Starting science

Black oyster catchers

Saturday marked our first week on the island, with 12 to go. I've started to get to grips with the endless names associated with places around the island, including lighthouse hill, saddle rock, indian head, sea lion cove,  and the bone yard. I'm learning how to notice the small differences between the gull species that visit and breed here, and how to identify the song birds.

Brown pelicans in flight

After the aforementioned storm blew over, we had a few glorious days of sunshine, which allowed us to get stuck in to the science which the first week was leading up to. Alongside the clear skies, came brilliant views of stars however, which I took advantage of, taking photos whilst a barn owl screeched at me from above, waves crashed nearby, and sea lions barked in the pitch black. 

We have undertaken a few elephant seal census' (counting individuals in attendance around the island including age class), and I have done a cetacean survey from the lighthouse, seeing a grey and a humpback whale within an hour. They weren't close enough for photos, although I am hopeful that will change as whale season truly gets underway!

Now that the first bull has arrived, we are regularly going down into the elephant seal colony to resight tags to determine identities so that we can track the demographics throughout the season.

Andre, the first bull of the season (he wasn't happy that we caused a female to move away from him slightly).

Another reason for going down daily at the moment is to displace the californian sea lions in the colony. This is done with permission from the federal government, and moving them en-masse at the start of the season makes them realise to use other sections of the island, reducing the overall disturbance to them across the season, compared to moving a few every day for several months. 

A californian sea lion doing a face plant (or diving...) after being displaced.

Being amongst the colony is amazing, getting so close to large animals (bulls can weigh up to 2000kg), and you truly appreciate the power of them. I witnessed a display of this power, as Andre picked up a juvenile who was clearly annoying him, in his mouth, and proceeded to slam him against the ground three times. This happened only 5 metres in front of us, but the juvenile seemed unharmed. The bulls really aren't bothered by our presence, and it is possible to sneak up behind them when they are asleep and lift up their rear flippers, and even to punch a tag in place without them waking up. It is the young experienced ones that are noisy and snarl at you, both because they are inexperienced, and because they may feel like they have something to prove. It's kind of cute, in a spittle covered teethy kind of way.

As we are so close to these animals, we often notice any entanglements. There have been a few so far, from buoys connected with rope, to monofilament and packing straps. We do our best to disentangle, but often it is too deep, or the animal is in an inaccessible area. It really does highlight the requirement for responsible disposal of rubbish.

Ryan sneaking up on an elephant seal with a packing strap around its neck to attempt to cut the entanglement off.

We also see quite a few dead and dying animals, from birds to headless elephant seals from possible shark attacks. We record all of this, and I am getting used to telling the difference between a decapitated common murre killed by a peregrine falcon, to a cassins auklet killed by a barn owl.

A western gull picking at the remains of a seals skin

Talking of murres, a few days ago hundreds of them arrived at the island, circling as a "murre-nado" before landing.

Hard to see, but all the black dots are murres

A member of the song bird team has stayed behind for an extra two weeks to pass over the bird research to us. He has done a great job at passing on his knowledge, and allowing us to watch him band the animals he catches.

A burrowing owl post-banding

As we work every day whilst on the island, Sunday is slightly more relaxed, making a large brunch every week. Before brunch this week, we did our bi-monthly salamander survey, counting 43 individuals under 100 cover boards. Once a month we do a larger survey spanning 500 boards.

Arboreal salamander