Wildlife notes

A wandering tattler was feeding at the rocks near the Jetty. I last saw one on May 17.  This time I could get good photos and actually sit for a while on the Jetty and watch it bob its tail and feed. I have so many photos – I’ll share just three. With regard to the gulls, nothing out of the ordinary to report. There are still just a few birds left on the nest with eggs and I have been spared seeing chicks killed by angry neighbours. I witnessed some close calls but the chicks were able to stand again and run away. It seems the best outcome results when chicks squat and freeze during an attack. I notice the same for myself – if I move away quickly from an angry, challenging parent on the ground, they chase me, but if I stop and hold my ground, they do the same. This doesn’t work if they are in the air. I was weed whacking today with the ear muffs on completely oblivious to their overhead threats and vocal warnings.  I need two hands to hold the tool so there really is no choice but to hope for the best and go change my clothes afterwards. Only four more sleeps. I shall miss this place dearly.

Wandering tattler

Facility work

• cleaned the solar panels
• weed whacked the walkways

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 12
• Private: 0

Weather

Moderate to fresh westerlies, building to strong in the late afternoon. Daytime temperatures: low 10, high 12.

Wildlife notes

Sea lions are starting to return in low numbers but they are hauling out on Middle Rock. There are very few gulls left with unhatched eggs and some of the late layers have abandoned their third egg after the first two hatched. The eggs I found previously with their shells partially missing/chipped away (like on July 9th) have been discarded from their nests.

A gull and its chick – not to be messed with!

I have two more introduced species on Race Rocks to report. Cleavers, catchweed, sticky willy, or goosegrass (Galium aparine) was found in the rocks behind the Energy Building. Geese seem to eat it and that may explain how it got here. The second plant, European searocket (Cakile maritima), is growing on the boat ramp in a crack in the concrete. It is common in coastal areas in Europe, Asia and North Africa and may have come to North America in ship ballast water.

Facility work

• cleaned solar panels
• weeding
• studying the Programmers Guide for the Mate3s power system controller and the programmed setpoints

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 21
• Private: 1

Weather

Skies clear. Winds variable and light until late afternoon, moderate SWS in the evening. Daytime temperatures: low 12. high 20.

Today we reached 27 degrees C at 5pm (the highest temperature since I arrived on May 15th) but three hours later it was back to a breezy 15 degrees.  I have been spoilt and will suffer when I leave Race Rocks and face real heat. Just 6 more sleeps :(

Wildlife notes

The highlights of the day were the 9 pelicans doing a flyby, another harbour seal pup on East Beach and finally, photo confirmation of the least sandpiper. The seal pup was tiny and had different face markings than the last ones at East Beach so it could be a new addition. I sat on the rocks below the compost pile for a while watching it struggle to move higher up the beach to escape the rising water. Sitting still with the flies also gave me a chance photograph the least sandpiper.

Harbour seal pup pulling itself up the rocks.

Least sandpiper

Least sandpiper with two western sandpipers.

Pelicans flying over Race Rocks.

Facility work

• cleaned the solar panels
• weekly meeting with Greg
• studying the Outback power systems manual

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 15
• Private: 2

Weather

Mostly light to gentle breeze, direction variable. Skies clear. Daytime temperatures: low 13, high 27.

Wildlife notes

Grandparent gulls lost their entire brood, all at once. They nested under the small porch by the north entrance of the Keeper’s House – same place as last year where they successfully raised their chicks. When I first noticed Grandpa gull last year I sent a picture to the local gull expert Andrew Jacobs and asked if this was a particularly old gull as I was wondering about the darkening around its eyes. He said it was a just a pigmentation not related to age. Regardless, the name stuck. I see a lot of him out the window as he likes to sit on the deck railing. Oddly both parents have the same darkened eyes.

Grandpa and Grandma gull

Grandparent gull’s nest with two dead chicks beside and one inside the disheveled nest.

Usually when I find a dead chick or see one being killed it has wandered too far from its nest and the protection of its parents, but this is different. Here, all three chicks are very near or even in the nest. Both parents are still alive, so starvation doesn’t make sense. I wonder if it could be sickness or poisoning? Neither are good news.

Facility Work

• cleaned the solar panels
• cleaned the outside windows
• cleaned the back door

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 22
• Private: 1

Weather

Clear skies.  Strong WNW breeze in the morning, moderate WSW in the afternoon. Daytime temperatures: low 13, high 16.

Wildlife notes

Looking at the collections of boats on the horizon everyday I know there are whales around but rarely do I get to see them. Today a humpback was feeding off the jetty and I got to sit in the sunshine and watch this magnificent massive creature. I am glad it is a baleen whale and not a threat to the little seal pups. In the high winds, tide and waves of the early evening the two moms and seal pups are bobbing in the waves in the shallows at East Beach – it seems there must be a lack of haul out spots in these conditions that they can get their pups up on. It will be a tiring time for the little ones.

Humpback whale beside the Jetty.

The two sopranos.

Facility work

I created a place inside the warm and dry Generator Room to store and hang the solar panel brush and squeegee. These tools are important and having them in good shape saves a lot of water, frustration and time on the roof. The squeegee is a brass Ettore. I call it our Hattori Hanzo squeegee – a prized possession not to be left outside in the salt spray.

• cleaned the solar panels
• general house cleaning

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 16
• Private: 3

Weather

Fresh westerly breeze until 3pm with winds rapidly strengthening to near gale force WNW by 4pm. Daytime temperatures: low 11, high 15.

Wildlife notes

Harbour seals are bringing their pups to East Beach and I can watch them from the back porch!  All of this pup activity must have been going last summer but was I so focused on the birds not to see it?

At 9:30 am I watched a mother leave her pup on the rocks halfway up the beach on low tide. I left to do the panels, had second breakfast, did some more chores and returned at 2:30. The tide had risen to the height where the first pup was dropped off. I was looking for it and spotted a second very young pup, still with its umbilical chord, further down the beach. Both of the pups were calling out (a weak, mournful, heart-retching sound) and very slowly made their way into the water to reunite with their moms. The first pub spent 5 hours alone, a long time I would think for a very young small creature.

Mother harbour seal (yellow circle) leaving her pup (blue circle) on East Beach at 9:30am.

I watched the second pup for a while as it moved slowly toward the water. It found a piece of Fucus or rockweed in front of its nose that I think may have looked rather teat-like to the little thing as it reached out and put it in its mouth.

A piece of rockweed by the pub’s nose.

Pup stretching for the rockweed.

Pub with rockweed in its mouth. A disappointment, I am sure.

Facility work

• cleaned solar panels and windows on the Energy Building
• topped battery fluids levels
• weeding

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 11
• Private: 0

Weather

Skies clear in the morning, fog patches in the afternoon and evening. Strong breeze throughout the day. Winds WNW in morning, backing to WSW midday, veering to W in afternoon. Daytime temperatures: low 11, high 17.

Wildlife notes

I always gaze about when I’m on the roof of the Energy Building cleaning the solar panels. This morning a flash of red caught my attention near a small harbour seal pup and mom swimming between the southwest shore and South Seal Rocks. It was the placenta trailing behind the pup! They disappeared from view 15 minutes later with the placenta still attached. It is heartwarming to observe the close physical contact between females and their pubs on land and in the sea swimming together as they roll, swirl, bend and touch noses to smell each other. We know there at least three new pups: the one first observed on July 2, the pup on the boat ramp July 5, and today’s pup.

Harbour seal mom and pup swimming to toward South Seal Rocks. The placenta is trailing behind the pub

Harbour seal mom and pup with placenta.

Harbour seal with her pub on the shore by the Energy Building. By the colouring and markings on the pub’s face it seems to be same one as first observed on July 2 and 3rd.

Facility work

• cleaned the solar panels
• weed whacking

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 17
• Private: 2
• Rowboat: 1

Weather

Winds light to moderate, mostly westerly. Skies partly cloudy. Daytime temperatures: low 13, high 18.

Sign gull was so pleasant when sitting on her eggs. Quiet, cute, muted yeows when I walked by or climbed the rock to raise or lower flag. When a visitor came to the island and worried about the gulls, I’d say oh don’t worry about that one, she is nice. Her chicks are running around now and those days are over. Today she made contact and I received a blow to the back of the head and a complimentary load of poo dumped down my back and arm. I also got nailed cleaning the solar panels and then going down to the Jetty to do the sea water measurements.

With all the mention of gull poo, I thought I would devote this entry to the cloaca.  Gulls have only one rear opening (orifice), the cloaca, that they use for everything: mating, laying eggs and for excreting wastes. Wastes from both their digestive (feces or poo), and urinary systems (uric acid or pee – we humans make more water intensive urea) are released simultaneously from the cloaca and then dumped on me. The white part is the uric acid and the coloured or granular parts are the feces. So technically I am not just getting pooped on and the official name for this excrement is guano, although this term is used most famously for the dried accumulations of their excrement. Guano or “white gold” is an excellent, valuable, nitrogen-rich fertilizer that was in demand world wide. There is a period in history called the Guano Age (1802–1884) where countries were claiming or annexing islands to get a supply of guano. The Guano Era (1845 – 1866) was a prosperous time for Peru but not for the sea bird who suffered from habitat destruction. With its wealth Peru was able to pay off its debt, abolish indigenous tribute and African slavery and reform its education and judicial system.

Lastly, guano is also famous as the namesake of one of the four nucleotide bases that make up our DNA: A,C,G,T – adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine. A and G are nitrogenous purine bases.

Sources and links from Wikipedia to read more: Bird Anatomy, Guano, Nucleotide base

The work of Jackson Pollock Seagull on the Energy Building roof.  The white stuff is uric acid, the coloured stuff their feces.

Wildlife notes

One California sealion has returned – the sealions have not been around for a while. A large number of visiting, non-nesting gulls of California, western and glaucous-winged gulls were seen on the western rocks today. I also found a nest with an egg that had parts of its shell chipped away but with the egg membrane still intact.

A large collection of gulls on one of the South Seal Rocks. The harbour seals have other to themselves.

A gull nest near the Energy Building with the shell missing from one of the eggs.

Facility notes

• cleaned solar panels
• ran the generator for the first time since June 27th
• cleaned the outside windows
• chopped kindling

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 9
• Private: 1

Weather

Rain and overcast in the morning with a fresh breeze of variable directions. Skies clearing and winds strengthening in the afternoon. Near gale force WNW winds in the evening. Daytime temperatures: low 12, high 15.