Monthly Archives: November 2014

Cold, Sea Lion Brands and Beautiful Sunset

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The wind blew from the northeast, between 15 and 25 knots.  The barometer rose in the morning from 1024 hPa and then dropped to 1020 hPa.  The visibility was unlimited, with great views of Mt. Baker and many other wonders of the Salish Sea.  The temperature reached a high of 2oC as I am writing this at 21:00.

The dive boat from Ogden Point visited at 11:00.  The group was diving around Middle Rock.

I was going to leave on the Race Rocks boat this morning for a short trip into Pedder Bay to drop off garbage and pick up gas.  A lot of garbage is being swept onto the shores of the ecological reserve.  I thought I had a good window to get away from the jetty. Although, the northeasterly swell started to pick up just as I was putting the boat in the water.  The waves were too high as they rolled into the jetty, so I changed my plans and raised the boat back into the boat house.

Two branded sea lions were spotted today.  See the photos and captions below for 359Y and 975Y.  In November there were 20 different brands spotted around Race Rocks. Many of those california and steller sea lions had never been spotted before at Race Rocks.

I collected depth soundings from all the tanks around campus for the month end report. 475L of diesel was used over the past month to power the generator and heat the houses. Last year in November, 737L of diesel was used.  The reduction of diesel use by a third  this year has come from increased power output from the solar array as well as the wood stove, which was installed last winter in the Ecoguardian’s House.  There are lots more changes being made to transition to more sustainable power sources.  Stay tuned to this blog to read about them as they are introduced.

Seawater Data for November 2014

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Station: Race Rocks  Ecological Reserve —–November, 2014,
Recorded daily by the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve Ecoguardian on behalf of Pearson College UWC
Submitted monthly to: Peter Chandler, Institute of Ocean Sciences, Sidney, BC.
This file may be copied and pasted into a spreadsheet for further analysis. Find other monthly records here:

Date Time Sea Jar Hydro- meter No. Observed Density YSI Salinity YSI Temp °C
Temp. Temp.
°C °C
1 10:53         31.1 11.2
2 10:12         30.8 11.2
3 10:40         30.9 11.1
4 11:10         30.9 11.0
5 11:42         30.0 11.1
6 12:13         30.9 11.1
7 12:41         28.7 11.1
8 12:30         30.9 11.0
9 12:36         31.0 10.9
10 12:54         30.9 10.9
11 13:12         29.7 10.7
12 9:07         30.8 10.4
13 9:25         30.8 10.2
14 10:31         30.5 9.9
15 10:36         30.0 9.7
16 10:47         30.6 9.5
17 10:01 9.6 9.5 10802 236 30.6 9.7
18 10:20         30.4 9.7
19 10:40         29.5 9.7
20 11:01         29.9 9.8
21 11:12         30.2 9.7
22 11:04         30.2 9.7
23 11:23         30.5 9.5
24 11:57         30.8 9.5
25 12:37         30.1 9.5
26 13:21         31.0 9.5
27 8:28         31.1 9.5
28 8:26         31.0 9.4
29 8:25         31.1 9.0
30 8:49         31.1 8.9
Mean*           30.5 10.1

Snow Day!

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The wind was howling up to 38 knots from the north northeast last night, bringing with it a low of -2oC and a couple centimetres of snow.  The temperature stayed just below 0oC for the rest of the day.  The barometer rose from 999 hPa to 1022 hPa throughout the day, making for a bluebird sky.  During the daylight hours, the wind continued to blow from the north northeast between 10 and 20 knots.

There was one whale watching boat seen in the reserve in the mid afternoon.  Six divers from Ogden Point were exploring the undersea world of the reserve in the late morning.

The snow didn’t seem to faze the animals.  The sea lions barked just as loud and the bald eagles tormented the gulls just as much.  Some of the snow melted from the sun.  There is still ice on some of the paths and rocks, as well as a light dusting of snow on the grass and in the places that were shaded by buildings and rocks.

Other than taking photos of snow, the tasks of the day included: running the desalinator, topping up the batteries with the generator, deconstructing the old washroom in the basement of the Marine Science Centre to accommodate the new composting toilet (it’s almost finished), fixing the wheelbarrow, testing the salinity and temperature of the water, and doing a load of laundry.

Peregrine, Eagles and Wind

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The wind gusts reached 39 knots from the west this morning.  The general wind trend throughout the day was between 11 and 32 knots from the west, with slight fluctuations to the north and south.  The barometer generally went down from 1001 hPa to 997 hPa, with a few dips upwards as the sun broke through the clouds.

The approaching Arctic blast of cold weather will bring a chance that the thermometer might drop from 7oC to below 0oC tonight for the first time in a while.  Heating coils and warm thoughts have been deployed around the buildings to prevent pipes from freezing.

There was one whale watching boat seen in the reserve at 12:30.  A couple boats gathered to view humpback whales to the east of the reserve in the mid afternoon.

There were a couple of bald eagles around for most of the day, one adult and one juvenile. At 10:00 in the morning, a peregrine falcon was chasing after the juvenile eagle over the north of Great Race and Middle Channel.  The size difference of the eagle and peregrine took me by surprise.  I had never seen the much smaller peregrine next to a bald eagle. This might be the same peregrine that Pam Birley has seen over the past week.  It had dark chest feathers, which indicates it is a juvenile peregrine falcon.

The desalinator worked hard today to make about 800 litres of fresh water.  With a maximum output of 1.5 litres per minute, the desalinator is a very energy intensive way to create water.  Although, when the water is heated and added to a mix of leaves, spices and herbs, it makes great tea.  A necessity for Race Rocks.

Weekly Census

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The wind varied in velocity and direction throughout the day.  Fog settled in overnight as the wind blew between 15-25 knots from the southwest.  In the daylight hours, the wind blew from the south and west between 7-32 knots.  The barometer dropped slightly from 1008 hPa to 1004 hPa.  It was overcast with patches of sun and rain throughout the day. The temperature reached a high of 12.8oC at noon.

There was one whale watching boat seen in the reserve, in the mid afternoon.

I saw humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) twice today, both times from the kitchen window.  The whales were surfacing just south of Great Race Rocks, within the boundaries of the Ecological Reserve.  At 9:30am, I saw two humpbacks blow, surface and dive westward.  At 3:20pm, I saw one humpback surface and dive eastward.  I am not positive if they were different whales, so I counted them as two in the census.

Two branded steller sea lions were seen seen today.  76Y was a pup in 2002 when it was branded in St. George Reef, California.  443Y was branded in 2013, when it was a pup at Rogue Reef, Oregon.

Here are the results of the weekly census:

Humpback Whale: 2
Steller Sea Lion: 244
California Sea Lion: 216
Harbour Seal: 39
Northern Elephant Seal: 4
Bald Eagle: 5 (2 adults, 3 juveniles)
Canada Goose: 18
Crow: 2
Harlequin Duck: 4
Double Crested Cormorant: 61
Pelagic Cormorant: 142
Black Oystercatcher: 25
Gull: 411
Black Turnstone: 8
Rock Sandpiper: 6
Surfbird: 11
Savannah Sparrow: 2
Fox Sparrow: 2

Birds and Sea Lion Brands

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The wind was calm, not rising above 10 knots.  It blew from the northeast, swinging around to the south in the middle of the day, and settling on the east at night.  The barometer dropped from 1020 hPa to 1009 hPa, with a few short rises throughout the day.  The temperature reached a high of 10.8oC, at the ground station.

There was one whale watching boat seen in the reserve, just before sunset.

Pam Birley, the dedicated webcam viewer from the UK, spotted a peregrine falcon again this morning.  She was able to capture a photo of the peregrine from Camera 1, see below.  Pam thinks it’s a young one, because it has dark brown chest feathers.

I wasn’t able to spot the peregrine, but I saw two branded steller sea lions.  See the photos below of brands 205Y and 405Y.  The steller sea lion branded 405Y was born in 2013, at Rogue Reef, Oregon.  The steller sea lion branded 205Y is a female born in 2004 at St. George’s Reef, California.   The sea lion is well known to Pat Gearin, from the NOAA. Pat emailed me with some details about the sea lion: “She is an unusual animal because she has not returned to CA to have her pups but instead has settled at Carroll Island, WA where she has had at least two pups over the last 4 years.  I think the animal next to her in your first photo may be her juvenile which is still nursing.  Steller’s sometimes nurse their pups for over 2 years.”

Fog Looks Loud from a Distance

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The wind gusted overnight up to 28 knots from the west.  It decreased in the early hours and switched around to the northeast, blowing between 6 and 17 knots.  The barometer rose slightly in the first half of the day, from 1019 hPa to 1024 hPa at 11:00, afterwards dropping to 1020 hPa.  There was a light rain for most of the daylight hours, with low cloud cover and fog looming around Race Rocks.  The visibility was between 1 and 2 nautical miles.  In the evening, the visibility increased between the periods of rain.

There were no boats seen in the reserve today.

The fire pump got a good nonemergency workout today, running for several hours to fill up the salt water cistern.  The cistern feeds the desalinator, which hydrates me and other humans on Race Rocks.  The ominous fog convinced me that it was a good idea to wear ear protection whenever I was on the south side of the island, where the fog horn is located.  I was worried about the sea lions being startled by the fog horn, that I was sure would go off at any moment.  Obviously, they knew better than me since the fog never reached Race Rocks.  There is an instrument half way up the tower that reads how light passes through air, switching on the high pitched fog horn when necessary.  The ear protection is quite comfortable, like earmuffs.  I caught myself wearing them when I was nowhere near the fog horn.  Ready for the fog horn and rain, I zigzagged all over the island doing work: getting rid of the algae on exterior walls, topping up the batteries with the generator, testing the salinity of the sea water, sweeping the goose poop off the paths, picking up garbage that washed ashore, moving things, and doing my best to fix broken things.

Bald Eagles and Sea Lion Bones

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The wind blew from the south, switching around to the east and north, by the mid afternoon.  The velocity of the wind hovered between 9 to 15 knots, during the daylight hours.  The barometer dropped from 1027 hPa to 1018 hPa.  The sky was overcast, with rain in the afternoon.  The temperature was 8oC for most of the day, dropping from 10oC yesterday.

There were no boats seen in the reserve today.

This morning, nine bald eagles were in reserve at one time:  four adults and five juvenile. They made at least one kill of a gull, just below the high point of the island, northwest of camera 5.

During a beachcombing exploration this afternoon, I found a partially decomposed sea lion carcass.  It appeared to be a steller sea lion, based on the appearance of the fur and flippers.  It was near where I had found other sea lion bones a few weeks ago.  The bones had been mostly cleaned by gulls and insects.  It looked fairly recent, because the fur was still intact and attached to several parts of the skeleton.

Eagles, waves and engine troubles

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The barometer continued to rise today, from 1019 hPa to 1024 hPa.  The wind blew from the west and southwest between 14 and 34 knots.  The sky was mostly clear, with occasional brief showers and rainbows.  There was a large swell coming in from the west.

There were no boats seen in the reserve today.

There were four bald eagles seen in the reserve this morning.  Large groups of gulls got to practice their evasive manoeuvres as the eagles flew overhead.  Our UK camera viewer, Pam Birley, spotted a peregrine falcon on the helicopter pad at 15:20.

I was unsuccessful in running the monthly check on the fire pump and refill of the salt water cistern, but not for lack of trying.  I strung all the hoses from the jetty to the underground cistern, only to find that neither engine was willing to start and pump.  I will continue to tinker with those engines.  On the up side, I got to practice unrolling and rolling all the hoses.

Melanitta perspicillata: Surf Scoter–Race Rocks Taxonomy

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ntscotersit

Surf scoter,  Melanitta perspicillata at Race Rocks photo by Nick Townley

ntscoterfly

Surf scoter, Melanitta perspicillata in flight

surfscoterSurf Scoters are often sighted off the shores of Taylor beach in the fall (see http://metchosinmarine.ca/gf/?p=3080 ) but only show up at Race Rocks occasionally .. see the Christmas Bird Count records: The first photographic record we have was taken in November, 2014 by Ecoguardian Nick Townley.

RMfeb42009surfscoterPM

This photo was taken by Ecoguardian Ryan Murphy in 2009 but was probably in outer Pedder Bay where they are frequently found.

 

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Anseriformes
Family: Anatidae
Subfamily: Merginae
Genus: Melanitta
Species: M. perspicillata

Surf Scoter range

Winter and Summer range of surf scoter: from seaduck ventures page

An excellent reference on the surf scoter with an image of the range can be found on the seaduck ventures page

 

 

 

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taxonomyicon Return to the Race Rocks Taxonomy and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams. Dec 2014, Nick Townley