Day 60: Walking on water

Here's another shot from our boat survey the other day. Alcids, the family of seabirds that includes Common Murres, Cassin's Auklets, and this Pigeon Guillemot, have relatively short wings for their body size. This makes their wings ideal for propelling them underwater while diving, but doesn't make them so great in the air. In order to take off from the water, they have run along the surface for quite a ways to get up enough speed to lift off. It always makes me laugh to see them skittering across the surface.

Day 57: Counting

Russ and I got out on the water today for a boat census. Not censusing boats, but doing a census from the boat. Last week, we did the land based census for cormorants (Brandt's and Pelagics). This is how we get our annual estimate of the breeding population and it's done by counting the number of birds sitting on well-built nests around the island. Unfortunately, there are some places we can't see from land so we have to go to the boat to count those areas. But counting birds from a boat is no easy task and requires good, calm conditions on the water. Today we had a break in the wind so we went for it. Conditions were a bit rougher than is ideal, but we managed to get the count in. And in between counts, I managed to get a picture of a Rhino on the water.

Day 17: Got water?

Fresh water is a precious commodity on the island. We collect all our drinking water from rainfall leaving us at the mercy of the weather gods. As a result we employ strict water conservation measures. Showers are limited (once every 4 days at most), our gray water is recycled and used to flush the toilets, and leaky faucets are outlawed. This one is not actually leaking, just dripping from the rain.

Day 10: Rising tide

I noticed this harbor seal during my evening stint in the blind. Harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) frequently haul out in the intertidal and are determined nappers. This one seemed oblivious to the tide rising around it. There can be over a hundred of these little seals on the island this time of year. One very pregnant female was spotted yesterday so we may have the first pup of the season soon.

Day 8: Rainy days and Mondays

 It was damp today. A sort of dreary, foggy, drizzle persisted all day. Yet even the poor weather has its upside, draping everything in gorgeous droplets. I was particularly fascinated by the drops in the bushy tops of the grass. Most of the grass here is invasive and becoming a serious problem as it moves into new areas and alters habitat. The auklets are especially affected as they seem to avoid digging their burrows in the grassy areas. Nevertheless, it does make for pretty pictures.