Daily Seawater
Temperature and Density Record Shore Station
Time Zone: PDT
Station Race Rocks Lightstation
Month: MayYear: 2014
ObserverLester B. Pearson College of the Pacific
Monthly Archives: May 2014
Compost Freedom
Clear skies. Light, variable S-SW winds.
Barometer dropped a little, and the levelled out. Forecast continues for daily afternoon blow outs.
6 tour boats
3 recreational fishing boats on the edge
1 boat jigging for rockfish in the reserve off of West Rocks. I radioed them on 68 and 16, they didn’t reply, just put her in gear and left the reserve in a hurry.
All of the Canada geese have abandoned their nests, including the mean-spirited pair by the compost pile. Yeah! No more aerial assaults while taking out my food scraps. Sadly however, the timing is terrible because the Gulls are now starting to fly at me in a few places. If they would just make their nests a little further from the paths neither of us would have a problem. I spent the afternoon chopping firewood next to the crane platform. I turned the saw off after a while to get more logs and two curious elephant seals came up the walkway. The went over to and scoped out my pile of freshly cut firewood, and sniffed at the saw. Then one of them rolled around in the saw dust for a while.
-3 transects done on the West side of the island
-Firewood in the afternoon.
Submarine
Strong West winds. Clouds. Steady Force 6.
The barometer is on the rise. The forecast is for it to be light-15W tomorrow.
No tour boats today. Strange.
2 halibut boats
All of the Canada Geese have abandoned their nests now. But they are starting their annual feather moult, so they’ll be around for a while yet. Garry says they leave in June when all the fresh water puddles dry out. I found another Oyster catcher nest on the bluff between the jetty and the tank shed. Probably the most stressful place the pair could have chosen to nest, but apparently they nest there every year, so it must work for them. Still plenty of Elephant seals in the reserve. I watched them playing in the rapids this morning at low tide. A lot of them are in the water first thing in the morning and they wrestle on the seaweed covered rocks and eventually come back up the boat ramp for a busy day of laying around on Great Race. The large adult male has finally started to moult; It was hard to take him seriously before, but now with his moulty nose he looks even more ridiculous. No sign of the White Fronted Goose.
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- Tagged #9158
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- Tagged #9158
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- Branded 224Y
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- Submarine!
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- Puffiest cloud
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- Eagles
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- Eagles
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- Swiftsure
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- Comb jelly and a raindrop
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- Kelp swirls
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- Elephant seal playing in the rapids by Anita’s Isle
-Keeper’s house water heater kicked the bucket today :(
-Collected data for intertidal transect 5
Romanzoffia tracyi : Mist maidens–The Race Rocks Taxonomy
Romanzoffia tracyi
Scientific classification
Family: Boraginaceae (Borage)
Subfamily: Hydrophylloideae (Waterleaf)
Genus: Romanzoffia
Species: R. tracyi (Jepson)
Common name: Tracy’s mistmaiden
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- Botanical drawing
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- Close up
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- B1
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- Locations of R Tracyi (2014)
General: Perennial herb from well-developed, brown-woolly basal tubers; stems several, ascending, long glandular-hairy, 2-12 cm tall [1].
Animal Census
String Westerlies. Clear skies. Force 6-7. The barometer has been fairly steady all day. The forecast is for the strong westerlies to continue. Big tides this week, down to 0.3m and up to 2.3m. The current running around +/- 5 knots each day. 6 tour boats 2 halibut boats Animal Census Elephant seal: 20 Harbour Seal: 152 Steller Sea lion: 14 California Sea lion: 12 Eagle: 3 Canada Goose: 36 + 7 goslings Oyster Catcher: 8 Pigeon Guillemot: 161 Gull: 303 Continue reading
Swiftsure day 2
Clouds with rain. Light winds. Force 3-4
The barometer has levelled out as of this evening. Strong westerlies forecasted for tomorrow, but for some reason today I just don’t think the forecast is right.
12 tour boats
2 halibut boats
The Swiftsure boats were steadily passing by all day with their colourful spinnakers flying in the light winds.
Business as usual in the reserve today. 3 Bald eagles in the am, two of the juveniles have really light coloured mottling. The Elephant seals are mostly behind the boat shed. ~20 California Sea lions have camped out on the rocks East of the jetty. The Canada Geese are roaming the island in a slightly angry and aggressive pack. The gulls are getting a bit defensive about their nest sites, which means they are starting to attack me as I walk around the island. Lots of jellies in the water by the jetty at high tide.
-finished bathroom mini-reno
-finished spring cleaning Keeper’s House
Swiftsure Race
Strong Westerlies all day. Clear skies. Force 6. Barometer took a turn around midday and started to fall. Forecast is for the wind to ease a bit tomorrow. 26 tour boats 1 dive boat 4 halibut boats on the edge of the reserve 1 boat jigging on the East edge
A busy day on the water
It was a busy day on the waters of the Juan de Fuca today, with way more humans than usual out on the water because of the Swiftsure sailing race. The Swiftsure boats passed by this morning, along with plenty of spectator boats, and several marine tour boats. Most boats went between Race Rocks and Bentick Island, and a few went on the South side of the reserve. There were about 6 tour boats going in and out of the reserve as the sailboats passed by. The first boat on the return run to Victoria (from Cape Flattery) just passed back by Race Rocks; flying a spinnaker and going crazy fast.
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- Some of the first boats past Race Rocks this morning
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- Looking SE from the tower
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- A pretty, red boat
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- HMCS Oriole
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- just a reminder that we have a lighthouse
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- Oyster catcher nest
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- G.imbricatus in bloom: Originally from south-eastern Europe/Turkey, it has been growing unattended here for over 60 years.
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- White Fronted Goose
Mixed weather
Light variable winds in the morning, rain. Cleared up midday, and was strong Westerlies by late afternoon.
6 tour boats
3 halibut boats
Congratulations to all the Pearson College students on their last day of school.
Swiftsure race tomorrow.
Off Station until 1400 for groceries and errands
Trevor Anderson -a Visit to the Maritime Museum-2014
On May 22 I took Treo Anderson, former lightkeeper at Race Rocks to the BC Maritime Museum to see if we could find the artifacts he had donated back in the 1960s. The museum staff welcomed us and after an interview they recorded with Trev, they took us back into the storeroom to see if we could find the original Race Rocks Barometer. The telescope was displayed in a case so was easier to come across.
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- Trevor views the original Race Rocks telescope in a display case.
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- The Race Rocks telescope
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- Looking through storage for the Race Rocks barometer
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- Museum staff member holds up the Race Rocks barometer
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- Racerocks barometer from the early history of the lighthouse
Trev was pleased that the artifacts he had rescued from disposal at Race Rocks still had safe storage at the BC Maritime Museum.
See the other posts on the Andersons
Fog
Fog this morning. Clear midday. Cloudy late. Moderate to strong West wind all day. Force 5. Barometer has been falling all day. Forecast is for the West wind to continue tomorrow.
12 tour boats
5 halibut boats in the am
No sign of the injured Steller Sea lion this morning. He left Great Race sometime last night. While looking for him with the spotting-scope from the top of the tower I saw another Steller Sea lion on Middle Rocks with a band around its neck.
-Continued Keeper’s house bathroom mini-reno
-Washed Keeper’s House windows
-Set up permanent electric fencing wiring in tank shed