Monthly Archives: June 2024

White stuff

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The male elephant seal is an unsightly mess. His hair is falling out, he is covered in flies, foaming from the nose and has a poo smear running the length of his belly from dragging himself through his excrement. He probably can’t see well, is slow moving, uncoordinated, and can’t grab a hovering gull <1 foot away from his open mouth.

To be fair, we are seeing him at his worst. In the sea, this creatures is an extremely manoeuvrable master diver and hunter! He can easily hold his breath for 20 minutes and dive to 800 m (maximums of up to 100 min long and 2 km deep have been recorded). His eyes have adaptations for low light, his vibrissae (whiskers) can detect vibrations, he can reduce blood flow to his extremities, has a large blood volume with a high red cell count and can store extra blood in his abdomen and spleen to release slowly during his dive. And that white stuff oozing from his nostril?  It is a pulmonary surfactant that reduces the surface tension of the fluid in the lungs but it also acts an anti-adhesive. When he dives to great depths the pressure is so high his lungs collapse and this surfactant stops the lung tissue from sticking together allowing the lungs to later expand again.

References:

The Remarkable Non-Stick Lungs of Elephant Seals, The Common Naturalist – read more

The Northern Elephant Seal, by Veronica Pagowski, Northwest Wildlife Preservation Society – read more

Wildlife notes:

The gulls were very testy today. I got nailed with a wet, warm, smelly bomb right in the head and across my glasses, and it was first time I had raise my broom to intercept a diving gull. The first chicks should hatching any day now.

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • thistles
  • survey and brush the electric fence line
  • vacuum and clean main basement room

Vessels:

5 Ecotourism boats, 4 private

Weather:

Sunny day, calm seas, winds light and variable 4-7 knots.

DND activity:

Three blasts heard and seen from Bentinck Island. No obvious signs of distress.

 

Digital Dexterity

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An elephant seal moving on land is anything but graceful. Their rear flippers are not useful for locomotion on land. They use their front flippers to propel themselves forward on their bellies. Their forelimbs or front flippers however, are capable of precise, controlled movements, perfect for getting that itchy spot or wiping away the flies.

Wildlife notes:

Single eagles visited today. The gulls would really have an easier time if they just worked together in both scaring off the eagles and dealing with the steamroller elephant seal. While all the gulls are flying about and screaming bloody murder, only one brave gull chased the eagle on two trips around the Great Race and the surrounding islands.  The male elephant seal has lost more hair on his nose, around his eyes and the hair on his body is coming off in patches.

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • thistles

Vessels:

7 Ecotourism boats, 2 private

Weather:

Foggy morning, temperature 10 degrees, winds WSW 10. Daytime high of 12 degrees, winds steady 8-15 knots from WSW or W.

Low tide

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A quiet Sunday morning on land but a raging 6.3 knots of currents in the sea at 8:30 am. After cleaning the solar panels and second breakfast, I took a wander to experience a near zero meter low tide at Race Rocks. There are too many wonders to describe or photograph so I will share only one observation: the number of gooseneck barnacles is astounding!

A surge channel lined with gooseneck barnacles

Wildlife notes: 

The lacerated Stellar sealion from yesterday was not seen today. The male elephant seal is progressing with his molt. The most noticeable differences from yesterday are on his face and flippers. The year old elephant seal paid a visit today and enjoyed a sleep on the boat ramp.

Year old female elephant seal

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • clean windows on both houses
  • thistles

Vessels:

15 Ecotourism boats

Weather:

Partly cloudy, WNW 28 in the morning, W 15 in the early evening.

Progne subus: Purple martin – The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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On June 20, 2045 , Race Rocks Ecoguardian Christine Chourmouzis found a purple martin in her house

she writes in her log: Two purple martins were spotted on top of the tower and on roof of the Keepers’s house around noon.  At 3 pm I discovered a purple martin had made its way down the chimney pipe into the wood stove. I am so glad the ashes were cold and I was able to get it back outside! 

 

  • Purple martins suffered a severe population crash in the 20th century widely linked to the release and spread of European starlings in North America. European starlings and house sparrows compete with martins for nest cavities. Where purple martins once gathered in the thousands, by the 1980s they had all but disappeared. (Wikipedia)

They have excellent aerodynamic  maneuvering control as they fly quickly over open areas catching insects with a wide opening mouth. They are valued for their voracious appetite for mosquitoes and flies. With their food being flying insects, the island certainly provides an abundant supply of the kelp fly Coelopa vanduzeei

Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Sub-phylum: Vertebrata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Hirundinidae
Genus:Progne 
Species: subis. (Linnaeus, 1758)
Common Name: Purple martin

Physical Description:

 It is the largest swallow in North America. 
With an average length of 20 cm (7.9 in) and a wingspan of up to 38 cm (15 in), the purple martin is the largest amongst the 90 odd species in the family Hirundinidae.[9]
Purple martins are sexually dimorphic. Adult males are entirely black with a glossy steel blue sheen, the only swallow in North America with such coloration. Adult females are dark on top with some steel blue sheen, and lighter underparts. Adults have a slightly forked tail.

Relationship with humans:

Continual maintenance and protection is required, as European starlings and house sparrows compete with martins as cavity-nesters, and will fight with martins over nest sites. Thus, unmonitored purple martin houses are often overtaken by more aggressive, non-native species.[3] Purple martin proponents are motivated by the concern that the purple martin would likely vanish from eastern North America were it not for this assistance.[24]( Wikipedia)

Other Members of the Class Aves at Race Rocks 
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.

June 20 2024 Christine Chourmouzis – Ecoguardian

Clouds

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Since June 11 this is the first time I have run the generator. It was only at 80% capacity by 2:30pm. On a sunny day it would be close to 90% by this time. The generator ran for 4 hours and brought the batter from 80% to 99% – shame, something the sun could do without the use of fuel.

Wildlife notes: 

The black oyster catchers near the house have moved their two chicks closer to the water on the north east shore. The chicks appear to have almost doubled in size in a week. They are exploring the rocks but quickly respond to their parents peeps and take cover when instructed.

A California and a Stellar sealion were spotted in the early evening on the south east shore. The Stellar has an injury at the base of its flippers.

Injured Stellar sealion

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • thistles
  • split rounds of wood

Vessels:

17 Ecotourism boats, 1 private vessel

Weather:

Cloudy for parts of the day. Winds steady ranging from 11-22 knots and WSW to WNW.

First day of summer

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It is the first day of summer and I am wearing a toque and have a fire going! I heard the fog horn for the first time today. It isn’t very loud and doesn’t appear to disturb the birds – three long blasts (more like beeps) every minute, sounds like a truck backing up.

Wildlife notes: 

The elephant seal is now molting around his face. It appears he is not just losing his hair and a layer of skin but also his whiskers.  No new wildlife sightings today. The sea lions are still away and the geese have left.

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • topped up battery fluid
  • clean and vacuumed the battery room
  • thistles

Vessels:

14 Ecotourism boats

Weather:

Sunny with 10 knot westerlies in the morning building to over 30 in the early evening. Fog rolled in at 1 pm and dissipated by 7pm.

Race Rocks Ecological Reserve Warden’s Report June 14 2024

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Garry Fletcher, ER Warden for Race Rocks visited the reserve on June 14, 2024

Greg Dickinson from Pearson College provided transport in Second Nature for the following group: 

  • Lisette and Mads – Mads is former student and both are volunteering at Pearson College
  • Garry Fletcher – Park Warden
  • James Tuohy – future Ecoguardian
  • Ann Nightingale and Andrew Jacobs – Rocky Point Bird Observatory

Upon docking I was struck by the number of Pigeon Guillemots on the rocks . Although I haven’t checked back in our records, there certainly seems to have been an increase in numbers 

We were greeted by the new ecoguardian  Christine  Chourmouzis .  In addition to having a general survey of the reserve, I was able to direct Christine and James through the process of entering them as editors on racerocks.ca and creating a log and posting it on the Race Rocks website. 

Supplies for the Ecoguardian are off-loaded

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I was teaching at Pearson College, we often monitored a set of tidepools out on the island’s West side. I checked out those pools again and took photos which show the state of algae growth. Some observations in the tidepool files provide a baseline for comparative studies in the future.  These files are on the tidepools

 

A review of some of the installations on the Island

 

Due to recent notices on social media about the problems that pet owners are having when their dogs get exposed to foxtail , I was concerned about whether there was a similar problem with marine mammals. This guy certainly seems to be enjoying the location however. 

I tried to find the small patch of the rare plant  seaside  plant Romanzoffia on the rocks on the East side of the house.  Unfortunately the area was covered with knotweed now. We will have to check again in the winter. 

The Turkish marsh gladiolus are now in bloom. This is a good example of a garden escape , planted by lighthouse keepers probably as much as 80 years ago .

 

 

Happy Solstice

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Wildlife notes:

A few new exciting sightings today.  Two purple martins were spotted on top of the tower and on roof of the Keepers’s house around noon.  At 3 pm I discovered a purple martin had made its way down the chimney pipe into the wood stove. I am so glad the ashes were cold and I was able to get it back outside! A striking male harlequin duck visited the small bay on north east side of the island. A banded gull was observed.

Purple martin in the house

Male harlequin duck

Banded gull

 

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • thistles

Vessels:

21 Ecotourism boats, 4 private boats

Weather:

First day since June 11 to experience calm seas in the morning. Clear skies, winds light ESE veering to W 8 by evening.

June 19th Census

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Mammals

sea otter: 1
California sea lion: 1
elephant seal: 1 (male)
harbour seal: 156 (46 South Islands, 21 South Seal rocks, 89 Middle and North Islands)

Birds

bald eagle: 4
cormorant: 28
gulls: 481 (451 Great Race Rock, 2 South Island, 28 South Seal Rock)
oyster catcher: 8 adults
pigeon guillemot: 53
harlequin duck: 1 young male, 2 females

Female harlequin duck

Visitors:

Greg and Cedric delivered two more loads of water. The tank is full with >4500L :)

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • water delivery
  • sorting tools and supplies

Vessels:

14 Ecotourism boats

Weather:

First day since June 11 to experience calm seas in the morning. Clear skies, winds light ESE veering to W 8 by evening.

Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink

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Water delivery:

A desalinator is used to produce fresh water at the Rocks. It hasn’t been working for several weeks, and while waiting for parts, we needed to boat in fresh water. Today Greg and Cedrick ran two fresh water delivery trips to the island. The water is pumped from a tank on the boat to the fresh water tank near the house using fire hoses.  Over the past week since I arrived, the water reservoir went from 1600 L to 1500 L. This an average use of 15L a day for the mandatory solar panel and window cleaning and for house use but with careful conservation (e.g. no daily dish washing, few and quick showers). An interesting water note: with the 10m run from the hot water on demand system to the shower, about 8 L of water will run from the faucet before hot water reaches the shower. In our city homes we let this amount of water run down the drain all the time – here I catch it in a bucket.  With today’s delivery of 1400L water today, our supply is up to 2900 L.  After tomorrows delivery, the tank should be full and I can consider doing a load of laundry at a cost of 150L of water!

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • water delivery
  • thistles
  • “weed whacking” – cutting grass from the walkway

Wildlife notes:

Eagles visiting again, the four Canada geese remain, and the elephant seal flattened at least one more nest. The gulls who had the interaction with the seal in yesterdays post, lost their last egg today – cause unknown.

Last to leave South Seal Rocks on the flooding tide

Eagle leaving the SW shore with what appears to be a sea creature not a gull.

Vessels:

> 5 Ecotourism boats

Weather:

Sunny day winds westerlies 10 – 20 knots