Digital Dexterity

An elephant seal moving on land is anything but graceful. Their rear flippers are not useful for locomotion on land. They use their front flippers to propel themselves forward on their bellies. Their forelimbs or front flippers however, are capable of precise, controlled movements, perfect for getting that itchy spot or wiping away the flies.

Wildlife notes:

Single eagles visited today. The gulls would really have an easier time if they just worked together in both scaring off the eagles and dealing with the steamroller elephant seal. While all the gulls are flying about and screaming bloody murder, only one brave gull chased the eagle on two trips around the Great Race and the surrounding islands.  The male elephant seal has lost more hair on his nose, around his eyes and the hair on his body is coming off in patches.

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • thistles

Vessels:

7 Ecotourism boats, 2 private

Weather:

Foggy morning, temperature 10 degrees, winds WSW 10. Daytime high of 12 degrees, winds steady 8-15 knots from WSW or W.

Low tide

A quiet Sunday morning on land but a raging 6.3 knots of currents in the sea at 8:30 am. After cleaning the solar panels and second breakfast, I took a wander to experience a near zero meter low tide at Race Rocks. There are too many wonders to describe or photograph so I will share only one observation: the number of gooseneck barnacles is astounding!

A surge channel lined with gooseneck barnacles

Wildlife notes: 

The lacerated Stellar sealion from yesterday was not seen today. The male elephant seal is progressing with his molt. The most noticeable differences from yesterday are on his face and flippers. The year old elephant seal paid a visit today and enjoyed a sleep on the boat ramp.

Year old female elephant seal

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • clean windows on both houses
  • thistles

Vessels:

15 Ecotourism boats

Weather:

Partly cloudy, WNW 28 in the morning, W 15 in the early evening.

Clouds

Since June 11 this is the first time I have run the generator. It was only at 80% capacity by 2:30pm. On a sunny day it would be close to 90% by this time. The generator ran for 4 hours and brought the batter from 80% to 99% – shame, something the sun could do without the use of fuel.

Wildlife notes: 

The black oyster catchers near the house have moved their two chicks closer to the water on the north east shore. The chicks appear to have almost doubled in size in a week. They are exploring the rocks but quickly respond to their parents peeps and take cover when instructed.

A California and a Stellar sealion were spotted in the early evening on the south east shore. The Stellar has an injury at the base of its flippers.

Injured Stellar sealion

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • thistles
  • split rounds of wood

Vessels:

17 Ecotourism boats, 1 private vessel

Weather:

Cloudy for parts of the day. Winds steady ranging from 11-22 knots and WSW to WNW.

First day of summer

It is the first day of summer and I am wearing a toque and have a fire going! I heard the fog horn for the first time today. It isn’t very loud and doesn’t appear to disturb the birds – three long blasts (more like beeps) every minute, sounds like a truck backing up.

Wildlife notes: 

The elephant seal is now molting around his face. It appears he is not just losing his hair and a layer of skin but also some of his front whiskers.  No new wildlife sightings today. The sea lions are still away and the geese have left.

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • topped up battery fluid
  • clean and vacuumed the battery room
  • thistles

Vessels:

14 Ecotourism boats

Weather:

Sunny with 10 knot westerlies in the morning building to over 30 in the early evening. Fog rolled in at 1 pm and dissipated by 7pm.

Happy Solstice

Wildlife notes:

A few new exciting sightings today.  Two purple martins were spotted on top of the tower and on roof of the Keepers’s house around noon.  At 3 pm I discovered a purple martin had made its way down the chimney pipe into the wood stove. I am so glad the ashes were cold and I was able to get it back outside! A striking male harlequin duck visited the small bay on north east side of the island. A banded gull was observed.

Purple martin in the house

Male harlequin duck

Banded gull

 

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • thistles

Vessels:

21 Ecotourism boats, 4 private boats

Weather:

First day since June 11 to experience calm seas in the morning. Clear skies, winds light ESE veering to W 8 by evening.

June 19th Census

Mammals

sea otter: 1
California sea lion: 1
elephant seal: 1 (male)
harbour seal: 156 (46 South Islands, 21 South Seal rocks, 89 Middle and North Islands)

Birds

bald eagle: 4
cormorant: 28
gulls: 481 (451 Great Race Rock, 2 South Island, 28 South Seal Rock)
oyster catcher: 8 adults
pigeon guillemot: 53
harlequin duck: 1 young male, 2 females

Female harlequin duck

Visitors:

Greg and Cedric delivered two more loads of water. The tank is full with >4500L :)

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • water delivery
  • sorting tools and supplies

Vessels:

14 Ecotourism boats

Weather:

First day since June 11 to experience calm seas in the morning. Clear skies, winds light ESE veering to W 8 by evening.

Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink

Water delivery:

A desalinator is used to produce fresh water at the Rocks. It hasn’t been working for several weeks, and while waiting for parts, we needed to boat in fresh water. Today Greg and Cedrick ran two fresh water delivery trips to the island. The water is pumped from a tank on the boat to the fresh water tank near the house using fire hoses.  Over the past week since I arrived, the water reservoir went from 1600 L to 1500 L. This an average use of 15L a day for the mandatory solar panel and window cleaning and for house use but with careful conservation (e.g. no daily dish washing, few and quick showers). An interesting water note: with the 10m run from the hot water on demand system to the shower, about 8 L of water will run from the faucet before hot water reaches the shower. In our city homes we let this amount of water run down the drain all the time – here I catch it in a bucket.  With today’s delivery of 1400L water today, our supply is up to 2900 L.  After tomorrows delivery, the tank should be full and I can consider doing a load of laundry at a cost of 150L of water!

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • water delivery
  • thistles
  • “weed whacking” – cutting grass from the walkway

Wildlife notes:

Eagles visiting again, the four Canada geese remain, and the elephant seal flattened at least one more nest. The gulls who had the interaction with the seal in yesterdays post, lost their last egg today – cause unknown.

Last to leave South Seal Rocks on the flooding tide

Eagle leaving the SW shore with what appears to be a sea creature not a gull.

Vessels:

> 5 Ecotourism boats

Weather:

Sunny day winds westerlies 10 – 20 knots

All in the day of a gull

The elephant seal typically spends his mornings sleeping the grass near the east-west walkway leading from the Jetty to the Energy house. In the afternoon he moves to the east side of the house perhaps seeking the shade. He often moves in quick short bursts and with no regard to the gull nests in his path.  Today I watched him place himself on top of a nest near the house.

The gulls go to have a look for their nest which is mostly beneath him.

His first warning

The gulls try to persuade him to move

and try

and try

 

 

The seal reaches but can’t manage to grab the gull out of the air.

 

Eventually the seal moves a bit and the gull can take a look

One broken egg, one undamaged

They remove the shell pieces…..

and they eat the rest!  A few minutes later, she back on the nest as though nothing happened.

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels: from 12-1 pm generated 7.1kW !
  • thistles
  • chopped kindling

Wildlife notes:

Several eagles visited throughout the day causing great commotion. The oyster catchers seem to be the first to raise the alarm.  The California sea lions were notable absent from their regular spot near the Jetty. The four Canada geese are still here.

Vessels:

7 Ecotourism boats

Weather:

Another sunny day, winds WNW 10 in the morning building to W 30 midday.

New window washing pole!

Tools

Greg brought a new 24′ telescoping window washing combo pole with both a squeegee and pad! It was pressed into action for the first time on the Student House today.  It doesn’t have the classic charm and ingenuity of repurposed old pot brush tool and may not last as long but it sure works well! Thank you Greg!

The north facing window

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • cleaned windows on Student’s House
  • thistles

Wildlife notes:

Ollie the sea otter and killer whales!  Ollie was swimming on his back toward the South Islands and the killer whales where spotted a mile to the south. Three more Canada geese came today bringing the total to four.

Vessels:

14 Ecotourism boats

Weather:

Another sunny breezy day!

Twilight view from the Jetty taking the daily water sample (temperature and salinity) at the time of the maximum flood current.

Thistles

Thistles:

During yesterdays visit, Garry Fletcher remarked on the expanding thistle population around the tower base and suggested they be pulled. Today I started to tackle this job.  The thistles have a tap root that connects to a horizontal root which can spread many feet.  The thistles are growing in patches where many of the plants could be connected to the same horizontal root.  When a larger plant is pulled, the tap root breaks at this junction and reveals the depth of the horizontal root.  The longest root so far is almost 10″ long suggesting there is in places 10″ of soil on Great Race Rock! Only the smallest of plants, which may have germinated from seed, can pulled with the entire root intact. Today I cleared 2 square meters – a bucket of small ones and bundle of larger plants.  I plan to do this amount each day (more would be too hard on the back). I may not finish before I leave but with the horizontal roots still in the soil, this may be a yearly task.

Developing thistle flowers and the longest root of the day.

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • thistles
  • split rounds of firewood

Wildlife notes:

No new wildlife sightings to report. The gulls continue the mate and fight, and the Elephant seal spent his day sleeping in the grass.

Battle wounds

Vessels:

7 Ecotourism boats and 1 private boat

Weather:

Steady westerlies all day 18 – 23 knots