Monthly Archives: May 2018

Census Day!

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-30 NW
  • Sky: Mostly clear
  • Water: Waves 1-2 metres

Boats/Visitors

  • one or two scattered ecotour boats
  • Guy brought 3 tour groups, only one of which docked. The tides and currents were uncooperative for the other two groups. The group that came ashore spent about 30 mins visiting the student residence and lighthouse.

Census

  • stellar sea lions – 16
  • california sea lions – 8
  • elephant seals – 3 female, 1 male
  • gulls – 200
  • pigeon guillemots – 105
  • oyster catchers – 12
  • geese – 4
  • eagles – 4

 

New Ecoguardian gets Orca welcome!

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I took over the Ecoguardianship this morning from Laas, and spent the day familiarizing myself with the systems here.

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-35 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves 1-2 metres

Boats/Visitors

  • Guy dropped me off early this morning, and brought three other visitors with him who spent about an hour touring the island
  • Quite a few ecotour boats went by today. Most of them spent their time near the kelp patch just north of the jetty – possibly due to otter presence as I understand from the past ecoguardian.
  • Two whale-watching boats were able to catch a sight of the orcas that swam through the middle channel

Ecological

  • About 9 elephant seals, 7 females and 2 males. No changes from yesterday
  • No sign of baby seagulls yet. Noticed a few broken eggs though possibly due to accidents or attacks by other birds.
  • 2 orcas spent about 30 mins in the middle channel this evening, playing with the currents. Two whale watching boats were able to catch a sight of them. What a great first day!

 

Last Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-35 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves 1-2 metres

Boats/Visitors

  • not much boat traffic today

Ecological

  • About 9 elephant seals still around, 2 males, 7 female
  • looks like there are more seagull eggs around
  • unfortunately the oyster catcher eggs haven’t hatched yet, I was hoping they would before I leave tomorrow for the summer

I have had an amazing time at Race Rocks, my shift is over tomorrow and Aziz will be here, I’m sure he will do a great job this summer.

Another Elephant

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-35 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves 1-2 metres

Boats/Visitors

  • a few ecotours went by today

Ecological

  • About 9 elephant seals, 2 males now, one larger one showed up today and about 7 females
  • tried to get a photo of the seagull nest with eggs in it but the seagull was not having it and I could not get the photo

Sunday

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 10-30 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • a few ecotours went by today, the weather was so nice, hardly any wind in the early afternoon but the wind has come up to 30 now
  • Guy came by with a group that were visiting the college for a symposium

Ecological

  • saw the first seagull eggs today, the gulls are starting to get more protective of their nests
  • about 9 elephant seals around today and hardly any sea lions

Swiftsure

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • a few ecotours went by today
  • many sailboats for the swiftsure race
  • Guy came by with his family for a little visit

Ecological

  • looks to be yet another goose nest near the tank shed
  • the seagulls should be nesting very soon

Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 20-35 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves 1-2 metres

Boats/Visitors

  • not much boat traffic today, its been pretty windy

Ecological

  • less elephant seals
  • also less sea lions

Census

  • stellar sea lions – 11
  • california sea lions – 15
  • elephant seals – 7 female, 1 male
  • gulls – 180
  • pigeon guillemots – 98
  • oyster catchers – 14
  • geese – 16
  • eagles – 2

Thursday

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10-15 Miles
  • Wind: 20-30 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves 1-2 metres

Boats/Visitors

  • a few ecotours went by today
  • Guy and Dan came by this morning, Dan to work on the internet and Guy and I got a few chores done

Ecological

  • Not many sea lions around today, there seems to be less and less each week
  • a bit windy today the elephant seals stayed around the front yard and there new favourite spot by the shed that operates the crane
  • looks like there are more seagull nests around, will probably be seeing eggs very soon

Wednesday

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Weather

  • Visibility: 0-15 Miles
  • Wind: 20-35 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy and Foggy
  • Water: Waves 0-1 metre

Boats/Visitors

  • a few ecotours went by today but not many, due to the wind and fog

Ecological

  • a dozen elephant seals around today, not a lot of sea lions
  • I think all the goose eggs have been successfully addled, I have not seen any goslings around
  • And no seagulls eggs yet but the nests are pretty clear and they will probably start laying eggs soon