Weather:

• Sky: Foggy morning, clearing around 2pm
• Wind: 15-20 knots W
• Water: Rippled
• Visibility: Morning fog 0 miles visibility, clearing to 15+ miles

Visitors/Boats: 

• Only a few whale watching boats today, as the fog was extremely thick until mid afternoon. One boat came very close to the jetty and a sea lion resting on it.

Ecological: 

• Yesterday we noticed that the gulls are continuing to attack each others young. As the chicks grow larger and more continue to hatch, it seems as if the population as a whole may be running out of food on the island. We noted that one seagull was pecking at an evergreen shrub, which we haven’t seen them interested in until now. As the gulls become more desperate for sustenance, they appear to be cannibalizing their neighbours young to provide for their own. We found an interesting article about the appearance that Climate change may be turning seagulls into cannibals, written about the observations of biologist Jim Hayward on Protection Island, also located in the Strait of Juan de Fuca (2016).