It was a bit of a gray day with some thick fog and even a few patches of sunlight, which made fog-bows. This is my made up word for the colourless, rainbow-like arches made by the sun in the fog. Winds were light and swung around out of the north, northeast and over to the east, with the northeast predominating, at about 5 knots. The barometer was fairly steady today and the forecast for tomorrow is for more of the same only more southeast, also with showers.
There were Dall’s Porpoise and Humpback Whales nearby late in the afternoon, which brought a few whale watching boats with a total of nine noted in the Ecological Reserve. The operator of the vessel King Salmon, of Great Pacific Adventures needs to review the regulations for operation in the Ecological Reserve.
The newcomers today were four Greater White-fronted Geese. This species nests in the arctic west of Hudson’s Bay and the western populations winter from here down to Mexico.
Greater White-fronted Geese were resting and recovering here today.
Today was the day, for the weekly census of megafauna and these are the results:
Steller’s Sea Lion 176
California Sea Lion 406
Elephant Seal 6
Harbour Seal 168
River Otter 2
Canada Goose 4
Greater White-fronted Goose 4
Double-Crested Cormorant 18
Pelagic Cormorant 8
Cormorant sp. 2
Black Oystercatcher 8
Black Turnstone 11,
Killdeer 2
Surfbird 28
Common Murre 4
Thayer’s Gull 113
Glaucous-winged Gull 22
Heerman’s Gull 6
California Gull 1
Western Gull 1
Gull spp. 256 (probably in similar proportions to above, unable to tell due to distance and fogged glass in the tower)
Fence maintenance takes quite a bit of time right now as new sea lions arrive for the winter and learn to stay away from the houses and off the jetty. They would probably prefer to be right here in the kitchen but that is a trade-off with having a guardian here. Fresh-water production and electrical generation continue to be a priority. Today was also the day for month-end report, house cleaning and packing. I am off to Scandinavia to share and learn more about Ocean Literacy. Thanks to all the PC Marine Science students who were willing to share their thoughts with the participants of the gathering at the University of Gothenberg.