Yesterday Laura and Greg came at low tide to deliver fuel and for Laura to teach her online class.
Greg came this morning to deliver a load of fresh water which we pumped into our storage tank with the fire pump and hoses.
Today we saw a dive vessel in the reserve but no divers. They were fairly close to the wildlife but the sea lions did not seem particularly bothered.
One small pleasure craft hovered just outside of the reserve for the majority of the day. They were too far away to see what they were doing, but usually boats like this are fishing.
Ecological:
The small seal pup is still here, but she has become more adventurous over the past week. We have seen her napping on the east side of the island, and beside the decommissioned diesel tank on the west side.
The sea lion population continues to grow, and so does the smell! We will need to set up more fencing soon before they begin to take over the island completely.
The pair of crows that we have been seeing returned today and spent most of their day at Race Rocks.
We have continued to observe bald eagles in the reserve. We enjoy watching them swoop overhead and cause a stir amongst the seagulls.
One of the seals that we have been joined by over the past weeks was also spotted here in December (juvenile female V173). We are still waiting to hear from the researchers who tagged her to see if there is anything interesting to learn.
The elephant seals activity has been uneventful as they continue to moult. They spend their days napping and lounging on our “lawn” or wiggling down to the jetty to soak in the shallow water (and perhaps relieve the itchiness of all that peeling fur!).
At low tide yesterday we spotted many neat creatures in the exposed pool on the east side of Great Race Rock: urchins, anemones, crabs, fishes, chitons, barnacles, and tubeworms!
