California Sea lions return

The seagull chicks are growing. I haven’t seen any new chicks in the last week or two, which leads me to believe that everyone has now hatched. None of the young have started to fly yet (as far as I have seen), but many of the chicks appear now to at least realise that the protrusions from their bodies may someday put them in the air. It is quite entertaining to watch the chicks hop up and down and flap their wings before falling on their heads! I haven’t seen our family of young geese now for a week or so. I suspect that they have outgrown the island and moved off. This week though we did have two stopovers from geese flocks. The first flock consisted of seven individuals while the second had twelve. Each flock landed for a few hours then left.Slash, as always, is still lazing around in the sun on the island. We did have Beatrice return a few weeks ago, but she only stayed for a day or two. I haven’t seen any more elephant seals these days. Four or five California sea lions have returned to the reserve. Several are currently hauled out on Middle Rock, and several more are hauled out on the northeast corner of Great Race Rock. Unfortunately, they appear to be quite the attraction for whale watching tourists.Many pigeon guillemots are still present across the island, as well as a number of black oystercatchers that can often be seen out on the jetty at night when I do the water sampling.Life underwater is also flourishing, as expected. Yesterday I did two dives off the north side of the island and saw the normal plethora of creatures. Many of my fellow divers also spotted a wolf eel lurking in the upper reef. I unfortunately, missed it.Pam has also reported seeing an otter skulking around too. I’ve been on and off the island in the last week quite a bit, so I guess I must have missed it. -Adam- ’21:27:09′,