During the course of the February expedition, Greg and Keri donated 4 time lapse cameras that were installed in four locations throughout Golfo de Penas in order to begin to monitor the progression of the whale mortality event. Two of these cameras were installed in Seno Escondido, one overlooked the bay of Estero Slight, and one was left in a tree to monitor the beach at the head of Caleta Buena.
By reviewing the information collected by these preliminary cameras, we were able to troubleshoot settings, setups, etc. for the continuation of this long term project. Although there were a number of technical details we were able to easily work out, there were some natural causes we hadn’t initially foreseen.
When the camera that overlooked Slight was recovered, Camilo and Juan reported that it was facing up at the sky– which was a definite bummer, except for the pretty cloud pictures we probably got. But more importantly, how had it managed to fall over? I thought my snazzily engineered PVC holder, complete with the strength of a thousand zipties, was basically a bomb-proof setup.
Reviewing the data, however, revealed the culprit.
At 7:40am on February 21, a vulture circles the poor ESLIGHT1 cam. At 7:50, it disappears…. where did it go?!
8:00am: Aha!
8:10am: ESLIGHT1 has been taken down, doomed to monitor the drifting clouds and get rain on its lens for weeks to come.
Stay tuned for another post about the current cameras installed, and more results from these first four cameras!
Cheers from Puerto Eden,
Katie