Wildlife notes

There is so much new life here but not everyone makes it. And there isn’t much sympathy around for those that don’t.  The group of three chicks near the cistern photographed on July 5th will soon be down to two. One of them has an injured leg and moves with great difficulty. The left leg drags behind and it tries to use its wings as “legs” to propel forward but ends up flipping itself over. Its siblings don’t care and neither does its parent.  A parent will arrive with a belly full of fish, lower its head and give a long call for the chicks to come. The disabled chick can hear it and watch its siblings run in response. The parent will not go to the disabled chick and there is no way it can make it to the dinner table before the meal is over. They say animals don’t feel self pity but surely they feel the pain of injury and starvation. The California sealion, who is still on the boat ramp, is also likely suffering in pain. It is hard to watch.

Gull chick trying to walk with its wings and one good leg. Its injured left leg (purple arrow) is dragging behind.

Flipped over chick trying to right itself. Arrow points at its injured left leg.

There is both happy and sad news for the sidewalk buddies, the Canada goose and glaucous-winged gull nesting beside each other. When I arrived on May 25 the goose was already sitting on her addled egg. That was 45 days ago and she was likely on the nest for at least 50 days: twice as long as it would normally take to hatch her eggs. She gave up yesterday. Today her egg was broken and strewn about by the gulls. The gulls were successful and hatched their last chick today. All three chicks made it. Good for them, bad for me when I use the sidewalk.

The nests of the Sidewalk Buddies. The Canada goose nest is the larger one on the left, the gull nest is on the right. The gull nest has two hatched chicks with one starting to hatch. It takes a day for a chick to fully emerge from an egg.  Photo from July 7, 2026.

The last bit of good news to report is a second harbour seal mom and new pup were spotted today from up in the lighthouse. The pup still has a short section of its umbilical cord attached and is well fleshed.

Facility work

• cleaned the solar panels midday when wind speed dropped below 25knots

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 20
• Private: 0

Weather

Skies with scattered clouds. Winds predominately westerly 19 to 34 knots. Daytime temperature 11 to 15 degrees.