The Motykley Bay.

August 5, 2015.

We set off at about 10 am from the Balagannoe village at the beginning of a tidal cycle. Our aim was to cover the infamous “Rotten corner” within the same tidal cycle. This would save us a night with the bears in the Motykley bay.  We skipped the nests close to the Balagannoe as the tide would not wail.

The great nest at the Onatsevicha bay  had one chick. Next nest (relatively new) on a forested slope with 1 chick, and a nest known as B10 with 2 chicks.

The “Rotten Corner” was surveyed without a problem. For some reason there was no grass on the shallow, tidal sea floor. In previous years it gave us hard time.  

It was the usual dicey output from the Rotten corner nests, with one interesting observation: 2 nests very close to one another, both with chicks at the northern part of the ‘corner’. The coastline of the bay was lacking Far-Eastern Curlew, but there were a great number of cryptic waders. At the onset of the low tide we were at the Chaika cape in the middle of the bay. The pair that we usually find here was absent, but there were plenty of seals.

The remaining part of the bay was empty, including the vacant Tokareva Bay seastack.

The cliff facing the Talan island was surprisingly empty. Thus, there were only 4 occupied nests, 3 with chicks. The lowest number we have ever tallied for this part of the coast,.

We came as far as the Shestakova cape, where the currents are mixing with the tidal stream. The last nest on the sea stack had a chick. What a great location.

At the end of the day we were approaching the Talan Island (with Spafarieva Island on the right).

Magadan intermission.

August 3-4, 2015.

We stayed in Magadan for 2 days in order to prepare for our next trip to the Motykley bay. Fuel, food, transportation, and emergency procedures: all has to be arranged.

The weather was appalling: rain, fog and, naturally, storm at the sea….

The Odyan Bay survey: a looong day….Continued….

August 2, 2015.

We did arrive to the Nagaevo Bay of Magadan at about 10 pm, few drops of rain greeted us while we were loading our boat and gear into a truck.

This time we managed to get the longest daily survey leg in the history of our research. We covered the Odyan Bay, Staritskogo peninsula and the Nedorazumenia bay.

Total count: 5 chicks from Odyan, 1 chick at the TEZ nest, 4 chicks at the Staritskogo peninsula, and no chicks at the Nedorazumenya.

What a day…..

The Odyan Bay survey: a looong day….Continued...

August 2, 2015.

The circumnavigation of the Staritskogo Peninsula was rather trivial, despite choppy waves. The wall of rain was still lurking both ahead and behind us, but nevertheless we pressed on.

Our beloved nest at the Orlinaya Bay (Eagle Bay) was occupied after a year of emptiness and had one chick.

The nest at the Svetlaya bay had 2 chicks.The pair at the Nedorazumenya island was occupied, but without chick. This pair has built a new nest.

In total the Staritskogo stretch had 3 nests with 1, 1 and 2 chicks...better than usual.

The Odyan Bay survey: a looong day….Continued..

August 2, 2015.

We got close to the Ola settlement at the time of low tide and had to solve a dilemma: either to wait for the high tide near the Ola lagoon (and get hit by a rain), or continue further towards Magadan ahead of rain. Since I had enough fuel we decided to go further.

We crossed the waters where the Ola river  was entering the sea waters, and immediately solved a long-standing question as to why there are no Steller’s Sea Eagle nests here: the water here was like coffee, and such high water turbidity means that the eagles cannot see fish.

The first nest on this stretch of the coast was a nest that can be seen distantly from Magadan: the so-called TEZ nest, and it has transparent waters below it. The nest had one healthy looking chick.

The Gertnera Bay of Magadan was still under low tide,  there was rain behind us and rain in front, so we continued to move around the Staritskogo peninsula.

In the picture above the rainbow and the wall of rain are located in Odyan bay. A few days later we heard radio reports by the rangers of torrential rain there for 2 day. The picture below shows the rain ahead of us. Brrrr….