In the afternoon I spotted 2 Oystercatchers close to the crane and 2 chicks at least 2 weeks old if I compare with the really small one I saw the first day we came back. I couldn’t find other couples so I will try to find out in the coming days if they have left or not.
Daily Archives: Thursday,July 9, 2015
Storm
Storm conditions late in the evening
Here is the evolution of the wind coming from West through out the day
5:20 AM: 30 knots
6:05 AM: 32 knots
7:22 PM: 36 knots
8:07PM: 39.1knots
9:38PM: 45.8 knots
9:50PM: 44 knots
22:10: 43.3knots
22:30: 47.7knots
22:47: 50.6Knots
Reminder
6 force= 22-27 knots =39-49 kms/h = Strong breeze
7 force =28-33 knots=50-61 kms/h= Near gale
8 force=34-40 knots=62-74 km/h=Gale
9 force=41-47 knots=75-88 km/h=Strong gale
10 force=48-55 knots=89-102 km/h=Storm
It has been something to see the wind raising but as soon as it has been dark we couldn’t appreciate how big was the sea around the rocks …so we went to sleep.
During that day around 12 whale watchers came and we observed that the smallest gosling in the family of 5 was not swimming with the rest of the family but was wandering on the island limping a little bit (left leg)…later he manage to get accepted by the parents but stayed always behind the group of siblings (4). It is very difficult to spot those little oystercatchers … so I was pleased.
Chores done as usual
ANIMAL CENSUS
July 9th Thursday: Animal census
The fog was still there pretty thick but around 11:30 it cleared up and we could go up the tower to do the census. We had a west wind and the forecast was a gale warning for the end of the afternoon.The wind at noon was from West at 24 knots and could go to 35 in the late afternoon. We saw a few Whale watchers boats around noon and we had no visitors. Water is getting colder under 12 degrees Celsius. Guy put a new VHF on the whaler.
The estimation of the population is:
Elephant seals: 3
Sea Lions: 180
Pigeon–guillemots: 80
Gulls: 450 (yesterday we could see a group of gulls with black winged maybe some west gulls)
Pelagic cormorants: 3
Geese: 11 (Today the smallest one of the family of 5 was not in the water swimming but looked lost alone in the island hanging around). They spend more and more time in the water.
Black oystercatchers :0
Bald eagle: 1 (they attack the colony almost every day once in the morning)
Windy and foggy day
July 8th Wednesday: Very foggy and windy day.
Part of the night was foggy; the horn could tell…and early in the morning the visibility was a quarter mile. The wind was already at 28 knots at 5:30 AM and stayed the same almost the whole day… anyway the fog stayed to the afternoon and we had to postpone the census.
July 7th Chicks everywhere
July 7th Tuesday: Chicks everywhere
No more rescue boats around anymore but a tourist plane flew by the island once.
Moderate West wind was between 14 knots to a maximum of 20 knots. No fog and still a little bit of a yellow haze in the sky.
We saw Floyd and Chunk swimming closed to the South islands
From the front window of the main house we could count around 20 chicks mainly under the parent’s wings but they grow pretty fast. The adults behavior is changing they become very active doing their job, protecting each other and the chicks feeding the young ones and going fishing. They are getting aggressive. We have to wear a helmet all the time but they know us and now they just make us know that they are ready to attack. There are still a few eggs not yet hatched but not so many.