Monthly Archives: April 2014

Elephant seal tag: green 7688

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Clear skies.  Light Easterly wind all day. Beaufort Force 2-3
A beautiful day in the Reserve, but the barometer is falling and there is a front forecasted for tomorrow.
[I’m trying to learn the Beaufort wind scale off the top of my head, and get into the habit of checking the barometric tendency so that will be part of my weather log from now on]

I was sitting on the South edge of Great Race when an Elephant seal popped up to look at me and had what appeared to be a radio transmitter on its back. It promptly disappeared, but came up the boat ramp an hour later. I’m keen to find out if the researchers retrieved the transmitter and have the track of this seal. I am really curious about where these Northern-living Northern Elephant seals go when they are not in the reserve.

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Ladybugs

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Clear skies. Light variable winds. Low West swell. Glassy this evening.

Tour Boats: 6

Chris brought out a group of visitors affiliated with Blyth Academy/International for a tour of the reserve and tower late this afternoon.

Great Race has a massive population of ladybugs. I first noticed them on my Fall shift, and I still find them all over the place. They are especially fond of hiding on firewood, behind door latches, and in the sedum (stonecrop). I also regularly find them inside my house, sometimes I’ll look down from my book in the evening and see one crawling on my shirt. I have no idea what the species is, or why they are so abundant, but if you know an entomologist who specializes in Ladybugs send them my way.


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Clear skies

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Light variable winds in the morning. Moderate West in the afternoon. Low West swell.

The Elephant seals all decided to move to the grassy area in front (West) of the Keepers house. They are all piled up pretty much right outside my front windows. Even the juvenile has come to join the party. On clear days, usually around 1300, several seals head down the boat ramp to the waters edge to cool off. They also will doze up against the jetty in the shade. This morning the seal with scabby-molt spend some time blowing bubbles and rolling in a puddle. I can understand the rolling, but I’m not sure what the purpose of 10 minutes of bubble blowing is, although it’s pretty entertaining.

The generator ran great again this evening. The inverter that was replaced/repaired on the Winter shift has been running really hot when the generator is on. I attached a thermometer to it today and will keep an eye on it.

Off station from 1100-1600 for groceries and errands.

West Wind

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Strong West wind all day. Mixed weather, everything from clear skies to sideways rain.

4 tour boats
DND blasting: Several super loud blasts late morning.

The generator started up just fine this afternoon. Yeah!

There are now 10 Elephant seals on Great Race. There are 6 below the tower by the hose box, two in the garden West of the Keeper’s house, and two lying just up from the tank shed. Needless to say, there are a lot of detours off the paths for me to get between the buildings since they seem to like sleeping on the very edge of the paths. I found another Canada goose nest today on the very edge of the island just East of the big yellow diesel tank. There are 7 nests on the island: on the East beach behind a rough stack rock wall, one next to the compost pile on the South side of the Keeper’s house, one just East of the base of the tower, one under the tower stairs, the nest I found today just East of the diesel tank, a nest West of the Science house underneath a log, and one on the East side of the camera on the bluff. There is still one pair of geese that I am pretty sure have a nest right in the middle of the island by the Science house, but I haven’t been able to find it yet. It looks like the Snow Goose is gone, but the lone Cackling Goose is still around. The Sea lions are still camped out on West Rocks. There were 4 Bald Eagles on South Rocks this morning. The Eagles, both juveniles and adults, are regularly flying over the island and stirring up the Gulls, but I have yet to see a Gull get taken by an Eagle. The Barn swallows are still cruising around, no sign yet of any nests. The Guillemots are still spending a lot of time on the jetty. And I’ve been watching the Oyster catchers, but I haven’t seen any nesting behaviour.

-Cleaned up the generator room
-Keeper’s house chores: laundry, cleaned the stand up freezer, tidied up the basement workshop, replaced some light bulbs, cleaned the really dirty windows, turned the North entryway into the best tea/reading/guitar spot in the house.

Generator Repair

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Light wind and clear skies for most of the day. Picked up to strong North-East/ East winds with rain this evening. This wind direction makes the South-East door whistle like crazy. The water is a total mess right now.

5 tour boats

DND blasting: several small blasts in the morning. 3 loud ones in the afternoon.

Erik brought Ric the electrician out with the new voltage regulator this morning. It took some fiddling, but the generator is back in working order. I ran it today for a few hours, along with the desalinator. Happy to be able to do some laundry.

The Elephant seals put on a good show for Ric. There are 8 seals lounging next to the pathways between the boat shed and energy building. They are the strangest creatures to live with. There is one juvenile that is getting  bolder with each day, slowly making it further up the path towards where all the other seals are piled up next to the hose box. There is one with scabby-molt that always stays apart from the group and avoids any seals that come to visit. There is one large adult seal that seems to be blind in one eye; it’s left eye has a hollow, white look to it. One seal has a flipper tag, but I couldn’t get a photo of it. Will try again tomorrow.

Summer shift change has been organized. Julie Bowser will be returning for her third shift starting mid-June and ending in late August.

Chen caerulescens : Snow Goose –Race Rocks Taxonomy

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Snow Goose

Lesser Snow Goose, Chen caerulescens

Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Vertebrata
Class Aves
Order Anseriformes
Family Anatidae
Subfamily  Anserinae
Genus Chen
Species caerulescens
Common Name: Snow Goose or Blue Goose

 

This is the first observation and photo we have of a snow goose at  Race Rocks. Ecoguardian Courtney Edwards took this photo on April 21, 2014. These geese migrate in great numbers through the lower mainland area at this time of year.

Cackling goose and Snow goose

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Light Wind in the morning, String Westerly in the evening. Cloudy with scattered showers. Rain in the evening. Tour boats:8 1030 flyover by a small float plane The Cackling Goose and Snow Goose (note — a new record for Race Rocks ) are still foraging on the grass on Great Race. The Canada Geese often chase these two smaller geese. The Sea lions all moved to the East side of West Rocks this morning. Up until today, they had been on South Rocks since I got here in the middle of March. Eagles are regularly flying over Great Race and making all the Gulls take flight, but I have yet to see an Eagle grab a Gull.

-Ran the fire pump -Cleaned all the fire hose fittings -Fixed tank shed storage door latch -Worked on SOPs

Rain

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Cloudy skies, with rain. Light Northerly winds. Calm seas.

2 tour boats

The Canada Geese seemed pleased with all the puddles of freshwater from the rain overnight. They were drinking and splashing/bathing all day. There was an Elephant seal on the grass in front of the desalinator bunker this morning. Then, after an hour or so of growling and gurgling, she just up and and left. Still lots of Eagles. The Gulls are getting pretty busy, especially up on the peak of the roof. I was wondering what they were up to all night, smashing around up there. This morning I went out and watched them do this sideways flying-skip manoeuvre while one chases the other. Their clickety-clackety bird claws make a ruckus on the sheet metal roof.

Checked the battery bank at sunrise. It still had a decent charge, even after a cloudy day. Chris says he’s found a supplier for the broken voltage controller, which could arrive tomorrow.

-Started a GIS project for Race Rocks using the free program QGIS and an orthophoto from the CRD Atlas.
-Built and set up 3 more goose exclusion fences
-Cleaned Keeper’s house