Non-bird animals (oh and a few birds)

Now I’ve covered most of the birds, it’s onto the non-bird animals, namely the seals! It is continuing to be a good year for Leopard seal sightings. In May we sighted Leopard seals on 25 occasions, compared to last year’s four sightings. Each of the seals are given a name and in May we saw; Max, Paddy Boy, Stephanie (my name sake), Maurice, and Pearce. Hannah our resident seal expert has been out every day patrolling the beaches for sightings. Most of the time they aren’t particularly hard to spot lying on the beaches, or head standing (sleeping vertically in the water with their flippers sticking up). Sometimes we even get to witness them eating, which involves lots of splashing and failing about. It’s not only the human residents of the island who are on the lookout for them eating. As soon as the birds notice a kill they surround the seal trying to grab any pieces. It’s a fairly dangerous occupation but usually the seal is too busy eating to pay attention to the birds.  June was another productive Leopard seal month with 20 sightings. Pearce the seal was first spotted here 22 years ago when he was already an adult, that is one old seal! Hannah managed to retrieve a second GLS logger from a seal, which is very exciting as it is only the fifth to ever be retrieved. I’ll update with where they have been once the data is analyzed. 

Sleepy Leopard seal on the beach.

July has seen a few less sightings but in recent days the number have picked up again. This morning whilst sitting on the jetty a Leopard seal swam over looking at us curiously until a Fur seal jumped in the water and it took off after it. The seal got away as he was a bit too big for the Lep to handle. 

 

Maurice in the bay yawning (photo by Hannah Wood)

Antarctic Fur seal numbers have been increasing on the island again, with some of the big males returning to the island, after being at sea for a few months feeding up following the breeding season. You can definitely tell they are back from the smell! They have a very strong musky odour that you just can’t get away from when walking on the beaches. The numbers are still fairly small, we can still walk along the beaches without getting chased very much. 

A female Antarctic Fur seal

One of the less pleasant aspects of our job is to help seals that have been entangled in fishing gear. This week we were all involved in helping a young male that had a thick layer of parcel tape wrapped tightly around his body. After a bit of a struggle and getting  pretty soggy socks we managed to cut through the tape. The rest of it should now fall off when he is swimming. It’s very satisfying to remove debris from the seals, as in most cases the seal would die when it grew too big and the debris cuts into it. Happy story this time. I just wish people would think about what they discard into the ocean. 

Young male Antarctic fur seal after we had cut the tape from his chest.

The Elephant seals are still hanging out on the beaches lying on piles of rotting kelp. A couple of weeks ago we had our first large(ish) male. He didn’t have the typical big nose, but he was huge! Later in the season we might get some fully grown adult males (fingers crossed). 

The big elephant seal male with me for scale (Photo by Craig Brown).

Elephant seal relaxing on a bed of stinky rotting kelp.

Seals done, it’s onto whales. Usually by this time of year the Southern Right Whales have migrated north from this area, but for some reason they are still here. We have sighted them off the southern side of the island on a number of occasions recently. The easiest way to identify them when they are quite far out to the sea is by what the blow looks like when they breathe out. Southern rights have a V-shaped blow, which is very distinctive. They could possibly be around because of the higher than average water and air temperatures. Hannah and I saw one very close to the cliffs the other day but it wasn’t in the mood to perform any tricks and didn’t show us its tail. 

So mammals completed, it’s back to birds. Over the winter period myself and Jerry (the other bird nerd) count Snowy Sheathbill and South Georgia Pintails (ducks) every couple of weeks. The counts correspond with the highest tides, and we count the same area as was done last year. The reason for the counts is to assess if the rat eradication programme that was carried out this year is having any effects on the birds.  Duck numbers seemed very low, but all of a sudden the ducks have made a comeback, and they are often heard beeping (they have a very weird electronic beeping call) through the night. 

South Georgia Pintail duck- the only duck I know that eats meat and beeps.

Snowy Sheathbill scavenging on a Gentoo penguin carcass.