We had to go to town and took back more concrete blocs on the island .In the morning we discovered closed to the solar panels the dead body of a pretty big chick and another one closed to the boathouse. That makes a total of 10 dead birds until now. The girls had been very busy painting the desalinator room floor and they put a first coat of rust paint on the trailer. . Many whale watchers were around the rocks more than 20 boats. At 4h00PM the Northeast wind increased a lot and reached 36 knots later in the evening shaking the houses. Sun is lying down at 8H20PM
Monthly Archives: August 2015
Trips to the college
It has been such gorgeous day: sun, no wind so the perfect day for picking up some stuff needed to finish to reinstall the fence around the student house before the sea lions invade that spot too. We had to do 2 trips and came back with concrete blocs and poles. Noemi and Catherine had to meet their supervisor at the college so it was a good timing for everybody. For their school project they have to verify the number of seagulls everyday so it will be interesting to see the evolution of the situation
Animal census
Glaucous –winged gulls: 272
Chicks: 215
Sea lions: 370
Harbor seal: 50
Guillemots: 0
Oystercatchers: 4(3 adults +one young one)
Sandpipers: 45
Geese: 4
Cormorants: 0( but 6 seen yesterday and a fly of 20 in the week)
Elephant seals: 1 (1new young female)
Crane: 1
Animal census and outside washing
Weather: southwesterly wind 15 knots, calm sea, good visibility, atmospheric pressure :1024(HPA).Guy changed the membrane of the desalinator and now it’s working well. He changed the anemometer and speedometer. The gulls now are not so aggressive anymore and it was an easy job. He put on the electric fence around the main house and jetty. Catherine and Noemi cleaned the outside seawater sampling shed with brushes and a big flow of saltwater pumped directly from sea. A lot of fun! At the end of the afternoon we went and count the seashore birds, cormorants, oystercatchers and guillemots for the weekly animal census. We counted from the tower the gulls, sea lions and harbor seals.
Fog, fog, and fog
On Race Rocks the fog rolled in the morning and afternoon so the girls had the opportunity to get used to the island cacophony: Horn, gulls and sea lions concert: “initiation” day! They found a dead harbor seal pup on the east side of the island and made a first estimation of the animals on the island from the top of the tower. At 6:00PM the fog was back and the horn honks almost the whole night.
Balaenoptera acutorostrata: Minke Whale–The Race Rocks Taxonomy
Minke whales are being seen more frequently in recent years off Race Rocks . See the posts on Minke whales sighted from the Ecological Reserve.
(We are still waiting for a picture of whales in the Ecological Reserve.)
For reporting Minke whales, go to the Northeast Pacific minke whale project.
The BC Cetacean Sightings Network has a good description and images:
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Subclass: Eutheria
Order: Cetacea
Suborder: Mysticeti
Family: Balaenopteridae
Genus: Balaenoptera
Species: B. acutorostrata
Other Members of the Class Mammalia at Race Rocks.
 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. |
2 new residents on the rocks
Weather: 21 knots early rising 25 knots in the afternoon – Air temperature: 12 degrees Celsius -Water 12 degrees too. Barometric pressure: 1014 (HPA).
Birds: I saw a blue heron attacked by gulls so he left for the south Island and a fly of 20 cormorants. A big bloody chicken was under the diesel tank. This made a total of 9 dead found chickens.
Noemi and Catherine arrived for their 15 days of summer services. They came with Courtney and Chris. We went around and help them to settle in their new house. Courtney checked with Guy the desalinator and the testing they did showed that the membrane needed to be changed. After that they looked at the connections for the electrical fence and decided the spots needed protection from the sea lion’s invasion, especially around the 2 houses and the crane. The old ladder went ashore and will be replaced by a new stainless steel one.
Overcast and gale warning forecast
They even spoke about some rain! It would have been a chance to get some rock cleaning done. I even didn’t think about the grass which was green long time ago, yellow a few days ago and brownish now with the lying sea lions. The generator and the desalinator were working in anticipation of the students: Noemi and Catherine who will be with us from tomorrow to the 27th .We did a check up in their house and cleaned the windows of the 2 houses. We found 2 more bodies of some very small chicks on the rocks: fight for territory between 2 gulls families I guess.
Sea lions on the grass
That’s it: we are invaded. Sea lions slowly crawled on the grass behind the crane and pretty soon they were all on the same crowded spot, side by side in rows. Amazing when you see that for the first time. Guy tried to fix a new wind wane and an anemometer but it was impossible the gulls were too aggressive. He had to submit. Maybe next week
10 geese paid us a visit
It has been a quiet day, north wind in the morning becoming west later in the afternoon with a maximum of 30 knots. Visibility was 10 miles. Nothing to signal except a plane flying over in the morning and the visit of 10 geese gone the day after. We spotted 2 chicks with a broken leg. Guy put more water in the huge reserve underground