The return to a very different island

After my two weeks of exploration, I returned to the island after doing a $800 shop for the islands' food, and an early start to get underway on a small sailboat. We sailed under the bay and golden gate bridges and out to sea through the fog.

 

Once we arrived at the island, I got to use east landing for the first time due to a replacement generator being finally in place. This means that instead of dodging swells within a small gulch on the exposed north side whilst passing supplies, gear and people up onto a small platform from a zodiac, the boat was lifted up by a crane. It was a lot calmer, and less stressful.

Due to this benefit being present, we were able to put the boat in the water on a calm day and go looking for whales and pelagic birds, whilst also giving me some experience with the crane, and using up old boat petrol that hadn't been used for quite some time.

Looking back at SEFI

A grey whale up close

Rhino auklet

Northern fulmar taking off

A sun-fish checked out the boat as Amanda Rick-rolled

Peregrine falcon

A group of stellar sea lions on North farallon

SEFI in the distance through the North farallones

The only northern gannet in the pacific (as known)

Brown boobie

Our house on the left, the coast guard house for visitors on the right, with the lighthouse above.

The island has changed a lot in the last 2 weeks. The elephant seals have left in droves, leaving us with 3 cows as of today. California sea lions are hauling out a lot higher, meaning that some places are nearly inaccessible, and that much of the time is spent crouch-walking to avoid detection so that they don't flush into the water. This means that some research, especially shore-birds is a bit harder and requires a certain level of stealth. Western gulls have become more abundant, and are everywhere.

Western gulls on the trail

Vegetation has also grown dramatically over the season due to a few days of heavy rainfall

The gulls have also started to fight

And are becoming territorial

And gathering nesting material

 We also have done another west-end trip, and found over 200 northern fur seals. A dramatic increase from the 20 we found a few weeks ago.

A mass of fur seals, Californian sea lions, and elephant seals behind me.

A group of young fur seals.

 Although the season has wound down considerably, it is nice to have more time to appreciate the island and do things that we haven't had time to before, such as explore the various caves around the island which we did last week.

 

Photos from Petaluma



After my time in Alaska, I decided to save money and spend a few days living at the Point Blue office in Petaluma. This not only allowed me to concentrate on working on some job and PhD applications, and writing up a note for a journal and a poster for the ECS coming up next month; but it also allowed me access to the wetland right outside of the office with a wide array of birds!

 

Restless flycatcher

Canada geese

Black necked stilts

 

Snowy white egret

Turkey vulture

Red-winged blackbird

Black tailed jack rabbits

 

White-tailed kite

Anna's humingbird



The same bird from the front

Out of the frying pan, into the snow

For the second leg of my break, I left warm and dry California, for cold and icy Alaska to visit my sister in Anchorage. I'd visited before, but last time it was in late August before the snow. I knew what sort of scenery to expect, but it definitely improves even more with a dusting of snow!
The first night after arrival, me and Eloise and Jerami hiked a short distance along a trail to a yurt (a small structure made of a wood frame with fabric / plastic covering it). These are not insulated, don't have any water or electricity, but do come equipped with an outhouse and a wood burning stove. It was quickly getting dark as we arrived and consequently the temperature was dropping, so we stoked the fire and started the long journey to a warmer yurt. We ate reindeer hotdogs and cookies and drank whisky between replenishing the fire with wood.

The cold wasn't so bad once I had a long t-shirt, 2 warm mid-layers, 2 fleeces and a jacket on and was next to the fire. As it's winter we didn't see much wildlife, although we think a moose walked within a few feet of the yurt as we heard heavy footsteps going past. On the way in to the yurt, despite it only being a 40 minute walk, my beard froze, along with some things in my bag and batteries drained very quickly. I did manage to take some photos though, and have stolen some of Eloise's too.

My patchy ice face mid-hike in

Happy to be at the yurt

 

The view from the yurt in fading light

Our home for the night

The morning sun breaks into the valley (at 10am)

Walking back

A warm Isla

 On the second day we drove to a frozen lake. Eloise and I went for a walk around to see how it was, and decided it was too cold (-20C or so) for Isla (the dog), and my toes started to freeze. So we took some quick photos without falling through the lake or falling over and made it back to the almost-warm car.

 We went phat biking (basically using mountain bikes with very thick tires, built for riding over rock and snow), which I absolutely loved. We biked around 12 miles through forest trails using compacted snow, as if the tyres hit wind-blown snow, stability is lost very quickly! I really enjoyed the narrow trails where precision steering is required, and I only fell over once throughout the few hours we were out.

 

On my last day we walked 10 miles into a national park, giving some great views.

 



Looking out towards the "sleeping lady" mountain.

 

A frozen river, with water still running below