allerdings auch ein anderes Brtuverhalten als die Gentoo Pinguine (zu deutsch auch Eselspinguine). Zu allerletzt sei noch zu beruecksichtigen das diese Gentoo Pinguines hier auf dieser Station so ziemlich an ihrer absolut suedlichsten Grenze ihres Einzugsbereiches brueten und mit viel haerteren Wtterbedingungen fertigwerden mussen als ihre Verwandten auf den Falklandinseln und dem suedamerikanschem Festland. Es ist allerdings das unglaublich reiche Nahrungsangebot in dieser Umgebung , dass den "GARS" Pinguinen eine erfolgreiche Aufzucht ihrer Jungen verspricht und das scheint denen wohl einen Versuch wert zu sein. Mit besten Gruessen aus Toronto!

Martin: Question: what is the proper english word for a very (!) strong storm in the Antarctic, exceeding 72 mph? ==> http://tinyurl.com/byd84 In the wikipedia such a storm is named "hurricane", but usually the word "hurricane" is used to described a tropical cyclone.

Martha: Hello everybody!!! Im from the UK and i cant get this thingie to work! Hiya peepz from Australia! Home and Away + Neighbours Rock! Whoo!!! Have a nice day! Don't forget to watch FRIENDS everyday on 4! Martha xx

margs: A sad day.

Regi: Ist es möglich, dass die Pinguine, die ihre Brut verloren haben, nochmals mit brüten anfangen oder ist es schon zu spät dafür? Super Seite Martin!

Greg in Washington State USA: Yes, Scott, I too am saddened by the loss of the nests. I haven't visited the site for a week and just found out. This site and the Eiffel tower webcam are my favorites. It is a wonder of technology to visit places thousands of miles away via the internet. I thank Martin too for providing this valuable glimpse of the far south. Sehr gut!

Scott: greg, I'm here in Washington as well. This is one of the best websites I have visitied. We always have this site up on one of the computers at work. I have to check in 3 or 4 times a day at work and a few times at home every day. Our job is very stressfull and time sensetive, so for a break, there are 2 web cams we watch to get away for a minute. This one and old faithful in yellowstone is the other. When we stumbled across this site, we were hooked instantly. Some at our work don't understand our intrest but not everyone is the same. I have to say that the loss of half of the nests over the last few days has not only droped my productivity at work but also made me very sad. I know this is how mother nature works, but it is still not easy to accept. I want to thank you, Martin for getting this thing going. It is the best webcam in the world and we will not stop watching!

Greg in Washington State USA: What a glorious view of the iceberg in the dawn sun!

Martin: @EARPac: Don't know the real reason, but most probably it was because of the storm. Last year during a very strong storm several nests were abandoned too, but by far not as many as this year. We always have to keep in mind that the gentoo penguins almost reach their most southernly habitat on the antarctic peninsula. Usually they prefer living more in the north, were it is warmer. Weather/climate is one of the most important selection factors for them and storms with hurricane force can be a real threat. As far as I know there are NO nest locations of gentoo penguins just 450 kilometers more in the south. The visible number of nests are now reduced to the half, compared to the beginning! ==> http://tinyurl.com/dcx93

EARPac near SF: Good Morning, Martin. This is so sad. Was it all because of the wind?

Martin: Now 11 nests are abandoned, this year is turning into a real desaster for the O'Higgins penguins... But the penguins on the wall are still complete: 5 pairs incubating

robert norway: have you seen this big iceberg ? That's a nice one

Anne in Savannah: Oh, so sad.

Shane from Oz: Wow, dawn in the Antarctic sure is beautiful.

vic: amazing view

EARPac near SF: Last seen in the pix at 19:00; the nest...not numbered (It was above #5) at the very top of the wall on the corner is now not there. I count now about 11 visible nests.

EARPac near SF: Hi Amy, Try to find on this site the picture that says "Nester"..nests...that has the nests numbered. I printed that off...then I have taken pictures of the picture...the second one above...and compared the pictures. You can then tell which nests are gone. It all happened in the last day or so...These numbers are gone... #6, 8, 10,11,12,13,14, and I'm not sure about 5. I just got back and haven't checked the last hour or so. It must have been a REALLY bad storm..the ground looks like it was swept clean...of birds, dirt and rocks!

Amy: Hi, i havent been on here for ages cuz iv been away! I cant believe whats been happening those poor penguins they work so hard!! How many nests do you think are left? I went on the link showing the nests then back on2 the live update and it looks like there are fewer nests and hardly any penguins

Pblack: If the one stone has been dislodged by the storm, can the whole monument come down?

EARPac near SF: Look at how the rocks...even the big ones have changed since the numbered nest photo. Looks almost like there was a flood washed through there.

EARPac near SF: Looks like nest # 11.. in the middle is gone now...Camera refreshed at 1900 with the middle nest gone.

EARPac near SF: The camera hasn't refreshed for awhile either. Same as an hour or more ago.

Martin: @EARPac: I agree with you: this seems to the next abandoned nest. Don't know what is going on this year. This is nest number 8 since 17 november... The red "thing" is a stone of the small monument (which was painted red many years ago by the chileans) The gale tonight damaged the monument...

EARPac near SF: I watched about 5 hours ago..and nest 8 is gone just since then. I printed a pix at 13:00 site time. It's there. Now it's not. What is the red I see just in front of the stone shrine???

Martin: Near the cables on the ground (first picture) you can see hundreds of small stones. They are sacrifice to the gale, taken from the nests. Will show you a very illustrative time lapse video soon to show the effects of the big storm. Wind speed now slackening...

Carol in Tenn: I am just amazed that the nests on top of the wall are still there and are occupied after all of the fierce cold wind.

Anne in Savannah: Amazing how attached and concerned we become for those so far away. Life is precious.

Martin: No good news: at minimum 6 nests disappeared/were abandoned this night (most probably as the result of the horrific gale). The weather models show no significant change of these horrible conditions for the next 24 hours. I think a lot of broods are lost for this year, much more than last year! The nests are made of stones and at this wind speed the nests can just be blown away (stone by stone, piece by piece)...

Martin: Increasing wind force (up to 180 km/h - 111 mph). That's the windforce of a category 2 hurricane. Unfortunatly all (three) nests in front of the cross are abandoned since last night, these broods are lost for this year. The strong storm lasts now for three days and it will have a serious impact on many penguin pairs! Theses are the conditions were we understand why the place behind the wall is so much popular for the penguins: it's a very, very good shelter from these horrible storms in the north antarctic!

Krissy: What type of storm Martin? Is it just wind or is snow expected?

Anne in Savannah: How ominous the iceberg looms!

Martin: Storm is increasing again, now up to 37.6 m/s (136 km/h - 85 mph)

Adrian: I really love penguins too!!!!! They are so cute

DotK: Martin: Thank you for the series showing the abandoned nest and how fast the sheatbill moved in to take advantage. Very illuminating.

christa: i love penguins!!!

Martin: ~ 19 UTC: low tide

Grandma: Hi Megan - I am watching the penguins with you now!

Megan: My favorite animal is a penguin so that is why I come on here.

Ralf: Hello Martin, I know that a large number of birds develop an 'egg spot' when brooding. With some birds the egg spot is a bare spot on their body where the feathers are removed so the egg comes in direct contact with the skin of the bird. It seems logical to me that penguins (with the exception of King Penguins and Emperor Penguins) may develop a similar spot on their body where the skin either might be particular loose to cover the eggs in a most efficient way. Another possibility is that penguins have a particular way of laying onto the eggs, enabling them to set their feather coat on the belly in a particular way so the eggs are snuggled up almost completely. The very amazing fact is that brooding temperature has to be very stable. One or two degress less and the embryo within the egg dies. Considering this, given under the harsh enviromental conditions of the penguin habitat you definetely can say that the life of the penguins are truly a miracle. With best greetings from Toronto/ Canada to everyone in the world. Btw. DVD release of the popular documentary 'March Of The Penguins' in North America is on November 24th.!

Martin: It's completely unclear for me how the penguins can warm a egg while sitting on a nest made of stones: doesn't the cold storm blow through the stones? That's really a miracle...

Martin: The iceberg in the background got stuck in the bay... strong southernly winds first pushed it with speed, then it rammed the ground. Could take a longer time till it get's free again...

Scott: I believe I read 30-40 days

Anne in Savannah: Does anyone know the period of time from breeding until the laying of the egg?

Fani: Thanks Ralf!!

Ralf: That penguin could also be the mate of a penguin in nest 4 or 5. Or it could be a single bachelor penguin trying to bribe and seduce one of those coupled penguins for an sexual act . Penguins would do almost anything for a nice piece of rock that they can add to their nests. As for the fate of the breeding pair of nest no.6 I am not so really sure. I suspect that they either stay in the colony for the rest of the season or leave for the ocean. I do not think that there will be another breeding attempt. Penguins highly depend on accurate timing. The antarctic 'summer' is just very short and by end of the season penguins must be strong enough to fend for themselves.

Fani: I can see a penguin at nest No 6...Is there any chance for a new breeding attempt?

Carol in Tenn: Mercy!! The wind there is now 45 mph

Anne in Savannah: Thank you, Martin, for the series of pictures regarding the abandoned nest.

Anne in Savannah: Martin, anymore hidden links?

Martin: I made a serie of pictures of the abandoned nest at 17 november, check this link: http://tinyurl.com/dlloa (copy this link and paste it in your browser)

Martin: Top Wind speed (max) today: 34.5 m/s (125 km/h)

Linda: Thank you Ralf.

Ralf: Hello Linda, you will find the nest number assignments in the blog under the entry of Nov.12th.! Everyone a great weekend!

Carol in Tenn: I thought I saw a penquin a couple of days ago with a red stain on its white breast. I dismissed it as a light flare of some kind. Now if wonder if it was a wounded fellow. It was facing the camera near the rear of the concrete platform...on the ground.

dfg: @Linda: http://tinyurl.com/92bcn

Linda: Rapid City, South Dakota which nest is no. 6

Martin: Hello Ralph, maybe it is of interest that this nest was built as the latest of all. From my point of view your idea is realistic: "Could it be possible that one of the parents just did not return from the ocean and the other was forced out of starvation to abandon the nest in order to feed?" Maybe one partner was eaten by a leopard seal or an orca, this can happen all the time... The White Sheatbills usually only eat eggs if these are "lost" in a way, for example from an abondened nest.

Ralf: Hello from Toronto/ Canada ! Does anyboady have clues why nest no.6 was abandoned? On archived images I could see penguin parent(s) standing around it. I am not completely sure if it were both parents or if one of the penguins I saw is actually the mate of penguin in nest no.5 . Could it be possible that one of the parents just did not return from the ocean and the other was forced out of starvation to abandon the nest in order to feed? I am really curious because last year all the breeding pairs at the telescope fundament turned out to be successful parents.

margs: Sad to see empty nest, life can be very tough for these's little fellow's.

BronxPenguin: Live penguin action!

Carol in Tenn: awwww. The sad parents are hanging around the empty nest. Very sad.

Martin: Since today morning nest number 6 is abandoned (compare with the numbers of picture http://tinyurl.com/92bcn) Don't know what happened. No penguin incubating on the nest from 7.15 till 14.00 UTC. In the meanwhile the White Sheatbills have most probably eaten the eggs, that's the circle of life. Will show the pictures in the blog soon.

LONDONRIK: 13.45 egg alert see left front

egf: yeah i didn't see them too anne

fbgdfbd: pengjuins

Anne in Savannah: Do I spy two eggs at 10:15?

Krissy: Hi Sally, It looked to me like there were some fluries earlier in the photos.

Sally (NZ): Looking a bit chilly there (even if it is the Antarctic) and they're all huddled down. Storm coming??

Lisa: Cool Sight

Cath and Jean in Preston UK: Hi just found you love watching the icebergs go by.

wendy UK: just love to keep an eye on the penquins, they are so interesting. i have been lucky enough to see them live at Cape town what a thrill.

Mona: Hello out there. Nr.8 (i call her Platypa)shows her egg. *smile*

Lily: Hi Megan. I am 8 too and I live in Seattle. We watch the penguins every day and every night too. I like watching the icebergs too.

Audrey: Krissy & Megan..Hello to both of you, the cam pics are lovely and clear today, happy viewing, and to all the other fans!

Krissy: Hi Penguin Fans! I just got home from work and thought I'de send a big Hello to all of you I missed the cams today but hear it was another gorgeous day in Antarctica. @Megan- My daughter watches the Gentoo too, she's 7 and says hi

megan: I live in Pittsburgh and I am eight years old. I love watching the penguins. I can't wait for the babies to be born !

Jan: This light is awesome (picture 1, UTC 01.45)

HER/Denver: What do you know, Jo...it is actually warmer at O'Higgins today, than in Denver....oh my!

CT: For time differences between O'Higgins and where you are, go to: http://tinyurl.com/97eo3. Using Tierra del Fuego as reference.

dfg: These are no cables, these are antarctic worms (Lumbricus antarcticus) ready for mating

LONDONRIK: What's with those cable leads?

Jo: Hey HER/Denver - VERY funny the penguins of the Rockies! Where are the jackalopes...Martin - have you ever seen one of those?

Jo: Sally - I am in Denver; but know Silver Plume and all of those old mining towns; NZ has spectacular stuff, too! Going to go look at the eggs...wish we could life the little guys/girls up to see what's up!

Carol in Tenn: time is actually 19:15 when scientists are out

Carol in Tenn: Pblack, there are two of the scientists in the picture at 11/15 19.05 Penquins are totally ignoring them...do not seem to be bothered at all

DotK: Thank you Martin for that picture pointing out the eggs. How exciting. Now, off to play some penguin puzzle!

Sally (NZ): Hey Jo and HER from Colorado - where abouts in Colorado are you? I have a sister living in Silver Plume (up in the mountains) and I visit her often - great mountains you have there!!

HER/Denver: Jo - But we DO have penguins in the Rockies <hehe> http://tinyurl.com/czkmh

Martin: Look here, Betty: http://tinyurl.com/b6omq

BETTY: Such a lovely bright day again.Have any of the pequins laid any eggs yet? Can't wait to see the babies.Thanks Martin

Jiggy: Hey Carol in Tenn, press Ctrl and F5 at the same time and your page will refresh from the server rather than just your pc.

Jo: We need a ZOOM lens! From land-locked Colorado, where we are at 30 degrees F and snowing tonight. We should have the penguins!

Carol in Tenn: Pblack, How do you get to photos from 11/05? I only see photos from Jan 05 and before under picture database link

Pblack: Question. The photo dated " 11/15/05 @ 00:31:00 " shows a person looking at the penquins. How do the penquins tolerate us humans ?

Anne in Savannah: The games are so cute and silly!

Anne in Savannah: gracie, I see them! Thank you.

gracie: oh i forgot to say last 24 hour " java script "

gracie: penguin eggs.. if you go to the day review last 24 hours (just under the frist web cam picture) and click on 00.30 you can see two eggs under the penguin by the wall.

DotK: Beautiful day, yes. I don't see any eggs, but that one penguin is looking underneith herself - maybe checking in what looks like the 18:00 time picture - but it is so bright I can't read the time for certain - ahh, Spring. A warning - the puzzles are totally addicting.

annie: What a beautiful day. I watch everyday several times a day. I let everyone I know about the site.

Jo: Are those penguin eggs I see - far left and middle?

BETTY: What a lovely bright day 13/11/05 .This is the first time i have seen it so clear. Enjoy the site

sss: [url];

Anne in Savannah: A lovely day for getting out and streching one's wings.

Carol in Tenn: Jan, many thanks!! That is just what I was talking about. I guess they do sound sort of like donkeys.

koku aus Japan: Heute, ist es sher Fantastic!

Jan: Turn on your loudspeakers and press the buttons... there are Gentoo calls available too.

Jan: Needs Macromedia Flash: http://tinyurl.com/aeb3j

Carol in Tenn: Thanks, Brigette, for the information. Last year Martin had a slideshow that had music and calls that I guess were the sounds of the penguins calling each other. Eerie sounds.

Krissy: That's intersting Bridgette, I think that was originally this pages name "EselsPinguin-Webcam" right Martin?

brigitte from Zurich, Switzerland: Hello Carol, yes penguins normally do talk to each other. Gentoos sound like donkeys: e-ohh, e-ohh. In german they are called Eselspinguine which means donkeys. It sounds very funny but it's true.

dfg: It is not possible to post long url's (links) in this shoutbox, please always use the tool tinyurl.com/ ! Otherwise any url you post will be corrupted and nobody can open it!

Char: http://www.antarcticconnection.c om/antarctic/wildlife/index.shtml hope it worked

Martin: According to these data we had a windspeed maximum of 100 km/h today: http://tinyurl.com/cpvrz

Martin: Hello Rob, if you ever come near O'Higgins or Astrolabe Island please make pictures and share them with us! I made some updates on the page about Astrolabe Island: http://tinyurl.com/du2uu <== this is the hidden link in the picture

Rob in Australia: Hi all, great site . Counting down the days to I fly out of Oz for South America and then Antarctica. (38 to go) I check this site every day to help build the excitement and see what type of season we are heading for.

Krissy: @EARPac near SF: The camera above this shout box (The one that has Antarctica across the bottom) is the image with the link. On the right most side of the picture, way off in the distance, you see an iceberg the link is where that berg is right now. Just run your cursor over that area slowly and you should see it

Carol in Tenn: I think they were all laying down because the wind was 35 mph. Hard to stand up!!!

EARPac near SF: Jiggy...I'm trying to find it also and no luck...you said the pix right above this shout box...1 cm in from the corner and 4 cm up??? OK!!!! just found it...Thanks

Krissy: This is the first time Ive seen them all laying down at the same time

Krissy: Now that's a sunset!

Anne in Savannah, GA: Jiggy, I got home from work, made myself a cup of coffee and found the link. Thank you so much for your help. What a beautiful bright day..November 12...5:37PM EST.

aidan: white birds are usually sheathbills. a snow petrel would be too much to ask, perhaps on christmas day :-)

Rod in Texas: Martin, thanks for the site! It is much appreciated. Does anyone happen to know what the white bird is that was poerched on top of the monument in the 11-12 picture at 19:31:03?

Carol in Tenn: hehe smart fellows. I bet there is lots of talking going on. I do notice that the penguins are again clean and white--must be taking turns nest sitting and going on fishing swims

Martin: Hi Carol, these gentoo penguins preferably speak about existentialism, rational cosmology and antarctic epistemology - maybe we can install next year a good external weatherproof microphone, then all your questions get an answer... I have no idea what's the "soundscape" of O'Higgins.

Carol in Tenn: Martin, do you know anything about whether these busy fellows are making noises all day long? Are they talking to each other?

Anne in Savannah, GA: Hi, Jiggy! Still haven't had luck but shall try again when I have time after I arrive from work this evening..it's 7:54 AM here right now (EST). Thank you again, I look forward to my find!

Jiggy: that should have been above, not about, this shout box....i need more coffee! ;o)

Jiggy: Good Morning Anne, I was going to guide you using visuals but as it's so foggy there this morning i shalln't bother! lol! the picture directly about this shout box is the one it's hidden in. you will need to watch for your cursor to change. start at the bottom right hand corner, come in by 1 cm to the left, now go up about 4cm and your cursor should change from the arrow to a hand. see it? when you get the hand, click and you will go through to the hidden link! Hope that helps :o)

cindy: Martin...Is there anyway to get email addresses for the crew members at o'higgins now or anyway for me to contact them?

Angela from South carolina: Hey there

Anne in Savannah, GA: Jiggy, I've had no luck and wonder if my picture isn't clear enough........I see nothing other than the obvious.

Razvan from Romania: it seems that everywhere in Antarctica the weather is fine today.The pictures are realy beautiful

Carol in Tenn: thanks, I loved the picture review. 34 degrees and snow melted off the stone shrine!! Every day something new to see. They are busy, aren't they?

Krissy: Thanks Uwe Jonas,very nice! How long is it dark for now? It seemed to be only about 3 hours or so from what I could tell. And the Gentoo, they seem to be busy around the clock!

Martin: Uwe Jonas, the other member of our little "webcam team", created a nice script to provide you with a review of the pictures of the last 24 hours. You find the links under the tele lens view (first picture). The Java Applet is a beautiful slideshow effect, but your PC should be not too old. A faster internet connection is recommended! Check it out...

Krissy: I found it I found it and WOW!!!Such beautiful scenery! Thanx for the help Cindy

Linda from San diego California: Thanks for the clues Cindy

brigitte from Zurich, Switzerland: Jacky, these are gentoo penguins. There are only two taller species, the king and the emperor. Me too y am lookîng at the penguins every day. We must have passed this location in 1994 heading north again on our trip to antartica.

jacky from milton keynes uk: my son and i think this site is abslutely brilliant, we watch the penguins every day. what type of penguins are we looking at please?

Lisa: When are baby penguins expected? Are they laying on eggs already?

Jiggy: lol Anne! have you found it yet?

Anne: What new scenery! A man, could he be placing a new hidden link?

Jo: this is wonderful - and I love the scenery in the hidden link. I can't wait for the baby penguins!

Anne: Perhaps my eyes are too old!

cindy: second cam pic...along the right of the pic...down from the date/time stamp...close to bottom! :O)

John: Very good :-) I almost missed it in the dark.

Krissy: I may be too dumb for this game lol How about a URL Cindy plus I'm on a dialup modem so loading pages takes forever sometimes :P

Anne: Dixie, it's always done that. cindy, was it the link http://tin, etc.?

cindy: I found the hidden link :O)~ Thanks Martin..luv the idea...and the extra info! Beautiful pictures!

dixie: does it make it jump to the other cam or has it always done that. lol

Anne: Hidden Links? What could it be? I've searched and searched to no avail.

Martin: From now on I will add "hidden links" in the webcam pictures. If you find them, there are more infos about a special landmark or structure on the webcam picture. Now only one link is added... check later for more

Martin: http://tinyurl.com/du2uu

HER/Denver: Quite a sunset tonight!

margs: Kat, thanks for the directions, just found the games. What a laugh.

bill/oz: CET is one hour earlier than IST (International Standard Time (GMT) ) I am 10 hours ahead of IST

bill/oz: dfr - thank you , didn't notice that before, ok well date I posted is my date

dfr: Time and date is CET (central europe time)

dfr: @bill/oz:point the mouse cursor over a posting and your browser should show date and time. Works well with Firefox and IE

bill/oz: 11 Nov 05 : would be nice if the postings had a date on them, Great shots TY: My GF in LA gave me the web site thanks KD ;--)

Dracling: Crazy, a bird got caught flying in the pic.

Linda from Murrieta California: Great pictures today.

Audrey: Kat: Got it! Thank you, am now going to have some fun!

Kat: Sorry! I meant above the on line counter. The crew-member's private web-site .

Kat: Hello Audrey, if you click the link just under the counter showing how many ppl are on line, above the main penguin picture, you get a very intersting site with a menu box on the left headed Antatktis- Station. Click on Spiele (German for 'game'). Try the penguin game and the jigsaw games. They're peculiarly addictive!

BETTY: We use this shout to see and discuss the penquins not read about porn. Those sort of people don't deserve anything like this. the people who abuse this should be banned

Anne: My goodness! What a beautiful day. All's right with the world.

Simon D-F-CH: @Krissy: It´s a short cartoon with the pinguins from the movie Madgascar. It´s to funny! You´ll love them.

Audrey: Kat: where is the penguin game, I cannot find it, please give me a clue!!

Kat: Hey! I jyst found your penguin games - great fun, I love the sounds as the pengijns fly ove rthe snow. How refreshing to play a simple game where everyones not trying to shoot each other, thanks.

Yuko: to hjw: i understand what you feel. just let them pass and ignore. i think that's the best way to deal with.

koku: Der Himmel ist zher shon in Antarctic!

Yuko: Very sunny day, beautiful sunshine...hope i could catch a glimps of Gentoos' egg. :-)

hjw: How sad. Whenever someone provides an open service like this to provide community spirit, it's exploited by merchants of filth. I for one think the penguin cameras are excellent and regularly keep an eye on their activities.

margs: The new black and white, stationcam 1 is great it's so clear. Thanks Martin to you and your team, this site just gets BETTER an BETTER.

Anne: 'Madagascar Pinguins' is an animated film with Ben Stiller and Chris Rock as voices.

Krissy: Good question Kat, I know seals babysit for each other while they gather food, We'll have to look that one up! lol her/Denver-Cute joke and Simon, I've never heard of it, is it a movie?

Simon D-F-CH: But soon there´ll be light again! Good Night, lovely pinguins! Does anybody know the Madagascar Pinguins in Christmas Caper?

Anne: Day is done, night is drawing nigh....

Simon D-F-CH: Yes, I love them! They´re really lovely!!! Greetings from South Germany!

Anne: Such lovely gentle looking creatures.......

Anne: Jiggy and Martin, thank you for your information. (Savannah, GA)

Kat: I found out Gentoos can grow to 95cm, the eggs hatch in about 34 days, they stay on the nest for another 30 days and them form into creches so mum & dad can go get food. After about 100 days the chicks get their adult feather and go off o ntheir own, It'll be great to see them develop like this. I wonder if they have 'nanny' penguins or if all the parents go off at the same time?

HER/Denver: My favorite penguin joke: A man driving a van spotted a crashed truck, with penguins hopping all over it. So he loads them into his van. The police see the van, and pull it over. "What's with the penguins?" The man said "I saw them on a truck, and picked them up." The policeman said "Take them to the zoo." The trooper sees him again later, and the penguins are in bathing suits. "I said to take them to the zoo!" "I did. We had so much fun, so now I'm taking them to the beach!!!" Those beach penguins must be the ones we're all watching <grins>

Jiggy: that would be wonderful, though i'm more than happy with the pictures we get now, they're fantastic! i think it's difficult to get some perspective of how big everything is really, i read somewhere that Gentoos average around 80cm tall? Thank you for such a great site Martin and hello to everyone out there

Martin: If you want to know which kind of experiments are going on right now at O'Higgins please read this Wikipedia article: http://tinyurl.com/ccmed The antenna is pointing to about 105 quasars or cosmic masers right now...

Martin: I agree with your statement about the nests and probably laid eggs. Hope we can recieve some detail pictures of the nests at the basement., Mr. Wojdziak is at the station now. Those nests in the front are really huge, about 25 cm high, they collected hundreds of stones. In the research station news I read: "some of the nests are big as castles" (Die schon erbauten Nester, die teilweise richtigen Burgen gleichen...), the every years big "stone thievery" is in progress The penguins motto: if everybody steals everybodys stones, nothing will disappear from our little island *g*

Klaus Burditz: Hi to all! Very nice website! One of the best I've seen of animals struggling to survive in the Antarctic!

Jiggy: Hello Anne, think it's because if you look closely you can see that the penguins are lying down in a cleverly arranged pile of stones which they use as a nest. I don't suppose they would be lying on them all the time if they hadn't already laid their eggs. The other day they stuck to them rigidly in those gale force winds, bless them. I could well be wrong but that's what I reckon is going on there.

Anne: Debbie, how can you tell about the nests or the eggs?

Martin: yesterday evening stationcam 1 was exchanged to the model M10D-Night, it has two wide-angle-lenses on board, one with a high sensitive black-and-white sensor, the other one is the known colour sensor in photo quality...

orhan: i don't know what they are doing, but i like them very much and i keep checking on them a few times a week. it reminds me of that other dimension in our lives.

Debbie: The penguins seem to have amde their nests in the same spots as last year, and I believe they have laid their eggs, yes.

Mary Ann: Are the penguins getting ready to lay their eggs ? They look like they are sitting on nests.

Jiggy: a site that has a webcam of the northern lights over the Faroe Isles can be accessed from http://tinyurl.com/8fjcj . you have to become a member to access all the webcams but as this is a friends site i can promise you all that your details are secure, you won't get spammed or spyware. that's where i found the link to this place!

Martin: Aurora borealis, polar lights I don't think we see any Aurora borealis via these cams. I will try to initiate a change in the camera configuration (much longer exposure times than now) for the winter time. During the antarctic summer the sky in the south is getting brighter and brighter, that's what you thought it might be a polar light... I hope the new cam will be positioned to the south (pointing to the glaciers to the left), together with the longer exposure times it might be possible to observe polar lights during winter time. Interesting aspect, never thought about it... Today O'Higgins is part of international experiments Starting from 17.30 UTC the radio telescope is part of a large international VLBI-experiment, lasting for almost 48 hours. Taking part: Fortaleza (Brazil, Radio Observatorio Espacial do Nordes), HOBART26 (Australia, Hobart, Mt. Pleasant Radio Observatory), KOKEE (USA, Kokee Park Geophysical Observatory), OHIGGINS (Antarctica, ERS/VLBI Station O'Higgins, Germany), Syowa, (Antarctica, JARE Syowa Station, Japan), TIGOCONC ( Chile, transportable Integrated Geodetic Observatory (TIGO))

Jiggy: is that made out of lego??? great picture, what amazing scenery!

Martin: http://tinyurl.com/9z752

margs: Good one Martin, you realy got me i thought thay were 2 birds. The southern lights are also known as Aurora Australis.

Jo: from dusk till dawn in 2 hours

Jo: hi... all together

Krissy: No,lol, it's the real Krissy and you are very welcome

Laura: Thanks, Krissy! Or is this the "other" Krissy? lol ;o)

Krissy: Hi Laura, no not here it wasn't answered but I looked it up.It is called the southern lights in Antarctica, but both northern and southern lights are equal in both strength and size. When you have a strong northern lights display one night, you will also have an equally strong southern lights display at the same time. The only thing is that southern lights is a lot less known among people compared to its northern companion (not many people live in Antarctica).

Laura: Did anyone answer the "northern/southern" lights question? It looked like it was there again tonight.

Carol in Tenn: hehehe, I am glad to hear that there is a logical explanation for what my eyes were seeing

Krissy: He,he,he... maybe a test flying saucer next time huh Martin ?

Martin: Soooorryy folks, this was a experiment with a watermark php-script... The pic should have uploaded in my test folder and not in the main folder. This structures on the iceberg were artefacts and not real

Sally (NZ): Thanks MagsinUK for the info about the 'penguin-napping' info. Not people skiing - definitely 2x penguings skiing and taking advantage of the sunny night in the Antartic!! ha,ha

margs: I thought the same Cindy, if you look closely I think they are birds

Krissy: Hmmmm, that iceberg is farther away than it looks in the top photo though, they can't be penguins, so then what are they people?

Jiggy: LOL Martin! you monkey you! last week it was a flying penguin and now there are people skiing way off piste! ;o)

Krissy: He He He , I see them too. It looks like a couple Ice Skating Penguins! What a great shot!

Carol in Tenn: I think I can see two penquins on the iceberg floating by!! Or is that something in flight? It looks like penquins catching a ride on a berg to me. top picture at 20:00:03

Cindy in Denver: Looks like two people on skis on that big glacier. What are they doing?

Krissy: Well, I guess I should go register a new name and password it then. Hopefully that will stop them. On another note, it's another beautiful day in Antarctica don't you think? I was reading about these Gentoo Penguins and it said once they lay the eggs(1-2) It takes just over a month to hatch them and that 2 can hatch if the conditions are favorable. I have some screen shots of the babies from last year, I wish there was a way to upload them. Martin: Are these the babies from last year coming back to lay their own eggs?

pengboo: March of the Penguins comes out on DVD on November 29....at least in the US

Jiggy: commonly known as a 'troll' Krissy, sad individuals who have nothing better to do than wind other posters up. And i will probably be the next to be mimicked for saying that! LOL! Hello all :o)

Krissy: Hey, that chicken wing crack wasn't written by me, what's going on here?

Ralf: I checked on Google Earth but nobody has placed any information or links about GARS O' Higgins on there. As for your question about baby penguins, you will see plenty of them, James! If overall conditions ( weather, food supply ) is good, they will hatch sometime between christmas and New Year and there are visible on the webcam! With best greetings from Toronto/ Canada to everyone in the world!

Carol in Tenn: or rather, temperature not high enough to melt the ice off the stone shelter for the Madonna statue

Carol in Tenn: You can check the weather at the top of the page, left side. Yes, it is spring and the temperature is getting up to just above freezing some days. Not high enough to melt the snow off the cross, though.

hey: there's hardly any snow!? Are the penguins melting it by walking around, or is it getting warmer there? (Is it the Antarctic spring now?)

hey: can we look up the station's location on google Earth?

Kat: Earth calling Krissy! Take more water with it, dear! They ARE in antarctica. er.... chicken wings... what?

Krissy: chikcen wings are good to swallow and throw at poeple

Krissy: Wll James, they'd be the southern lights if you were in antarctica

toshiro: We can see noone on the screen now....

james Bakker: are there ever any baby penguins?

james Bakker: has anyone tried to download ever image on cam1 and try to make video/animation out of it, that would be really cool is there a such thing as southern lights?

Krissy: Is that the Northern lights seen in CAM 2?

Linda from San diego California: Thanks Ralf for the information

Ralf: Emperors and King penguins are the only penguin species that brood their eggs on their feet. All others, including these gentoo penguins build nests. It might give them a little advantage: The can lay two eggs and in good breeding years they are able to raise two chicks

Linda from San diego California: Audrey , it is a great movie. You will love it.

Audrey in London: Linda: you lucky person, March of the Penguins doesn't open here until December! Dying to see it!

Linda from San diego California: Happy Sunday all. Just saw the March of the Penquins. Do these penquins hold their egg in their feet?

Krissy: It looks to me like several Gentoos along the wall have made nests

Lola: Hi Abra.Maybe Monterey Bay Aquarium http://tinyurl.com/b9849

Martin: dixie: it's written above or below the pics

Martin: I like it much more if the lights are off at night! First argument: save energy - second argument: leave the night as it is: night ==> http://www.darksky.org ... Third argument: save energy...

dixie: beautiful day indeed. How often does the pictures change

Krissy: It looks like a beautiful day in Antarctica

Abra: pengis are dark again. Let there be light! And Botswana cam is offline too> Any other sights anyone can recommend?

RCS: Enjoy dropping in on the site, thanks for doing a great job of keeping it going. A viewer from Wisconsin, USA

valntodd: I ;m here is florida us this is good

Marita: Hello Martin! the light is so beautiful. Greetings from Finland. My son is asleep already, but he is the site fun allso.

dixie: Hello everyone my first time to try the site out.

Krissy: Hi Penguin Fans!!! Yup Yuko,It's great to see the snow finally melting Hi Martin !

Krissy: Hi Penguin Fans!!! Yup Yuko,It's great to see the snow finally melting Hi Martin !

Yuko: Snow's melting fast...it's really good for them!

London Rik: Where's my ski's?

Wow: I love this site! [url];

MagsinUK: For sally NZ from a penguin FAQ site: How do penguins sleep? Different species of penguin sleep at different times and in different ways. Most penguins only take short naps. However, a few species (such as the Fairy penguins) come ashore every night and sleep for a few hours in their burrows. The other penguins spend most of their time at sea (some live at sea for more than 9 months of the year never coming ashore) and must sleep at sea - but no-one has been able to observe this behaviour yet. Cheers all.

mags...NZ: http://205.188.130.53/ngm/w ildcamafrica/wildcam.html?fs=www3.nat ionalgeographic.co try this when its too dark in pengy land....its a wild cam...

mags...NZ: who turned the light off.....???

Abra: dark! let there be light!!!!

VR: It's the german tricolour, made of three equal horizontal bands coloured black, red, and gold . http://tinyurl.com/exwtu

Jo: Is the brown, orange, yellow on the dish a flag - forgive my ignorance; I seem to recall a real fabric flag last year replaced by the painted (?) one?

Michael: I wish you a great "summer" in antarctica.

Elizabeth/UK: Thanks to all for 'time' info - I thought I had checked everything to find out!! I'm hooked on this evolving story. I will go to antarctica one day!

Sally (NZ): Definitely great to see them back after the storm - I missed them!! Not sure if this question has been asked before, and my apologies if it has - I'm still a bit of a newbie at watching our penguins - but how long do they sleep for? Do they penguin-nap or ??

Krissy: Carol I agree,that is a beatiful picture! LMAO @ Jo!

Martin: @Elizabeth:Check also these two maps: http://tinyurl.com/amne4 - In general: substract 4 hours from GMT to obtain local "penguin webcam time".

HER/Denver: Lol @ Jo

HER/Denver: Elizabeth Here's a time zone chart thingy http://tinyurl.com/khq0

Lola: Hello Elizabeth chech this site:http://www.timezoneconverter.com /

MagsinUK: I'm so pleased to see them back after that horrendous storm. That iceberg is enormous! Hello fellow penguin watchers.

Carol in Tenn: What a view!! clear skies, lots of penquins, and a snow covered mountain drifting by in the background

Elizabeth: Please can someone confirm the time difference between O'Higgins and the UK?

Martin: Hello Jackie, apart from the things I described in the FAQ I have no further infos about the cross and the other structures. Maybe I can get some more infos from one of the crew members.

JACKIE: I LIVE IN ARKANSAS U.S.

JACKIE: WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF THE CROSS WHATS WRITEN ON IT

Martin: VLBI-Infos: http://tinyurl.com/ccmed

Martin: Next week O'Higgins is part of international VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) experiments: http://tinyurl.com/a9yab

Martin: If ever a second cam could be installed: after such a storm it would take several days to clear the lenses from ice. This cam would be completely exposed to those blizzards and we would see just nothing for a longer time: no risk, no fun... The power of those antarctic storms is really impressive and believe me: if such a gale occurs just shortly after the chicks hatching it causes much death... in a few hours the situation can change from a nice sunny day to pure struggle for life...

Anne: "On a clear day, you can see forever...." was it just last night that the world seemed to be coming to an end? Margs, now that you mention the ice on the the cross, I see there is proof the storm did occur, it wasn't my imagination. Hope they survived without damage. Thank you so much for this site.

margs: Take a look at the ice on the back of the cross.

margs: Oh, what a beautiful day after the storm.

Jo: However, my particular form of brooding is not the same.

Jo: They need something to do...videos; or a laptop...they could watch us.

Jan: Now: Top Wind speed 34.0 m/s (122 km/h), -5.6 ¡C, Wind direction SE ( 145.7 ¡)

Pblack: How would like to have your "butt" covering a nest with the wind blowing at 130 km/h ? I love the little guys. I've watched them since last year and can't wait to see more photos.

CT: No penguins, but at midnight local time, a wonderful sunset.

Anne: Oh, my. What a difference in the weather. Are they in the water now? I imagine it's much warmer in the water. (Savannah, GA USA)

HER/Denver: Man oh man...And I thought I was having a BAD day...(walks off chanting "I could be a penguin living in Antartica, I could be a penguin.....) Poor guys.

Martin: icicle climbing

joshua: what is your favorite sport

Martin: They have nests there and yes, Gentoos are very territorial... Who knows: maybe the first penguins have already laid eggs? (but I don't think so) But we have to realize that in general standing and walking at such windspeeds are very difficult! I would consider a penguin to be blown away in a gust of 160 km/h... Those gales are really murderous

Jiggy: i wonder why the ones on the hill don't join the sensible ones by the shelter of the base? perhaps they're terratorial?

Martin: Right now a brutal gust with 160 km/h ist reported!

Martin: Imagine laying into the wind at 130 km/h and minus 4 degrees Celsius. For me it would make no difference if standing or laying. Would be dead after 30 minutes in any case... These are the conditions where the Gentoos at the antenna basement have a strong shelter from the worst of the storm, the group on the little hill (in the wide-angle-lens picture to the right) is almost without any shelter!

Kat: They seem to know how to stay low in all that wind. Looks like most of them have gone into the water, It's probably warmer! Great site! I'm watching the progress everyday - fascinating!

Ralf: Anne: last year it was between christmas and new year when the chicks hatched, so it could be around the same time this year, or later, if the weather continues to be that unfavourable as it is ri ght now

Jiggy: poor little pingu's, i hope they've got suckers on their feet!

Martin: top windspeed now 153 km/h (95 mph)

Martin: Increasing wind force, in gusts up to 130 km/h => see actual weather data of the german station (updated every 30 minutes) => http://tinyurl.com/cpvrz

Martin: @Pblack:as far as I know there never was a census of the penguins (because there are working no biologists on the island). @Anne:This depends much on the weather, last year we discovered the first ones around christmas Right now O'Higgins experiences a violent storm with windspeeds of more than 100 km/h (70 mph) from southeast!

Pblack: Has there been a census as to how many Penquins are on the island during the mating time ?

Anne: Can anyone tell me when the chicklets hatch? (Savannah, Georgia USA)

Ralf: the perspective of penguin webcam 1 seems a little bit deceiving since it is zoomed in. Therefore objects in the background seem much closer than they really are. The station cam 1 gives a much better idea of the real distances of objects seen on the webcams

London Rik: Is it me or is that iceberg getting a bit close?

dfg: wow, this berg in the distance (tele view) looks like an UFO (unidentified floating object) UTC 6:30

Marc: Greetings from Germany (Heidelberg). Thats a extraordinary Page here, keep up the great work. Its getting cooler here now too, but definately not this cold as where you are. :-)

Krissy: Greetings to you in NYC DotK

DotK: Greetings from NYC to all the penguin lovers out there.

Ralf: i am concernd about all the snow! The station was almost snow free last year at this time. Looking at the webcam pics it seems that the penguins pairing up and start getting little rocks and pebbles together to build a nest. Let's hope there won't be much more snow as it will impact the breeding season in a very negative way. With best greetings from Toronto/ Canada to everyone in the world!

Martin: @abplanalp Until now we have no penguin videos available, I will make an own explanation page for the upcoming video clips soon. @Krissy + William Thank's a lot for your improvements on my english instruction text - you are great

Krissy: Hi Martin; I looked at your English instruction for the Mobotix Player and sent you an email