Five and half hours of scrubbing gull poo off the catchment pad in the rain... The things we'll do for drinking water

I am scrubbing in the middle of a rather muddy puddle,

with my bottoms full of bubbles and my wellies full of mud.

While my jacket and my sweater go on slowly getting wetter

and I very slowly settle to the bottom of the mud.

Now I find that what a person, with a puddle round his middle

thinks of mostly in the muddle is the muddyness of mud.

I saw 10,000 gulls on Christmas day, on Christmas day in the morning

My baggy men’s trousers are getting tight. Christmas food was just far too abundant and delicious, although saying that, all the food we eat is delicious and in abundance. Hence why my trousers are snug.

The festive period on Southeast Farallon Island was simply wonderful. Christmas away from loved ones had potential to be a sad and lonely affair, especially spending it on a rock in the North Pacific Ocean with only three other people. But it was far from sad or lonely and as Ryan put it “if you can’t be with those you love, love the ones you are with.”

I awoke on Christmas morning to the sound of squawking gulls at the glorious time of 6.30am. I had taken Jane’s place at doing the gull count as I love nothing more than counting the gulls early in the morning. Being out in the fresh air as the sun rises as I sing to the gulls many a morning/Christmas themed song. I’m sure the gulls appreciate my singing; I know my house mates do.

 After I had counted a few thousand gulls I returned to the house where I discovered, much to my delight that Father Christmas had been in the night and delivered presents for all us good little girls and boys!

So open our presents we did and I received such nice gifts from my Farallon family. Jason was very generous and gave us each a penknife and torch, Jane gave to me some super cute socks with seals on them along with some Russian candy and Ryan spoilt us with a PRBO hoodie, hat and tote bag… Oh and a plastic squeaky shark toy from off the shelf, that I’m not actually allowed to keep.

I also opened a wondeful parcel from home which contained
many a gift wrapped item, before chatting to the family on
skype which was lovely.

We carried out the elephant seal census around the island and then continued to spend the majority of the day gorging ourselves on food.

Full English breakfast...

 mid-afternoon cheese platter...

... Then stuffing in a roasted pumpkin, roast spuds, pigs in blankets, a mahoosive ham …. A minute slither of Christmas pud each with lashings of custard and ‘chocolate air’ created lovingly by Jane. Oh and I almost forgot about the vat of mulled wine.

New Year’s Eve was also great. No deliberation over what pub or whose house to go to, no overpriced drinks and crowded bars. No dilemma over what to wear, how to style your hair, no ‘does my bum look big in this?’ Here on the island Farallon fashion takes over. So we celebrated simply.

Jane cooked a Russian feast which was delicious that included pirojki which are cabbage stuffed bread rolls, blini which are pancake type wraps containing mushroom delights, a beet salad, aubergine caviar, ham salad and apple stuffed bread rolls for afters.

We then whiled away a few hours with wholesome intellectual board games, buckets full of laughter (leave the door open) and a spot of bad guitar playing on my part before heading up to the lighthouse to see in the New Year.

At the stroke of midnight we had already consumed half our bottle of champers whilst wearing our New Milton Advertiser party hats and were watching the fireworks display over San Francisco. They just looked like minuscule puffs on the horizon 28 miles away from where we stood.

 I believe our own private display was far more impressive. Each time the lighthouse flashed it illuminated gulls flying above us and the moon was low in the sky glowing eerie auburn.

So enough about food, fun and festivities, back to seals and other such wildlife

West End- A rugged peak of an island.

(Photos to come. I didn't take my camera with me so I will try to steal some from Jason ad Ryan!)

The view of West End Island from the lighthouse

The morning started off so foggy that my gull count was cancelled and so I found myself baking mince pies at 7am. As the fog began to lift, Jason, Ryan and myself set off on an adventure to West End Island whilst Jane kindly stayed behind to talk to the seals and be there just in case we got lost or squashed or eaten by the big pinnipeds.

We began by stealth walking our way past Californian sea lions, scurrying over wet wave pummelled algae covered rocks to reach Jordon’s channel.  At the channel we donned our climbing harnesses and helmets, clipped into the metal zip wire and kicked off the rock with as much gusto as we could muster to reach the other side.

I got half way and tried pulling myself along using the rope, but alas I was getting nowhere! I had a wee panic that perhaps I had eaten so much Christmas food that I was now incapable of heaving my own body weight up a rope! But then I heard Ryan shout to me and it appeared that a rope had got caught up somewhere and so I could not get any further!

Greeting us on the island was a cascade of beautiful purple and white gull guano covering an entire rock face, a dead gull and a dead Zalophus. Welcome to West End they said.

The day was then full of much scampering over rocky cliffs, much thigh burning stealth walking trying to hide from zalophus (though at times hard when you have Jason ‘too tall’ Jones in the troop!) and much much counting of seals. The reason for going to west end is to carry out a census of the seals there to gain a better understanding of how many actually inhabit the island. The majority of seals there are the Californian sea lions (zalophus) but we also came across some northern fur seals (callorhinus), steller sea lions (eumetopias) and of course our lovely elephant seals (mirounga).

For creatures that look so unsuited to a life on land it’s amazing how high some of these animals can climb. Upon summiting one of the peaks on our census we came face to face with a sub-adult male northern fur seal! It was incredible to see it so close up. Its pelage was black with grey flecks and its whiskers were like an outrageous moustache giving it the appearance of an aging man. It strutted away and we continued with our mission.

The fog was still shrouding the island, though occasionally it would lift giving us a small glimpse of what lay beyond. It really was a magical place and the fog added to this. West end is a wilderness area and so we seldom visit it. Before stepping foot on the island we scrub our shoes so as not to bring over any invasive plant species or such so that we can keep the island in its natural form, the way it is supposed to be. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to experience such a wild and beautiful place that is teeming with such incredible wildlife.

MC Hammer... A brute of a male. Now seemingly blind in one eye

This is the male Rumplestiltskin who frequents Sewer Gulch. Seems he got into a bit of a scrap with another male and came away with a asty wound

A couple of immature elephants seals

The fog clearing

Sand flat with seven cows and five pups ... Today we had nineteen cows and thirteen pups!

Since my last blog post we have had many new arrivals to the island, in the form of elephant seal pups! This has been very exciting although at times a trifle perplexing. Just when you think you have worked out who is whom and whose pup belongs to whom, a new day arrives and along with it a few new cows and perhaps a pup or two!

Due to the abundance of zalpohus around the elephant seal breeding grounds it has been difficult for us to stamp the females for ID purposes, this means that we end up spending HOURS in the e-seal blind (hide) painstakingly trying to read flipper tags through a scope or look for identifying features such as our unfortunate cow who has three nostrils (it seems she had a cist on her nose that became a hole… Now when she sneezes snot comes out of three nostrils) and scars that look like numerous teats. It’s ok. Rusty (Alpha male of sand flat) won’t care what she looks like and as Ryan put it “beauty is but a light switch away”

So much more to report but alas, I fear if I trail on anymore I shall lose my audience. But just before I go...

The common Murres (Guillemots) have begun arriving in their hundreds. So until next time, I shall leave you with these pictures