Monthly Archives: July 2016

Equipment check up

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Weather 

West light wind in the morning,visibility:over 10 miles,sky :clear. In the afternoon the wind increased strongly to 35 knots at 9:PM and still 33 knots at 10:00 .In the evening fog and fog horn on.Water temperature :12.2 and salinity:30.4. Dusk before 9:30 PM.(1/2 h sooner than a month ago). Phenomenal sunset with some fog on the sea and some lightning on dark grey sky and a rainbow later!DSC_0171DSC_0237DSC_0221

Ecological

Only 8 sea lions  and 2 elephant seals :the bigger one and a small female (Chunck is gone) 5 geese visiting.

Boats

Heavy US navy boat going to the ocean. Watching boats.

Visitors

kyle and Jeff from the college came to make a general check up of all the equipment on the rock:hydro,water,security,roofs,electricity,propane,cisterns…They went all around and took notes.

Maintenance 

Filling up of the seawater cistern:4 hours

Census Day and fishing activity in the ecological reserve

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Weather

Calm Summer day

Ecological

Where are gone so many gulls and why?

Boats

6 kayakers between Vancouver Island shore and Race Rocks (half distance )with a  rescue Zodiac in case.4 First nations big canoes 2 under sails and one with oars between East Sooke and the States with  some rescue power boats. 1st watching vessels at 9:30AM .In the afternoon around 3:30PM ,3 people in a small power boat were fishing in the ecological reserve.From south rocks to the middle passage ,with the engine in  neutral position,they went through  the passage 2 times .The guy was fishing with a short rod and we saw one of the women with a mackerel size fish in her hand . It took them 15min to go through  . Because of the aggressive gulls all around we couldn’t go but we took all the references and phoned to Fisheries and Oceans Canada.They left in the Victoria direction and pretty soon to Pedder Bay at full speed.

DND activity

Extensive activity for the DND Today; 14 blasts and the 4 last one were huge .

Census

Elephant seals :2

Gulls: 390 mainly adults glaucous winged gulls, a few Heermann’s gulls only

Harbour seal:s 70 + many swimming newborns ones

Harlequin ducks:1

Oystercatchers:5

Pigeons-guillemot:35

Cormorants :0

River otters:0

Gull chicks:50 to 60 from the front window.

geese :0

Seashore birds : 4

Orcas: around 10 (seen close enough)

 

 

 

 

 

Check up for the whaler

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Weather

West lo southwest light winds under 20 knots have been on  almost all the time since last week. We got some fog and the fog horn running the whole night between Sunday and Monday to a stop at 8:30 in the morning.The rest of the day was sunny with a flat sea…DSC_0191

Ecological

At low tide the water was pretty far discovering an interesting world of rocks covered with fresh algae. We could count only 4 sea lions (Steelers) around and 60 chickens seen from the front window. If we compare with last year we had 110 sea lions and 87 chickens from the front window .What a different situation.Last year the first one on the jetty came on the 23rd.We will see …the usual 4 elephant seals are most of the time sleeping on Main Rock and the babies are growing fast. Not so much drama I guess because they have enough space but the gulls closed to the path are still defensive and this night a new one was born with 2 more coming (the last ones )so it’s going to be even more difficult to go the jetty! No new dead birds.(only 3 to now ) On Sunday we could count more than 16 whale watching vessels  way beyond the green boyd because of a long pod of orcas.DSC_0217DSC_0220

Maintenance

Guy changed the boat pump for a more efficient one.It was 360 GPM and now it’s 750. He left in the fog early on Monday because of an appointment with a Yamaha specialist. At the college they took the whaler off the water and put it on a trailer.We took the zodiac until the trailer is ready. Camera 3 has been stoppedDSC_0194

Other

3 times this week we had a plane above. Watching boats like usual.

 

 

Summer days

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Weather

We have a really nice weather in this middle July weekend.Light west winds ,no fog, sea calm.

Ecological

We found 3 dead birds (2 gulls ans 1 pigeon – Guillemot) and it looked like it was the result of the river otter ‘s work…Eagles are active and always ready perched on the adjacent Rocks but with so many birds they can’t be efficient…No geese anymore and the small seashore birds are gone too. The kelp is growing like crazy and Chris with 2nd nature had to cut it to give us a free passage DSC_0129DSC_0131

Boats

We had a contact with Amatuana going to Sooke on Thursday afternoon. On Friday we saw around the coast guard vessel and on Saturday a small fishing boat had some problems. It honked a few times and I realized that it was not a simple engine problem . At that moment the sea was like a mirror and no current (Slack time) .They were at around 200 meters from the jetty where I was drawing so I rushed to the house to inform Guy . As soon as possible  we put the boat out of the house and down in the railway but in the meantime a power boat arrived and a guy took the control and the two boats rushed to Pedder bay I guess. Half an hour later when I phoned to the marina they were not aware of a critical situation so I am still wondering what was exactly the matter.

 

 

Important visitors from Pearson College

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Weather

Calm first days of the week .On Tuesday only the wind increased a little in the late evening to  reach 30 knots  Now the sunset is around 9:00.

Ecological

Good fishing days for the gulls colony. We definitively have a big number of Heermann gulls .The 2 bigger elephant seals are spending more time in waters maybe because the ride is easier ,now that they have lost weight. CSC_0187DSC_0056 DSC_0163DSC_0207

Visitors

We had the pleasure to welcome the new Vice – President of Operations  and Administration of Pearson College Tyrone Pyle. He came for a visit on the Rocks and  the Director of Operations Chris Blondeau  did the tour with him.

DND activity

For the 1st time we had 10 blasts in the morning ,last one around 1:30 . One of the blast was huge .

Boats

Some beautiful sailboats from the States these days . 1 diving boat from Ogden Point with 3 Divers spent around 45mn and were like usual very closed to main on East side.  DSC_0018CSC_0030DSC_0022

Census

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Harbour seals:196

Elephant seals :4

Eagles :4

Gulls:1200

Pigeons-Guillemot :70

Cormorants:0

Geese:0

Oystercatchers: 3 or 4 couples +babies (not seen today)

Seashore birds :Black Turnstones :30

Sandpipers:10

+a few very small ones

Crows :1

River otter:1

Sea Lions :0

 

 

Woaw!So many gulls to count!?

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Weather

At 5:00 AM :West wind 15 knots ,choppy sea , clear sky and visibility 10 miles. the whole was calm and just a few drops of rain in the afternoon

Ecological

3 elephant seals came back from swimming early in the morning .(the big males are losing a lot of weight). Like everyone around the elephants are tired of the permanent cries and aggressivity of the seagulls. and with the chicks around it’s getting worse.Even for us : we have 4 nests very closed to the path ,between the main house and the boat shed.. it’s always an adventure and they got me 2 times ! Hopefully I wore a helmet and I even don’t speak about those white splashes on my coat! Hatching is done almost for all the nests and some babies are already pretty big . it ‘s going fast.Today it was the census day and going to the top of the lighthouse ,we couldn’t stop smilling at the idea of counting so many birds ! looked like a joke! but with the small device we use, we managed to have a number.(1200)  We think that we have at least 2 kinds of gulls around. It’s really a dilemma even if you look at books .So to make things easier I look mainly at feet and beaks: so you have red beak and black feet (white head and black feathers ):those should be Heermann gulls and the whitish feet and black beak :one or 2 years young ones ?..The glaucous winged are easy to recognize (adults and young ones). Last year we had almost only those ones in Summer.This year it’s a mix of different ones and if they fit really well ,they stay together in groups .DSC_7529DSC_0378DSC_0320DSC_0353

 

Maintenance

We have now 620 liters of diesel in the student house . Guy put 400 liters more. the 6 barrels are empty ready to be filled up another time for Winter.The yellow tank (generator)is also full.

Boats 

Many watching boats .

Abundant waters

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Weather

The weekend has been a calm one ,except on Sunday where in the afternoon the wind increased to almost 40 knots .We got some rain on Saturday ; which is good for the island (cleaning) and in the afternoon the sky was overcast and a dark grey colour !DSC_0203

Ecological

Lately the difference between high and low tide is not big, from 4 feet to 8 and as a result the sea temperature is higher, above 12 degrees . It’s amazing to see all those flocks of birds fishing  all around .We even found a ball of small heering on the balcony…the smell coming inside the house was just as if we had opened a huge sardine can!

Maintenance 

Guy put 3 barrels of gasoil in the main house cistern ( 600 liters).It’s now full (1000l).Solar panels needed attention (LOL) and some sweeping had to be done , grass plucked by the gulls for their nests. We did some light proof curtains for the main bedroom. It will be appreciated by the eco -guardians community especially in Summer time . It’s clear at 4:20 in June without speaking when it’s the full moon!

Other

Watching boats like usual and an helicoptere (Coast guards )just above ,freaking out the birds.