Mostly cloudy, wind N 10 knots.
1 sports fishing boat and 1 ecotour vessel that brought 2 divers.
More drift wood cutting and collecting and trying to keep the boat ramp clear. Lots of plastic garbage washing up in the last few days, noticeably more than usual. Will try to analyze what garbage we are getting the most of and report back. There is also a lot of small, insidious pieces of styrofoam and plastic pellets. This photo is just the big stuff from today.
Today’s harvest of plastic.
The North wind has been decreasing, 15-25 knots and clear skies today.
Continued debris and log clearing and firewood cutting/gathering.
seagull reaching for a chin scratch while soaring on the North East wind.
The log jam today, from the top of the tower.
Container ship passing by, heading to sea.
NE wind has persisted, 25-30 knots all day. 3-4 foot waves rolling into the mouth of the jetty, continuing to bring in logs and debris due to high tides and wind direction.
Have been doing a lot of cutting and collecting wood and frequent boat ramp clearing. Unfortunately the station pike pole is missing and the crane is out of order so it is difficult to clear it out logs.
Clear skies and a steady north east wind, 20-25 knots. High tide and the NE wind has been bringing in lots of driftwood and garbage onto the boat ramp and around the jetty.
5 sailboats circumnavigated race rocks
Rebooted camera 2. Hammer drilled holes in the rock for mounting a plaque. Collected firewood, cleared debris from ramp, collected garbage.
One whale watching boat and one dive boat in reserve today.
Thursday the weather/visibility was pretty bad for a census and on Friday I went off island so I did a makeup census on Saturday.
Notably: there was a high count of cormorants, 520, compared to last week as well a yellow banded individual (KCO)- details documented on next post. There was a high number of bald eagles (20) in reserve, and a lone kingfisher and pelican again in the reserve. While there have been over 40 black oyster catchers here this week there were none observed today.
Harvested driftwood including a good size fir log I tied up at high tide and bucked and chopped once the tide had fallen. Worked on toilet install and hammer drilling for plaque install.
Census:
California Sea lions: 38
Northern Sea Lions: 222
Harbour Seals: 5
Elephant Seals: 6
Cormorants: 520
Canada Geese: 2
Gulls: 680 mostly Thayer’s)
Bald Eagle: 20
Harlequin Ducks: 5
Black Turnstone: 2
Dunlin: 3
Sparrow: 0
Kingfisher: 1
Pelican:1
Wind has been light all day, barometer on the rise. Mostly clear sky for a change.
Chunk came back on the main island in the morning, he is resting in one of his usual spots, near the centre of the island close to the metal box that covers the diesel hose spool.
I took the station whaler in to the college in the afternoon to drop it off for annual maintenance, came back out with a zodiac.
The barometer hit a low of below 985 hPa in the afternoon. Winds had been 10 to 20 knots N most of the day but picked up in the evening and switched to west late in the night, gusting over 50knots.
I spotted one pelican offshore in the reserve. Chunk was on the main island overnight but left around noon.
A submarine passed by close to the reserve.
submarine passing on the East side of the reserve, heading North.
pelican in the reserve, N of Great Race
A lot of wood debris got washed up on the boat ramp throughout the day and this evening. Collected lots of driftwood for burning. Working on compost toilet installation.
Lots of rain today. The barometer continued to fall this morning reaching a low of 985 hPa this afternoon. It was windy overnight and a west wind picked up this evening briefly gusting over 35 knots. There have been swells coming in on both the NE and W sides of the island today along with high tides all morning that combined to submerge the jetty with waves and provide good surfing conditions for sea lions.
I spotted a infrequent visitor, a belted kingfisher perched on the crane. There were also three green winged teals in the mud flats on the NE side of the island, I only ever see them when it rains a lot and there are fresh water puddles.
Sealions had good surfing conditions most of the day. The images were taken off the south side of the island, reef break.
Before dusk Chunk (Zeke) came up the boat ramp onto the island, the first time he has come on the main island during my shift. He has grown since last winter and has a stronger vocalization.
Rain throughout the day. Atmospheric pressure has continued to drop towards 1000 hPa. Wind shifted throughout the day blowing upwards of 20 knots NE, then E then West. Wind speeds were not as high as had been forecast here but the swells from the NE breaking over the jetty indicate wind upstream.
Sea temp has been rising incrementally over the past few days up to 9.3 Deg C today which is higher than I recall from my previous years for December.
Cleared more debris from the boat ramp, ran desalinator and familiarized myself with the new composting toilet to be installed in the guest house.
Barometer continued to drop during the day to below 1005 hPa by nighttime. The wind was10 knots N in the morning and picked up to gusts over 30 knots in the evening. There have been growing swells coming in from the North East.
Observed two river otters around the boardwalk in the morning and several eagles hunting and feeding in the reserve today. Before dusk there was a lone humpback whale between West rock and Church rock. Also around dusk I saw a sea otter off the south end of the island swimming on its back eating something off its chest.
Cleared the boat ramp twice of debris, harvested driftwood, cut and stacked firewood.