After training last weekend, and a general review yesterday, I, Riley Strother, have now taken over as Ecoguardian from Alex Fletcher.
Weather
- Visibility: 15 miles
- Wind: 15-20 knots NE
- Water: 1’ chop
- Sky: overcast
Ecological
- The first female elephant seal to give birth left the island at 7:30 in the morning and did not return. As such the first pup has now become a weaner.
- Chunk appeared to mate with the female who lost her pup.
- The newest pup is quite vocal and seems to be doing well. Chunk and the other female went along the path after mating to inspect the new mother and pup.
- Alex was able to identify the number on the yellow flipper tag attached to the newest mother: 5928
- There was quite a disturbance of seagulls and cormorants today when a raven with a small fish in its beak was chased all around the island by two eagles. Eventually the raven managed to land and eat the fish.
- Conducted a census.
- California Sea Lions: 88
- Northern/Stellar Sea Lions: 53 (many sea lions were swimming in the waves and thus impossible to count)
- Elephant Seals: 8 (Chunk, weaner, grieving mother, new mum and pup, Middle Rock: Chuckles, mum and pup.)
- River Otter: 1
- Cormorants: 615
- Seagulls: 512
- Bald Eagles: 9 (7 juvenile, 2 adults)
- Raven: 1
- Crow: 1
- Black Oystercatchers: 6
- Harlequin Ducks: 4
- Canada Geese: 6
- Black Turnstones: 29
Maintenance
- Cleared logs off the ramp two times.
- Lowered the boat trailer because the cable coil was quite criss crossed. Managed to recoil the cable in a more orderly fashion.
- Vacuumed up hundreds of fruit flies in the basement near the composting toilet.
Boats
- Alex and Virginie left in the morning.
- Surprised to see no eco-tourism boats about on such a nice Sunday.