Station: Race Rocks Ecological Reserve —–December, 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. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: December 2014
good weather, 1 speeding boat
Another beautiful day of clear sky and light wind. The barometer hit a high of over 1040 hPa today.
sunrise, mpountain peaks in the US
rosedale reef buoy, olympic mountains in background
birds feeding in the straight, olympics in background
Vessels observed in the reserve today: 1 ecotour, 1 dive boat, 1 pleasure craft (rental from Pedder Bay Marina). The rental boat was traveling over the designated speed limit of 7 knots within 400 meters of the rocks. I photographed the vessel with 4 people onboard, got the hull numbers and reported it to Pedder Bay Marina who said they would speak with the operators-who were likely unaware of the regulations.
Chopped wood and did some more cleanup of debris in the jetty area.
dec 25- 29
A few days to catch up on…
Dec 25th: good weather, went off island early and got to spend the day with family. On the way back there was a very cooperative juvenile bald eagle on top of the crane and I was able to photograph it from the jetty. In the vertical photo the eagle’s nictitating membrane is half way across it’s eye.
I got back to a nice sun set and a very calm sea.
Dec 26th: NE 10-15 knot wind. 1 sports fishing boat, 1 eco-tour vessel. Went off island in afternoon to bring guests out for the night. Had a wet ride and in the evening a lot of driftwood got blown in to the jetty.
rainbow in the morning, to the East.
Dec 27th: Calm in the morning but picked up to 30-25 knots West around noon. Rain throughout the day, often sideways. Went off island in the morning to bring back guests, wet ride again. 2 eco tour vessels. Cleaned up boat ramp/jetty and cut wood.
Dec 28th: Wind N 10 knots, partly sunny. Went off island in the morning to pick up Garry and Val for the annual bird count (see previous post). Notably, Val and Garry discovered a (regionally) rare Boreal Owl during their count. Earlier in the morning 3 juvenile bald eagles wrestled over a small fish and displayed some impressive acrobatics. In the evening the internet and phone connection went offline.
Dec 29th: Clear sky, 20 -25 knots N wind in the morning that picked up to 35-40 knots before noon. Strong winds persisted most of the day dropping to around 25 knots in the afternoon. Winds picked up again in the evening gusting to 35 knots. I went up the tower in the morning to check on the internet/phone disconnection. Was able to reboot and get it working again. I had a good view of the elephant seals on the W rock today, there are two males, Chunk and a younger male as well as one fairly large looking female, possibly Bertha. Temperature is going down, will be keeping an eye on water lines More driftwood accumulating with the NE wind. Cleared boat ramp and cut fire wood.
Christmas Bird Count -Dec 28, 2014
We want to thank Lester Pearson College for providing transportation to the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve for the 2014 Christmas Bird Count. Ecoguardian Alex Fletcher picked up Garry Fletcher and Val George with the Race Rocks boat from the Pearson College docks at 9:30 AM. We were able to do a Pedder Bay count as well.
The following is the spreadsheet for the 2014 Christmas Bird Count prepared by Val and Garry. Link to the Index for the past Race Rocks records for the Christmas Bird Counts
2014 Christmas Bird Count –
Summary for Race Rocks and Race Passage
Dec 28, Warden’s Report -Race Rocks Ecological Reserve
I went to Race Rocks today with Val George for the Christmas bird Count. ( See other reports from today.) The highlight of course was the discovery of the first record for the Boreal Owl in Southern Vancouver Island . Some other observations from my visit are included here:
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| Several 1 metre exclosures for goose grazing have been installed on the grass areas on Race Rocks. | Winter grazing by the Canada geese (introduced to Vancouver Island in the 1980s) has resulted in erosion in some areas of the island, and grass turf cover is prevented. |
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| Drift Macrocystis at the jetty. This Giant Kelp can grow anchored at great depths but winter storms will lift it up and the main contribution to energy-flow in the ecosystem comes from decomposition on the shoreline. | Macrocystis grows in areas of high salinity, so not in he brackish estuarine conditions of the Strait of Juan de Fuca , but not at Race Rocks where it ends up only as drift in the strand line. |
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| A dead cormorant, (probably Brandt’s ). | Interesting webbed foot structure. |
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| A 1st year juvenile Thayer’s Gull | The breast had a hole and internal organs were eaten. It was probably from an eagle attack. |
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| This year, the college has finished tilting the solar panels. Increased energy efficiency has been noted. They were originally installed flat since we were concerned that the strength of the wind may damage them. This hasn’t happened. | View of the energy building roof from the top of the tower. |
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| This fall a plaque has been installed to honour Johan Ashuvud, who as a student at Pearson College, was instrumental in having Race Rocks designated as an ecological reserve in 1980 | .. |
Other Ecological reserves wardens reports are available here:
Aegolius funereus: Boreal Owl–The Race Rocks Taxonomy
Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus): for measurement –the pipe is 5 cm (2 inch) diameter–photo by Alex Fletcher, Ecoguardian at Race Rocks, Dec 28, 2014.
December 28, 2014– Val George and myself were picked up at Pedder Bay By Alex Fletcher, (Ecoguardian at Race Rocks) and we went out to Race Rocks for the Sooke area Christmas Bird Count. It was a great day with many high counts , but we were especially surprized to flush a small owl out from under a rock up near the camera 5 pedestal. At first Val thought it just could be a Boreal owl (Aegolius funereus) which would be a first for this area. We found it again under the porch of the Ecoguardians house and were able to get some good pictures of it. Then we decided it must be a Saw whet owl as Boreals are just too rare here. When he returned home and started comparing his pictures with other images, Val realized it was indeed the rare ( for this area) Boreal owl.
Report in Times Colonist : Newcomer thrills watchers at Sooke Christmas Bird Count
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- Boreal Owl- Race Rocks, Dec 28, 2014 photo by Alex Fletcher
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- Boreal Owl: A.Fletcher photo. Note organization of white dots on dorsal side.
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- Boreal Owl at Race Rocks-Dec 28, 2014. Photo by Val George.
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- Boreal Owl: Alex Fletcher photo.
(These owls breed in dense coniferous forests across northern North America and Eurasia and in mountain ranges such as the Alps and the Rockies. The subspecies: A.f. richardsoni is the only one that occurs in North America). It lays 3–6 eggs in a tree hole in the forest. The small nocturnal owl eats mainly voles and other mammals but also birds as well as insects and other invertebrates.)--text in brackets adapted from Wikipedia–
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Strigiformes
Family: Strigidae
Genus: Aegolius
Species: A. funereus
Aegolius funereus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Subspecies: A.f. richardsoni (Bonaparte, 1838)
Other owls photographed at Race Rocks.
Link to the call of the Boreal Owl:
From the reference: Rare Birds of Vancouver Island: Compiled by Rick Toochin, Paul Levesque and Jamie Fenneman July1, 2013: The following notation indicates only three other records of the Boreal Owl on Vancouver Island, but there are no records for it on southern Vancouver island.
Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus):
1.(1) adult February 27, 1993: fide Don Cecile (specimen) Tofino (Siddle 1993b)
2.(1) adult October 3, 1994: Marc Winfield, Rick Toochin, Mike Toochin: Triangle Island (Toochin 1995) (Bowling 1995a)
3.(1) adult fall 1996: fide Jamie Fenneman (specimen) Courtenay (Bain and Holder 1996f)
 Return to the Race Rocks Taxonomyand Image File |
 The 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.Garry Fletcher, Dec. 2014. |
Got some sun here today, wind has been West 15-20 knots.
Topped up the deionized water in the battery bank, moved firewood.
Teals return again
Rain throughout the day, wind 15-20 knots most of the day, started North then shifted to West. West wind picked up in the evening gusting over 35 knots. Barometer reached a high of over 1025 hPa on Monday and has been falling today towards 1010 hPa.
One eco tour vessel in the reserve
Chunk has been on the main island all day until the evening. There is a second large male elephant seal on west rock, visible on camera 1, that I haven’t seen on the main island yet.
With the rain came the Green Winged Teals (3) again to the muddy flats on the NE side of the island.
Cleared some logs out of the jetty bay with the pike pole and chopped fire wood.
Wind has been West 15-25 knots yesterday shifting this afternoon and blowing North 20 knots this evening. There was heavy rain yesterday morning.
Worked on cutting, clearing and collecting driftwood yesterday. Went off island most of the day today to run errands and pick up supplies.
Melobesia mediocris: Seagrass Crust–The Race Rocks taxonomy
Melobesia mediocris on Phyllospadix sp.
Melobesia mediocris or the seagrass crust is a pink coralline algae which grows as an epiphyte on the surfgrass Phyllospadix sp.
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Rhodophyta
Class: Florideophyceae
Order: Corallinales
Family: Hapalidiaceae
Genus: Melobesia
species: mediocris
Other Rhodophytes or Red Algae at Race Rocks
| Return to the Race Rocks Taxonomy and Image File |
| The 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.Garry Fletcher |