The glaucous-winged gulls that breed and nest on Race Rocks are present year-round in the Salish Sea. They are being studied as indicators of ecosystem health by Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Salish Sea Marine Bird Monitoring and Conservation Program. Individual birds are identified by their colour bands. This allows researchers to track their movements over time, their location preferences (site fidelity) and survival. They also collect blood and feathers samples for genetic, physiological, pathogen, parasite and contaminant analyses. Some of the birds get GPS tags so their precise movements can be followed. The project has been running since 2020. The researchers visited over 300 sites and banded over 800 gulls.

I sighted and reported three of the banded birds in June and July 2024 and two so far on June 28 and 29, 2025. The project lead Dr. Mark Hipfner says the last gull reported who was banded in Tofino is of particular interest as it was banded in its first winter of life “…so this is its first year in full adult plumage. These ones are ESPECIALLY valuable because we ultimately want to derive an estimate of age-specific survival and we also want to monitor changes in plumage with age.”

Like the gulls I reported, the majority of glaucous-winged gulls stay close to home. In their 2025 report in Map 2 (see below), they provide the travel details for one adventurous gull who went from Prince Rupert to Alaska to breed and then back again over the course of one year. That inspirational bird spent a lot time in the Copper River Delta and in the area of Kayak Island. I am envious as those are two place I would LOVE to see.

They have one more year to go in the study and will soon be able to report on gull habitat use, diet (via stable isotope analysis they can tell if the gulls feed in marine versus inland areas), physiological health, age, disease and contaminant levels. From the genomics data they will be able to determine provenance (the location they came from), population structure, and the extent of hybridization.

To learn more about this project and the banded glaucous-winged, California and short-billed (Mew) gulls, see their 2025, 2023 and 2022 reports.

As of this spring, they had over a 1000 reports of banded gulls from the public. To contribute to this project and report a banded gull, take a photo showing the bands, record date and location and send to:

• online form
• or to report with your phone, see their poster

 

 

 

Wildlife notes:

A gull nest with two eggs has been abandoned. “Perfect Perch” (last photographed on her nest on May 29) has not been on the nest for the last three days. This is something I did not observe last summer.  Strangely the eggs are still in the nest and have not been taken.

Facility work:

• cleaned the solar panels
• worked on Jetty electric fence replacing the gate parts by the steps and the stainless tie bands.

Vessels:

• Ecotourism: 1
• Private: 2

Weather:

• Clear skies. Moderate westerlies building to gale force by early evening! The house is quacking and shaking. Daytime temperatures: low 11, high 15. Some part of Vancouver Island are close to 30 degrees and I have a fire going to warm up the house.

I did not collected the sea water temperature and salinity data tonight at 19:00 as the wind was 35 knots.

 

 

Wildlife notes

I am preparing myself for the shock of finding dead chicks that have mistakenly wandered into enemy territory. Thankfully I haven’t come across any yet. It was a warm glorious day, a perfect day to admire the harbour seals reluctant to leave Seal Rocks until the waves finally pushed them off.  The Keeper’s house oystercatchers seem to have separated their duties. One is still on the original nest while the other is busy a few feet away feeding the chick that hatched yesterday. A rock pigeon visited today. They are not uncommon in the city or public markets, but here it was a unusual treat to see this bird.

Facility notes

• cleaned solar panels
• measured specific gravity after the solar panels brought the battery to 100%

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 18
• Private: 8

Weather

Winds light and variable. Skies clear. Daytime temperatures: low 13, high 21.

Wildlife notes

The gull chicks are hatching! It explains why I was decorated by the Sign gull yesterday. This afternoon I discovered two hatched chicks and one egg in their nest. The first kernel in the bag to pop. By evening the new chicks were seen all over. It is helmet time for me or … walk slowly and carry a broom stick. The stick is not for swinging at the gulls but carried over the shoulder as an alternate target

Chim chim cher-ee! An ecoguardian is a lucky as lucky can be.

The Keeper’s house oystercatchers also hatched a chick today. A parent was seen on the nest yesterday so it was hatched in the last 24 hours – a day old and walking around. They had three eggs, so maybe tomorrow there may be another chick or two.

Facility work

• cleaned solar panels
• added fuel to the generator and transfered 100L of fuel to the Energy Building

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 9
• Private: 1

Weather

Fog in the morning, clear skies in the afternoon. Moderate SW breeze most of the day.  Daytime temperatures: low 11, high 12.

Mammals:

• Steller sea lion: 1  (June 20: 0, June 13: 0, June 7: 2, May 30: 10, May 23: 6, May 15: 21, May 8: 37)
• California sea lion: 0 (June 20: 1, June 13: 3, June 7: 12)
• Harbour seal: 258 (June 20: 32, June 13: 211, June 7, 103, May 30: 90, May 23: 50)
• Elephant seal: 1 female

Birds:

• Gulls: 587 plus 96 on west shore (June 20: 352, June 13: 603, June 7: 645, May 30: 464, May 23: 467, May 15: 391, May 8: 114)
• Pigeon guillemot: 153 (June 20: 159, June 13: 36, June 7: 82, May 30: 6, May 23: 30, May 15: 78, May 8: 153)
• Cormorants: 28
• Canada geese: 2
• Bald eagle: 2 adults, 2 immature
• Black oystercatcher: 14 adults (did not see chicks today)
• Barn swallow: 2

Wildlife observed this week but not on census day was one Harlequin duck.

Wildlife notes

The gull chicks should be hatching any day now as they are getting more on edge, even in the areas that I frequently travel. Twice today I had to change my clothes as I was smeared head to toe in pungent poo. The Energy Building and Keepers house oystercatchers are still on their nests.

 

Facility work

• cleaned the solar panels
• topped up battery fluids

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 10
• Private: 3

Weather

Variable moderate breeze throughout the day switching to westerly by early evening. Skies overcast. Daytime temperatures: low 12, high 14.

 

Shipping traffic and pollution

This is part 2 of 11 ships go sailing by.  I took these photos this morning of a ship and its extra long trail of exhaust which had not dissipated. Thinking of pollution and looking at the ships cloud-like exhaust reminded my of something I read that I’d like to share, but first a little bit about ship pollution.

There is accidental pollution from loss of cargo, fuel or oil, and there is operation pollution from the discharge of sewage, ballast water, tank washings, from anti-fouling systems, tank venting and from engine exhaust. In terms of exhaust, shipping contributes about 3% of world’s greenhouse gas emissions and 20% of the nitrogen oxides and 10% of the sulfur oxides emissions. The burning of bunker oil in the ship’s diesel engines produces the NOx, SOx, particulates, carbon monoxides, carbon dioxides, hydrocarbons, and other subsequently formed secondary chemicals … all bad, all contributing to climate change.

International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) addresses the concerns of pollution of the marine environment. The requirements for nitrous oxide emissions from diesel engines, sulphur content of fuel, fuel oil quality, emissions of ozone-depleting substances, incinerators, emissions of volatile organic compounds etc, are in Annex VI Regulations for the Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships, which came into effect in 2005.

Since then the IMO set new sulfur-emissions regulations for implementation by larger ships beginning in January 2020, reducing sulfur by 80%. This should help right? It turns out, it made climate warming worse! The sulfur dioxide reacts with water vapour to produce aerosols that reflect sunlight and those clouds that follow ships, they actually help cool the oceans. This was published in the journal Nature and they suggest geoengineer and marine cloud brightening may be a viable method to temporarily cooling the climate. So…Who’d a thunk? What a mess we are in.

Links

1. Shipmap.org – an animated presentation of all the global shipping traffic over a one year period, with a CO2 ticker in the header.
2. Read the Nature article “Abrupt reduction in shipping emission as an inadvertent geoengineering termination shock produces substantial radiative warming”
3. Environmental impacts of Shipping – Wikipedia

Wildlife notes:

There is not much to report. I found a large creamy white egg in the killing fields by the house. It was the Canada goose egg from the nest on the opposite side of house, under the back stairs.  Why the gulls would take it all the way around the house to destroy it is baffling. I wonder if she recognized her egg while looking for something to eat – it has been weeks since she ate.

Facility work

• cleaned the solar panels
• cleaned things in the house (bleached and scrubbed the south and north tiled entry ways in the Keeper’s house and other things)

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 11
• Private: 1

Weather

Gentle southwest breeze throughout the day, moderate westerly breeze in the evening. Skies overcast, periods of rain in the late afternoon and evening. Daytime temperatures: low 11, high 14.

What’s with those spindly legs and weird knees?

Those aren’t weird looking knees on those thin sticks of a leg, they are ankles and the sea gull is standing on its toes. This form of locomotion is called digitigrade and is also used by cats, dogs and many mammals. Humans are plantigrade (we walk on our whole foot) and horses are unguligrade (walk on their hoofs – analogous to a keratinous nail or claw).

Their foot bones are fused and upright when they are standing. We see their ankle and only the bottom scale-covered portion of their lower leg bones (about 20% of the lower leg). The rest of their lower leg, their knee and shortened upper leg bone is not visible to us.

Sea gulls have three forward toes and one pointing back (the hallux which is equivalent to our big toe) but it is reduced in size and difficult to see.  Their lobation and webbing is called palmate. Some examples of local birds with the four types of webbing: Palmate (gulls), Totipalmate (cormorants), Semipalmated (herons, some plovers and sandpipers), Lobate (black oystercatcher).

Gulls are an all around great bird. They are awesome flyers and nimble, quick runners, unlike the waddling Canada goose.  And if you ever hear a person described as having “chicken legs”, you know they got it wrong.

Facility work

• cleaned solar panels
• cleaned outside windows on the Keeper’s House

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 12
• Private: 0

Weather

Fresh breeze all day, WNW in the morning backing to WSW by early evening. Skies overcast to cloudy. Daytime temperatures: low 11, high 13.

 

There is a noisome odor at the outer reaches of the island, on the rocky shores, where the density of gulls have encrusted the rocks in guano. The molting elephant seal is no different – its shed skin and hair remains malodorous for years. But in the fall, the sea lions dog piled outside the electric fence outstink them all.

Noisome is Merriam-Websters word of the day and I threw in a couple more from
“10 Obscure Words for Bad Odors” – Merriam-Webster (read full version)

• Noisome – very unpleasant or disgusting
• Malodorous – having a bad odor
• Outstink –  smell worse than
• Nidor – smell of cooking or burning meat or fat
• Mephitic – offensive to the sense of smell
• Stinkaroo – stinker
• Hircine – resembling a goat in smell
• Alliaceous – smell or taste of garlic or onion
• Kakidrosis – secretion of sweat of a disagreeable odor
• Reekingly – with a reek

Facility work

• cleaned the solar panels
• I am almost done cleaning and organizing the Tank Shed – just the back of door and one more wall to wipe. Another immensely satisfying job which took many days to complete.

The Tank Shed houses the large diesel Tidy Tank and fuel drums (for the generator and furnaces), the portable water pump which gets rolled to the Jetty to pump up fresh or salt water, electric fence supplies, the unit for measuring seawater temperature and salinity, the computer for the Davis weather station, and tools, paint, grease etc. 

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 5
• Private: 1

Weather

Fog in the morning, clearing by noon and cloudy in the afternoon. Winds moderate to fresh westerlies increasing to near gale force by late afternoon. Daytime temperatures: low 9, high 11.

Wildlife notes:

I haven’t seen any gull chicks hatching yet but the gulls continue to build up and pad their nests. The elephant seals usually lay partially in the water on the boat ramp or float around the Jetty blowing bubbles. The female was in the water for a long time today and actually went for a swim. I saw her on her return trip at East Beach. The East Beach oystercatcher chicks are doing well, growing quickly and darting about. I figure they are around two weeks old. The Keeper’s House and Energy Building oystercatcher pairs are still incubating their eggs.

Facility work

• cleaned the solar panels
• topped up battery fluid levels
• continued cleaning/organizing the Tank Shed

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 7
• Private: 2

Weather

Light to gentle southwest breeze becoming westerly in the early evening. Skies overcast in the morning, clear by late afternoon. Daytime temperatures: low 11 , high 13.

 

Wildlife notes:

The female elephant is free and clear of her old self. Today is day 19 of her molt. The last little bit that stuck to her back since day 14 of her molt (photo) took 5 days to shake.

This female arrived here on May 18th (photo), started her molt on June 4th (photo) and may stay for another 2 or 3 weeks before she heads back to the sea. The elephant seals usually take the same route to the boat ramp for their daily soak(s) and have their favourite spots in the grass to sleep. They are heavy and spend so much time in the grass that they have created pathways and depressions lined with their shed hair and skin.

Facility Work

I spend a few hours in the Tank Shed today. It is getting cleaned up, easier to find things, with more counter space and now, room to walk around in there. I cleaned one of the two windows today.  It took a while as the channels were filled with gunk and I had to dig out a razor blade to scrape the glass. So much brighter in there and very satisfying to look out a clean window.

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 9
• Private: 2

Weather

Moderate south west winds most of the day, switching to fresh westerlies in the early evening (they called for winds up to 30 knots so I lowered the flag this evening but they didn’t materialize). Overcast. Daytime temperatures: low 11, high 15.

 

 

 

Wildlife notes

We received a measurable amount of rain last night. It cleaned the windows, the solar panels, and soaked the birds. I expected the air to smell fresh after the cleansing as it normally would, but the smell of the gull poo was somehow more aromatic. Other than the absence of the sea lions and the typical dozen or so eagle fly overs there is nothing of note to report on.

The gulls spend a lot of time preening and are usually very white and clean looking. They also have good hygiene around their nests and move about 4 to 5 feet away to relieve themselves. I had a laugh when I saw the gull who built a nest two feet from the basement door – a inconvenient spot for me and annoying to the gull who is disturbed often. The gull was a dirty mess after the rain turned the soil there into mud.

Facility work

I had a sleepless night and felt off today so I did not accomplish much other than a bit of tidying and organizing in the pantry looking at expiry dates.

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 5
• Private: 4

Weather

Fog in the morning, cloudy skies remainder of the day. Rain ending by 11am. Winds light to gentle, direction variable. Seas calm. Daytime temperature: low 10, high 13.