Author Archives: Mara & Kai

Gulls Galore!

Posted on by

Weather: 

  • Wind: 15-25 knots westerly
  • Sky: Partly cloudy, grey
  • Water: Rippled, notably strong currents
  • Visibility: 10 miles

Boats/Visitors: 

  • We had a large group of visitors from the college this afternoon. The seagulls were surprisingly less aggressive, presumably because of the size of the group.
  • We have some guests staying for the weekend.
  • There were fewer whale watching boats in the reserve today, mainly in the evening.

Ecological: 

  • The seagulls have become very aggressive towards us. When we move around individually they fly towards us.
  • There have been quite a few harbour seals around on the outlying rocks.

They Grow Up So Fast!

Posted on by

Weather: 

  • Wind: 20-25 knots westerly
  • Sky: Some early morning fog, partially cloudy
  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Water: Rippled

Boats/Visitors: 

We haven’t had any visitors to the island over the past few days, but the whale watching traffic continues to be steady throughout the day. The concentration of traffic typically lies between 12pm and 8pm.

Ecological: 

  • The seagull eggs are hatching at full force! There are now too  many chicks to keep track. They like to nestle in the taller grasses or nearby rocks to keep out of the wind.
  • The large elephant seals are still moulting, and continue to scoot between the centre of the island and the jetty to cool off and relieve their cracking skin.
  • The oyster catcher chicks are doing well but they are much more elusive than the other birds.

 

The Big Day Has Arrived!

Posted on by

Weather:

  • Wind: 10-15 knots
  • Sky: Early morning thick fog, clearing mid morning to blue sky
  • Visibility: less than .5 mile this morning due to fog. Clearing to 15 miles.
  • Water: Calm, slightly rippled.

Boats/Visitors:

Today there were many whale watching vessels, presumably since it is a long weekend. This afternoon we saw over 20 boats between 12pm and 5pm, sometimes more than 6 in the main passage at a time. We also observed a handful of pleasure craft throughout the day, who were very respectful of the reserve.

Ecological: 

  • The seagull eggs have started hatching! We have spotted 5+ hatched nests today. The chicks are hard to spot in the dry grassy areas as they are a similar colour and blend right in!
  • We have also spotted two more oyster catcher chicks, which makes a total of 5 so far.

Census: 

  • Approx. 200 seagulls, chicks beginning to hatch
  • 4 large male elephant seals moulting
  • Approx. 30 harbour seals on surrounding rocks
  • 2 families of geese, and one additional adult pair
  • 2 barn swallows nesting in our rafters
  • Approx. 8 adult oyster catchers, 5 chicks so far
  • Approx. 20 pigeon guillemots

First Hatching Eggs!

Posted on by

Weather:

  • Wind: 10 – 20 knots
  • Sky: Overcast, short showers
  • Visibility: 10 miles
  • Water: Rippled

Boats/Visitors:

The winds have calmed down over the past couple of days, so we have been seeing more whale watching boats, about 10-15 per day.

Today Greg came with a college vessel with two tanks of water and one yesterday.

Ecological:

The oyster catcher eggs have hatched! Today we spotted two chicks with the two parents on the rocks in front of the crane nearby the jetty. The adults were picking food from the waters edge and carrying it to feed the chicks. We spotted one more pair with one chick on the other side of the jetty. It seems that only one of their two eggs hatched.

We are expecting the seagull eggs to hatch soon as well, as we found a deceased chick on our pathway yesterday that was nearly fully developed. The nearby shell appeared to have been pecked as well as the chick itself. There are eagle feathers scattered around the island from the eagles that have been swooping through the flocks of seagulls, but we are inclined to suspect that another seagull broke this egg due to the apparent pecking.

There are four large male elephant seals here moulting, and while they are fairly docile they have a hard time hearing us coming, and can be aggressive if they are taken by surprise.

Maintenance: 

We are still waiting on the new desalinator, but now have a sufficient fresh water supply thanks to Greg! He also brought us a new foot for the water pump which we installed. We continue to collect shingles as they blow off of the roofs awaiting repair. Kai is excited about his new project: repairing a ceased water pump.

A Nice Sunset

Posted on by

Weather:

  • 10mi visibility
  • 25kn wind
  • partially overcast sky
  • lightly rippled water

Visitors/Boats:

We have not had any visitors or boats at the rock. The college vessels are still in for service, and should be up and running mid-week. Things have been pretty quiet out here, except the whale watching boats, which were frequent today.

Ecological:

The four large elephant seals are progressing in their moult. The seagulls continue to escalate their aggression.

We had a beautiful sunset tonight!

Sunset towards middle rock from the jetty

Sunset on the main house and lighthouse

Big Creatures and Big Winds

Posted on by

Weather: 

  • Visibility 14 miles
  • Partly cloudy, sunny
  • Wind 25-35 knots (gale warning in effect)
  • White caps and spray. Waves up to 4 m.

Visitors/Boats: 

  • The college boats are still in for maintenance, so we have not had any visitors. We are hoping to go to the main island soon but winds were much too strong and unpredictable today.
  • The past couple of days we have seen a handful of eco-tourism vessels and pleasure craft. Some vessels have approached within 20 m of our jetty and surrounding Great Race Rock. The elephant seals have been scooting up the jetty to get away and the few sea lions remaining appear disturbed.

Ecological: 

  • We were sad to find the missing gosling deceased. It seems that due to its injured foot it was easy prey for the bald eagles that have been swooping by lately.
  • We are now in the company of 4 very large male elephant seals who have stopped here to moult. They are enjoying taking regular baths in the shallow and protected jetty waters.
  • The occasional sea lion has stopped by and hauled out for a rest, but otherwise they have all moved on.
  • The seagulls are becoming more and more aggressive. We are anticipating the need to wear protective equipment sometime in the coming week!

Maintenance/Other:

  • We are still waiting for the delayed desalinator, so we are conserving water as much as we can in the meantime, as it is not possible for more to be delivered without the use of the college vessels.
  • We have been collecting shingles as the high winds are tearing them off of the sheds (new metal roofing is expected sometime soon), and often find fishing lures, bits of rope, and other litter wedged into the rocky intertidal.
  • The beautiful sunny days lately have meant that we have been able to operate entirely on solar power most days. We’ve been having some troubles with the battery charge readings but otherwise the system is working without a hitch!

A Quiet Week

Posted on by

Weather: 

  • 15 miles visibility
  • Skies clear with some clouds
  • 40+ kn wind
  • Rolling waves up to 1/2 m breaking into whitecaps

Boats/Visitors: 

The boats at Pearson are in for annual maintenance so we have not had any college visitors. The wind conditions have limited all boat traffic.

Ecological:

There are have been no sea lions over the past few days. The gosling that appeared to be injured has not been spotted in a while. The large male elephant seals are clearly moulting now and have been fighting over the best sleeping spots. The seagulls have become more aggressive and will now fly towards us even if we keep a distance from their eggs.

There has been DND blasting nearby almost every day lately. The birds take flight and the mammals are visibly disturbed.

Census: 

  • 30 harbour seals
  • 5 elephant seals, all moulting. 4 male 1 female
  • Roughly 200 seagulls
  • Two families of geese, minus one missing gosling
  • Two barn swallows nesting in our rafters

Divers And Disappearing Eggs

Posted on by

Weather: 

  • 5-10mi visibility
  • Clear skies
  • 25kn wind
  • Small whitecaps

Boats/Visitors: 

We had three tours from the college over the last two days, two today and one yesterday. Now, with the seagulls becoming more aggressive every day, non-essential visits restart after nesting season.

The whale watching continues, with roughly 10-15 boats a day – most coming in close (inside of 25m from the jetty, and other areas of greater rock). The recreational/rental boats are becoming more frequent, and sometimes appear to be operated a bit dangerously. Today we saw a small speedboat boat going against the current passing the jetty, and a large tour catamaran came around the corner and they both had to manoeuvre quickly to be a safe distance from each other

We noticed a dive boat in the marine protected area, with five to six divers on it. After holding position in middle channel for about 15 minutes they entered the water.

Ecological:

The injured gosling is nowhere to be found, yesterday and the day before it could be seen taking shelter in the long grass beside the house. The oyster catcher nests seem to have been robbed, perhaps by the seagulls. The eggs are missing and the adult birds seem distressed.

We’ve been seeing bald eagles every few days. They kill seagulls and leave them dismembered all around. When an eagle appears, the gulls take flight as one big cloud and seem to try and chase the eagle away.

Maintenance:

We were able to get up and running in the Race Rocks whaler. Following the other boat between the two trips today, we went to the college dock and back for training purposes.

An Injured Gosling

Posted on by

Weather: 

  • Clear Skies
  • 15mi visibility
  • 10kn NE wind
  • Calm water

Boats/Visitors: 

There have been lots of whale watching boats over the last few days, most coming within 25m of greater Race Rocks. Greg has came from the college a few times to resupply diesel (today) and water (yesterday).

Ecological:

There are three large elephant seals here, and today they were all resting in the water at the end of the boat ramp. One of the goslings from the younger family of geese appears to have injured its food or leg. It has separated from the rest of them over the last few days, and can be seen limping and moving slowly, it is unable to keep up with the rest.

The DND has been blasting, it is very loud and sometimes occurs four to five times in a day. It startles all of the animals, and the birds take flight.

We have noticed some barn swallows flying around out front window. On closer inspection, they appear to be nesting under our eves where a soffit panel has blown out of place.

Maintenance:

We have replaced the hinges on both doors of the water tank shed, and removed old hinges fasted or corroded to the doorframe. Opening and closing the doors is easy now, and with a touch of anti-seize paste on the hinge pins it should stay that way.

We cleaned the solar panels for the first time in a while. The desalinator being out of commission means pressure washing is too resource intensive – we found an old hand pump sprayer, and found it to be very helpful for cleaning while conserving water.

Census:

  • 5 elephant seals
  • 12 geese
  • 2 seal lions
  • 190 seagulls
  • 8 oystercatchers
  • 2 barn swallows

Extreme Tides & Extraordinary Critters

Posted on by

Weather: 

  • Visibility: 10-14 miles
  • Wind: 10-20 knots
  • Sky: Slightly cloudy clearing to sunny and clear
  • Water: rippled

Boats/Visitors: 

  • Yesterday there were 20+ whale watching vessels in the reserve.
  • Today we had a group of 9 from Pearson College visit and tour the island.

Ecological:

  • Lately we have been having very low tides, and today we spotted two gumboot chitons on the jetty track in an area that would not normally be exposed.
  • The younger goslings are learning to swim!
  • The two large male elephant seals appear to be beginning to moult. Today we noticed that one of them has some cracking skin in his chin area.
  • Over the past few days we have noticed more bald eagles, and notably a few young ones.