Beall Island is a rocky island with small coves indenting the eastern and western sides, lying south-west of the Bailey Peninsula, in the Windmill Islands on the

Budd Coast Budd Coast (), part of Wilkes Land, is that portion of the coast of Antarctica lying between the Hatch Islands, at 109°16'E, and Cape Waldron, at 115°33'E. It was discovered in February 1840 by the U.S. Exploring Expedition (1838–42) under t ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

. There are several small lakes on the island. It was first mapped from aerial photos taken by the

USN The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

's Operation Highjump and

Operation Windmill Operation Windmill (OpWml) was the United States Navy's Second Antarctica Developments Project, an exploration and training mission to Antarctica in 1947–1948. This operation was a follow-up to the First Antarctica Development Project known as O ...

in 1947 and 1948. It was named by the

US-ACAN The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN or US-ACAN) is an advisory committee of the United States Board on Geographic Names responsible for recommending commemorative names for features in Antarctica. History The committee was established ...

for James M. Beall, U.S. Weather Bureau observer with Operation Windmill who assisted staff aerology officers with forecasting duties. The Beall Reefs are submarine ridges with depths of less than , located west of the island; they were discovered at the establishment of

Wilkes Station Wilkes Station was an Antarctic research station established 29 January 1957 by the United States as one of seven U.S. stations established for the International Geophysical Year (IGY) program in Antarctica. It was taken over by Australia o ...

in 1961 and named by ANCA after the island. Connors Point is the north-western point of the island; it was named by the US-ACAN for Aerographer's Mate William J. Connors, USN, a member of the Wilkes Station party of 1958.

Important Bird Area

A 414 ha site comprising both Beall Island and neighbouring

Shirley Island Shirley Island is a rocky island lying north-west of the western end of the Bailey Peninsula, in the Windmill Islands of the Budd Coast, Wilkes Land, Antarctica. It is mostly ice-free with undulating, rocky terrain. It was first mapped from a ...

, as well as the intervening marine area, has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports breeding colonies of about 14,000 pairs of Adélie penguins, based on 2011 satellite imagery. Other birds breeding in the IBA include

snow petrel The snow petrel (''Pagodroma nivea'') is the only member of the genus ''Pagodroma.'' It is one of only three birds that has been seen at the Geographic South Pole, along with the Antarctic petrel and the south polar skua, which have the most s ...

Wilson's storm petrel Wilson's storm petrel (''Oceanites oceanicus''), also known as Wilson's petrel, is a small seabird of the austral storm petrel family Oceanitidae. It is one of the most abundant bird species in the world and has a circumpolar distribution mainly ...

s and

south polar skua The south polar skua (''Stercorarius maccormicki'') is a large seabird in the skua family, Stercorariidae. An older name for the bird is MacCormick's skua, after explorer and naval surgeon Robert McCormick, who first collected the type specimen. ...

References

Important Bird Areas of Antarctica Seabird colonies Penguin colonies Windmill Islands {{WilkesLand-geo-stub

Important Bird Area

See also

References