August 6, 2015.
Yesterday evening we were checking the 3
pairs of Steller's Sea Eagles that nest on Talan island. The Spafarieva island was lurking nearby, but we had
to overcome the temptation to check its nests. We have not visited this island
for the last 3 years due to the weather, but his year the time and fuel
constrains were overwhelming.
The three pairs on Talan island were present, but one
failed in early June, according to the reports of Dr. Lena Golubova, the queen
of the island. Of the other two, one had
1 chick, but the main (and the oldest) nest was not found! It is well hidden
across the crevasses of the South-eastern face of the island, so neither us, no
the crew of the Talan island were able to find it.
On the island we were greeted by Sasha Andreev and Kira Regel, and their
granddaughter Mila. Mila was spotted playing with the famous and tame Talan
foxes.
The queen of the island was counting Ancient Murrelet young:
since they come out of their burrows by night, she was occupied during dark
hours.
I have made a great panorama of the island using the drone.
In the morning we set off to the Balagannoe village, with the
plan to check nests we had skipped earlier in the summer.
This was done just before the high tide. With the high tide
time we came into the Tauy river and checked the Tauy river estuary nests: both
had 2 chicks, the closest nest to the village was relocated some 200 m
upstream.
This gives us a total of 14 territories with chicks, including
4 territories/nests with 2 chicks.
In the afternoon we packed up the boat and set off to
Magadan.
The surveys trips are completed.
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