Mitlenatch Island continues to be a refuge in the middle of the Georgia Strait while emerging as a reliable part of the local eco economy. These 2018 season highlights show how the nature of visits to the island has changed over the years. The majority of visitors used to be family groups but we now see commercial tour boats with up to 20 passengers coming out to see the whales and sea lions. With the exception of Misty Isles and one or two others, they do not come ashore. The tour boats are offering the chance to see awe-inspiring sea creatures, and Mitlenatch is blessed with an abundance of sea lions, killer whales and now humpback whales. This is a different experience than moving slowly on foot among meadows observing the progression of blossoms or waiting for the eggs of a very ordinary species, the glaucous winged gull, to hatch. Fortunately, there are still many visitors including the MIST volunteers, who appreciate this pace and the beautiful surroundings.
2018 season highlights
MIST has been recognized by the Ministry of Environment at the “Volunteer Group of the Year” for 2018. All volunteers played a part in MIST earning this award. But I would like to point out the tremendous work that Christine and Cec Robinson undertook this spring in organizing the removal of garbage from the shores of our little island. Thank you volunteers for all that you do for the plants and wildlife on Mitlenatch.
The crossing was calm for three volunteers. They discovered the first camas in bloom. There were good bird sightings on NW Bay and Camp Bay including harlequins, mergansers, surfbirds, turnstones and grebes. About 400 gulls on West Hill and 130 at the gull blind were pairing up. They weathered a series of storms and following a daylong gale, there was an increase in songbirds including a ruby-crowned kinglet. Some visitors helped by towing the porta boat around to NW Bay.
On week 5 in May, MIST volunteer and the students from the University of Vancouver Island spotted a large pod of killer whales moving north 300 to 400 metres off shore. One visitor, back on Mitlenatch for the first time in 40 years, reported that the gulls were vacating the island to roost elsewhere overnight. They return at about 5:30 am. The variety of birds increased with golden crowned sparrow, white crowned sparrow, dark eyed junco, American pipit, and orange crowned warbler spotted as well as a herring gull on NW Bay.
Mid-May, three volunteers were delighted to find the camas still blooming and a thick profusion of chocolate lilies. The cycle of life continued around them. There was plenty of gull mating going on and signs of cormorants beginning to set up nests. A second family of canada goose with four goslings emerged and the first family dwindled to two goslings. A sea lion floated with its belly up and head underwater. A volunteer counted 650 pelagic cormorants (PECO) 100 doubled crested (DCCO).
Mid June, two volunteers completed a cormorant count spotting 35 DCCO nests and 214 PECO nests, indicating that they are not doing too badly this year. They watched an adult raven introduce the fledgling to the delicacy of cormorant egg. A large humpback was feeding below the gull blind while two adults and two young fed off of Camp Bay.
Wind and waves
A few days later on Canada Day, Geoff Meggs and Jan O’Brien arrived 21 years after their first tour of duty on Mitlenatch. Jan heard the call of the Virginia rail as the boat dropped anchor in Camp Bay. By days end a NW wind picked up with large waves crashing onto the beach as the sky turned a lurid orange. Gale force wind kept visitors at home. A naturalist visited the island and also subscribed to Misty Isles owner’s theory that resident eagles will defend a territory from intruders. This came to mind as they watched two adults and a juvenile harass the gulls. This is far fewer than the seven or eight we saw in previous years. One evening, eight Great Blue Heron arrived majestically in Camp Bay.
MIST’s lead on plant phenology arrived with another volunteer. The two of them had worked together on Mitlenatch in 1972, returning in 2015 and again this year. They spent some time looking at the bitter cherry trees near the blind that are suffering from an unknown disease that produces clear secretions and eventually death. It could be a peach tree borer or bacterial canker of cherry. Much work was done on the phenology trail so that it now includes additional species and has been renumbered 1 to 32. It is now a circular route around the island.
Two volunteers arrived with two 15-year-old friends from Quadra Island. They gave a big endorsement to the revised plant phenology trail. They found 18 new Rein Orchids and three new Ladies’ Tresses Orchids, as well as two baby mice in one sleeping bag. The teenagers took them home to raise. A family of five river otters, two parents and three young, came ashore in the evening at Well Bay. During the week they were spotted with birds in their mouths exhibiting “their less appealing dark nature”.
That concludes our 2018 season highlights. As always, we’re looking forward to the year to come!