Wildlife notes

The egg thief is back. The killing field is strewn with eggs shells. It is hard to keep count as the wind carries some of the evidence away but yesterday midday there were remnants of 5 gull eggs and one goose egg when I first watched the thief slurping at an egg. I studied him all afternoon and evening yesterday and was able to determine it is a coupled male with a nest 5m away. He actively defends his stash of shells, chasing away any curious neighbours. The devious bird waits for the oystercatcher “eagle” alarm and takes to the air together with the rest of the gulls but he is always the first to return. He flies out low over the Jetty, quickly circles back and selects his target nest.  He didn’t even have to land but was able to take an egg undamaged in a hover and carry it to his killing field. He ate two more eggs last night that I witnessed. This afternoon he ate at least one more egg.  A survey of the nests around yielded 8 nests with 0 eggs, 5 with 1, 2 with 2 and 2 with 3. Granted the gulls haven’t all laid eggs but there are a lot of less than full nests in the vicinity. Curiously, his nest was one of the two full nests. If gull chicks ate the vegetation on the island (competition for a local resource), this behaviour might make sense but they are fed food from the sea, foraged by their parents. This criminal deserves some serious jail time.

Thief in the killing field approaching his egg after I disturbed him. His partner sits on three eggs in the circled area. The arrow points to the rock where he often sits planning his next heist.

Facility work

• cleaned the solar panels
• ran the desalinator for three hours (cistern pump issues still exist but it runs)
• ran the fire pump for two hours and topped up the cistern with seawater

DND Activity

One house shaking blast was heard at 15:05.

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 9
• Private: 0

Weather

Skies mostly clear. Westerlies 15 to 24 knots until late afternoon, switching to SW 15. Daytime temperatures 10 to 12 degrees.

Mature female elephant seal on the boat ramp. The fur and skin on the back is usually the last to shed.