Looking South from to the Lighthouse towards the Elwha.

Weather: Overcast morning, with a sunny afternoon. Winds 15-25knots. Big storm on January 11th that blew our doors and windows open.

Visitors/Traffic: After a week of no visitors we got 4 boats today: a whale whatching boat, 2 small fishing boats and a yellow sailboat that was very interested in getting in close to the jetty.

Ecological Notes: Immediately after the last birth a new female showed up on the island (January 11th). Cheermeister’s mom left him on January 12th (21 days of nursing) after making with the Beachmaster 76 times over 3 days. I didn’t inspect every event, so the total could higher than that, but it was an impressive feat. The Beachmaster has shown no interest in any of the other females. There are still 2 large males on the island, with the Beachmaster (previously referred to as Bernard) staying with the females and the other male hanging out around our compost.

The new seal gave birth last night, bringing our total seal pups to 4!

Jocelyn gave birth to her pup last night with lots of shouting and fanfare.

Elephant Seal flippers look so ridiculous when they’re born, just oversized and floppy. Kinda like puppy paws.

Tons of eagles on the island this morning, which usually coincides with a reduction in other birds counted.

Cheermeister: fat and alone. I don’t understand how he still gets fatter after being weaned.

The Beachmaster checking if anyone is interested in mating yet.

Census:

Gulls: 136

Cormorants: 360

Eagles: 40

Turnstones: 13

Elephant Seals: 9 [2 bulls, 3 females, 4 pups]

Steller Sea Lions: 142

California Sea Lions: 155

Harbour Seals: 6

Peace descends over the nursery. Seriously though, Elephant Seals are soooo loud.

Bonham over drumming next to the compost where the Beachmaster can’t find him.