Monthly Archives: May 2019

Matricaria discoidea : pineapple weed, The Race Rocks taxonomy

Posted on by

The observation below was made in 2013/06/05 …

Several large areas where the grass was matted and smothered by the sealions hauling out last fall, now have a prolific growth of this newly arrived plant, Matricaria discoidea, or pineappleweed. These are the tallest growing samples of that plant I have seen. Another plant in the same areas is the fiddleneck, Amsinckia menziesii

This year the same situation appears in the areas trampled by the sealions last fall. This post  shows how comfortable it is for the elephant seals.

Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Matricaria
Species: M. discoidea

taxonomyiconReturn 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.

 

Goslings

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-15 NW
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Flat

Boats/Visitors

  • Summer has really set in and there will be all kinds of boats going by for the next few months

Maintenance

  • Just attempting to clean out our water tank on the side of the house so we can get some fresh water brought to race rocks, top up our fresh water tank

Ecological

  • Still not a lot of sea lions around
  • there is still 12 elephant seals, a couple of them are scattered around but most of them are basking in the sun on the platform
  • there is a total of 14 goslings, the last nest only had two of them hatch which was interesting because I hadn’t addled that nest
  • the seagulls are in the process of building their nests and the oyster catchers look like they might be nesting soon too

Beautiful weather

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-15 NW
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Flat

Boats/Visitors

  • A lot of tour boats the past few days

Maintenance

  • With the amount of seagulls lately the solar panels need to get scrubbed more often

Ecological

  • Not a lot of sea lions lately, but still around 12 elephant seals, since the pup left
  • I think all of the goslings that escaped addling have hatched and I’m sure that is the last of goose nesting season
  • the seagulls are starting to build their nests but have not gotten really aggressive yet

More goslings

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-15 NW
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Flat

Boats/Visitors

  • A lot of tour boats around today in this beautiful weather, although not much traffic on those last couple windy days we had

Maintenance

  • A couple new goose nests popped up so those have been taken care of although there are about 3 nests that were too far along to addle and two of nests have hatched, the third one will hatch any day now and we expect that to be the last of the nests that will hatch this season

Ecological

  • My baby Nemo left this morning, it was definitely past the date we had expected him to leave elephant seals don’t typically stick around past 3 months of age but he had been here for almost 4 months, elephant seal pups also typically leave together when they are born in the same rookery but these two left weeks apart.
  • Still 12 elephant seals around going through the molting process, a couple of them have completed molting
  • the pigeon guillemots are here today
  • I heard there might be two otters out in the north kelp patch now but have not confirmed
  • Also saw a humpback yesterday, first one I’ve seen in a while