Author Archives: Christine Ouradou

Errands and groceries days

Posted on by

Weather

2 very calm days,sea like a mirror and only 18 knots at 9:00 on Wednesday it rained in the morning just good  for a rock cleaning (the whole place is getting white ).

Ecological

On Tuesday I went back to the top of the tower and around the rock to double check the birds on the rocks:I discovered 2 beautiful Harlequin ducks always in the same area closed to the beach,2 oystercatchers couples,around 30 Seashore birds,3 sea lions and many harbour seals ,some with very small babies.

Other 

After 8 days on the rocks it was time for shopping and recycling. The days were perfect Tide ,currents ,visibility and …wind contributed to a quiet trip to shore.After those windy days we found many logs floating on the sea between here and Pearson College . Leaving Main, you could see two huge eagles on Middle ready for breakfast…Usual scenery in the morning or before dark.We took advantage of the trip to fill up the gasoline tanks for the boat.(95 litres) and I send (slow mail)the end of the month report for the Seawater .

Census day

Posted on by

Weather

The wind has been blowing  strongly since 10:00AM ;before that it was around 19 knots At 5:00 it was calm with 10 miles of visibility. At Noon we had 26 knots ,38 at 4:00PM and down to 30 around 7:00. When we went in the light to do the census the effect of the wind and the tide was amazing and gave the feeling to be on a speed boat especially on South side. Going from the house to the tower for the census was like an adventure between the gulls above , the flying helmet, the binoculars and the wind climbing  the outside stairs but…beautiful up to the tower. By the way we have been steady on the rock for 8 days without going back to shore ! Not bad  really..now we just need more groceries…

Ecological and Census

Glaucous winged Gulls (mainly): around 870(mainly outside the main Rock)

Sea otter :1

Elephant Seals :4

Pigeons -Guillemot: 25.

Oystercatchers:2 couples seen today and 5 babies in the week (I will try to spot the other couple )

Harbour Seals : 65 +babies

Seashore birds: 10

Cormorants : 0

Sea lion:1

Geese : 2 (but not seen Today)

Eagles : 3

Seashore birds : a few ( I will try to see  on the beach( If the wind is not too strong )before  the sunset)

Maintenance 

Food inventory (emergency stock),some stuff discarded .

Generator ran 4 hours and half

Guy measured the door that needs to be changed (Derrick house)

Other

1 helicopter above and 2 commercial fishing boats , No watchers

 

 

No dust around this Week end!

Posted on by

Weather

Almost a permanent gale warning situation those last days: a few hours in the morning around 20 knots and very quickly it increased to 35 to 40 knots for the rest of the day

Ecological

More chicken were born but no comparison with last year . Even if there are many birds on the rocks around we have maybe half of the nesting birds on main! same thing for the sea lions : not one ! 2 times we saw a sea otter: eggs and chicks!..No cormorants and 4 to 6 maximum Elephant seals. Maybe this is because of this very windy spring or/ and less fish.

Boats 

We saw some commercial fishing boats going or coming back even at night but otherwise no pleasure or watching vessels.On Sunday afternoon we spent 2 hours observing a sail boat with some engine problems in a 35 knots wind going towards Victoria .(they had already past the most dangerous area around Race Rocks)   We try to get in touch but nobody answered and finally they managed to enter Pedder Bay entrance and a fishing boat followed them and it looks like he changed its route .

Maintenance 

The desalinator has been on for 16 hours between Saturday and Sunday.The soft water tank is now full.

 

 

Happy canada Day especially for the new born!

Posted on by

Weather

This first of July has been one of the only calm day of the week.17 knots at 5:00 AM and a sea calm with a good visibility over 15 miles but in the morning the visibility was only 2 miles looking to Vancouver Island but just for a while ,cool day but clear sky.

Ecological 

Busy life around: 4 to 5 elephants on main,2 geese ,1sea lion on the jetty (the first and only one in weeks ) and the birds :we discovered the 3 first gull chicks .2 were at least one or 2 days old and the other one newborn.It must be why the eagles are so active and we had 3 serious attacks.They spent a lot of time on Middle and South rocks.The oystercatchers after the gust of Tuesday came back but no chick. I keep an eye on them.

Maintenance 

Usual chores and I did the end of the month report and get the seawater datas ready for Peter Chandler. Guy had to clean the oxidized cable connected to the generator battery.  The desalinator and the generator were on for 8 hours.

Boats 

Almost no watching vessels. A few commercial one: always different and so majestic : a pleasure to watch them steady in the wind

Seagull’s nest on live

Posted on by

Weather

West wind moderately strong the whole day: 28 knots at 5:00AM to 31Knots  at 7.30 PM;sky :sunny ; sea :choppy to white caps.

Ecological

The oystercatcher’s nest being empty we put the camera 3 on a seagull’s nest closed to the boat shed and at the same time we can have a look on the railway.  A friend of mine got a flipper going to the sea…It will be very interesting in the coming days because the gulls are really active birds. From the top tower I could observe a baby oystercatcher with his mum and it’s really not so easy to follow it its color is exactly the same as rocks around and they are small..the 2 geese are still there and the usual 4 Elephants.For the first time we saw a sea otter attracted by the coming chicks

Maintenance

Guy removed the old battery box from the whaler and put a new one .he put also a new battery and installed a new belt to have the whole thing secure.The bilge pump will be changed pretty soon.

Other

No visitor and not too much traffic around

Oystercatchers chicks …seen!

Posted on by

Weather

Windy day :Already 28 knots at 5:00 .This situation stayed stable to Noon but we were expecting a gale warning for the afternoon and yes we got it . the wind increased steadily to 7:30 PM where it get 50 knots . What a beautiful scenery around the rocks .Actually with the tide rising we almost couldn’t see the adjacent ones.It kept windy part of the night but at 1:00 when I awake ,it was just silence around .What a pleasant sound!

Ecological

For the first time we found our two adults male elephant seals closed to the lighthouse in the raging wind. In the morning we finally managed to see 5 babies oystercatchers . The nest closed to the boat shed has 1 and the 2 other nests closed to the crank and closed to the horn have 2 chicks . 4 elephant seals on Main (not always the same ). The 2 geese came back.

Visitors

Chris and Kyle came around 10:30 with 4 people from New York.They left just in time before the gale.

Other

DND activity :3 strong blasts  and a Corvette (Number:338) was at Rocky Point for admonitions (I guess ). I know that some international military exercises in the Pacific  are coming soon or have just finished . Anyway the ship was helped by 2 tugboats and slowly she sailed back to Esquilmalt.

Boats

3 beautiful identical sailboats running closed to the Vancouver Island coast. Late in the day a RCMP zodiac went around the Rocks. 2 big fishing boats, always the same one ,going fishing despite the strong wind.No watching vessels.

 

Windy days

Posted on by

Weather

The weather was the main concern around here . On  Monday :A light fog at 6:30 PM only on the U.S.coast later .The wind has been around 20 knots at 5:30 AM and during the day increased to 35 in the afternoon with a gale warning for the evening and actually the wind went to 45 knots around 10:00 PM.

On Tuesday:we had 30 knots at 5:30  with a choppy sea and a good visibility .The wind diminished in the morning but increased after Noon and we had a gale warning in effect for the rest of the day at a maximum of 37 knots . Beautiful  dark blue sea and white caps everywhere.

Ecological

We had 4 elephant Seals on main Rock  (the 2 big ones and,a young male and an older female). They all managed to get protected from the wind and came closed to the boat shed. The birds are more and more protective of their nest and we got some helmets in case.

Boats and visitors

No boats around except Second Nature in the morning with Chris and 2 journalists from CTV. They spend 2 hours and tried to understand what is the life around the Rock. We brought them on the top of the lighthouse and explained the best we could.

 

 

Census Day

Posted on by

Gulls:475

Elephant Seals: 5 ( on main )

Sea lions :0

Harbour Seals:104(same number than last week!)

Pigeons-Guillemot:50

Oystercatchers:3 couples +1 baby :7 ( maybe more )

Harlequin ducks:0

Eagles:1 (5 seen in the week)

Canada geese:0

Whales:0

Cormorants:0 (3 seen above this week)

Seashore birds:  -11 Western sandpipers or surfbirds

-1 Whimbrel

– Another specie :not very small black ones :2

On Sunday .The weather has been magnificent and hot with a light west wind. The seawater temperature got warmer than Yesterday.We got a few hours of fog last night with the horn on.

The rocks are not so busy those days …(no luck for the watchers).The kelp is growing like crazy. I found a fresh small herring on a solar panel! The eagle are pretty active in the morning.I saw for the first time this year some seashore birds and going for the water sampling from the jetty I quickly had a glimpse on one little oystercatcher,the one from “the”nest. It looks to me that we have only one baby.

Other: 2  planes above and a  kayak with 2 people went around the rocks at the end of the slag (beginning of the ebb tide :current :4 knots). No problem…

Maintenance : Another curtain for bedroom number 3 in the eco – guardians house, grass cut, solar panels done,water sample house cleaned.