Author Archives: Mara & Kai

Whales! (and census)

Gallery

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This gallery contains 4 photos.

Weather:  Visibility: Very clear, 15 miles Wind: 15-25 knots Sky: Mostly clear, some clouds Water: Choppy, white caps Boats/Visitors:  Today a contractor visited to fix our internet/ phone cable in the main residence. At the same time Corey, two BC … Continue reading →

Big Seals, Many Seagulls

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Weather:

  • Visibility: 50m, very heavy fog
  • Wind: 20-25kn
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Choppy

Boats/Visitors:

We have had no visitors over the last few days.

Ecological:

A large male elephant seal has been resting on land for the last day and a half. This morning we noticed another, larger in size, has joined him.

The two moulting females are still here. We’ve been noticing a few harbour seals every day. Yesterday afternoon, we were able to get a picture of a sea lion with an interesting color.

The seagull activity has increased. They remain protective of their nests, and as they continue to lay eggs and establish nests it’s becoming harder to freely move around the island.

 

Spotted: Turkish Marsh Gladiolus!

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Weather:

  • Visibility: 5 miles
  • Wind: 12 knots
  • Sky: Overcast in the morning, clearer skies in the second half of the day
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors:

Greg came again on Tuesday to bring us more water, we get a few hundred litres per load so our main water tank is over half full again. There has been a steady trickle of tour/whale watching boats, approximately 10-15 per day.

Ecological:

The two moulting elephant seals are still here, and they appear to be in less pain and are doing well.

The seagulls continue to get more and more aggressive, we’ve noticed that their eggs go missing. Yesterday, near the main path to the jetty there was a nest containing one egg and a territorial pair of gulls. Today, they are off the nest and the egg is missing.

Near desalination building we found a great example of what appears to be Gladiolus Imbricatus in bloom. According to a previous log post by Garry Fletcher: “Originally from south-eastern Europe/Turkey, it was introduced in the garden of an early lightkeeper and has been growing unattended here for over 50 years.”

While doing our daily seawater salinity and temperature sample, we were able to get a great picture of two sea lions on the jetty that were basking in the evening sun.

Wind, Fog, and Eggs!

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Weather: 

  • Visibility varied today. This evening visibility is excellent, 10-13 miles. This afternoon we were surrounded by fog and could not see even nearby north rock (less than 1 mile).
  • Wind this evening is blowing 30-40 knots. This morning was calmer, 12 knots.
  • Sky clear. This was interrupted mid afternoon by thick fog.
  • Water white capping and breaking into spindrift.

Boats/Visitors: 

  • Today was fairly quiet, with only a few whale watching boats in the morning which seemed to mostly keep a good distance. Greg visited this afternoon to deliver water as we are still waiting for the new desalinator. A former student visited as well.
  • The swiftsure international sailing race passed Race Rocks on Saturday, so we have been seeing the boats trickle back towards Victoria over the past couple of days.
  • Yesterday we spotted a rental boat from Pedder Bay Marina attempt to pass through the channel between our main island and the south islands.
  • Lately whale watching boats have been present viewing the elephant seals and sea lions. Many have appeared to be well within the 100m distance from sea lions required by DFO.

Whale watching boat disturbs sea lions on jetty

Whale watching boat approaches sea lions on rocks

Ecological: 

  • Two evenings past we noticed the first seagull eggs of the season. We noticed that one nest was missing its egg the next morning. The seagulls have become quite aggressive towards us but only if we get too close to their nest by accident.
  • There are still four elephant seals on the island, two moulting, the juvenile male from this past spring, and an older female.
  • The sea lions have remained on the SE side of the island, although fewer than what we were seeing before surrounding our jetty. They have been enjoying surfing the waves periodically.
  • Another oyster catcher nest spotted on the SW side.
  • We have been finding dead seagulls presumably killed by the bald eagles that have been hanging around. They especially like to sit on top of camera three.

Seagull guarding its egg and nest.

Other: 

  • Except for in the occasional presence of fog, we have been able to operate the island completely with solar on clear days.
  • We were in need of batteries so missed a few days of salinity/temperature data collection.

Jumping Into the Deep End

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Weather 

Visibility: 5-10 miles

Wind: Less than one knot

Sky: Overcast with lots of fog

Water: Calm

 

Boats/Visitors: 

This morning students from the college took a dive into the deep end and swam from our jetty back to Pearson’s dock. Along with the swimmers, early this morning we greeted their coach, a team of Pearson staff supporting them in multiple vessels, as well as a team of kayakers to accompany them and a military college vessel.

We have observed very few whale watching boats over the past few days. It has been very foggy.

Over the past few days we have had groups of students visit with their families and a couple of outside groups as well.

Swimmers, safety boat, and accompanying kayakers.

Quite a few kayakers started their journey to rack rocks at 05:30 this morning, just in time to be greeted by the sea lions waking up.

 

Ecological: 

The two families of geese are still on Race Rocks, with the older gaggle starting to learn how to swim! The nest outside our door appears to have been abandoned after the seagulls cracked the eggs last week.

The elephant seals are starting to leave, only 4 were counted these past couple of days, two moulting. The larger elephant seal with one cloudy eye is gone.

Fewer sea lions lately, but with a lot of visitors it seems that most of them moved to the SE side of the island, away from the busy jetty. As well, there has been some very loud DND blasting.

We spotted an oyster catcher nest on the NE side of the main residence. Currently there are two eggs but one appears to be cracked.

Oyster catcher nest nestled in the rocks.

 

Still haven’t seen any seagull eggs, although they continue to seem less and less afraid of us as they build their nests.

Census Report:

115 seagulls

9 sea lions

7 geese, 12 goslings

2 seals

4 oyster catchers

Nesting Gulls and Geese

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles
  • Wind: 15 knots NE
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy, quite a bit of sunshine
  • Water: Rippled, mostly calm.

Boats/Visitors

  • We are expecting a delivery of fresh water from Guy and Greg at the college to pump into our tank today, as the desalinator is still broken.
  • Fewer whale watching boats over the past couple of days.
  • Yesterday morning Laura and her first year marine science classes visited for their final field exam.

Ecological

  • A few eagles perching on the south islands, north rocks, and the webcam
  • There is a pair of geese nesting beside our basement door that have been trying to lay eggs, but it looks like something (maybe the seagulls?) is getting the eggs even before we have a chance to addle them. We have been finding cracked open eggs on our doorstep.
  • The seagulls are starting to establish nests and become more aggressive towards us when we go outside. We haven’t spotted any eggs yet.
  • There are now two elephant seals moulting, but they are looking a bit better since it rained.

    The young elephant seal from this spring is still here too.

From our kitchen window: One of two families of geese currently living on Race Rocks.

One of the elephant seals found a comfy spot to take a nap as researchers came and went with equipment on the jetty.

New Eco-Guardians, Many Visitors, and Catastrophic Moults

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We’re Mara and Kai, the new Eco-Guardians. We’re very excited to be on Race Rocks. It’s been a busy few days (we arrived Monday), but lots has been done so far. Now that we are settling in, we’ll be sure to log post more frequently and with pictures!

Weather:

Visibility: 20 miles

Wind: 30 knots S

Sky: Overcast

Water: Waves up to half a metre, whitecaps

Boats/Visitors:

Over the last few days there has been traffic: visitors including people working on costal radar, the weather station, seismic monitoring, and guests of Pearson College. The costal radar antenna had to be shipped back to its manufacturer to be recalibrate, and is now working as intended.

Some whale watching boats have been getting close, well inside of 100m of the animals. They usually make more distance if they can see us. Lots of traffic today specifically, well over twenty visits by whale watching.

Maintenance:

The desalinator is still broken so we are conserving water, and our drinking water is being brought from Pearson College. Earlier this week they brought a fire hose to pump clean water into the tank when we get low. A new four wheeled cart was brought to facilitate safer diesel fuel transfers between the shed by the jetty and the generator room.

Ecological:

One elephant seal has been on land near the boat ramp for days now. It seems to be undergoing catastrophic moulting, a process in which they shed all of their fur as well as the underlaying skin. They appear to be sick, but we’ve been assured it’s normal.

Yesterday’s Census:

9 elephant seals: youngest one is still here on our lawn, two moulting

About 30 sea lions

2 families of geese with 6 goslings per

5 additional pairs of geese (one laid eggs today that we had to collect and addle)

About 200 seagulls- they are starting to build nests and are becoming more aggressive

About 20 pigeon guillemots

A handful of oyster catchers