again a number of small fish balls

 

Saturday, July 06, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 21.0 C  Min 9.7 C  Reset 19.7 C
MARINE LIFE: The birds were fairly quiet today except for trips out to sea for food, again a number of small fish balls mostly in and around the kelp beds to the east of Gr. Race. With several days now of sunshine and little wind the air is not as ‘fresh’ as one would like but we do get used to it after a while- air fresheners inside help, especially at meal time! Except for one or two small patches, the grass is brown and tinder dry. Still no seal pups in the dock area but sadly one female hauled out this morning with a dead pup which seems to be several days old. The female is very protective of the dead pup although she did let me close enough to have a look, I couldn’t see any obvious wounds and it seemed to be average in size so don’t know why it died. The mother stayed with the pup all day and often tried to push it’s head up with her nose and patted it every once in a while as if to ‘wake’ it up. Have had pups die like this in past years and the female has stayed with it for three days or more, it’s sad.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 1 dive boat, 21 ecotour boats and 9 pleasure craft today.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:05 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Clear �� Vis. 15 Miles �� Wind Calm �� Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:57 AM

The Pigeon Guillemots are busy feeding young

Friday, July 05, 2002 Good Evening

TEMPERATURE: Max 16.0 C Min. 8.9 C Reset 14.7 C
MARINE LIFE: The Pigeon Guillemots are busy feeding young while the gulls take turns nest sitting with eggs hatching everyday now. There have been ‘fish’ balls off and on all day mostly just outside the M.P.A. boundaries so far a good supply of food for the birds and their young. Only one bald eagle came into the area this evening but was driven off towards Whirl Bay before it could get close to Gr. Race, the gulls are hyper vigilant now that they have young and are on high alert to any threats. The gulls around our house are used to us coming and going but the others will dive at us to warn us away and happily use us as targets so it’s hat season and not just to keep the out the uv rays! At night there is a lot of banging and clatter on the roof from the 35-40 gulls that spend the night up there. It is hard to believe there are just birds up there from all the noise. Did not hear the birds screeching last night so I guess the otter isn’t coming around every night.
HUMAN INTERACTION: There were 23 ecotour boats and 9 pleasure craft through today; we made a return trip to Pedder Bay in the station boat and enjoyed another great sunset on a calm sea.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 11:05 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Clear  Vis. 15 Miles  Wind West 6 Knots  Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:27 AM