Monthly Archives: January 2016

battery maintenance

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Ecological:

  • wind south 10-15 becoming south west 15-20
  • Chuckles came back onto the main island overnight, Chunk keeps him away from the females and pups.

Vessels: 4 eco tour. One appeared to be getting too close to sealions on the South rocks and harbour seals on West rock.  We went off island for a couple hours and returned in the afternoon.

Maintenance:

  • topped up deionized water in battery bank, cleaned batteries and started applying anti-oxidation compound.
  • ongoing training of new guardian on island systems and procedures.

Third elephant seal born on Middle Rocks

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Alex noted in his last log that he had heard another pup out on middle island and was able to see it from the tower. Today we have a clear shot at it from camera 1 . The pup seems quite lively. The unfortunate thing is that every year there has been a pup born out there, the next big storm washes it off, so as far as we know there has never in the past 8 years been a surviving pup from the middle island.  Here’s hoping for no storms for the next few weeks??? not likely..

third-pup-on-middle-island

 

 

 

westerly

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Ecological

  • Wind 25-30 knots East shifting to West gusting over 50 knots after noon with periods of heavy rain.
  • elephant seals and pups huddled together in the weather, doing fine.

Vessels: I went off island mid afternoon to pick up visitor.

Other: training new guardian, Riley, over weekend.

 

 

3 e-seal pups

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Ecological:

  • Wind west 20-25 knots, periods of rain.
  • I returned to Race Rocks this afternoon to a new e-seal pup on the lawn by the path. I could also hear the distinct sound of a third pup and mother on Middle Rock, confirmed with spotting scope from tower.  Chuckles was out on Middle Rock as well close to the mother and pup.

Vessels: I returned early afternoon +1 ecotour.

Other:

  • very heavy blasting at Christopher Point throughout the day with a west wind to carry the impact this way.  On my way back the ecotour operator said he had seen one blast cause a sealion stampede.
  • Received call from Coast Guard re someone open channeling on their vhf radio on channel 83 Alpha for the past 5 days in this vicinity. Checked all VHF radios on station.

Nucella lamellosa: Frilled Dogwinkle–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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We have somehow missed getting a photo of this Dogwinkle.. stay tuned!

Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Mollusca
Class Gastropoda
Order Neogastropoda
Family Thaididae

Genus Nucella
Species lamellosa (Gmelin,1791)
Common Name: Frilled Dogwinkle

Other Members of the Phylum Mollusca at Race Rocks.

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.

 

River otter and e-seals

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I received this photo today  of a river otter who likes curling up and going to sleep just down the slope from the remote control camera 5 from Pam Birley. Odd behaviour considering that they are usually very secretive out there on the island.

PBrivotterJan2315 I am just doing up my final notes for my oral presentation to the NEB Kinder Morgan TMX hearings in Burnaby on Thursday, and have noted that river and sea otters have not been recognized by the consultants of the oil company as being significant marine  mammals  in the Strait of Juan de Fuca . Only the Humpback and Southern Resident Orcas and the Northern Sealion are considered as representative of the marine mammals in the path of tanker traffic.  So we are supposed to believe that the Northern Sealion is a proxy for all the other marine mammals in terms of impact.

We had pointed out in past submissions that the elephant seal birthing colony is rather unique also, but no separate recognition has been forthcoming for harbour and elephant seal birthing colonies.

Today I had a look at the E-seals on the lawn using  Camera 1 with the following pics.
G. Fletcher

 

census jan 23

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Ecological:

  • Wind 10 knots East becoming 30 knots West in the evening
  • Census:
    Norther sealion-105
    California sealion-146
    Harbour seal-88
    Elephant Seal-3m (incl 1 pup), 3f
    River Otter-1
    Cormorants-540
    Seagulls-185
    Harlequin ducks-5
    Bald Eagles-3
    Dunlin-1
    Black Turnstone-2
    Black Oyster Catcher-4

Vessels: 1 sailboat and 4 ecotour boats in reserve, I went off island in the morning and returned around noon.

west wind and rain

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Ecological

  • Jan 21- visibility low due to rain and mist, wind N 15 knots
  • Jan 22- rain in the morning becoming clear, wind W 15-20 increasing to 30 before noon and becoming light in the evening.
  • elephant seals: mother, pup, other female and Chunk have stayed around the West side of the house all week.  It has been a week since pup birth, the pup is growing quickly and the mother is getting visibly thinner.

Maintenance

  • ran derrick to move logs
  • wood stove repairs- removed old fire bricks, baffle tubes and baffle boards, cleaned fire box. Installed new baffle board and tubes, new fire bricks and blower.
  • built a mesh cover for the second compost container.
  • transferred one more drum of diesel to tidy tank, both tanks now full
  • cut firewood
  • sent inventory list of fluorescent tube fixtures to Chris for upgrading to LEDs.
  • precipitation this week has done well to fill cistern

Other

  • occasional DND blasting at Christopher point throughout the week.

wood stove parts

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Ecological 

  • wind NE 10-15 knots becoming E 30-40 knots in the evening
  • Two female elephant seals visible on Middle Rock, total 4 females in reserve

Vessels

  • I went off island in the morning and returned early afternoon
  • 1 ecotour

Maintenance

  • picked up woodstove parts on campus and pvc cement in Langford
  • made a breather tube for diesel tank intake
  • pumped 1 drum of diesel to tidy tank and filled day tank