Monthly Archives: July 2018

Census, end of the fog and more stellers

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Today was the first day in over a week where the island wasn’t covered in dense fog for most of the day. I was finally able to get a good look at what was happening on and around the island.

Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles
  • Wind: 20-25 knts W
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Ripply
  • Heavy fog this morning, lifted by mid-afternoon

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • A few ecotour boats and a couple of private boats as well

Technical

  • I installed bird deterrent strips on all the solar panels this morning. It took a couple of hours of drilling and screwing in strips of wire, but all the panels are now protected from seagulls. This should drastically reduce the frequency with which the panels will have to be cleaned.

Mammal Notes

  • Once the fog lifted, I got a good look at the western rocks and looks like the steller population has doubled! There seem to be several more large bulls. Pictures below.
  • The injured seal that was resting their the jetty for the last week or so, seems to be more mobile now. I saw it playing in the water by itself this evening.
  • The injured california sea lion doesn’t seem in any better condition. It’s getting skinnier every day.
  • I found the spot where the two seal pups like to sleep! I found them dozing on the southeast corner of the island, in a small and shallow inlet.

Bird Notes

  • The seagulls have been gradually getting less and less aggressive. I spent almost 6 hours outdoors today without getting hit on the head – I’ll take it as a good sign!
  • Most of the seagull chicks are now at least 1/2 the size of the adults – some appear almost as big as the adults! However, there are still a few really small ones, especially near the water, that are about a week old. I witnessed an adult seagull trying to kill another’s week-old baby this afternoon.
  • I spotted two geese on the island after a long time

Census

  • Elephant Seals
    • Male = 2
    • Female = 0
  • Sea Lions
    • California = 3
    • Steller = 30
  • Seagulls = 450 adults (a big part of them remain on the smaller rock islands during low tide), ~100 babies (hard to estimate)
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 90
  • Eagles = 0
  • Oystercatchers = 12 adults
  • Harbour Seals = 50 adults, 2 (maybe more) babies
  • Geese = 2
  • Black turnstone = 72

A foggy 48 hours

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Weather

  • Visibility: <1 mile
  • Wind: 20-30 knts W
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Ripply
  • The island has been shrouded in dense fog for the last 48 hours and the fog horn has been going off continuously

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • The fog has reduced the number of whale watching boats in the area, or at least I cannot see many due to the fog.

Marine mammals

  • The harbour seals have really taken to liking the little rocky beach on the southeast side of the island. These days you can spot about 20 of them on the rocks there, including the pups – although I have only seen one pup over the last few days, not sure where the second one went.

Census, new stellers and update on injured mammals

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 10-15 knts W
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Lots of ecotour boats between 12 and 1 pm, and a few private boats as well, making race passage quite crowded

Mammal Notes

  • Some steller sea lions have arrived on the northwestern rocks! It’s hard to get an accurate count from this distance, but I estimate 12-15 including one really big one (a webcam viewer informed me that the big bull is branded “76Y”). Photographed below.
  • I got a closer look at the injured californian sea lion that was hanging out near the guest house earlier, and it definitely has an injury on its hind flipper. I saw it try to get into the water yesterday and it was pretty much dragging itself.
  • The injured female seal has nestled itself by the boat shed. I don’t see any further injuries on it.

Census

  • Elephant Seals
    • Male = 4
    • Female = 1
  • Sea Lions
    • California = 2
    • Steller = 15
  • Seagulls = 480 adults (a big part of them remain on the smaller rock islands during low tide), ~100 babies (hard to estimate)
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 85
  • Eagles = 2
  • Oystercatchers = 12 adults
  • Harbour Seals = 25 adults, 2 babies
  • Geese = 0
  • Black turnstone = 55

Visitors, injured seal, and canoes

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 15-20 knts W
  • Sky: Partly cloudy
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Kyle visited the island today and brought Nick along, who is a former Ecoguardian and currently works as a facilitator for Pearson’s PSYL program. They brought my my food supplies and Kyle gave Nick a tour on some of the newer systems here.
  • Lots of whale watching boats in the area today
  • Saw a bunch of canoes paddle past the island, headed south. I believe they originated from Beecher Bay. Photograph below.

Marine mammals

  • Noticing a slow rise in the steller sea lion population on the northern rocks. There’s at least one really massive sea lion. I’ll get an accurate count later this weekend.
  • The injured seal that showed up a few days ago with predator marks and molting fur, returned to the island today and seemed to be more injured. I think it is a female. I’ll keep an eye on it.
  • Possible humpbacks far south of the island – too far to see the whales, but there was a gathering of whale watching boats in the spot where the humpbacks like to hang out.

Seagull chicks growing and adult seagulls less aggressive

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 25-35 knts W
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: 1-2m waves, white caps
  • Some fog this morning to the south

Birds

  • The early seagull chicks have grown a lot, and are currently 2/3 the size of the adults.
  • Today was the first day the seagulls seemed to be (relatively) less aggressive – not sure if it was because of the strong wind or the fact that the chicks can now move themselves to safety.

Marine mammals

  • The californian sea lion that was earlier seen near the guest house, has returned there.
  • Saw a female elephant seal on the island after a while. That makes 3 males and 1 female on the island
  • I think there are more than 2 harbour seal pups near the island, although I haven’t been able to confirm yet. Attached is a picture.

Census and 2 baby seals

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knts W
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • An average amount of ecotour boats came into the reserve
  • Quite a few sail boats and other private vessels in the area

Mammal Notes

  • An update on the last post about baby harbour seals: looks like there are two of them, not one! The family of four was spotted on the northeast tip of the island.
  • A few californian and one steller sea lion on the surrounding rocks.

Census

  • Elephant Seals
    • Male = 4
    • Female = 0
  • Sea Lions
    • California = 3
    • Steller = 1
  • Seagulls = 520 adults (a big part of them remain on the smaller rock islands during low tide), ~100 babies (hard to estimate)
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 85
  • Eagles = 2
  • Oystercatchers = 12 adults, 4 babies (haven’t spotted any new chicks since last week)
  • Harbour Seals = 64 adults, 2 babies
  • Geese = 0
  • River otters = 2 adults, possible kits on the island but haven’t been spotted

River otters, an injured seal and a baby seal

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 10-15 knts W
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Ripply
  • Some fog this morning

Birds

  • The 2 geese that had a nest near the crane have now abandoned their nest – haven’t seen them in a couple of days and one single egg remains unhatched.

Marine mammals

  • Lots of seal news!
    • After reports of an injured harbour seal in the area, I finally spotted one on the boat ramp today. While this seal has several scars and some bloody wounds, it doesn’t however match the description of the injured seal we received, so maybe it’s a different one. This one I spotted doesn’t seem to have any serious injures, just several small ones.
    • Spotted an adult and baby seal just behind the crane today! They were originally spotted the other day by Nikola from the top of the lighthouse when the Communications team came for a visit, but I couldn’t get a photo earlier. They are extremely adorable!
  • River otters
    • I caught a glimpse of a pair of river otters for the first time today, running down the jetty with what seemed to be either a seagull chick or an egg. There were two of them, but they were too fast for me to get a picture.

Technical

  • 10 days now without having to start up the generator! We are 100% solar!

An exciting day with several updates!

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knts SW
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Ripply
  • Fog horn went off last night for an hour

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Kyle visited the island along with Jake from maintenance and the Communications team
    • Kyle and Jake took some of the bed fixtures out of the guest house and replaced some of the tube lighting
    • I had lunch with Brian and Nikola from the Pearson Communications team, and gave them a short tour of the island
  • Lots of ecotour boats in the area today!

Birds

  • Spotted several new shore bird species that I haven’t seen before this summer – photographed below! (I’m not sure if I’ve identified the species correctly)
  • The number of gulls on the south rocks has increased dramatically over the last few days – about 100-150 more I would guess. I’ll do a proper count on Sunday.

Marine mammals

  • Several humpback whales on the south side near the bouy! They made numerous rain-blows and attracted a lot of whale watching boats.
  • 2 californian sea lions on the island today

Technical

  • Kyle brought lots of new LED bulbs for me, and I’ve replaced all the bulbs in the Ecoguardian house with the new ones. They are significantly more power efficient and brighter too!

Census and an odd sea lion

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-25 knts W
  • Sky: Partly cloudy/overcast
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Quite a few ecotour boats in the area today, especially in Race Passage

Bird Notes

  • The first set of seagull chicks are growing fast – one of the first things to develop are long legs. I spotted some of them flapping their wings in imitation of the adults, but they are still a long way from flying.

Mammal Notes

  • A lone sea lion made it all the way up on the main island until the guest residence! It would get aggressive if I got even slightly close to it. I first thought it might be injured, but I saw no scars or bleeding anywhere.

Census

  • Elephant Seals
    • Male = 3
    • Female = 0
  • Sea Lions
    • California = 1
    • Steller = 0
  • Seagulls = 350 adults, ~70 babies (hard to estimate)
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 60
  • Eagles = 4
  • Oystercatchers = 8 adults, 4 babies (haven’t spotted any new chicks since last week)
  • Harbour Seals = 50
  • Geese = 3

First dead baby seagull

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-25 knts W
  • Sky: partly cloudy
  • Water: Calm in the morning, small waves in the evening

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • An average number of ecotour boats in the area
  • A few fishing boats just outside Pedder Bay as well

Birds

  • Just when I thought the Seagulls couldn’t get any more aggressive, they did just that. Noticed the first dead baby seagull, possibly due to a predator bird, and the adult seagulls around it were extremely violent.

Marine mammals

  • 3 Elephant seals on the island today – all male.

Technical

  • Placing the new batteries on the insulated rack and the technicians’ work on the grid has made an impact – over the last 48 hours the island has only consumed 3% of the battery charge. Will continue to monitor charge and voltage over the week to see the effect.