Weather:

• Sky overcast, heavy to medium fog
• Visibility 1 NM (less than 1 during heavy fog)
• Wind 5-15 knots W
• Sea state: rippled to small waves less than 0.2m

Marine Traffic/Visitors:

• A small handful of eco-tourism boats came thought the fog today.
• Over the weekend, Sunday especially, there were many small pleasure crafts and a few eco-tourism vessels

Ecological Observations: 

• A pod of four orcas was in the reserve on August 6th! They stayed in the area for about 10-15 minutes before heading towards Pedder Bay!

• The sea lions are returning. Over the last few days there has been at least a dozen hauled out on the north side of the island near the crane, with more on the outcropping rocks.
• The seagull chicks seem to be growing faster every day – we’ve spotted a few that are beginning to fly short distances.
• When we do our water sample from the jetty we see pigeon guillemots perching up on the nearby rock, always in pairs, and sometimes with fish. They are very tricky about waiting until nothing is watching to take food back to the nest!
• The fog and the nesting birds keep us inside most days without a good view of animals. More pictures and a census to come as soon as we can see!

Census:

• 40 California sea lions
• 51 Stellar sea lions
• 111 Harbour seals
• 1 Elephant seal (male moulting)
• 552 Glaucous-winged gulls (nesting, some chicks that are big enough to see included)
• 388 California gulls
• 12 Oystercatchers
• 112 Black turnstones
• 2 Ruddy turnstones
• 1 Surfbird
• Pigeon guillemots were not visible at the time of this census (very windy), but the numbers have been consistent from last week as they continue to care for their young.