Daily Archives: Saturday,December 28, 2013

Sea Lion Notes from Race Rocks

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ER Warden’s Report by G. Fletcher.

On December 28, 2013  I was out at Race Rocks doing the Christmas Bird Count. While there I made several observations concerning the Northern and California Sea lions. There are only a few California sea lions left after the heavy influx of the fall. The number of Northerns on the South island is still fairly high ( over 100)

sealionhouse On the  November 28 log there were still 479 Stellars and 555 Californias. This image taken in the fall, shows how much they came up near the houses where there wasn’t an electric fence to repel them:

The vegetation of the areas on both sides of the island were heavily impacted by the sea lions this fall.  In the following images those areas that are now brown are  normally green.

sealionhauloutarea

North East of Ecoguardian’s residence

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South of the Marine Education House

I observed from the tower an unusual behaviour shown in the image below. It is not unusual in that the California Sea Lions are rafting. What is unusual is that Northern sea lions flank them on both sides without having their fins raised out of the water.

2013-12-28raftsealionm

Be sure to click for a large image of sea lion rafting

 

Christmas Bird Count

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Overcast, wind light.

I went off island in the morning and dropped two visitors off at Pedder Bay. At 0930 I Picked up Garry Fletcher and local bird expert, Val George for the annual Christmas bird count. We traveled, slowly, out Pedder Bay through Bentinck Channel and across to Race Rocks, going between Middle Rock and West Rock. Val and Garry did a count from the top of the tower. I brought them back to Pearson College around 1300.

There was a relatively high number of sports fishing boats out today, a factor of good weather and the holidays. In the waters between Albert Head and Beechy Head there were 35 boats, 3 of which were underway (not fishing). We count the boats daily for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. This was the highest count I have recorded this month.

I returned to RR around 1630 on a fairly low tide so got to test the new boat dolly at the bottom of the ramp. It did still stop once on the curve going down the ramp but was way better than previously. Mounting the boat on the dolly was easier and faster than before too. the rails at the bottom of the ramp were a bit overgrown, will try to clean it on a low tide.

-cleaned solar panels

Christmas Bird Count at RR 2013

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Also-Warden’s Report for Dec 28, 2013.
Link to the Index for the past records of the Christmas Bird Counts

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Song Sparow on the left and Savannah Sparrow on the right of this lichen covered log on the West side of Great race Rocks..

Ecoguardian Alex Fletcher picked up Val George and myself from the Pearson College docks mid- morning and we started our count by water in Pedder Bay, then across Rocky Point, through Eemdyck Channel and then across Race Passage to Race Rocks via West Rocks and Middle Rocks. The following includes only the Race Rocks portion of the census:

Observers:  Val George, Garry Fletcher and Alex Fletcher

2013  Christmas Bird Count – Summary      Date ___Dec28___Area or Sub-Area__Race Rocks Ecological Reserve__
Observers (in field)—3 Leader Garry Fletcher
Temp—-6 Wind NE,  3.5km Time Start__10:30___a.m.   Finish___12:00__a.m.
A.M. Clear,calm partly cloudy Moving water open ocean around
for your entire count team # hours (on foot) 1.5 distance (on foot) .35km, and top of tower
Northwestern Crow 2
Common Raven 2
Thayer’s Gull 200
Canada Goose 6
Black Oystercatcher 30
Black Turnstone 14
Harlequin Duck 10
Bufflehead 8
 Song Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 1
Glaucous-winged Gull 20
 Common Murre 4
Pacific Loon 2
Common Loon 1
Brandt’s Cormorant 80
Double-crested Cormorant 120
Pelagic Cormorant 17
Bald Eagle  (adult) 1
Bald Eagle
(immature		 7
Total Number of Birds 528
Total Number of Species 17