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- June 1 1960
Howling S.W er [southwesterly wind] all day, intermittent
rain. Trip called off for a day, but as we
had to stand by, we only went to mossy cemetery
where I filmed the great variety of mosses. Climbed one
tree, half hoping to find a marbled murret's [murrelet's] nest:
limbs aloft laden with moss + ideal for a nest such
as Walter Feyer describes finding for this
Massett 4-5 years ago. He chopped down a
tree to discover nest on a bow, broken eggs,
and adult. He gave me the remains of the eggs.
In evening helped Walter [Feyer] look for his
lost bull. Skinned Muskrats until 2.am
June 2 [1960]
Day dawned clear and quite [quiet?]. We were roused from
our bunks on the ship by Alex [Taylor] arriving - at 6:15.
We decided to have a try for Langara [Island]. Quickly
we rearranged our debris, including sets of
muskrats guts spread out on Alex's [Taylor] dinner table -
dry and rather sad looking after all night sitting
out. We chugged along at 7 knots, slow enough
to be able to watch flocks of ww [white-winged], surf
scoters, a. [ancient] murrelets, sh [crossed out] few shags [cormorants]., basking
shark, hair seal, whale, few puffins, loons.
As approached Langara [Island], the murrelets became more
numerous, flocks of 10-15 seen - no young.
Surprised at the flatness of Langara [Island]- the lack of cliffs
13. [crossed out]
15
Sailed into a small bay at the south end of
Langara: Henslung Bay. Here, at the Co-op barge
we unloaded. As it was overcast but calm,
and we were burning to have a look around,
we put Sam Simpson's 3 hp [horsepower] motor on the back of
his 8' [foot] fiberglass boat. Spent most of the afternoon
trying to get it going. Finially [finally] we spluttered our way
westward along the south coast, barely making headway
against the tide. About a half a dozen pairs of pigeon
guillemots were scattered along the coast. The cliffs,
only 150' [feet] or so high, often covered with a
tangle of trees, were not white washed with the
activity of seabirds and [word crossed out] as I expected - and hoped.
No sign of falcons - only a few cormorants, some
coming off the rocks, but no sign of nests.
Soon got rough water so turned back. Set 5
rat traps. Hiked to bluff east of the bay +
discovered plenty of holes under logs + stumps. Many
killed murrelets - almost always in site of a
clump of feathers. About 1 clump in 10 very
fresh with a well picked carcass. As often on a
log or stump, seems likely could be a falcons
work, but some jobs could be that of rats -
or coons? [raccoons]. At the end of a 3' [foot] burrow I found
a [female symbol] A. [Ancient] murrelet + 2 eggs, almost ready to
hatch. Had an orgy of photographing then
completed the insult by collecting her + her eggs
(#70). Could not dig out a second murrelet in a
Marginalia: offshore large flock (1000?) of A. [Ancient] murrelets with young.
have been hatching for the last week (Alex T. [Taylor]).
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