Mammals:

• California sealion: 614 plus 9 on outer islets
• Stellar sealion: 350 plus 287 on outer islets, mainly Middle Rock
• harbour seal: 64
• humpback whales: 5 inside the reserve, more outside
• sea otter: 1

Birds:

• gulls: 352
• cormorant: 367
• Canada goose: 9
• harlequin duck: 4
• black oystercatcher: 3 juveniles
• black turnstone: 71
• surf bird: 43
• western sandpiper: 2
• semipalmated plover: 1
• killdeer: 2
• savanna sparrow: 11

Notes on census

Wildlife seen this week but not observed on census day were eight sanderling. The red-footed booby was on Race Rocks this week according to BC Rare Bird Alert. The numbers of sea lions, especially the Stellar sea lions is likely higher. Oddly I haven’t seen or heard an eagle this week.

The census took a long time today.  There were several trips up the lighthouse and just too much to count!

This is photo 2 of 4 taken in a series to count the sea lions on Middle rock, one of the outer islands. There were so many sea lions I needed to count them using this method. The number of sea lions in the census would surely be higher if I could see the back side of the outer islands!

Surfbirds and black turnstones on the Energy Building beach.

Semipalmated plover.

Killdeer.

Eight sanderlings and a western sandpiper in the flats between East beach and the Jetty, in a spot free of sea lions.

Facility work

The sea lions didn’t just mess with the Jetty fencing today, they also took out a long section of the fence near East Beach.

• ran the generator
• repaired fences

A section of electric fence that the sea lions took out today. They dragged the line down to the beach and took a weathered tree root ball with it.

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 30
• Private: 13
• Jet ski: 2

Weather

Clear skies. Winds light 0 to 6 knots, direction variable. Daytime temperatures 12 to 15 degrees.