Author Archives: Carol and Mike Slater

Mature Bald Eagles tried many times to land –thwarted at every attempt by the gulls and Oyster Catchers

Posted on by
Friday, May 17, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 13.0 C  Min. 7.3 C  Reset 11.1 C Rain 5.2 mm
MARINE LIFE: 2 Mature Bald Eagles today which tried many times to land on Gr. Race but thwarted at every attempt by the gulls and Oyster Catchers.With the great eyesight they have I’m sure the eagles have seen the 5 little tasty goslings running around. We look for the goslings every morning hoping to count 5! so far so good!
HUMAN INTERACTION: 3 Ecotour boats, 5 pleasure craft in the reserve today. The Second Nature in late afternoon with Laura, Garry and Marcus for a little filming.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:21 PM

 

Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Part Cloudy  Vis. 15 Miles  Wind North West 15 Knots Sea 2 Foot Chop
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:02 AM

Enjoying watching the 5 little goslings

Posted on by
Thursday, May 16, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 12.1 C  Min. 5.9 C Reset 9.9 C
MARINE LIFE: 1 mature Bald Eagle today.Enjoying watching the 5 little goslings,they sure cover a lot of ground in a day trying to keep up with the adults. They are pretty wobbly on their feet but cute! We are watching the other pair of geese carefully but so far no more chicks.No Oyster Catcher eggs have hatched yet but should be any day now.The gulls are gathering bits of grass and building nests but have not seen any eggs as of yet.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 3 pleasure craft through the reserve today.Station boat to Pedder Bay and back early a.m. for groceries and mail.Second trip after 17:00 to bring Grandsons(and their parents) over for long weekend visit.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:28 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Clear �� Vis 15 Miles �� Wind West 7 Knots �� Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:27 AM

Can hear the Harbour seals ‘growling’

Posted on by
Wednesday, May 15, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 11.9 C  Min. 7.0 C  Reset 9.1 C
MARINE LIFE: 2 Mature Bald Eagles today. Can hear the Harbour seals ‘growling’ usually they are so quiet but this time of the year, close to pupping they seem to get somewhat irritable- don’t like other seals to get too close-definitely not in the ‘ sharing the haul-out spot” mood.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 2 pleasure craft; 1 dive charter with approx.22 divers off the ‘Nautilus Explorer’ which anchored south side Bentinck Island for the day. The Second Nature in with Garry and guests late afternoon.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:15 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Part Cloudy Vis. 15 Miles Wind West 11 Knots  Sea 1 – 2 Foot Chop
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:57 AM

First gosling hatch on Race Rocks

Posted on by
Tuesday, May 14, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 10.1 C  Min. 7.3 C  Reset 8.7 C  Rain 1.8 mm
MARINE LIFE: 1 mature Bald Eagle today.We can report that some eggs have hatched! How we missed the obvious searching for the hidden I cannot explain but we now have 5 downy, mustard coloured goslings! We have been or thought we had been over every metre of Gr. Race looking for Oyster Catcher nests and did not find the goose nest. We wondered if they would nest but the geese were always on the move, no obvious nest sitting -how could you miss a 5kg bird incubating eggs for 25-30 days? well it seems we did! Anyway the goslings are cute and on the move with both parents attentively herding them along.There is another pair of adult geese that seem to stay in the grassy area on the northeast corner of the island.We searched the area very thoroughly this afternoon but could not find anything resembling a nest nor did we see any eggs.It will be interesting to watch these little geese grow, evidently they fledge in 45-60 days.
No boats to report- windy with moderate seas all day.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:33 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Cloudy �� Vis 12 Miles �� Wind West 30 Knots �� Sea 4 Foot Moderate — Low South West Swell.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:14 AM

enviro-systems field lab exam.

Posted on by
Monday, May 13, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 15.1 C  Min. 7.9 C  Reset 7.9 C  Rain 1.0 mm
MARINE LIFE: 2 mature Bald Eagles -they moved from North Rocks to the Southeast Rocks ever ‘escorted’ by a group of gulls and often a couple of Black Oyster Catchers.There are still no hatched Oyster Catchers, maybe tomorrow. The 3 geese continue to graze the island often the the pair lets the loner within a couple of metres.A group of about 30 harbour seals are spending the day in the east bay area- they like diving into the swells.We see quite a few seals with scrapes that they get moving around on the rocks at low tide.The rocks are covered with thousands of barnacles, these flesh ‘gashing’ animals have very sharp shells – can’t imagine how the seals can get ‘comfortable’ stretched out on top of them but they do!
HUMAN INTERACTION:The Second Nature in ‘bright and early’. Unfortunately the weather was quite nasty this morning -not the greatest of conditions for the students to do their enviro-systems field lab exam.Usually this time of year the exam is a pleasant change from the classroom exams – even some time to relax in the sunshine and eat lunch,even a little socializing but not today strictly ‘business’ ! Late afternoon 3 ecotour boats- not a great day for boating!
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:09 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Cloudy Vis 12 Miles  Wind West 27 Gusting 37 Sea 4 Foot Moderate — With Low South West Swell
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:49 AM

gulls are getting much more territorial,

Posted on by
Sunday, May 12, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 16.2 C  Min. 7.3 C Reset 15.1 C
MARINE LIFE: 1 mature,1 juvenile Bald Eagle today.The gulls are getting much more territorial, there are constant skirmishes with intruders being dragged unceremoniously across the yard by the neck,tail or wing.It looks pretty brutal but we seldom see any serious injuries.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 9 pleasure craft and 12 ecotour boats throughtthe reserve today. The Second Nature was in the morning. Garry and Laura busy getting things set up for the exam tomorrow-nice job on the tank! Too bad the exam was not today -the weather was incredible- the forecast for tomorrow not very good, calling for wind and showers!
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:21 PM

Good Morming

WEATHER: Sky Part Cloudy  Vis 15 miles  Wind East 5 Knots  Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:54 AM

Hummingbirds and Black Brants

Posted on by
Saturday, May 11, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 12.0 C  Min. 7.3 C Reset 10.1 C
MARINE LIFE: 2 mature Bald Eagles today, still the 3 geese.There is a lot of bird activity and it is never quiet.Today we saw the usual gulls,oyster catchers,eagles,pigeon guillemots, geese, starlings, crows and savannah sparrows. An added bonus were the 2 humming birds that buzzed around for 20 minutes or so, always amazed to see them so far from the mainland but do see a few every year especially if the winds are light. A couple of black brant geese landed in the small bay on the east side of Gr. Race but did not stay long.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 5 pleasure craft and 13 ecotour boats, the last two enjoyed a beautiful sunset as they left the reserve.The D.N.D. did some blasting on the beach on Bentinck Island between 17:30 and 22:00 but only two blasts about 20:20 and 20:25 were big enough to have any noticeable impact here.The birds took flight en masse each time and took 10-15 minutes to settle down,it was getting too dark to see much beyond Gr. Race.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:09 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Part Cloudy Vis 15 Miles  Wind West 19 Knots  Sea 2 – 3 Foot Chop
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:49 AM

BC Parks out

Posted on by
Friday, May 10, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 11.9 C Min. 6.1 C Reset 10.5 C
MARINE LIFE: 2 mature Bald Eagles -kept away from Gr. Race by the ever vigilant gulls and Oyster Catchers.Have found 6 Oyster Catcher nests with eggs. This morning there was a lone female Mallard in the garden but did not stay long -flew over towards Bentinck Island.Garry reports that there are 10 or more Elephant Seals on Middle Rock, mostly females.About 10:40 a small group of Transient Orca came into the reserve from the west. Looked like 5 plus 1 calf.They are very stealthy and did not spend much time on the surface so cannot be positive in indentification.The whales did not seem to be hunting or in any hurry and spent about 45 minutes in the small bay area off the east side of Gr. Race.There was only one boat in the area but as the whales moved east, there were quite a number of tour boats reporting the whales and even a kill of a porpoise.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 2 ectour boats,1 pleasure craft. The Second Nature in with Garry and Don from Parks B.C. –
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:39 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Clear  Vis. 15 Miles  Wind West 9 Knots  Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:55 AM

Pigeon Guillemots seek out ‘tunnels’ in the rock piles

Posted on by
Wednesday, May 08, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max.11.0 C  Min. 5.5 C  Reset 9.0 C
MARINE LIFE: 2 mature bald eagles today-still 3 geese.The gulls and Oyster Catchers kept the eagles on the move, every time the big birds approached Gr. Race they were ‘herded’ away and so spent most of the day on North Rocks.Although it is not as warm as it usually is for May, the sun is so welcome -it has been a strange spring. The birds are pretty well all paired off now except of course for the 3rd goose! The Pigeon Guillemots seek out ‘tunnels’ in the rock piles to lay their eggs and will sit for quite a while guarding the entrances, they are however so striking with the white wing patch and bright red feet that it is easy to find the nests.It is interesting to note the differences of bird behavior as far as protection of the eggs. The Gulls stay with the eggs and fend off intruders while the Oyster Catchers use the ‘distraction’ method of flying some distance away all the while chirping frantically. Have not seen any chicks yet but the oystercatcher eggs in the east bay area should soon hatch,will check the nest in the morning.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 4 pleasure craft and 13 ecotour boats through the reserve today,station boat round trip to Pedder Bay.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:45 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Cloudy  Vis. 15 Miles Wind West 9 Knots  Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:54 AM

so cold,wet and windy—Snow Trace!

Posted on by
Monday, May 06, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 8.1 C  Min. 1.9 C  Reset 7.3 C Rain 2.0 mm  Snow Trace  Yes Snow in May what next
MARINE LIFE: 1 mature and 1 juvenile bald eagle. Felt sorry for the birds this morning – so cold,wet and windy.The weather did improve and by mid afternoon it felt much more like spring.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 1 pleasure craft, 2nd Nature through the reserve.Station boat, trip to Pedder Bay and back late afternoon.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 8:40 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Cloudy  Vis 15 Miles  Wind South West 22 Knots  Sea 3 Foot Moderate
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:59 AM