Volume 34, Issue 4 June 15-29, 2023
Limestone Log June 16-30
The Past two weeks on East Limestone Island (ELI) have been as busy and exciting as ever! From Tasmanians to sedge identification, to puffin sightings there are a breadth of stories to tell in this Limestone Log. So, hold onto your hats and enjoy this recount of some stories, told first-hand by the ELI field crew!
Week 7 crew getting ready for sea surveys.
Visitor update
After eight weeks on Limestone, you become very connected to the land, but “normal” human interaction becomes increasingly strange. Among all the enthusiasm, knowledge, and unique skillsets that our visitors bring, having new people on island every week keeps the field crew from getting completely bushed, and for that we are very grateful (and sane)!
On July 16th the field camp was happy to welcome Stu and Madeleine to Limestone all the way from their home in Tasmania. They had an exceptional knowledge of building, gas ovens, and good jokes. From battery boxes to layered cakes, their help was pivotal to a range of the week’s projects.
During the same week we also had the pleasure of spending time with students from Gidgalang Kuuyas Naay, the high school in Daajing Giids! Their excitement to be on ELI helped inject some extra enthusiasm into camp. The group was particularly interested in invasive species, marine mammals, and fishing. Thankfully, we had time to give them a taste of each (don’t worry, no invasive species or marine mammals were tasted). They were also lucky to see a Northern Fur Seal near ELI, a rare (for this area) and special wildlife viewing indeed.
On July 23rd the crew was sad to see Stu and Madeleine go, but excited to welcome Jessica and Joan into camp! Their keen eyes and ears were very necessary for the week’s vegetation surveys, songbird point counts, and differentiating Rhinoceros Auklets from puffins, and Pacific White-sided Dolphins from orcas during the sea survey!
Volunteers Stuart and Madeleine, along with Laskeek staff Matt and Max.
At Sea Survey and Marine Mammals
The sea survey conducted on June 25th was certainly one for the books! The survey itself took over twelve hours on the water to complete, but nobody was upset because of all the unique “distractions” which were encountered along the way. The crew has no idea if it was a string of coincidences, or something in the air, but it certainly was unforgettable.
The morning began shrouded in fog, revealing an ominous Humpback fluke, Harbor Porpoises, and a family of Ancient Murrelets (two parents and two juveniles) all along the first transect! A couple hours later a Tufted Puffin was sighted. Not long after that sighting a transect was interrupted by hundreds of Pacific White-sided Dolphins between Skedans and Reef Islands, and out into the Hecate. Somehow among all the chaos a Horned Puffin was sighted on water, dodging the jumping dolphins. Then, already overwhelmed, the crew had an encounter with a pod of seven orcas! At lunch time they were treated to playful orcas in the kelp beds.
It was a day that nobody in the boat will easily forget!
Pacific White-sided Dolphin - speedy and hard to film! This one was photographed by Laskeek Director Keith Moore.
Killer Whales in Laskeek Bay, note how the distant islands appear to float on the horizon.
Below: Ancient Murrelet family; two adults and two chicks, heading out to sea.
Tufted Puffin, above.
Horned Puffin, less common in the Laskeek Bay area.
Pidgeon Guillemot Nest Boxes
After receiving multiple camera units back from Czechia (where the nest box cameras are from), that had previously been nonfunctioning and fixing some of those already installed, the Pigeon Guillemot nest box cameras are recording plenty of footage! So far, there are multiple camera boxes with eggs laid, but no chicks have hatched yet.
Ancient Murrelets and Wildlife Trees
It is a bittersweet feeling when projects end for the season. After conducting gathering ground counts every night from May 6th – June 23rd, the official counts are now done! The Limestone crew, however, has a hard time letting go and sometimes conducts secret, unofficial gathering ground counts. I guess the “secret” is out - we are bird obsessed!
Another project which has almost come to an end is our wildlife tree observations. There are only four trees left with active cavity nests – two of which are active with Tree Swallows which tend to nest and fledge later in the season, and two of which are active with Red Breasted Sapsucker chicks who didn’t get the memo.
Update – the Saw-Whet Owl fledglings are still being observed on East Limestone Island! A pair of fledglings were last observed on June 27th and we can present more groundbreaking scientific evidence that they are cute as heck:
Northern Saw-Whet Owl juvenile, staring curiously at its observers
Glaucus-Winged Gull Surveys
On June 20th and 21st the annual Glaucus-Winged Gull surveys on Kingsway Rock and the Lost Islands were completed! Without anybody getting pooped on, the team counted over 200 gull nests between the two colonies! Most of the nests contained 1-3 eggs, but two of the nests already had newly hatched chicks.
Crew completing GWGU surveys on Kingsway Rock.
Vegetation Plots and Point Counts
This was also the time of year that the annual vegetation plots, done to monitor the changing effects of deer management on the flora of ELI, were completed. The vegetation surveys are done by revisiting eleven plots that are set to reflect the many unique habitat types of ELI and to identify every plant species that is growing inside of a 10 meter radius and then estimate abundance of each species inside of a 3.6 meter subplot within. The vegetation work came with the usual challenges associated with putting a bunch of researchers that are used to looking at birds, down in a quadrat to identify closely related grasses, but no plant books were burned and by the end everyone was even enjoying the work. This was especially aided by a beautiful guide to the common plants of Limestone Island that was created by Intern Robin halfway through the project, that made finding the scientific name of the plants much less painful.
Possibly due to the increased effort to reduce the population of deer on ELI this last winter, this year was a great year for the vegetation surveys with almost every plot having higher diversity than the previous year.
Volunteers Jessica and Joan, and Camp Supervisor Matt completing vegetation surveys.
Camp Life Update
In the last two weeks quality of life in camp increased majorly with the help of the very talented Stewart and Madeline form Tasmania. It turns out that being an expert bush mechanic is as useful on the high seas and the cabins of remote Tasmania as it is on ELI and lucky for us Stu and Madeline have a wealth of experience. In no time at all the camp oven was functioning for the first time in over a year and the previously uninstalled solar inverter was up and looking like it was there all along, and a new battery enclosure was built to keep the new power system tidy and functional. By the end of the first week we were scrambling to come up with things that needed to be upgraded or fixed with projects as far reaching as adding new trail marker stakes to the main trail. Otherwise camp life is moving along as well as ever with the summer weather adding a warm glow to the field camp.
Max, Robin and Matt, being awesome.
The latest Haiku from the ELI team:
Whales and fur seals
Huge blocks of cheese in buckets
Great day for science
Trivia Answer to last issue's Black Oystercatcher question, it was located almost in the exact center of the photo. Hiding in plain sight!
Trivia Question: What is this (rare in our area) animal, and bonus points if you know - what is it doing with it's flippers in the air?
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