Author Archives: Carol and Mike Slater

22 Bloys

Posted on by
Tuesday, January 15, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 6.5C Min. 2.1C  Reset 5.4C
MARINE LIFE: 14 Bald Eagles today -5 mature. There are still many hundreds of sea birds feeding although much farther out from the reserve.A group of 22 Black Oyster Catchers spent most of the day along the south shore of Gr. Race.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 1 Sailboat, 1 Pleasure craft ( 2 divers )and 1 Charter -‘Discovery Launch’ through the M.P.A.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:10 PM

Birds feeding in Strait

Posted on by
Monday, January 14, 2002
 Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max 8.1C  Min 3.7C Reset 5.0C
MARINE LIFE: The calendar does say January but it was like spring on the ‘rock’ today with the very light winds and bright sunshine.Another good day for the birds,from 1/2 km off the island as far as we could see thousands of feeding sea birds.Only 9 ( 5 mature) Bald Eagles came into the reserve today,spent a little time eating, resting then back out to sea. Just after noon noticed a California Sea Lion haul out on North Rocks with a fresh wound on the top side of the left flipper.Looking with the telescope could see a bigger area of raw flesh under the flipper -like the armpit area – Orca nibble maybe??? About 15:30 a Heron landed on the railing of the boat dock,sat there almost half an hour then flew over the little bay on the east shore of Gr.Race, was still there as the sun was setting.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 1 pleasure craft through the M.P.A. today
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:09 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Cloudy  Vis. 15 Miles  Wind North East 4 Knots Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 8:21 AM

Eagles Fishing

Posted on by
Sunday, January 13, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 7.7C  Min. 3.9C  Reset 5.7C Rain 0.6 mm
MARINE LIFE: With calm seas the tidelines were very active with feeding birds.We saw a lot of fish taken by the 11( 5 mature ) Bald Eagles.Most of them chose to eat their catch sitting on the ridge of the Southeast Rocks. There was one eagle -immature- with very pale, buff mottled colouring all over except for dark brown tail and head.This colouring is probably not that rare,we have just never seen it before and it stood out so much amongst the rest of the immatures.The Harbour seals seem to favour the southeast rocks for haul out the past few days, counted 167 just before dark.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 3 Pleasure craft through the M.P.A. today.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:16 PM

Good Morning

WEATHER: Sky Cloudy  Vis. 15 Miles  Wind North West 2 Knots  Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:01 AM
Saturday, January 12, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 9.1C  Min. 6.7C  Reset 7.0C  Rain 13.8 mm
WEATHER: Sky Cloudy  Vis 6 – 10 Miles in Rain Showers + Fog  Wind has been West 35 G 45 Knots all day Sea 7 Foot Rough with Moderate Swells
MARINE LIFE: 2 mature Bald Eagles today but they spent less than an hour in the area before flying over towards Bentinck Island.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:08 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Overcast  Vis. 6 Miles Fog + Rain Showers  Wind South West 35 Gust 47 Knots Sea 6 Foot Moderate With Low – Mod. West Swell
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:19 AM

Herring

Posted on by
Friday, January 11, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 9.0C  Min. 6.9C  Reset 8.7C  Rain 0.8 mm
MARINE LIFE:13 Bald eagles (4 mature) visited today and even with a fairly choppy sea were quite successful getting a good feed of fish that looked like herring.The feeding area attracted a lot of birds but was a good distance from the M.P.A. south and east of the Rosedale buoy.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 2 Whale Watch boats through today.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:02 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Overcast  Vis 15 Miles Wind North East 17 Knots  Sea 2 Foot Chop – Low East Swell
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:21 AM

Feeding at Sea

Posted on by
Wednesday, January 09, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 9.1C  Min 6.2C  Reset 7.1C  Rain 0.6 mm
MARINE LIFE: Another day with thousands of birds feeding mostly in the tide line south and east of Gr. Race. In the late afternoon there were smaller areas of feeding at the western tip of North rocks and the south side of the Southeast Rks. There were 17 Bald Eagles( 5 mature ) today and saw them fly by many times with fish about 20cms. long. There were many skirmishes between gulls trying to take fish from each other.The most amazing ‘fish grabs’ were 2 incidents were gulls actually flew up behind an eagle and snatched a fish right out of it’s talons.The gulls are really quite aggressive birds, they are always trying to drive away the eagles by diving at them as they sit on the rocks or just fly by the area.
HUMAN INTERACTION:1 Pleasure craft through the M.P.A.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:22 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Cloudy  Vis. 15 Miles Wind West 5 Knots  Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:25 AM

Feeding at Sea

Posted on by
Tuesday, January 08, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 10.3C  Min. 8.1C Reset 8.8C  Rain 16.0 mm
MARINE LIFE:The Bald Eagles started to arrive early in groups of 2 and 3 and by 8:30 there were 8 ( 1 mature ) sitting shoulder to shoulder along the ridge by the chopper pad.They were holding their wings at about a 45 degree angle as if to dry off.By 9am there were 17 eagles -4 mature- mostly on the southeast Rks. At 11:30 I noticed quite a number of birds flying around the Rosedale buoy,with the telescope we could see thousands of birds feeding in the tide line.There must be a lot of fish as the birds were active all afternoon.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:08 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Overcast Vis. 8 Miles Rain Wind West 5 Knots  Sea Rippled Low South East Swell
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:51 AM

22-24 Black Oyster Catchers arrive

Posted on by

Monday, January 07, 2002 Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 13.3C  Min. 8.3C Reset 10.0C Rain 36.2 mm

MARINE LIFE: The bull Elephant Seal is still hauling out on the rocks below the engine room and for a few hours, usually in the morning,floats leisurely along the shore, upright with his head and snout just above the surface. With the fairly light winds we are able to hear his distinctive ‘bellow’ mostly at night. Only one immature Bald Eagle visited today. The fog was very thick and right down to the water surface not the best hunting conditions. 22-24 Black Oyster Catchers arrived on Gr. Race about 11:00am, broke off into pairs and spent 1/2 hour or so in previous years nesting areas.Although they are the first of the birds to nest, January seems too early for serious courting and nest building even with the very mild temperatures!
HUMAN INTERACTION: 2nd Nature arrived approx. 13:45 -a tricky landing at the dock with an ebbing tide and 1-2 metre swells.The supplies ( 8 pails of oil for generator oil change) and 4 passengers were quickly off-loaded and Angus waited off shore until the visitors were ready to be picked up,only an experienced boat driver can manage a landing under these conditions!.2nd Nature returned to campus 14:30.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:32 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Obscured  Vis. 1/8 Mile Light Rain and Fog  Wind South 5 Knots  Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:23 AM

23 Bald Eagles

Posted on by
Sunday, January 06, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 9.9C  Min. 7.9C  Reset 9.7C  Rain 10.2 mm
MARINE LIFE: Another good day for watching eagles, 23 altogether ( 5 mature ). They were spread out along the ridges of West Race, North Rocks. and The Southeast Rocks. At 9:15 one mature eagle caught a juvenile gull just over the northwest ridge above the boat house,unfortunately the gull which seemed lifeless dropped and landed in a pile of drift wood washing against the shore on the west side of the boat dock. A group of gulls hurried to the area but with the breaking waves and some fair sized logs crashing about, the gulls were unable to get at the dead bird.The weather started to worsen with winds picking up to 22-27knts. from the northeast, and by 12:50 in moderate rain showers all but 2 eagles left the area.The 2 remaining (immatures) left just before 13:30
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:10 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Overcast �� Vis. 15 Miles �� Wind North East 15 Knots �� Sea 1 Foot Chop Low East Swell
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:31 AM

Bald Eagles on the hunt

Posted on by
Saturday, January 05, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 8.8C  Min. 7.7C  Reset 8.0C Rain 0.4 mm
MARINE LIFE: Most of the activity was in the air today starting quite early, just before 8 am with the arrival of 3 Bald Eagles.They settled on the ridge of the Southeast Rks. but after several flights over and around Gr. Race chose to settle on the high points of North Rks.The first arrivals were all immature and were soon joined by 12 more immatures and 4 matures. The Eagles were quite aggressively hunting birds. One cormorant was separated, in flight by 2 pursuing eagles( immatures) and at the last minute dropped into the sea. One of the eagles gave up at that point but the other circled the cormorant, stretched out it’s talons, skimmed over the sea and just before contact the quick thinking? definitely lucky cormorant dove below the surface.With 19 eagles the rest of the birds were on alert all day. As soon as an eagle would take flight most of the gulls etc. would also take flight,when the eagle landed so did the other birds, and so it went until the last eagle left at 16:25. We did not see any birds caught, nor did we see any prey being eaten.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:09 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Cloudy  Vis. 15 Miles  Wind North 11 Knots Sea Rippled  Occasional Light Rain Shower
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:26 AM

Feeding Frenzy at sea

Posted on by
Friday, January 04, 2002
 Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 8.5C — Min. 5.7C — Reset 7.9C — Rain 0.4mm
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:05 PM
MARINE LIFE: From about 9:45 this morning until just after 2 pm there were thousands of sea birds feeding,a few small groups just inside the reserve around North Rocks,but mostly south and east of Gr. Race and Rosedale buoy. Guessing, but there must have been 4500-5000 Birds. Gulls,Cormorants,Common Murres and Bald Eagles were the obvious ones,unfortunately even with the telescope could not identify many other small dark plumaged birds.Once the feeding frenzy was over 6 of the 9 Bald Eagles left the area, 2 flew over to North Rocks and the 1 mature Eagle to visit today settled on the high point on the Southeast Rocks where he has stayed except for a couple of circles over several small groups of gulls. As it starts to get dark there are approx. 230 gulls,beaks into the 16 knt.North wind, along the North East ridge on Gr. Race -another 200 gulls along the Southwest shore.The Harbour seals have hauled out for the night on the ebbing tide,some singly but mostly in groups of 10-20.The Bald Eagle is still on the South East ridge.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 1 Charter Boat ( Discovery Launch )
posted by Carol or Mike S at 4:46 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Overcast — Vis. 15 Miles — Wind North East 9 Knots — Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:14 AM