Today’s Weather: 

• Sky partly cloudy (thick fog until late afternoon)
• Visibility 10 NM (less than 200 m until late afternoon)
• Wind 30-35 knots W
• Sea state: swells up to .5 m, whitecaps

Marine Traffic/Visitors: 

• Not many pleasure crafts this weekend as it was very windy (up to 40 knots!).
• Greg visited today to deliver supplies
• More whale watching boats this weekend than we have been seeing, around 5 per day.

Ecological Observations:

• The seagull chicks have started hatching! Only a few nests have hatched so far. We have observed the chicks asking for food and the parent not feeding them. We wonder if there is enough food available to support them all through this nesting season.
• One of the first nests to hatch had 3 chicks, but now they are nowhere to be seen. We are observing with an investigative eye as nesting season progresses, as we observed many instances of adult birds cannibalizing each other’s chicks last year.
• One of the four goslings was eaten by seagulls on Saturday afternoon. The remaining three seem healthy and strong.
• Not many visiting birds this past few days, perhaps due to the high winds.
• Many harbour seals hauled out on outcroppings during the notably low tides over the past couple of weeks. The young seal pups are still keeping close to their mothers but we have not seen any still nursing.
• The oyster catcher chicks are growing at an impressive rate! They seem to be doubling in size almost every week. They are now old enough to venture away from the protection of the rocky areas and explore the intertidal with their parents.

Census: 

• 2 Male elephant seals moulting
• 500 Seagulls, handful of chicks
• 16 Adult geese
• 3 Goslings
• 10 Adult black oystercatchers
• 3 Black oystercatcher chicks
• 56 Harbour seals

Throughout the week we also observed pigeon guillemots, eagles, and a pair of swallows. The sea lion who was here alone over the past weeks seems to have moved along.