Census, eagles, storms and elephants

Final exams are over so I will be posting more until I am out for winter break December 20th to January 3rd

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: From 0 – 40 SE over the last few days
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: from calm to huge waves during that last storm

Boats/Visitors

  • Not a lot of visitors lately
  • There were a couple of sailboats yesterday and a few ecotours, but not many

Maintenance

  • Running the generator more lately as is there is less sunlight
  • Still haven’t been able to pressure wash but the parts should be in when I get back from break and I can try to make the buildings white again

Ecological

  • Fewer sea lions than last week
  • Chunk is still the alpha but there are 3 other males on the island of varying sizes smaller than Chunk
  • There is currently 1 female elephant seal
  • a few green wing teal ducks took shelter here when it was storming
  • have spotted a neck banded sea lion, but no way to tell if he will still be here by the time I can people out here to help him

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 213
  • Steller Sea Lions – 192
  • Harbour Seal – 35
  • Elephant Seal – 4 male, 1 female
  • Cormorants – 207
  • Gulls – 233
  • Fox Sparrows – 12
  • Canada Geese – 21
  • Black Turnstones – 38
  • Eagle – 8
  • Raven – 1
  • Snow Bunting – 1
  • Oyster Catchers – 12
  • Harlequin Ducks – 10
  • Green Wing Teal – 6