Second Limestone Log of the 2023 Field Season:
The 2023 Field Season Is in Full Swing!
The end of May is a bustling time for little East Limestone Island: plants are blooming, birds are laying eggs, feeding chicks, or supervising fledglings, and marine mammals are continuing to pass by living their mysterious lives, all while the research team is rushing around trying to keep up with it all. These last two weeks we have had Matt Peck, as camp supervisor, Max Nishima as the research assistant, Georgia Moneo as intern, Jill Post as week one volunteer, and Caroline Valle and Troy Moth as the second week volunteers.
Wildlife Trees, Chicks and Fledglings
Cavity nesting birds on East Limestone Island have been busy these past couple of weeks. So far in this field season, we have visited each wildlife tree at least twice, have observed 18 active nests, and have discovered five new wildlife trees. This brings the total number of wildlife trees that have been identified and monitored on ELI up to 199. This year’s active wildlife trees are occupied by Red-breasted Sapsuckers, chickadees, Hairy Woodpeckers, Tree Swallows, and Northern Saw-Whet Owls. Already, the Hairy Woodpecker and Saw-Whet Owl chicks have fledged. While still in the cavity nest, we were only able to see one Saw-Whet Owl occupying the entrance at a time but this week, we were pleasantly surprised to find 4 fledglings hanging out in a nearby spruce thicket. It must have been a crowded tree nest cavity! In past years, the Northern Saw-Whet Owls nesting on ELI have fledged in June and July so this fledge date is much earlier than usual.
The Raven chicks have also recently fledged and now act as our 5:30 am alarm clock every morning! There have also been lots of Bald Eagles around ELI and we have now found one potentially active nest.
Figure 1: Northern Saw-whet owl fledgling.
Marine Mammals and Whale IDs
Week three started out strongly on the marine mammal front. At the start of the week, we saw 6 Orcas while we were out in the evening for our daily Ancient Murrelet gathering ground count. Then, after an exciting early morning sea watch, where at least 10 Humpbacks, 2 Orcas and 2 Harbor Porpoises were observed by Georgia and Jill, we made a quick decision to try to follow the Humpbacks, which seemed to be sticking around, for some whale photo identification. The researcher’s goal in Humpback whale photo ID is to get a photo of the underside of a whale’s fluke (it’s tail). It is possible to identify individual Humpback whales based on the coloration and patterns on the undersides of their flukes. The first step is categorizing them based on the percentage of white on the underside of their flukes. A whale with a tail that has less than 30% white is known as an X whale (hardest to ID) a whale with 30%-70% is known as a Y whale, and a Whale with over 70% is known as a Z whale (most fun to ID!).
Laskeek Bay Conservation Society is one of the only organizations on this side of the Hecate Strait that conducts ongoing whale identification so this is very important work. Our staff have photo ID training from DFO, and we follow the permit regulations closely, to avoid any disruption of the whales. We share our whale data and research findings with the BC Cetacean network, DFO, and other marine mammal organizations.
Although it was beautiful and calm on the water and there was no shortage of Humpbacks, we had to work hard for ID shots since the whales were flick-feeding and being camera shy with their flukes. After much perseverance though, we were able to get at least three good fluke and dorsal ID shots that will hopefully be able to tell us which whales are around. While on the boat, just south of Low Island, we also saw a Fin Whale, the second biggest whale in the world!
Towards the end of week 4 we saw a couple more Humpbacks and 4 more Orcas. The Orcas appeared just out front of camp while we were eating lunch in the cook cabin! Fortunately, after racing to the boat we were able to catch up to them just off the Skedans Islands and get some ID shots. Just from looking off the side of the boat and seeing schools and schools of krill and small fish, you can clearly see that Laskeek Bay is the place to be if you are a whale!
Pigeon Guillemots
The Pigeon Guillemots (PIGU) are busy condo shopping and pursuing romantic endeavors while we struggle to make finishing renovation touches, like putting entrance doorway restrictors to keep out River Otters, and getting the camera systems up and running. To ensure the camera systems are positioned correctly, we have spent a couple very entertaining mornings watching the Pigeon Guillemots go about their lives to see which nest boxes they are using. After some technical difficulties, coding, and troubleshooting we now have 3 out of the 5 camera systems up and running. With some luck and Matt’s hard work, we hope to get the remaining cameras working before the PIGU’s lay their eggs.
Figure 2: PIGUs enjoying their high-tech wooden nest box structures.
Visitors to Limestone
Aside from the wildlife visitors there has been a steady stream of interested people dropping in to talk to the research team. In the past 2 weeks we have had three Moresby Explorers groups stop by the island (one of which was carrying Matt’s parents), one group from the Island Solitude boat, run by Bluewater Adventures, and a visit from Coast Mountain College’s Applied Coastal Ecology students, from Prince Rupert.
Sea Survey
In week 4 we did our second sea survey. Our bird counts on the water are still high with both diversity and numbers as sea birds are still around due to lots of baitfish and the occasional late migrating visitors touching down in Laskeek Bay long enough for us to count them. Some of our highlight birds for the survey were Northern Pintails and a flock of Whimbrels. We planned to do the survey all in one day this time but our plans were altered as the marine weather radio forecast forgot to mention rain along with the light Southwesterly winds. Weather kept us in for one more day, so we had to finish it up two days later.
Stormy seas keep the crew ashore.
BLOY Surveys Begin
This past week we started our first Black Oystercatcher (BLOY) surveys of the season! For the BLOY surveys we visit islands around Laskeek Bay to determine the number and location of active Oystercatcher territories. We also measure and weigh the eggs as a proxy for health. Due to some good weather, we were able to visit some of our harder to access BLOY territories this week. It was good to see the familiar orange billed faces of the BLOY that LBCS have been studying for nearly 30 years. During the survey we were able to see some of the territories occupied by birds that were banded as chicks during the same style of BLOY survey that has now been going on for at least one BLOY generation. Some have gotten so used to the routine that they won’t even move from their scrapes. This is an effective strategy by the birds, to keep researchers from handling their eggs, we just photograph the scrape with the bird on top and leave them undisturbed. We are excited to launch the rest of our surveys next week, including the biannual Gwaii Haanas BLOY survey.
Troy getting close to a Black Oystercatcher that didn’t want to move from its scrape.
Highlight Haiku
Ancient Murrelets
Please fly by our field of view
You’re our nightly show.
Trivia Question: Based on the Marine mammal section above, which Humpback whale fluke corresponds to which Letter code in the three photos?
Trivia answer from last week: There were 8 Bald Eagles in the photograph; 2 juveniles, and 6 adults.
Below: Glaucous-winged Gull eggs.
Thank you for reading and please watch for another Limestone Log hatching in your inbox very soon!
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The Laskeek team would like to send out a big HAAWA & THANK YOU to our sponsors and supporters who have made our 2023 projects possible: Moresby Explorers, the Royal Bank of Canada, Gwaii Trust, the Council of the Haida Nation, B.C. Gaming, Gwaii Haanas, B.C. Parks, Northern Savings Credit Union, the DFO Habitat Stewardship Program, Bluewater Adventure Tours, and the Canadian Wildlife Service.
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