Wildlife notes:

While some of the animals are getting along better and sharing the space (the male and female elephant seals are sleeping in the same grassy area near the Energy Building) others are not. The gulls are so tightly packed in places that some nests are only a few feet away from each other.  A gull chick got picked up today by a nasty neighbour that was forced to drop the chick very close to its original location. The little creature didn’t make it and still lies in the spot it was dropped only a foot away from where it’s parents and sibling are simply carrying on and hunkering down for the night. This chick is just outside the kitchen window on top of the cistern and I can’t help but look every 20 minutes to see if it is still there.

On a cheery note, here are some photos of the superbly camouflaged surfbirds.

Facility work:

• cleaned solar panels
• weeding brick walkway
• thistles

I am almost done with the thistles. Only three small patches remain but the gulls are nesting in these so I will leave them until I have some backup. The record breaker thistle is 17.5 inches, found by the rock wall behind the water storage building.

I had to lower the flag this evening as winds were >25 knots and forecast to reach 30-40 tomorrow. The original “Flagpole” gull was not impressed.  I stayed very close to the pole and couldn’t be reached by her beak or bomb. “Latecomer” gull, on the other side of the pole, still has eggs in her nest so she just left the area. Hopefully the winds diminish before her chicks hatch – raising the flag with the two approaching from different sides will require a thick rubber raincoat with some additional padding underneath.

Vessels:

22 ecotourism, 1 private, 1 outrigger canoe

Weather:

Clear skies. Westerly gentle to moderate breeze most of the day, building and becoming near gale force SWS by sunset. While some parts in southern coastal BC hit record high temperatures, the high here was only 18 degrees.