The survey was completed as part of ASAC project 1219 (ASAC_1219) during 2001/02 summer at Casey. GPS data were collected for all snow petrel nests and wilson's storm petrel nests located during intensive searches of ice-free areas in the Windmill Islands. Approximately 20% of the ice-free areas were surveyed in this manner. Public summary for project 1219: This project provides population data on Antarctic and Subantarctic seabirds that permit assessments to be made of natural population trends at local to regional scales, so that changes in populations due to to human disturbance, such as station activities and helicopter operations can be identified. The data file includes two shapefiles, one with snow petrel nest sites and the other with wilson storm petrel nest sites. The metadata records linked at the provided URLs describe the collection of locations of snow petrel nests at Casey in 1998/99 and 1999/2000.

The survey was completed as part of ASAC project 1219 (ASAC_1219) during February 2000 at Casey. Differentially corrected GPS data were collected for all snow petrel nests located during intensive searches of ice-free areas in the Casey station extended recreation area. Public summary for project 1219: This project provides population data on Antarctic and Subantarctic seabirds that permit assessments to be made of natural population trends at local to regional scales, so that changes in populations due to to human disturbance, such as station activities and helicopter operations can be identified.

Very little information is known about the distribution and abundance of snow petrels at the regional scale. This dataset contains locations of grid sites used to survey for snow petrels in the Windmill Islands during the 2002-2003 season. Descriptive information relating to each grid site was recorded and a detailed description of data fields is provided in the attached dataset. Survey methodology used 200*200 m grid squares in which exhaustive searches were conducted (FO). Search effort for these is provided in the dataset. The fields in this dataset are: Site Nest Region Date Time Ice free area UTM Coordinates

Long term data sets are useful for identifying temporal changes in the abundance of breeding populations of Antarctic seabirds. This data set is one of only two long term data sets existing for Snow Petrels. The data set comprises records of snow petrel activity for up to 109 nests clearly marked on the colony of Reeve Hill (near Casey station)between 1984 and 2003. A map of the exact nests locations is available as Arcview shapefile. In the database, the following information was recorded in an Excel worksheet: - For each colony check: observer(s) name(s), date and time of the nests check, weather before and during observations - For each nest: 1/nests condition (whether filled with ice/snow or (partially) accessible) 2/activity level in the nests: presence/absence of birds, what sex if known, other signs of activity (footprints, guano, stomach oil) 3/presence of an egg or chick, live or failed 4/presence of old remnants in the nest(egg, chicks) 5/Any specific comments No data are available for years 1987-1988 and 1988-1989. Data are only available for the early part of the breeding season for 1991-1992, 1992-1993 and 1999-2000. The fields in this dataset are: Field Season Date Type of Observation Time start Nest Number Nest condition Old Remnants Activity Egg/Chick Comments

Very little information is available on the geomorphology of areas surrounding Australian Antarctic stations. This type of information is generally collected during geological surveys. This metadata record gathers a range of descriptive geomorphological information of various nature: -Habitat surveys were conducted in the season 2002-2003 in the Windmill Islands in parallel with bird nest mapping (reported in metadata record BIRDSCASEY0203) in order to study selection of nest sites by a range of species. Habitat was described in the survey sites searched for bird nests following various methods (described in BIRDSCASEY0203). Information is stored as GIS files (Arcview 3.2) -polygon shapefile gathering all the geomorphological units. -line shapefile describing habitat along transects used for searching bird nests -polygon shapefile describing habitat in small 25*25m quadrats used for searching bird nests -A collection of 1309 digital photos showing the sites searched for bird nests indexed by grid site number. Plus another set of 194 photos showing region of the Windmill Islands or bird nests more in detail -A set of Digital Elevation Models (DEM) covering the entire Windmill Islands area generated separately for 18 regions. -200m*200m grid created from the coverage of ice-free areas (Aerial photography 93-94) providing site numbers for the photographic database -A series of Black and White aerial Photos (500 m, Zeiss, 1994) scanned at high resolution for the purpose of substrate study. See the word document in the file download for more information. This work has been completed as part of ASAC project 1219 (ASAC_1219). The fields in this dataset are: Date Boulderbig Bouldsmall Baresubst Morsed Scree Snowcover Permice Slope Aspect Photonumber Sitedotid Comments

Very little information is known about the distribution and abundance of snow petrels at the regional scale. This dataset contains locations of bird nests, mostly snow petrels, mapped in the Windmill Islands during the 2002-2003 season. Location of nests were recorded with handheld GPS receivers connected to a pocket PC and stored as a shapefile using Arcpad (ESRI software). Descriptive information relating to each bird nest was recorded and a detailed description of data fields is provided in the detailed description of the shapefiles. Two observers conducted the surveys using distinct methodologies, Frederique Olivier (FO) and Drew Lee (DL). Three separate nest location files (ArcView point shapefiles) were produced and correspond to each of the survey methodologies used. Methodology 1 was the use of 200*200 m grid squares in which exhaustive searches were conducted (FO). Methodology 2 was the use of 2 transects within each the 200*200 m grid squares; methodology 3 was the use of 4 small quadrats (ca 25 m) located within the 200*200m grid squares (DL). Nests mapped in a non-systematic manner (not following a specific methodology) are clearly identified within each dataset. Datasets were kept separate due to the uncertainties caused by GPS errors (the same nest may have different locations due to GPS error). Three separate shapefiles describe survey methodologies: - one polygon shapefile locates the 200*200 grid sites searched systematically (FO) - one polygon shapefile locates the small quadrats (DL) - one line shapefile locates line transects (DL) Spatial characteristics, date of survey, search effort, number of nests found and other parameters are recorded for the grid sites, transect and quadrats. See the word document in the file download for more information. This work has been completed as part of ASAC project 1219 (ASAC_1219). The fields in this dataset are: Species Activity Type Entrances Slope Remnants Latitude Longitude Date Snow Eggchick Cavitysize Cavitydepth Distnn Substrate Comments SitedotID Aspect Firstfred Systematic/Edge/Incidental RecordCode The full dataset, including a word document providing further information about the dataset, is publicly available for download from the provided URL. Also available for download from another URL is polygon data representing flying bird nesting areas. The polygon data was derived from the flying bird nest locations by the Australian Antarctic Data Centre for displaying on maps.