July 31. Talon

July, 31. We checked all nests along the Tauy river up to Talon village. One nest (on the upstream trip) has been checked (one chick), and there was another, with one chick. In June Irina surveyed 4 occupied nests with contents unknown (the birds were presumably on eggs, sitting tight), and documented 1 chick and one egg in another nest, and 2 chicks in another. The first nest which we surveyed on the upstream trip had an adult which refused to stand up, so the contents of this nest in June is unknown.

July 30. Kheta ranger's station and way back.

July, 30. The Kheta ranger’s station and downstream portion.

Early in the morning we went downstream. We have flown UAV missions at every nest either by Irina’s or mine aircraft. In total there were 5 chicks on the Chelomdja river during this survey. In June, Irina saw 14 chicks and 2 eggs in the Chelomdja nests (all drone-documented). I think this is the fist truly documented decline in the productivity during a single season. At the end of the day we reached the Centralniy ranger’s station.

June 29. Chelomdja

July, 29.
Early in the morning, we set off to the Chelomdja river. The water level was raising rapidly, so we encountered murky waters and lot of logs floating downstream.  We also noted few dead pink salmon, indicating that the spawning season was better than last year, when we saw no dead fish.

We went upstream to the Khuren spawning grounds. The Kheta spawning grounds has a nest, which seemingly produced the first chicks in the area (see photos below). Left: the nest on June, 19, right, the same nest, July, 29. It appears that the eggs in this nest were laid at least 1 month earlier, than majority of the clutches in the same are (see the nest 100, above, along the Tauy with chick in down) and photos below. 

Chick (above) at a nest with an adult, at the Chelomdja river below Moldot ranger’s station.

For the night we stopped by the Kheta ranger’s station, and stayed there for one night. We had to leave the boat at the main stretch of the river and hiked to the ranger’s station first on foot, and then on a boat the rangers kept in the small stretch, which was isolated from the main river by the logjams and shallow water.