And Then There Was One

 Last year, when I did my first stint as a relief ecoguardian, I spent my time on the island alone, except for a couple of maintenance visits from Greg.  This year, there were three of us for the first five days.  Abi and Jeremias (a Pearson College alum) were on the island as volunteers and to be honest, did most of the daily chores that I would normally be doing.  They stayed in the researcher/student residence, so our paths didn't overlap a lot, but it was nice having conversations with them about what was going on with the wildlife and infrastructure on the island. Monday morning, they packed (almost) everything up, and headed back to the big island with Greg. 

Jeremias and Abi bring all their belongings to the dock for departure.

Well, almost all their belongings.  I found these long after they left.

While they were at Race Rocks for the week, they had noted that the gull aggressiveness had lessened considerably. However, they still almost always wore their hard hats and sometimes carried a big stick to wave around over their heads to keep the agitated gulls at bay. The gulls have a two-pronged approach in their attacks from the rear: 1: spray you with excrement 2: smack you in the head. Abi and I had both been on the receiving end of approach 1 over the weekend, but none of the gulls had tried approach 2 on me with any seriousness--until yesterday.  Almost as soon as they left, a gull came up behind me and knocked the glasses from the top of my head into a rocky crevice along the shore. I am definitely much outnumbered now!  I wonder if they go for the tallest person on the island.  Despite my lack of height, that is me as of today.

Birdviewing from the solar panel roof is pretty awesome, but really only in the early mornings.  I managed a few new species for my trip list yesterday with a distant Parasitic Jaeger, and a much closer Common Loon.  There were lots of drifting logs, all carefully searched for anything Booby-like, but the best I could come up with was a Short-billed (formerly Mew) Gull.  Harbour Porpoises were active again in the tide lines.

All birds on logs got close scrutiny through the scope--better resolution than the camera.

This apparent two-finned mammal confused me until I realized it was a young one alongside the adult.

The dots on this one are still confusing me

One of the challenges (and I know my friends will be shocked to read this) of combining the work with the pleasure is ensuring that I have all my gadgets on board. In the morning, I must take the VHF radio, and depending on the time, the SPOT locater for my check-in. Add binoculars, scope, tripod, camera, cell phone, FRS radio so I can call friends at Rocky Point, backup batteries, and cleaning tools (buckets, brushes, squeegee, etc.) and it's more than an armful. I need a sherpa!

Once the heat shimmer hits, though, seawatching is much more difficult. It's not too bad close in, but at any distance, the tiny specks turn into tiny, blurry specks beyond my identification confidence level. 

I felt a bit like a mad scientist gearing up to top up the solar panel batteries in the afternoon. There are 24 large batteries that need to have their water levels checked and corrected each week.  Protective gear is required from head to foot in case of sulphuric acid spashes.

I find the Pigeon Guillemots fascinating, and could spend hours just trying to get beautiful photos of them. Prepare yourself for more PIGU photos than you can stand.

Poop happens!

Life goes on off the island as well, and thanks to good internet service, I'm still a big part of that.  While lining up speakers for the Victoria Natural History Society Birders' Nights yesterday, I finally saw two Brown Pelicans fly low over Great Race before disappearing behind the researchers' residence.  Sadly, I could not relocate them, but I suspect they were on the rocks right near the water.

Mushu in a spot of sunshine by the backdoor.  His servant brought something soft for him to sit on.

Some have suggested that Mushu should have his own blog.  I am saying "no" to that, but I will provide a sample of what a Mushu blog would look like:

Woke up after a good night's sleep.  Mom left.  I went back to sleep.  Mom came back and woke me up.  I went back to sleep. Woke up to pee.  Ate some food and went back to sleep. Mom must have gone out because she just came back and woke me up again.  I walked into the kitchen and then back into the bedroom to take a nap. Woke up and went into the living room.  Settled down into one of the chairs and went to sleep.  Mom is working on the computer so I must go stand in front of the screen.  Mission accomplished!  Now I can go back to sleep. 

Repeat, repeat, repeat.  Anyway, Mushu definitely seems comfortable and I am sure is happy to get as many wakeups as he is. And I'm happy to have him here!

And last shot for the day.  The water is so clear, you don't need to be underwater to do underwater photography.

Young harbour seal alongside the jetty.