I have just transferred over 800 photos and over 100 videos from my camera, which have been added to the ever growing collection. A lot has happened on the island since my last post, from a 2nd west end trip with an intertidal crew partly from NOAA (with me performing crash-test dummy duty to show them how to use the zipline and harnesses), to male moves (Pete and Andre continually switch between sand flat and mirounga beach, with satellite males being chased off whilst approaching cows on the fringes of harems). Also a quick pup-date, we are up to 83 cows in attendance, although the pup birth rate has slowed (i'm sure there will be another spurt soon!), and sadly we have had 6 dead pups so far. Below are a selection of the thousands of photos I've taken so far. On Saturday I start my 2 week break from the island after 2 months of work. I'll be around San Fran for a few days, and hope to make it to Monterey befre heading to Alaska to visit my sister and her boyfriend.
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| A pup propping itself up on two cows to have a look |
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| An American Robin crossing the path |
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| Maintop (on west end) behind the elephant seal blind / hide, with a male lying underneath. |
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| California sea lions on a misty west end |
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| A common murre in colony |
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| Pete displays to a female |
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| A sooty-fox sparrow perches in one of 4 trees on the island |
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| A pup, soon to be weaned as he is 26 days old. |
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| Pete splashes around in the water |
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| A wet Pete |
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| One of the first blows of a fight in the water (video below) |
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| A burrowing owl perched in front of one of his burrows |
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| A california sea lion gets slightly wet as the tide moves in |
Also here are two videos. The first is of the first proper fight we have witnessed between big males. This happened moments after I took the photos of Pete in the water shown above. Another male swam up behind him and they started fighting abruptly. After the video ends the unknown male swims off, heading towards west end, and Pete seemed relatively unharmed.
The second is not quite the same quality, or as close to the action, but it is of several humpbacks seen from the steps of the house as I put my shoes on!
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