2024 Limestone Log 2 (wildflowers, baby chicks, and dolphins)
Seal photo above by Jo-Anne Castillon
New and Familiar Faces.
For week 3 of the field season, LBCS Co-founder and Science Director Dr. Tony Gaston arrived, along with volunteer Joanne Kaashoek from Toronto. Week 4 volunteers were Tessa Wissink from Daajing Giids and Lori Waters from Salt Spring Island. Jamie Quinn, our first intern of the 2024 field season left at the end of week 3, heading back to Prince George to begin a summer field position on a study of Tree Swallow breeding ecology. Thank you so much for all your hard work and enthusiasm, Jamie!
Week 3 Field Crew; Lori, Tessa, Rian, Fred.
Ancient Murrelet Chick Monitoring
Ancient Murrelet breeding activity has been monitored on East Limestone Island since 1990. The chick monitoring started on the 7th of May after a character-building day of crawling into thick Sitka Spruce to set up the funnels. After all that blood and tears, we were more than happy to find out that our cameras caught pictures of our first three chicks during the night of the 8 to 9thof May. The funnels guide murrelet chicks that are leaving their burrows toward the ocean, where they will reunite with their parents. At the base of the funnel, chicks pass through a wooden chute, and their movement triggers a wildlife camera to take a series of photos. The chicks move really fast and we are lucky if we get one or two photos of a chick before its down the chute and on its way!
Matt, Jamie and Tony hard at work setting up the Ancient Murrelet chick funnels.
At bottom of photo, a departing Ancient Murrelet chick can be seen just before it runs out of view of the camera.
Cetaceans
Like so many weeks on Limestone Island, a plethora of species were seen, tasks accomplished, and there was much beauty to observe. Sea watches are an opportunity to observe species and their behaviours from the observation blind at Lookout Point, watching Pigeon Guillemots, cormorants and other seabird species, as well as passing cetaceans. During the first week of May, during supper, the crew looked out the cook shack window, and saw five orcas in Cabin Cove – including one adult male, one calf, and at least one adult female. Later in the week, Jamie and Tony were treated to a grey whale sighting during the morning sea watch from the bird blind.
Killer Whales swimming past Cabin Cove, above photo of T069A.
The group of killer whales has been identified as T069A and her children – T069A2, T069A3, T069A4, and T069A6. T069A was born in 1989 and she was one of the very first whales that was identified from photos taken by LBCS crew in 1994, near Reef Island! On that occasion she was seen with T069. She was observed again in Laskeek Bay in 2012 with T069A2 (born 2006) and T069A3 (born 2011), and then again in 2017 and 2018. This year she has a new calf, T069A6, born in 2023. This group of whales is also often observed around northern Vancouver Island.
Excitement spread throughout the camp one morning while Lori and Fred were on sea watch, when they first sighted what they thought was a small pod of Pacific White-sided Dolphins. But the more they watched, the more the group grew! By the time the pod passed by Lookout Point, there were more than a hundred dolphins, and the message was relayed to Rian and Tessa, and then on to the K’uuna Watchmen, all of whom were delighted to see the spectacle. This was the fourth dolphin sighting of the 2024 field season, and by far the largest group so far. LBCS crew observed one large pod of Pacific White-sides in 2023, but prior to that, the last record of large numbers in Laskeek Bay was in 2009. It will be very interesting to see if we continue to observe them regularly, or if this is an isolated occurrence. Later the same day, during the sea survey, Lori, Fred, Rian and Tessa saw one Humpback, two Harbour Porpoises, and a small Grey Whale.
When you see cetaceans, it is important to give them plenty of space. In Canada, you must stay at least 100 metres away from any whale, dolphin, or porpoise and 200 metres from killer whales (or 400 metres for all killer whales in southern BC coastal waters). Additionally, if cetaceans are resting or with a calf, the minimum distance is 200 metres.
https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/species-especes/mammals-mammiferes/watching-observation/index-eng.html
For more information on BC cetaceans, as well as regulations and guidelines, check out this great guide from Ocean Wise:
https://oceanorg.blob.core.windows.net/oceanorg/2024/02/Feb-13-2024-SportFishersGuide_2022-Digital.pdf
Everybody can submit cetacean sightings to the Ocean Wise Sightings Network, using the Whale Report app or website:
https://ocean.org/action/send-a-sighting-save-a-whale/
Or by calling 1 866 I SAW ONE
(1.866.472.9663)
If you see a marine mammal that is injured, stranded, entangled, or dead, call the BC Marine Mammal Response Network at 1-800-465-4336 or VHF Channel 16.
Humpback photo by Jo-Anne Castillon.
Flowering Plants
May is a beautiful time of year on Limestone Island, for many reasons, including the wildflowers that are blooming. Although many species are browsed by the introduced Sitka Black-tailed Deer, the island still has a diverse array of species, including some that are quite uncommon in Haida Gwaii. Here are a few from the past weeks:
Yellow Monkey-flower (Erythranthe guttata) is widespread on the BC coast. Photo by Lori Waters.
Above: Showy Jacob’s Ladder (Polemonium pulcherrimum) is common in BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains but is only known to grow in one location in Haida Gwaii (i.e., East Limestone Island). It is often found in mountain and alpine areas, but on East Limestone it grows just a few metres above the high tide line! Photo by Lori Waters
Above: Cut-leaved Anemone (Anemone multifida) is more commonly found on dry, rocky slopes away from the coast. On East Limestone, it grows in a few rocky locations, but it is definitely not far from the coast! Photo by Lori Waters
Above: Western Coralroot (Corallorhiza mertensiana) is widespread on the coast of BC. It is an orchid, and is also saprophytic, which means that it gets nutrients from decaying organic matter, rather than by photosynthesizing! In this photo the flowers have not quite opened up yet.
Above: Red Columbine (Aquilegia Formosa) is a familiar sign of spring for many people. On East Limestone, it only grows in steep areas where the deer aren’t able to reach it! Photo by Lori Waters.
Visitors
During the second week of May, a group of Applied Coastal Ecology (ACE) from Coast Mountain College in Prince Rupert visited for a tour of East Limestone Island. They spent two nights camping on Louise Island and we had a really fun tour and visit with them, with lots of great questions from the students.
Coast Mountain College students enjoying an island tour by Rian.
Photo by Lori Waters.
We also had a very special visitor the next day, when M/V Atlas brought a small group for a tour. We were told that there was someone on board who had worked on East Limestone years ago – it turned out to be Andrea Lawrence, who was the very first camp supervisor for LBCS, 35 years ago! Andrea had also volunteered with Tony Gaston’s projects on Reef Island and, prior to the 1990 field season, had helped scout out the possibility of setting up a research camp at East Limestone Island. It was a real treat to spend the morning with Andrea and the rest of the group. We heard tales of years gone by and were able to share the latest developments in the monitoring programs, many of which were initiated during the years that Andrea had worked in Laskeek Bay.
1990 LBCS Camp Supervisor Andrea Lawrence, and current LBCS Camp Supervisor/Lead Biologist, Rian Dickson.
Above: Villous Cinquefoil (Potentilla villosa) growing on the cliffs at East Limestone Island. Photo by Tessa Wissink.
Below is a graphic summary of the week, by Week 5 volunteer Lori Waters, who also happens to be a fantastic artist and scientific illustrator!
Daily Haikus
Daily Haiku’s, initiated in 2023 by Max Nishima as part of the daily narrative log on Limestone, neatly summarize Limestone team activities, flora and fauna, and events in nature. Enjoy the snapshot below, representing a couple of weeks of daily Haikus by the Limestone team’s biologist poets. More to come in future Limestone Logs!
3 May~
Science and friendship
Conjugated in feminine
Is always a bliss
4 May~
Townsend’s Warbler calls,
And Hermits chant their sad song,
Geese fly North, hurrying home
5 May~
Looking for Murrelets
Tumble your way down, little birds,
Killer whales are waiting.
Trivia question:
How many eggs can a Chestnut-backed Chickadee lay in one clutch?
Hint: more than the number of chicks in the photo below!
PS... The mystery bird from issue 1 was a Cassin’s Auklet.