Monthly Archives: March 2012

Green tags 5086/4665

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For the past few days there have been 2 female elephant seals moulting around Great Race.  The first picture was taken on Thursday in the channel between the main island and South Seal Rocks.  At the time I was only able to see her one green tag # 5086.  I have also noticed one of them hauling out in the East Bay.

This morning when I went to launch the whaler she was on the boat ramp and was pretty stubborn about moving out of the way.

I was able to get a closer look at her tail and see a second green tag # 4665.

Visible in these last two photos, one of the tags has become a substrate for gooseneck barnacles.  I appreciate that someone is working to tag and track these animals but I have a hard time believing that these tags aren’t a nuisance to the animals and that over the long distances they travel and hunt these wouldn’t create a noticeable amount of drag and encumbrance.

On Friday afternoon Erik and Laura came out to Race Rocks in second nature with a group of student divers as well as 6 visitors who toured around the island.  Erik cleaned and moved the underwater camera, Pam got a good image capture. There was a dive boat in the reserve this morning.

Artist on the Rock

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On Wednesday I picked up Martin Machacek and his wife Dana of Martycultural Art at Pearson College and brought them to Race Rocks for an overnight stay. Since 1993 Marty has focussed his artistic talent on architecture and has developed a unique style that is part of an  “architectural etherealism movement”.  He has been commissioned to do a second painting of Race Rocks, a print of his first Race Rocks painting is pictured here.  Marty and Dana spent a lot of their time here outside taking photographs and appreciating the island’s very dynamic quality of light. You can find Marty and Dana in the inner harbour of Victoria throughout the “harbour season” and can order prints and cards online.  It was a pleasure to host them, looking forward to seeing the new painting!

Moulting elephant seal

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On Monday a young moulting female elephant seal showed up near the boat ramp. She spent a couple days on the jetty until a NE wind picked up. Squall is still on the S side of the house, she seems to be mostly finished moulting now.  This morning she was making her way N towards boat ramp but Misery perked up and growled, she turned back and stayed on the cistern.

On Monday around dusk a pod of about 7 orca whales passed by the S side of the reserve near the Rosedale Reef buoy.

It has been quite calm and clear the past few days but a 20 knot NE wind this morning.

Project Week-part 3 (final)

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Yesterday was the last day of project week, in the morning I brought students back to campus in two trips on the whaler.  It has been great group to have out here for the past week, they have helped out with several projects and tasks, endured some stormy weather, survived without a shower, cooked their own food (and shared a few good meals with me), and experienced the isolation and richness of the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve.  During their stay they were very conscious of the time and resources required for importing fuel and generating energy and fresh water and did a great job minimizing consumption and waste.

In the final days of the week students helped out with transferring diesel to the furnace tanks and cleaning cupboards in the science centre kitchen.  Throughout the week the group maintained a daily count of animals in the reserve, the count is included below.

 

Feb 27 Feb 28 Feb 29 Mar 1 Mar 2 Mar 3
Harbor seals 45 50 10 22 20 16
Elephant seals 2 2 2 2 2 2
Sea lions 2 5 5 5 6 6
Gulls 57 23 33 43 31 26
Cormorants 60 27 29 40 56 32
Oyster Catchers 3 5 3 6 7
Bald Eagles 1 1 1
Brown Sandpiper 4 12 8 6
White Sandpiper 5 3 4
Pigeon Guillemots 22 150
Common Mergansers 2
Harlequin Ducks 12 7 6

Thanks to the group for their contributions and good company.

 

Project Week- part 2

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Squall decided to position herself right next to the tank room on Wednesday so we had to put a hold on the siding work.  We moved over the the South side of the main house to work on deconstructing an old cache and started work on footings to build a new compost container.

 

On Thursday Squall made her way around the NE side of the main house and came to rest  right in the middle of our new work site.  Thanks Squall, now that project is on hold.  Fortunately the students did a good job of removing all the nails from the scrap wood, Squall was pretty interested in the 2×4’s.

 

 

So, it was back to the siding work yesterday. The students really took the lead on this project: removing the remaining panels, cleaning out rusted nails, replacing the panels that were lost, and putting the siding back up with stainless steel screws. Job well done!

 

 

 

We also put together a third goose exclosure yesterday on the lawn between the science centre and the energy building.  Misery (in the background) has been relaxing near the science centre yesterday and today, keeping the students company.