Ecological Notes:
- The birds are starting to pair off …. Geese, Gulls, and Oyster Catchers most notably. Lots of Adult Bald Eagle courtship in the air.
- Young adult Elephant Seal male arrived a few days ago. After resting a couple days, he has spent most of every night bellowing and calling from a high point on the island.
One of his favourite calling spots is right below the window!
Realizing the female is calling from the other side of the rise
- One adult Female Elephant Seal has since come to the island. She moves towards the males calls, but retreats when he tries to approach her. I can only speculate that she instinctively wants to haul out for her moult with other seals, but feels he not big enough to breed with(?)
She calls out a lot as well
- I’m hoping his calls may attract others to the island
- Normally I just get reports of “Ollie” the Sea Otter, but while I was up by the north camera, I could see him just beyond helicopter rock.
very far away
- 4 Transient (Biggs) Orca travel through the northern edge of the reserve without cutting in to hunt. I watched from the north camera rock, to see if they might double back, but they continued east.
T019B “Galliano” … 28 year old male
Visitors:
- 2 techs from the Coastguard returned to complete repairs to the fog horn.
- The upcoming Eco-Guardian also visited for an overview of the Ecological Reserve and day to day operations.
Facility Work:
- Added water to the cistern to allow more desalination to fill the main water tank.
- Gathered all the hose on the island to pressure wash the pier.
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- before
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- during
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- after
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- So Close, then the waves got too high
- Tackled the rather daunting job of moving and bucking the very large logs collected when I had help to pull them out of the ocean. Even with a good understanding of leverage and pivot points, these logs were a brute! Most were well over 12-16 inches in diameter, and the bucked sections were 400-500 lbs! Task was cut short by rain (and exhaustion!), but moved the next sections into place for the first buck. Next will be moving them to the final bucking and splitting area up top.
DND events:
- some blasting, some fires
Noted Vessel Traffic:
- Still occasional Eco-Tourism vessels
** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
Weather – Current:
http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather – Past:
Details
Several groups, largest was eight birds. Many smart drakes. Some males moulting into formative plumage too.