Weather: We’re getting that classic winter weather now: gusty winds and intermittent rain. A few moments of >30knots.
Visitors/Traffic: Lots of boats coming by to view the sea lions. A dive boat checking out the island and 3 large whale watching boats coming up to the jetty.
Ecological Notes: The newborn elephant seal (Cheermeister) is doing great! Doubling in size for the first several days, and now he’s just a fat little seal. Another female elephant seal has shown up all fat and ready to birth. We had a pretty epic battle between the 2 large male elephant seals on December 27th, and since then the 2 males have been sleeping off their battle damage.
Another day where the island is full of eagles and we’re seeing much less other birds.
Census:
Gulls: 290
Cormorants: 22
Eagles: 22
Elephant Seals: 5
Steller Sea Lions: 1
California Sea Lions: 11
Turnstones: 11
Harlequin Ducks: 11
Oystercatchers: 23
The flock of Oystercatchers seem to come and go. I wonder where they are when they’re not on the island?
Elephant Seals are really cute.
Why do Elephant Seals have these huge noses? So they can look all cool after battling for dominance. Just a theory.
For having only a few prominent teeth I’m pretty impressed with the amount of damage these Elephant Seals can cause.
Baby Cheermeister is FAAAAT.
The loser of the ‘Jetty Battle’ actually wobbled away with less damage than the winner. Will there be a new beachmaster next year?