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).