ring billed gull? or is eye too dark?

Weather : mixed! a westerly blew this morning up to 20 knots and it was mostly sunny. Then a south, becoming southeast brought a bit of rain and cloud but the westerly prevailed and it is now 16 knots, 178′ and a beautiful sunset.

Visitors to the reserve: by 10 a.m. 3 ecotourism boats had come by. Must be visitors from the cruise ship which came in yesterday. I think the heavy winds must have discouraged any others.

Work: I continue splitting this old gnarly wood and stacking it in the basement. Cleaned the lower solar panels this a.m. and the house windows.

Energy: I have been here 5 days and because the sun has been out, I have only used the generator for 2 hours. I have been able to heat with wood and the nice thing about that is it heats water too so I have kept the “hot water on demand” off. As well I haven’t needed to use the furnace. One, of the many, privileges of being an ecoguardian is getting familiar with alternative energy sources.

Observations: The male elephant seal pup has been gone for 2 days. The six female continue moulting. None of them went to the water today. The highlight of my day was a purple martin flew in. I was outside and it was a  strong westerly, a flash of orange flew by me as it banked and swerved around me. It circled the grassy area a couple of times then flew off.

After reviewing glaucous-winged gulls, western gulls and California gulls and their distinguishing characteristics I went looking to figure out what is happening on Race Rocks. My conclusion is they are all either glaucous-wing or western or a mix, the “Olympic” gull. The mature gulls ALL have pink legs and no black on their beaks (except the one yesterday, which I thought was a ring billed gull but need to review the photos). So, when do the California gulls get here in numbers? I will keep looking.

This photo I took yesterday and believed it was a ring billed gull may be a California gull with it’s dark eye. Ring billed gulls have yellow eyes.

Weather: wind westerly currently 10 knots SUN!

Visitors: 2 groups of students from Pearson College came for quick trips. I took 2 groups from each trip up the lighthouse. 2 ecotourism boats through the reserve. One fisher boat passed through. All respectful.

Facility maintenance :

cleaned the solar panels and checked the fencing.

wood splitting. house maintenance.

This afternoon our battery was charged 100% by the sun and it was only 3 o’clock so to use energy I vacuumed the basement.

Observations: Last night the birds I have been chasing came right next to the house. Definitely Dunlins, one in summer plumage and two immature. This morning I saw a flock of about 100 pigeon guillemots. While cleaning the solar panels on the roof looking at the rocks to the north there were several oyster catchers, then about 25 PG, then 8 Harlequin ducks all in their groups. The gulls seem to be doing a good job keeping the geese under control. They were eating 2 more eggs today.

Currently 7 elephant seals, several went into the ocean this afternoon but they have returned.

Spectacular low tide in front of the student house. Saw a starfish still alive with only four legs and a freshly dead starfish. Looking for Mist Maiden but didn’t find any more patches.

Starfish

not only the elephant seals are moulting

I arrived on Tuesday April 19. I had the good fortune to arrive with Garry Fletcher and get a quick tour of the island. We found the Romanzoffia (Mist Maiden) in bloom. Derek had done a great job getting the house ready for transfer.

My first full day here the winds were E/NE up to 40 knots. Therefore it was quiet in terms of ecotourism. I wandered around familiarizing myself with the (currently) 7 elephant seals, the Canada geese nests and the sea lions all sharing the island with me.

Today (April 21) the weather has changed. Wind currently west. Sea calm.

Visitors: The Pearson College second year marine biology class are celebrating their last class today and visited the island for 2 hours. Greg was kind enough to trouble shoot a few things with me and we also had time (and bravery) to addle 3 eggs in a goose nest next to the gasoline shed. I made a map of nests so we can keep track of which eggs we have disturbed.

Four ecotourism boats have moved through the reserve today. It is such a wonderful thing to observe how respectful they are.  The presence of guardians seems to have made a big difference.

Observations

Yesterday during the storm there were 2 Dunlins (I believe). I will include a very poor picture. I saw them several times close to and moving with the turnstones on the grass.

Today was a fantastic low tide. Last year I was here after the “heat dome” and the intertidal was burnt. Today it was so lush. Beautiful abundant seaweed, I will try and edit this post with the new names, Hedophyllum, Alaria, Costaria, Iridea ,Halosaccion beautifully shiny and underneath pink coralline algae, bright orange Cucumaria, tunicates and sea anemones. Abundant goose neck barnacles.  Even a gumboot chiton (Cryptochiton stelleri).  Oyster Catchers, Turnstones, Harlequin ducks all making their presence known as I entered their dining room. 3 eagles busy eating the remains of a dead sea lion.

The elephant seals continue their moulting. Coming and going down the jetty. The pup seems to be alone and away from the others.

The gulls are working very hard impressing each other with their nest building skills, head bobbing, vocalizations and also copulating. They are much friendlier than when they have nests.

Mist Maiden

Work

The electric fence came down in the wind. A few sealions breached the jetty! Once chased off the fence is working again.

I have been splitting wood and managed to bring 2 wheel barrows to the house. Old hemlock is not easy to split!

very poor picture of a Dunlin. Can you see it?

Gumboot Chiton

My rant about Gulls and chicks,

picture by Sierra

When I am here I am very aware that my presence has positive and negative effects on the wildlife. Certainly keeping fishing boats out of the protected aware, monitoring boat traffic speed and proximity to wildlife, observing and recording all are benefits. With so many nesting birds my first couple of days were fraught with the feeling that every time I walked outside I was causing chicks to be attacked. After a week here I can walk fairly safely because I have figured out a few things. The gulls have very small territories which, if the chicks stay in, they are not attacked by other gulls. It is when they run into another gull’s territory that they are attacked. It didn’t take me long to realize whose territory was whose. if I walk slowly along the paths I give the chicks time to get into their safe places and the parents may cluck at me or actually lift but rarely. If I see a chick going in the wrong direction I wait and it will most often turn back and go back to its territory. It is not hard to figure out who goes where as the chicks are different sizes (ages) and in different numbers. For  instance there are 2 almost fledged chicks that hide under our walkway (safe place) but if they are out and frightened they run into the territory next to them and the adult there will attack them. When I leave the house I give them time to get under the walkway before I pass. There is one chick that lives right beside our doorway and every time I open the door I wait for it to run to its territory (to the right of the entrance). This may sound a bit crazy but not seeing chicks attacked as I walk around is worth it. I haven’t done anything scientific in my observation and it would be interesting to do. Walk briskly without any attention to details or slowly with attention and compare adult attacks on chicks . It would be a small study easily done but I am leaving today. When I arrived here I thought adult attacks on young were because we were scaring off the parents leaving the chicks vulnerable but I haven’t noticed an adult leaving its territory to attack an unprotected chick. It seems the chick runs out of its  territory first.