Author Archives: Christine Chourmouzis

Lots of Visitors Today

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Visitors:

Greg brought 6 visitors today:

  • Lisette and Mads – Mads is former student and both are volunteering at Pearson College
  • Garry Fletcher – Park Warden
  • James Tuohy – future Ecoguardian
  • Ann Nightingale and Andrew Jacobs – Rocky Point Bird Observatory

Bird count and gull nesting survey:

The highlight of my day was helping Andrew with the gull nesting survey. I was amazed at how many different gull species, hybrids, and colour morphs of the Western x Glaucous-winged Gull hybrid (Olympic Gull) a highly trained expert eye can distinguish. In addition to a count, Andrew mapped the location of nests, the species/hybrid on the nest, and for obviously paired birds, the identity of each member of the pair. I expect Andrew and Ann’s observations will triple the species number reported in the June 12 census!  I learned a tremendous amount and hope they return again during my time here.

Facility work:

  • split rounds of firewood

Wildlife notes:

The one year old Elephant visited for a brief period in the morning.

Vessels:

Ecotourism boats were not counted today but a shockingly large log barge in tow was seen.

Weather:

Winds variable in the morning turning to westerly 20 knots in the afternoon.

Battery Top Up Day

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Battery maintenance

The batteries are stored in a separate room in the Energy Building. Once a week the 24 unsealed lead acid batteries require a top up with distilled water to insure the plates are fully covered.  We open the battery cap, use a dip tube to measure fluid levels and add water to achieve fluid depth of 10 – 15 mm above the plates. It is not a complicated task but vital for the long-term health of the batteries.

 

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • topped up batteries
  • cleaned house windows

Wildlife notes:

One Canada goose, a swallow and two Hermann’s gulls were sighted today.  Like the last few days, the male Elephant seal spent most of his day asleep in the grass. He moves to the side of the house in the late afternoon and often heads to the water via the boat ramp in the late evening.

The Elephant seal asleep on his back.

The Keeper’s House

 

Vessels:

14 Ecotourism boats of varying sizes

DND:

Several blasts were heard in the morning. The wildlife were undisturbed by all but the last and loudest blast which sent two sealions into the water.

Weather:

A pleasant windy day.

June 12th Census

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Mammals

California sea lions: 4
Elephant seals: 1 (male)
Harbour seals: 92 (19 South Islands, 72 Middle Islands, 1 Great Race Rock)

Birds

Bald eagle: 1
Cormorants: 32
Gulls: 389
Oyster catchers: 8 adults, 2 chicks
Pigeon guillemots: 133

Oyster catcher with one of two chicks

 

Facility work:

  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Census
  • Repair fences toppled by the high winds of the previous day

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 10 vessels

Weather:

  • Wind: steady westerlies 18 – 24 knots

Notes for Day 2 at Race Rocks

Census day

After the morning cleaning of the panels I decided to wander beyond the electric fence.  Surely it wasn’t meant to keep me in and how else could I complete the census.  It was liberating wandering about and I even peered into a spectacular tide pool. I am used to different methods walking in certain terrain: through the sprawling yellow cedar or “shin tangle” of coastal BC bogs or the Tuckamore of Newfoundland, you bob and weave, through Devil’s club it is more like Thai Chi. Today I learned how best to walk with the birds.  I started with the head down, quick and deliberate, travelling from one small gull free patch to another. The better approach is to travel very slowly, only a few steps at a time then have a long and still pause. I observed many nests during my slow walkabout and was surprised by number of the poorly formed or empty ones. There are often bursts of commotion when all the gulls take flight but I haven’t yet seen an eagle at that time or any other obvious cause for the scare. Even though I feel more comfortable walking past or through hovering gulls, I still wear my helmet and often carry a broom over my shoulder.

My day ended watching the cormorants leave in the fading light.

New to the Rock

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Today is my first day as the Ecoguardian at the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve. I was dropped off at 8:30 am with my personal gear, bags of groceries and a reminder to monitor the solar panels, batteries and the electric fence – there are more duties and responsibilities but a source of power is one of the essentials.

Power

I unpacked, put groceries away and set off to tackle the my first chore – clean the panels. The solar panels are mounted on the roof and on the side of the Energy Building which houses the diesel generator.  At this time of year, with the long sunny days and daily cleaning, it is possible to power the house systems just on solar power.  Why the daily cleaning? There are hundreds of gulls nesting here and what do we will do at least once a day? Poop!

Panels on the Energy Building roof

After hauling the cleaning supplies up to the roof and turning on the water, I thought a methodical approach would serve me best. I climbed back down and noted my “starting point” of 3.1 kW of energy being produced by the panels.  After cleaning four panels, I climbed down to check the display.  It was up to 3.4 kW.  Cleaning is one of those tasks that provide instant gratification and now, doubly so.  With all the roof panels cleaned they were producing 4.2 kW and with lower side panels it was up to 4.8 kW!  I tell myself “what a worthwhile task and job well done Christine”

Well, later in the day I have some time to sit down and familiarize myself with OPTICSRE, the software package that lets you visualize your energy system production (solar or generator), storage (battery bank) and consumption levels. It turns out that in the long time it took me to figure out the best way to clean the panels and finally get the job done (between 10 am and noon), the sun was moving, as it does everyday, and with the clear skies, was naturally approaching its peak midday production levels (see graph below). Silly me, it wasn’t all my doing!  Shame there is no easy way to determine the added benefits of cleaning the panels.

OPTICSRE graph of energy levels produced by the solar panels (green bar), stored in the batteries (dark blue bar), taken from the battery by the house systems (light blue bar) for each hour on June 11.

The software also displays live time power use. I consult this throughout the day and find it memorizing.  The image below shows the current situation at night as I write this. Very little energy is going from the panels to battery, the batteries are at near full capacity and we are operating in the red, drawing power from the battery bank.  The house (appliances, computer, lights etc) generally draw 1.3 kW of power. If I turn on all the lights in the house and the bathroom fan, it jumps to 1.5 kW. I think if we had such a monitor in our homes, we would be more aware of our consumption and our footprint.

OPTICSRE live display of the energy system

 

Heads to the wind

The another thing I discovered today was all the gulls were facing the same way because of the wind!  We went from light winds at 8:00 am to 41 knots with gust of 46 by early afternoon. Like me, if standing, they took a wider stance, arching and bracing for the gusts. I watched one trying to move travelling side-to-the-wind and being blown off a rock; most scuttle side-ways like crabs.

Bracing and ruffled in a gust of wind

A very interesting first day.

It is a privilege to be here.