When we wake up at 5AM we had 10 miles of visibility on the Victoria side but a little foggy on the East Sooke side. At 6:30 fog was here and the horn ringed to 10Am. The forecast was gale warning to 25knots end of the afternoon. It’s exactly what happened but coming back from the college in the afternoon was easy: no current and wind around 23.
Station Race Rocks Lightstation
Month :July
Year:2015
Observer Lester B. Pearson College UWC
| Date | Time | Sea | Jar | Hydro- meter No. | Observed Density | YSI Salinity | YSI Temp °C |
| Temp. | Temp. | ||||||
| °C | °C | ||||||
| 1 | 20:40 | 30.5 | 12.3 | ||||
| 2 | 21:10 | 30.6 | 12.2 | ||||
| 3 | 21:00 | 30.4 | 11.9 | ||||
| 4 | 21:45 | 30.5 | 11.7 | ||||
| 5 | 20:40 | 31.5 | 11.1 | ||||
| 6 | 20:35 | 31.4 | 11.2 | ||||
| 7 | 20:55 | 30.1 | 11.4 | ||||
| 8 | 19:55 | 31.2 | 11.3 | ||||
| 9 | 20:50 | 31.3 | 11.5 | ||||
| 10 | 21:05 | 30.5 | 12.0 | ||||
| 11 | 20:50 | 31.1 | 11.8 | ||||
| 12 | 21:15 | 30.2 | 11.2 | ||||
| 13 | 21:15 | 31.3 | 11.6 | ||||
| 14 | 21:00 | 31.7 | 11.7 | ||||
| 15 | 20:45 | 11.5 | 11.2 | 10,802 | 22.5 | 32.1 | 11.1 |
| 16 | 21:00 | 31.7 | 11.7 | ||||
| 17 | 20:50 | 31.6 | 11.3 | ||||
| 18 | 21:15 | 31.6 | 12.2 | ||||
| 19 | 20:55 | 31.4 | 11.9 | ||||
| 20 | 20:20 | 31.6 | 12.3 | ||||
| 21 | 19:55 | 31.5 | 12.2 | ||||
| 22 | 20:15 | 31.4 | 12.2 | ||||
| 23 | 19:30 | 31.1 | 12.5 | ||||
| 24 | 20:20 | 30.8 | 12.4 | ||||
| 25 | 20:15 | 30.7 | 12.8 | ||||
| 26 | 20:00 | 30.7 | 12.9 | ||||
| 27 | 20:45 | 30.6 | 12.9 | ||||
| 28 | 20:45 | 30.8 | 12.8 | ||||
| 29 | 21:00 | 31.2 | 12.4 | ||||
| 30 | 20:50 | 31.6 | 12.2 | ||||
| 31 | 20:50 | 31.6 | 12.5 | ||||
| Mean | 31.1 | 12.0 | |||||
| Recorded by Race Rocks Ecological Reserve Guardian for Lester B. Pearson College | |||||||
It has been a lovely day with westerly wind rising from 2knots to 22knots in the evening. The desalinator has been working those last 2days but thanks to the solar panels no need of generator for 10 days. We have some issues with the desalinator in the sense that we have to wait 25 to 45 minutes before reaching the good level of salinity. It looks like we will have to change the big filter pretty soon (once a year). Guy changed the connector of the seawater pump that was broken.
An eagle this morning tried to fly by the island but no way the seagull army was ready. At date we found 3 eggs never hatched and 5 chicks bodies (one was floating in a kelp bed in the water). The bird I identified as a solitary sandpiper was in fact a whimbrel. (No doubt after checking the photograph I took). A seaplane flew over, not directly across the main rocks but over the South rocks. The island those last days and nights became a very noisy place maybe because of the full moon. We can’t tell which are the noisier ,gulls or sea lions? I tell you it’s a pretty amazing concert!
Gulls:
Adult Glaucous – winged gulls: around 600
Juveniles: a few
Chicks: (Glaucous – winged gulls) 130
Harbor seals: around 200
Californian Sea lions: 105
Northern Seals: 7
Elephant seal: 1
Canadian geese: 5
Seashore birds:
Sandpipers: 132
Solitary sandpiper: 1
Little shorebirds: 4
Eagle: 1
Pelagic Cormorants: 2 on the rocks and 6 flying closed to the main island
Pigeons – Guillemot: 67
Oystercatchers : 8 (4 couples ) and 1 chick
It has been a gorgeous summer day, not too warm here with the fresh breeze coming from the ocean. We found another Chick’s dead body under the gasoil tank, which makes the total number to 5 dead ones. We guess that is the job of a river otter because they have all the same look, guts facing the sky? We had Whale watchers as usual around, 15 in the day and in the strait a navy vessel, a tugboat pulling a wood load, and 2 RCMP zodiacs could be seen. Those last days it’s just evident that we have a bigger birds population and new species too like 5 Harlequin Ducks swimming in the south rocks and a flock of around 50 shore birds that could be sandpipers. The young middle size elephant seal was spotted swimming alone in the south rocks which were a pretty busy place, animated all day long by the new little harbor seals. This young one came back and spent the night behind the boat shed. Around 10 AM I saw the spout of whales a few times closed to the green buoy .I never saw the animals by themselves and pretty soon no more spouts.Going to double check the solar panels in the afternoon (getting dirty quickly enough !) I discover for my pleasure that the 5 geese had their neck in the soft water bucket under the panels. Those ones are everywhere ,all the time going back and forth. They even went swimming in the race currents. Amazing busy birds!
Light Westerly wind rising to 15 knots
Early that day Guy help taking Amatuana from the college to Sooke for some check up and I stayed on the island doing the island business and enjoying the place at the same time.
By the way he filled up the gas tanks for the boat at Pedder bay.
We had a few whale watchers around but no visitors.
When he came back at 3PM it was still clear but an hour later we were in a thick fog wall. We could hardly see something beyond 50 meters. The foghorn has been working from 4Pm to 6Pm and after that all a sudden we were in another clear day, ready to enjoy a beautiful sunset. In the evening the wind raised 30 knots.
Nice weather, almost no wind and very sunny We were expected more wind and it came but late in the evening and raised to around 30 knots. Like usual it was a west wind.
Floyd and Chunk have not been in sight for a while now I would say that Floyd disappeared 7 days ago and Chunk 5 days ago. The little one left 3 days ago. The 2 big one were at that time really slim and it would be not surprising if they would be gone for good. Just the new young female is still around and yesterday we had the surprise to find this little elephant seal (in the rocks) closed to female Californian seal taking a nap on the railway. She was very curious of us and it was really a pleasure to spend time looking at this so gracious animal. She stayed there for at least 5 hours because she was just at the same spot when we came back for the water sampling. We really had to go on the jetty and she couldn’t handle to have us just above so she softly glided in the water.
At the same time closed to the jetty we were the witnesses of the first bath of a gull chicken. Nice! And on the other side you could see 2 beautiful shorebirds called Ruddy Turnstone easy to identify. Lot of life is going on around.
From the eco guardians house windows in the morning I could count 87 chickens. Now they are big enough and are not anymore closed to their birth spot. Actually they are really everywhere and on the high rocky spot too. At date we found 3 dead bodies of young gulls. The last one was on the stairs of the house.
Those days we had a lot of whale watchers around, closed to 20 each day.
On Friday we had our first rainy day. When we came back from town the rocks were not so white. Everything around looked cleaner but the smell at around 50m from shore was the same unique strong mixture of crab shrimp and fish. On Saturday a nice and cool day many boats around 50 were fishing in the strait along the Canadian coast.
Those days the number of elephant seals on Race Rocks is not stable. The 2 big ones have been away since the 23rd and the 2 young females come and go. Maybe they will be all gone pretty soon. lately the 4 of them didn’t go far on the island and used to rest closed to the boat shed going often back and forth to the water.
No visitors.
Waking up we discovered the first sea lion of the season resting on the jetty. Now we can see more shorebirds almost everywhere on the rocks. The little chicks actually looking more like chickens are now using their wings to help them when they climb the rocks. They follow the adults even on steep spots. Beautiful view. Some are even trying to fly jumping and flapping the air at the same time. The adults are still very cautious around them and even the eagles don’t try to come around. We never crossed anymore the rock without our yellow helmet and one hit me the other day and it has been a pretty strong impact.
We heard one detonation coming I guess from the DND territory.
Glaucous – winged gulls: 300 and + or – 70 young ones
Californian sea lions: 60
Northern Sea lions: 110
Pigeons – guillemot: 80
Shorebirds possibly Western sandpipers: 17
Oystercatchers: 8 and 3 young ones
Pelagic cormorants: 3
Elephant seals: 3
Geese: 2+3 young one
Harbor seals : Incertain number