Whale watching vessels over the past week: As Covid19 restriction ease, we’re seeing an gradual increase in commercial traffic through the area, the highest volume being 10 vessels counted in one day.
We have noticed once every couple of days, low flying planes that look to be Coast Guard or perhaps military.
A handful of private vessels/pleasure craft: Pleasure craft presence in the reserve has been sparse, 1-3 boats daily.
Greg visited today with water.
Ecological Observations:
The seagull chicks are growing quickly, the adult birds fight among themselves frequently and continue to become more aggressive towards human presence.
The goslings are growing quickly: ‘fluff and all’, they are closing in on a small seagull size! The three continue to stay close to their parents and spend dawn to dusk foraging in the plants and grasses. We noticed that all of the geese seem to be surviving by drinking the non-salty ‘grey water’ that comes from our house and filters through a septic field.
We discovered river otters with young living under our fuel shed yesterday evening, just next to the jetty. We noticed an adult running under the connecting boardwalk/pathway, and discovered that they have gotten under the building by pushing past some plywood that should close off access. They smell bad, but sure are cute! We’ll wait for them to leave on their own time, and then make sure they can’t get back in and cause damage. We suspect that they are the reason for the nightly seagull disturbances we have been hearing.
Many small birds present in the reserve this week: sandpipers, turnstones, and the barn swallows have been flying around frequently.
The past few days we have seen more pleasure crafts than tour boats and these pleasure crafts get way too close and I can never find them on the radio because it is very hard to know which channel they are on
A group students stayed Saturday night to film around the island looking at ecological impacts which around here are mostly due to sea lions trampling all the green and turning it into mud
Ecological
The little steller is still around, haven’t noticed any new injuries on any of the sea lions
the sea lion that was by the jetty before that seemed lethargic and didn’t really respond to people left for 2 maybe 3 days and is now back in the same spot and it is much more energetic and responsive than before
the number of sea lions seems to have gone up from the last census by about 100, will post more numbers below
I have been consistently seeing about two humpback whales per day
Maintenance
The fence now only needs typically one minor repair per day, the sea lions are getting used to staying away from it
I still need to stay on top of clearing them away from certain areas, they seem to not crowd the entrance to the generator room anymore or the burial cairns as much, but they have taken a strong liking to the grass around the lighthouse
A few ecotours going by today, some divers went by yesterday
Maintenance
Plan on stacking firewood today, and top up the water tank, I’m hoping to start pressure washing soon
Ecological
The third pup, is covered in bite marks and I really don’t know how long it’ll last but at the moment its still alive but one of the other mothers keeps attacking it
Chunk is here but hasn’t really come up past the jetty, which is good I think he is scared of Bernard
Census
California Sea Lions – 232
Steller Sea Lions – 106
Harbour Seal – 21
Elephant Seal – 2 male, 3 female plus 3 pups, 1 female, 1 male, and the third gender is undetermined
Kyle visited the island along with Jake from maintenance and the Communications team
Kyle and Jake took some of the bed fixtures out of the guest house and replaced some of the tube lighting
I had lunch with Brian and Nikola from the Pearson Communications team, and gave them a short tour of the island
Lots of ecotour boats in the area today!
Birds
Spotted several new shore bird species that I haven’t seen before this summer – photographed below! (I’m not sure if I’ve identified the species correctly)
The number of gulls on the south rocks has increased dramatically over the last few days – about 100-150 more I would guess. I’ll do a proper count on Sunday.
Marine mammals
Several humpback whales on the south side near the bouy! They made numerous rain-blows and attracted a lot of whale watching boats.
2 californian sea lions on the island today
Technical
Kyle brought lots of new LED bulbs for me, and I’ve replaced all the bulbs in the Ecoguardian house with the new ones. They are significantly more power efficient and brighter too!
