Wind: W 19 to 33 knots
Sea State: up to 1m chop
Visibility: 10-15 NM
Sky: clear
Temperature: 15-21 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 412.54 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)
Last night after the sunset, a lightning show began. There was at least one flash visible per minute when I was watching from about 21:00 to 22:00. According to CBC News, there were 1,600 lightning strikes overnight across BC’s South Coast: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/august-lightning-weather-bc-south-coast-1.5689195
Weekly census results observed today:
33 steller sea lions
45 california sea lions
1 sea otter
313 harbour seals
1 adult bald eagle
1 Canada goose
3 pelagic cormorants
1256 gulls (approximately 2/3 glaucous-winged gulls and 1/3 california gulls)
4 black oystercatchers
53 pigeon guillemots
42 black turnstones
1 american pipit
There were many ecotour boats passing through the Ecological Reserve today and only a few fishing boats visible in the distance.
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- A flash of lightning last night. It was quite the show. My blurry photo taken through a dirty window doesn’t do it justice.
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- A glaucous-winged gull feeds fish to three young gulls
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- The gulls take flight
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- A harbour seal looks around amongst the kelp on the north side of the island
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- A black turnstone on the jetty
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- A harbour seal and black oystercatcher
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- An black oystercatcher perches on a rock on the east side of the island.
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- A bazaar of pigeon guillemots
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- California sea lions on the west side of the island. The sea lion on the right side has two large scars from cookie cutter sharks.