Ann's Adventures: Brands and bands

For the second week in a row, census day has been perfect, weather-wise. I tried a couple of different things today, including going to the top of the lighthouse to count the marine mammals. You definitely get a good view of things from up there, but the added distance and difficult glass tend to offset the benefits. It's much harder to see how many sea lions are in a pile, or to discern if any of them have been branded. Today, I saw two branded Steller's sea lions and a branded California sea lion. We may have to wait a bit to find out the details of three of these, but 486Y was reported here in early August, so we know he was born in 2015 and branded at Rogue Reef, Oregon. He was sighted several times in 2016 and 2017 at Carmanah Point, BC, but has not otherwise been reported--until now! (For more information on the branding, please see https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/dam-migration/brandingq_a.pdf )

The sea lions were not the only tagged animals seen today. A colour-banded Glaucous-winged Gull was also photographed this morning. This bird is likely from a project initiated to track Salish Sea gulls. For more info on that project, please see https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bird-conservation-projects-1.6438412.

While gulls (including Glaucous-winged Gulls that did not breed here) and California sea lions are increasing, many of the other species are down from last week. It seems that some of the Black Turnstones have probably completed their molt and have headed out. Harbour seals are being outcompeted by California sea lions for good spots on the beaches.

Today in the world of elephant seals, there was evidence that Bubbles was on the move. I knew the two females had been loafing on the ramp so I raced down to see if he'd caught up with them. I just barely caught the tail end of Bubbles gallumping down the ramp right behind the scrambling females. One almost immediately seemed to be assessing how she could get back to her favourite sunning spot. After 15 minutes, she just went for it, squeezing in between Bubbles and the concrete wall to sneak past him and get back to her position.

Evidence

The little elephant seal that could

Mission accomplished!

Her sister didn't return until almost 7 pm. (and they didn't know that Bubbles was still out for a swim on the other side of the island!)

The only passerines once again were Brown-headed Cowbirds, including one that was hanging out on the shorebird beach.

Even the unusual shorebirds were cowbirds!

The sea lions are definitely getting much louder. Watch what happened when I was trying to record the vocalizations of a Steller's sea lion.

Mushu has completely made himself at home, and for the first night here, didn't sleep with me. Obviously he feels safe enough here now to not need my protection.

Mushu and his shadow cleaning up

The highlight of the day didn't happen until just before sunset. I glanced out the kitchen window (which I probably do 100 times a day) and saw a string of pelicans! I didn't realize there was another string simultaneously going over the house. I grabbed my camera and ran. They joined up on the west side of the island, then immediately made a u-turn and headed back towards Victoria. There were 26 (!) of them in the group.