Pacific white-sided dolphins in San Juan Channel

People have all sorts of top five lists. Being a wildlife watcher, I have a top five wildlife experiences. I would never have guessed on a rainy afternoon in late November here in the San Juan Islands I would have a top five experience.

In the early afternoon of November 28, I got a call from Ivan saying that a pod of fifty or so Pacific white-sided dolphins were seen from the ferry outside Friday Harbor. Their direction of travel was unknown and he wondered if I had seen any. I hadn't but immediately scoped the channel from the cabin. When that proved unproductive I walked around the island checking in all directions; still no luck.

Around 2:30 I was preparing to leave to run errands when I saw Ivan in the channel headed north. He called to saw there was another report; this one said they were near Reuben Tarte Park. He said he'd call if they found them. Two minutes later he called and they were with the pod. I forgot about my errands and headed NW to meet up with Ivan and the dolphins.

It was immediately apparent that there were way more than 50. I could see Lags (short for Lagenorhynchus, the genus of Pacific white-sided dolphins) in all directions almost as far as the eye could see. Various gull species were active above the dolphins so we assumed the dolphins were feeding. Given it was dark and rainy photography was pretty tough. Plus I was in the boat by myself. The dolphins were enjoying riding my bow wake so I left the boat in gear and stepped back from the steering wheel (my version of autopilot) to see if I could get any shots. The following was the best I could do.

Riding the bow wake

I decided to put the camera down and just enjoy the experience. After 15 minutes or so there seemed to be a lull in the action. But then there was a loud noise to the south. We all turned to see the dolphins in a line nearly across the channel from Jones Island to San Juan Island racing towards us. I grabbed the camera and clicked off the following series of shots.

Beginning of the stampede

It was truly amazing. There was so much energy! They continued north towards Flattop Island. We followed from a distance for five minutes and I headed back to Friday Harbor.

Heading north towards Flattop Island.

In the discussion that followed, no one I talked to knew of any other time that a pod of that size had been seen in the San Juans. Groups of 12 to 50 have been seen occasionally, but certainly not every year. So seeing what we guessed at as 300-400 Pacific white-sided dolphins was a no brainer, clearly a top five wildlife experience. And I'm really glad that Ivan, Chris, Katie, Jeanne, and Jim also got to see them from the two other boats that were out. Thanks Ivan for the call!

Life Down Under: Eelgrass Meadows

One of my favorite leisure activities  is scuba diving. The nearshore of Yellow is dominated by eelgrass, Zostera marina. On nearly all dives I just swim through the eelgrass to get to deeper water. Yet Zostera  meadows are extremely productive. Eugene Kozloff's book Seashore Life of the Northern Pacific Coast devotes nine pages (320-328) to the flora and fauna of eelgrass meadows. In Arthur Kruckeberg's book The Natural History of Puget Sound Country, he quotes Ronald Phillips of SPU when discussing the productivity of eelgrass. In its capacity to produce biomass from sunlight and inorganic substances, eelgrass rates second to sugar cane and ahead of wheat, oats, corn and rice and is ahead of other natural ecosystems such as the tall grass prairies of Wyoming. I always see interesting flora and fauna on the way through so the last two dives I spent the entire time adding to my photographs of eelgrass communities. The following sampling just scratches the surface of what you can see on a dive in eelgrass.

Almost all blades of Zostera have egg masses of the tiny snail Lacuna variegata, the chink shell, and in some cases the snail itself.

Looking closely at some of those snail shells reveals small hermit crabs living in shells on a blade of eelgrass. Isopods can also be seen on eelgrass blades.

Other marine invertebrates living in eelgrass include the hooded nudibranch, Melibe leonina. This strange looking nudibranch is worth the price of admission on any dive.

Hooded nudibranch

Open wide for chow!

Nudibranch sex!

Melibe, the next generation (egg mass)

Another couple nudibranchs that can be seen on the blades of eelgrass are the opalescent nudibranch, Hermissenda crassicornis, and the orange-tipped nudibranch, Janulus fuscus.

Opalescent nudibranch

Orange-tipped nudibranch

Numerous crab species also call the eelgrass beds home. The following are just a sampling of what lives here.

Red rock crab

Decorator crab

Northern kelp crab

Helmet crab

Many of these crabs are on the menu of mink and otter that forage in the eelgrass, particularly the red rock crab and helmet crab.

Mink with a red rock crab

River otter with a helmet crab

Of course there are fish here too.  A sampling of those seen regularly are:

Penpoint gunnel

Crescent gunnel

Who's looking at me?

Another color variant of the crescent gunnel

Saddleback gunnel

Right-eyed flounder (English sole?)

White-spotted greenling stealing food from a red rock crab

Of course mink and otters like fish too! Everything from gunnels to flounders to great sculpins.

Mink bringing home a gunnel

River otter with a gunnel

And finally, the fish that prompted me to write this blog, the Pacific spiny lumpsucker. This tiny fish is many divers favorite. When I posted this photo on Facebook, it got the following comments:

"..without a doubt, my favorite local fish."

"cute little lumpsucker"

"JEALOUS!!!!"

"One of my favourite fish!!! You are so lucky. I'm still waiting to see my first one diving."

Pacific spiny lumpsucker

Nesting Birds of the Yellow Island Area: Offshores, Transients, and Locals

Borrowing terminology from the orca populations, the nesting birds in the area fall into three groups: off-shores (nesting on nearby islands but visiting Yellow daily), transients (nest some years but not every year), and locals (nesting consistently on Yellow.)

Three species fall into the offshore group: black oystercatchers, bald eagles and osprey. Low Island, part of the USFWS San Juan Islands National Wildlife, is the closest island to Yellow and has had nesting oystercatchers every year that I've been on Yellow. Usually one pair nest but some years two and this year four pairs have been active in the area. They have fledged young as early as the first week of August and as late as the third week of September. They are successful approximately three years in five with eagle predation being the biggest problem.

Adult sharing a limpet with a juvenile

Adult and juvenile; note the difference in beaks and eye color.

Bald eagles nest on Cliff Island in what WDFW calls eagle territory 501. (Kathy named the eagles Levi and Jean.) Both of the pair use Yellow Island's Douglas firs as 'hunting platforms'  for everything from salmon to ducks and gulls to mink and seal afterbirth and dead seal pups during the summer pupping season.

Dead seal pup for chow.

Lingcod for breakfast

The osprey are farther away on Crane Island. I can see the nest with binoculars but sometimes need the scope to determine if they are in the nest. They only occasionally make it to the Yellow area to fish. We see them around Yellow more when the young have fledged.

Transients include belted kingfisher, northern rough -winged swallows, spotted towhees, fox sparrows, olive-sided flycatcher, and chestnut-backed chickadee. The high bank on the south side of the east spit has two nest holes. For many years kingfishers used one of the holes and the swallows the other. Around 2005 both disappeared, then several years later nested again but are now gone again.

Belted kingfisher bringing food to the nest.

Northern rough-winged swallows: adult feeding young.

Spotted towhees and fox sparrows nested until ten years ago. Now they both winter here and every spring I am hopeful they will stay. But towhees disappear first followed by the fox sparrows in early May.

Spotted towhee

Fox sparrow

Olive-sided flycatchers returned this year after a four year absence. They had nested consistently up to that point. Their "quick three beers" call is a familiar to all bird watchers.

Chestnut-backed chickadees are one of my favorite birds. They are cavity nesters. Many years ago we had a very windy winter and lost half a dozen snags, several that had been used as nest trees for both chickadees and house wrens. The chickadees have not nested since but the house wrens only missed one year.

Chestnut-backed chickadee (CBC)

CBC bedraggled after a bath

The locals are in order of decreasing number of nesting pairs: white-crowned sparrows, song sparrows, rufous hummingbirds, northwestern crows, American goldfinch, house finch, orange-crowned and yellow-rumped warblers, house wrens, American robins and Canada geese (also an offshore.)

White-crowned sparrows arrive in late March and immediately begin setting up territories. I have counted up to 30 adult birds and have guesstimated we may have 15 breeding pairs. Song sparrows are resident birds and there may be six to eight nesting pairs around the island.

White-crowned sparrow with an earwig for junior

Feeding time

Song sparrows also like earwigs

Song sparrow chick ready for chow!

Rufous hummingbirds also arrive in late March, about a month after the flowering currant first bloom. Yellow hosts four to five breeding pairs every year. The colorful meadow seen on the header of this blog is called Hummingbird Hill. On a sunny day during peak bloom, one might see up to a dozen hummers zipping about defending their favorite flowers.

Male rufous hummingbird above paintbrush

Male rufous hummingbird

Northwestern crows have decreased in breeding pairs over the years. When we arrived in 1999, the previous stewards told us we had 14 nesting pairs. I think that was accurate and  we were inundated with baby crows during breeding season. Now just two or three pairs nest each year and they have not been successful. Eagles and ravens are the reason why. Apparently baby crow is very tasty. In August Yellow becomes a post breeding roost site for crows from San Juan Island. I have counted up to 400 crows flying in at dusk.

Northwestern crow

Goldfinches and house finches have several pairs nesting each year and always fledge a few young. In the fall Yellow becomes a roost site for the house finches when there can be 50 to 100 roosting in the madronnes.

American goldfinches: adult feeding young

The warblers, orange and yellow-rumped, each have one to two pairs yearly and when not raising cowbirds, are usually successful fledging young.

Male orange-crowned warbler on snowberry

Feamle orange-crowned warbler in serviceberry

Orange-crowned warbler chicks on nest.

Female yellow-rumped warbler

House wrens show up in April and are one of our noisier nesters. Each year we get one or two pairs and I have seen half a dozen young flying around on successful years. Likewise, we get one or two robin pairs each year but they are not always successful. Robins, along with white-crowned sparrows are the first birds to start singing in the dawn chorus around 0420.

Finally, Canada geese nest on many of the islands in the San Juans. When I first came to Yellow in 1999, there were nesting pairs on nearby Low and Nob Islands as well as those attempting to nest on Yellow. These are a recent addition to the San Juans with the first nesters noted in 1986. Unfortunately geese are destroying the vegetation on many of the islands they nest island. Early on it was not unusual to see several families of geese in the area with up to a dozen goslings. However, in recent years I have not seen a single gosling. Eagles are again the main reason although I suspect river otters, ravens and gulls all partake in goose eggs and in some cases the young. There were three nest sites on Yellow this year with up to half a dozen eggs. All were unsuccessful. Similar numbers apply to Low Island. My take on it is that nature is again balancing things out. The geese were introduced when eagle numbers were still fairly low. Their populations rapidly expanded in the absence of predators. Now the San Juans may be at carrying capacity for eagles. The result is, at least in the Yellow Island area, that the geese are not being successful.

Canada goose pair