Wildlife

eagles

Bertha left the main island the night of the 16 and I have not seen her since.  She was on the island and mating with Misery for just over a week.  Zeke stayed around for the first few days and was very interested in the new arrival and activity but after being chased off by Misery a few times he left, I have not seen him in about a week.  Misery seems to still be looking for her sometimes.  He has been on the main island every day since Bertha arrived and seems to go off the island most nights.

The Pigeon Guillemots are becoming more frequent with a recent count of over 200, they stay mostly just offshore or in the intertidal zone and make their shrill calls.  A couple pairs of Black Brant Geese have also been showing up just offshore of the main rock.  Most days there are over half a dozen bald eagles in the reserve perched on the crane, the generator exhaust pipe, camera 5, on rocks, on the smaller islands, gliding in the air on the west winds, or chasing each other around.

Census, Monday Feb 18, 2013 Continue reading

Crane work

Erik was out today to help fix the crane and offload garbage from removing old carpet and linoleum from the guest house.  The cable had come off the upper pulley so Erik climbed the boom to get it properly seated again while i belayed him off the diesel transfer tank.

ErikCrane
Once fixed we were able to offload the two bulk bags and sling load onto Second Nature while at a low tide of 5.6 feet.  I went off island to unload the waste from the boat into a dump bin on campus.

RenovationWaste

 

Screen Shot 2013-02-12 at 10.44.14 AM

Winch house and sling load. Image captured from web cam (5) by Garry.

Screen Shot 2013-02-12 at 10.49.11 AM

Image capture from tower web cam by Garry

Sea Lions

Sea lions on West Rock

Sea lions on West Rock

The sea lions have been switching their haul-outs lately.  Some days there have been almost no sea lions visible on the rocks.  Recently i have been seeing them on West rock (above) which is not usual in my observations.

fishboat

Most fishing boats pass by on the outside of the reserve but this one took the scenic route.  Sea lions in the background on middle rock and one of the male elephant seals on the top of the rock.

CaliforniaLion

California sea lion

There is one California sea lion that I have been seeing occasionally, it seems to keep to itself.