Author Archives: Courtney Edwards

Business as usual

Posted on by

Fog in the am. Clear the rest of the day. Moderate Westerlies all day (Force 4), Strong Westerlies this evening (Force 8).
The barometer peaked around 1000 and then dropped. Forecast continues for calm mornings, strong West afternoons.

2 tour boats
3 halibut boats on the edge of the reserve
2 fishing boats passed through

Today was business as usual for the reserve animals. There were 4 California Sea lions and 1 Steller on the South seal rocks. The large male elephant seal wasn’t around. There are lots of eggs in the Gull nests.

-Max came out for some training for his stint next week as station relief while I am away
-We almost got the vhf antenna set up on the Science house, but had some ladder troubles
-Finished Keeper’s house bathroom painting
-Tidied Keeper’s house

 

Animal Census

Posted on by

Clear skies. Glassy calm most of the day (Force 0), 23 W in the evening (Force 6).
Barometer peaked around noon at 1019 hPa, then dropped. Forecast is for strong West all of tomorrow.

2 tour boats
3 fishing boats passed through the reserve

Elephant seal: 6
Harbour Seal:112
California Sea lion: 1
Steller Sea lion: 0
Eagle: 3
Canada goose: 4 + 4 goslings
Guillemots: 23
Gull: 295
Oystercatcher: 5

I saw the pair of Caspian Terns again today. A MASSIVE male Elephant seal was on the boat ramp when I cam back this afternoon. He had lots of scars on his back so it could be the seal known as ‘Slash’. There are still 3 juvenile Elephant seals running amok on the boat ramp, and one adult female. There is only one lone Sea lion in the reserve, I think this time of year the California Sea lions head South to their breeding grounds, and the Stellers head North to their breeding grounds. The juvenile Eagle that has much more white mottling than typical was sitting on the crane today. There were 2 crows in the reserve in the afternoon.

Off station in the am for groceries
-Keeper’s house basement tidy-up

Pictures

Posted on by

Clear skies. Moderate West in the am, Force 3. Strong West this evening, Force 6.
Barometer rose until 1600, then dropped. The daily West wind cycle continues, light in the am and picking up in the pm.

3 tour boats

The Race Rocks website says that there are typically 6 Oystercatcher nests on Great Race, I have only found two. Tomorrow I will see if I can find more. The Oystercatcher nest next to the jetty no longer has eggs in it. A bird was sitting on the nest yesterday when I showed the nest to my Mom. If I had to guess, I would say that the River otter ate the eggs because it lives under the walkway very close to the nest. I am curious to see if the pair tries another nesting site. I saw two Oystercatchers poking around the rocks on the West side of the jetty so maybe they will try again. There has been a lot of Eagles around lately. Juveniles and adults. My Mom saw one empty the eggs out of a Gull’s nest. Apparently Glaucous winged Gulls can learn to recognize particular people, to a point where they will allow familiar researchers right up to their nests. My new plan is to befriend the Gulls that are nesting next to the tank shed and maybe they will stop flying at my head whenever I walk past.

Continue reading →

Caspian Terns

Posted on by

Clear skies. Light variable winds. Force 1-2. The barometer has been on the rise today. Although the forecast for today called from strong West winds, the barometer does not lie, and it was a lovely calm day. The forecast for tomorrow is for the usual strong West winds in the afternoon. 1 tour boat I saw two Caspian Terns (Hydroprogne caspia) today. They briefly flew over the island in the morning, and then came back in the late afternoon while I was washing my dive gear. They stayed up pretty high, coming maybe as low as the top of the tower, and are really hard to photograph. But their loud croak and dark heads gave them away. I also saw a Heermans Gull (Larus heermanni ) while I was taking my dive kit apart. It’s the first one I’ve seen, but as far as gulls go, it is one of the easiest species to identify because of it’s dusky grey colour. According to the Cornell Bird lab, the Heermans Gull is “unmistakable; [it is the] only North American gull with a sooty gray body and a white head.” Erik came out today at low slack and we went for a dive. We cleaned the camera, checked some camera connections, and cleared the path through the kelp to the jetty. Ok visibility, but it is always awesome to get underwater.

Gulls

Posted on by

Fog until 1500, clear after that. Moderate West in the am, strong Westerlies late. Force 6.
Barometer has been falling most of the day. The forecast is for the same weather pattern with light winds in the morning, and strong Westerlies in the afternoon. Expecting fog tomorrow morning.

I’m seeing lots of eggs in the Gull nests. Some of the birds are getting pretty feisty, especially the ones on the rocks next to the tank shed. The Elephant seal sage continues, with their midday pool party and afternoon nap; It’s a busy life as an Elephant seal.

Off station 1400 to 1500 to pick up my Mom who is visiting for a couple days.

Paddling Symposium

Posted on by

Clear skies. Light variable winds early, then strong Westerly.

3 tour boats
2 fishing boats on the edge

Two large groups of kayakers came through the reserve today as part of the Paddling Symposium at Pearson College. Chris brought out another gorup in the afternoon for a tour of the island.

Compost Freedom

Posted on by

Clear skies. Light, variable S-SW winds.
Barometer dropped a little, and the levelled out. Forecast continues for daily afternoon blow outs.

6 tour boats
3 recreational fishing boats on the edge
1 boat jigging for rockfish in the reserve off of West Rocks. I radioed them on 68 and 16, they didn’t reply, just put her in gear and left the reserve in a hurry.

All of the Canada geese have abandoned their nests, including the mean-spirited pair by the compost pile. Yeah! No more aerial assaults while taking out my food scraps. Sadly however, the timing is terrible because the Gulls are now starting to fly at me in a few places. If they would just make their nests a little further from the paths neither of us would have a problem. I spent the afternoon chopping firewood next to the crane platform. I turned the saw off after a while to get more logs and two curious elephant seals came up the walkway. The went over to and scoped out my pile of freshly cut firewood, and sniffed at the saw. Then one of them rolled around in the saw dust for a while.

-3 transects done on the West side of the island
-Firewood in the afternoon.

Submarine

Posted on by

Strong West winds. Clouds. Steady Force 6.
The barometer is on the rise. The forecast is for it to be light-15W tomorrow.

No tour boats today. Strange.
2 halibut boats

All of the Canada Geese have abandoned their nests now. But they are starting their annual feather moult, so they’ll be around for a while yet. Garry says they leave in June when all the fresh water puddles dry out. I found another Oyster catcher nest on the bluff between the jetty and the tank shed. Probably the most stressful place the pair could have chosen to nest, but apparently they nest there every year, so it must work for them. Still plenty of Elephant seals in the reserve. I watched them playing in the rapids this morning at low tide. A lot of them are in the water first thing in the morning and they wrestle on the seaweed covered rocks and eventually come back up the boat ramp for a busy day of laying around on Great Race. The large adult male has finally started to moult; It was hard to take him seriously before, but now with his moulty nose he looks even more ridiculous. No sign of the White Fronted Goose.

-Keeper’s house water heater kicked the bucket today :(
-Collected data for intertidal transect 5

Romanzoffia tracyi : Mist maidens–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

Posted on by

Romanzoffia tracyi

Scientific classification
Family: Boraginaceae (Borage)
Subfamily: Hydrophylloideae (Waterleaf)
Genus: Romanzoffia
Species: R. tracyi (Jepson)
Common name: Tracy’s mistmaiden

General: Perennial herb from well-developed, brown-woolly basal tubers; stems several, ascending, long glandular-hairy, 2-12 cm tall [1].

Continue reading →