Gull Poop Soup

Today was the day I was going to try something a little tricky to finish off the compost project. It would have to wait until the normal chores (solar panel and window cleaning) were done, though. Water testing had also fallen into the same time frame, so I needed to choreograph everything. 

Water testing has become a little more challenging with the increasing number of sea lions around.  They love to sit on the end of the jetty so have to be moved before I can take the test.  Let's just say that they aren't easy to wake up, and when I do get their attention, they aren't exactly happy about my presence. I'm not sure the "they're just as scared of you as you are of them" adage holds true!  Anyway, I got to do that twice today, as although I'd set my reminder on my phone to the correct time, the reminder in my brain had me do it an hour earlier than needed.  The second time around, though, I had an audience.

My friend, Mark Byrne, has been sidelined with a bit of body work, and has discovered the "Ann Cam" is a good source of entertainment. There are two cameras on the island which can be controlled by the public at racerocks.ca, and he has gotten quite good at it. He sent me a few snapshots today. Here I am at the jetty just after having done the water test.

Me at the jetty (photo by Mark Byrne)

And here I am demonstrating how to clean windows with a giant elephant seal just a few feet away.  This shot really shows how big he is!

Bubbles is that big blob on the right side of the building. (Photo by Mark Byrne)

The real fun was set to occur after breakfast. Some time ago, someone thought it would be a good idea to collect rainwater from the metal roof of the ecoguardian residence. In a place where water is a scarce commodity, collecting it seems like the right thing to do. However, I don't think they fully appreciated just how much gull poop would be collected along with it. I was shown this barrel of foul-smelling gull poop soup last year when I was here, and there was still a barrel-full this time around. I asked Greg about it when he was here on Thursday, and he said they usually dumped it just before a rain.  Pull it over with a rope and scramble out of the way. 

Well, I had a different idea.  When Brady Hughes was here, I asked for some composting advice, and she said that the main thing was to keep the compost wet.  That's not easy/likely to happen when you have limited water.This bio-nutritious gull poop soup seemed just right (and ripe) for the compost.  One way of moving it to the compost would have been by bucket, but that would have been very smelly and a lot of work taking it down the set of rough stairs. And here's where years of cleaning out dirty aquariums came in handy--I knew how to set up a siphon without having to suck on the pipe. I half-filled a bucket with water, then put the end of the hose into the gull poop soup barrel and turned the water on.  Once the air bubble stopped, I crimped the hose, quickly unscrewed it from the faucet and put that end into the bucket. I then walked the bucket and hose down to the compost, stopping several times to detach the hose from every possible obstacle it could get caught on as I made my way. I could see that my bucket was filling up, meaning the siphon was working!

Gull poop soup pouring into the compost!

I had to restart it once when the end in the soup hit the surface, but otherwise it was smooth sailing. Once the barrel was drained, there was still sludge in the bottom, some of which also spewed from the end of the hose when it was removed.  It reminded me of the "black oil" virus from the X-files. I hooked the hose back up to the water supply and ran it until it was clear, and carried the bucket of sludge and emptied it into the compost. Mission accomplished, and I didn't get any of it on me! I reattached the boards to the compost bin, pulled the gull guards over the top, and the project was officially done.

Gull poop soup sludge

No gulls were harmed in the making of gull poop soup.  This youngster was hiding behind the barrel.

Fire damage from too hot ashes being added to the compost at some point.

Fire travelled along the board to the next post and thankfully went out.

Boards back in place

Done!

I was thinking of the things I miss the most while here on Race Rocks, and it may be surprising to some that birds are near the top of the list.  I'm surrounded by gulls and guillemots, but species diversity is incredibly low here this time of year. The folks at Rocky Point Bird Observatory just about 2 km away are seeing dozens of kinds of songbirds, waterbirds, and raptors. (Check out their blog at https://rpboblog.blogspot.com) I might be missing them a little less if something unusual turned up here, but so far that hasn't been the case.  Even Carl Hughes's night flight call device failed to turn up a single songbird flying over.  (They are, but probably too high to be detected.) I'm here for another week, with my fingers crossed that something unusual will drop in to say hello. 

My last official duty of the day was to take the flag down and wrap it around the pole to keep it from being battered by the wind. As if to remind me that gulls are birds, too, one took the opportunity to make sure I knew they were there. Off to the shower tonight, and definitely doing laundry tomorrow!

Ugh!

Flag wrapped and tied around pole to prevent shredding.

I'll leave you with some sea lion photos I took today.  With the numbers climbing, there is constant barking, chasing, bickering, and snuggling going on. The more I watch them, the more they remind me of dogs, with most of their fighting being more play than aggression.   I also found another branded Steller's sea lion. Details to follow!

They even have little doggy tails!

Kisses, or...

Bites?