August, 3. Around the Koni Peninsula, Return

August, 3. Around the Koni Peninsula, Return.

The  return trip was uneventful. We did cross occasional fog strip along the coast, but  still hoped to survey the un-surveyed portion of the coast which was covered by fog in the morning. On the way we happen to see a group of young Steller's Sea Lions waiting for a high tide. That was an indication that the Steller's Sea Lions are showing more and more interest to the protected coasts. 

 

 Now and then we see these animals in water.

 When we were approaching the Bligan Cape, the place which was skipped in the morning due to fog, we saw the fog was forming up again. We sped up, thanks to the favorable wave direction and, hooray! we managed to get the portion thoroughly checked. Some of the nest location were difficult to view, due to fast forming fog, but still we managed.

 This was the last sea-stack we were so desperate to check.

The Taran Cape was, surprisingly , fog free, and as soon as we came to the waters inside the Tauy Bay, the sea was very calm. 

In the view of the Taran Cape lighthouse we decided to catch some fish and observe, if there are any whales of dolphins in the area. 

 

 Our Skipper, Sergei had a fishing line and some hooks.  Instead of fishing I attached my trusted GoPro camera and cast it overboard. 

The camera did get exciting photos of bottom life. 

But whales and dolphins did not show up. With some caught fish we took course directly to the Ploskiy Ranger's station and managed to get back right before the sunset.

The time-lapse shows at least two wind systems one above each other, typical for this area.

It was been a very long, but useful day. We have checked the southern coast of the Koni Peninsula, the portion of the coast which we did not survey regularly.   The regular surveys are conducted in the 'inner' portion of the Koni portion of the reserve, up to the Taran Cape. This year this portion had 2 productive Steller's Sea Eagle nest (2 and 1 chick) and one new pair with a new nest. There were also 2 territorial pairs without breeding. There was a notable decrease of the bear sightings on this coast: 4 in total which contrast to 10 on average in the previous years.

The outer portion of the Koni Peninsula had 18 known territories, 13 of which were occupied and 4 nests had chicks including 2 nests with 2 chicks. In total we covered 100 km of the coastline thus making 200 km surveys in the most treacherous coastline where there are not place to hide from the storm. Not a bad day indeed.