Author Archives: Nick Townley

March 16 and 17

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Wind: yesterday variable 3-13 knots, today mostly E 0-13 knots
Sea State: both days calm
Visibility: both days 15 NM
Sky: both days clear
Temperature: yesterday 3-11 °C, today 4-9 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.35 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

It’s still officially winter, although it’s looking a lot more springlike. The ground is drying out, after lots of sun and little moisture lately. The elephant seal pups are now fending for themselves, as there are no signs of adults around. The female, tagged T563, hasn’t been seen for three days.

Today marked the first day this winter with more than 12 hours of daylight. The sunrise was at 7:21. The sunset was at 19:23. Each day adds three and a half minutes of light.

The pressure washing continues, in an effort to clean algae off the exterior walls of the buildings. Other maintenance tasks are happening like cleaning the solar panels, chopping wood, keeping the paths clear and running the desalinator. There is still lots of time leftover for watching the seal pups, eagles, pigeon guillemots and learning about this amazing place.

Yesterday, there were two tour boats in the ecological reserve. Today, Pearson College’s boat Second Nature and captain Greg came to deliver fuel for the generator. This afternoon, there was a pleasure craft touring, quite quickly at times,  around the islands. With lots of marine mammals in the water and along the shore, it’s important for people to drive at a slow speed in the ecological reserve.

Shoreline Debris

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Wind: yesterday N-NE 25-53 knots, today NE-S 9-45 knots
Sea State: both days rough with waves up to 2 m
Visibility: both days 10-15 NM
Sky: both days clear
Temperature: yesterday 0-3 °C, today 1-6 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.33 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The wind was strong all day yesterday until mid afternoon today, when it began to die down. The cool temperatures and winds blasted some of the plants that were exposed on the north side. The high pressure and clear skies were great for the solar power. For the first time this winter, the batteries recharged themselves today, reaching full charge just after 4:00 this afternoon. Normally, I top the batteries up with the generator for a few hours each evening. Hopefully the voltage of the batteries will remain at a good level until the sun rises at 7:24 and begins to feed the solar panels soon after.

For the past two and a half months, I have been combing the shoreline, picking up all the trash that washes ashore. I picked up a lot of pieces of plastic, rope, foam, fishing gear, buckets and other things that floated their way here. There are only three small beaches on the island that collect garbage: the boat ramp, east bay and the tombolo, which at low tide connects the south side of the island with the south seal rocks. There must be a massive amount of trash that floats by Race Rocks and doesn’t get captured by the shoreline. On the south side of the island, I found a lot of metal and pieces of ceramic that were mostly from the days when the old things and buildings on the island were disposed of by pushing them into the water. A few of the items I found are going to be reused: dog toys, floats and rope. The rest will be either recycled or sent to the landfill.

There were two tour boats in the ecological reserve this weekend, both today.

Other photos from around the island over the past two days:

Weekly Census

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Wind: yesterday variable 4-22 knots, today NE-N 1-36 knots
Sea State: yesterday rippled, today chop up to 1 m
Visibility: both days 10-15 NM
Sky: both days partly cloudy
Temperature: yesterday 5-7 °C, today 4-5 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.11 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Here are the weekly census results observed today:
4 elephant seals (1 female adult, 2 female pups, 1 male pup)
24 steller sea lions
33 california sea lions
58 harbour seals
7  bald eagles (2 adults, 5 juveniles)
13 Canada geese
7 brandt’s cormorants
4 double-crested cormorants
29 pelagic cormorants
48 gulls (mostly thayer’s)
24 black oystercatchers
29 harlequin ducks
3 surfbirds
12 black turnstones
1 snow bunting
1 song sparrow
1 fox sparrow

Yesterday, there was one tour boat, one pleasure craft and the Pearson College boat Second Nature in the ecological reserve. Greg and Silke, dropped off some supplies from Pearson College. No boats were around today.

The elephant seal pups lounging on the boardwalk by the jetty. They all still have patches of their pup fur. The two month old female pup is on the left. The two and a half month old male pup is in the middle. The youngest female pup, almost two months old, is on the right.

 

Sea Otter and Logs

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Wind: yesterday 0-11 knots from N to NE, today 17-36 knots from W
Sea State: yesterday rippled, today chop up to 1 m
Visibility: yesterday 5-15 NM, today 10-15 NM
Sky: yesterday overcast and rain, today clear
Temperature: yesterday 5-8 °C, today 7-8 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 413.78 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

In the middle of the day yesterday, a sea otter floated and swam near the south islands. It looked small in comparison to the nearby blimp like harbour seals.

The alpha male elephant seal left the island at some point last night. As of the sunset this evening, he hadn’t returned. The elephant seal pups have spread out from where they spent the past few days, near the bushes in the middle of the island. For most of the day, the three pups were sunning themselves on the grass between the science house and the lighthouse.

The gulls and Canada geese are acting more aggressive. The number of gulls is still fairly low, but they are spread out around the islands. I often see them pulling at each other’s wings. Perhaps they are trying to claim the preferred spot. The Canada geese frequently honk and charge at each other with their necks horizontal.

Many of the daily tasks involve keeping the human life sustaining systems running. I spent a couple hours each of the past two days preparing firewood for next winter. All winter, I have been collecting logs that wash ashore on the boat ramp. I rebuilt the chainsaw cutting jig, got suited up in the chainsaw safety gear and bucked up a lot of logs. The salt will get rinsed off the wood some more in the rain, as the wood waits to be split and stacked in various indoor spaces over the coming months.

Yesterday, four tour boats were in the ecological reserve. Today, there was one tour boat.

Elephant Seal Pup Posse and Orcas

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Wind: yesterday 2-7 knots from NW to SE, today 0-15 knots from N to E
Sea State: both days calm
Visibility: both days 15 NM
Sky: both days clear
Temperature: both days 3-7 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.30 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The wind has been relatively calm over the past two days. Along with clear skies, it’s been very delightful here. This morning, the three elephant seal pups began hanging out all together for the first time. I saw their slide marks coming from different directions across the frosty grass towards the bushes in the middle of the island.

This morning at 8:45, I was at the kitchen sink doing dishes and looking out the window, I spotted a pod of orcas splashing just south of the island. When I went out to get a closer look, it appeared the pod of five to seven orcas were hunting a harbour seal or sea lion. The orcas were swimming in circles and splashing around. A few sea lions were looking on from nearby shallower water. The orcas are most likely transient or bigg’s, which hunt marine mammals.

Five visitors from Pearson College were on the island today to remove 16 old batteries and three empty diesel drums. They each weigh 250 lbs, so two trips were made to keep the boat seaworthy. Thanks for the great work Corey, Giovanny, Greg, Jake and Lawrence.

Other than the Pearson boat, there were four boats in the ecological reserve over the past two days. Yesterday, three tour boats stopped by for a look. Today one pleasure craft went through Middle Channel.

See the photos of some views from the past two days:

A short video of the orca pod just south of the island today. I was standing by the surge channel near the Science House. The bird that flies across the frame is a juvenile bald eagle. You can see the sea lions on the left side looking on. The orcas might be hunting a sea lions or seals. I will provide an update if the pod is identified.

Weekly Census

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Wind: yesterday 0-19 knots from W then E, today 2-19 knots from N then W
Sea State: yesterday calm, today calm in am and rippled in pm
Visibility: yesterday 10-15 NM, today 15 NM
Sky: both days clear with cloudy patches throughout day
Temperature: yesterday 5-8 °C, today 4-6 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.23 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Six visitors briefly came to the island yesterday morning. Lawrence installed the new deck hatch he made for the station boat. Everyone helped transport and load eight of the old batteries onto the college boat to be taken back to the shore for recycling.

I ran the water pump for five hours to fill up the cistern with cleaner seawater.

Three tour boats were in the ecological reserve yesterday. Today, a dive boat had several divers in the water just north of North Rocks at slack tide in the mid morning.

There was a lot biodiversity in the ecological reserve today. Here are the results from the weekly census:
6 elephant seals (1 adult female, 2 adult males, 2 female pups, 1 male pup)
57 steller sea lions (all on Middle Rock)
50 california sea lions (19 on Great Race, 31 on Middle Rock)
52 harbour seals
1 sea otter
6 bald eagles (4 juveniles, 2 adults)
8 Canada geese
18 brandt’s cormorants
16 double-crested cormorants
35 pelagic cormorants
2 ravens
141 gulls (mostly thayer’s gulls)
14 black oystercatchers
1 whimbrel
86 pigeon guillemots
16 harlequin ducks
10 surfbirds
28 black turnstones
1 snow bunting
1 song sparrow
1 fox sparrow

March 4 and 5

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Wind: yesterday 2-42 knots variable directions, today 0-31 knots from N in am and W in pm
Sea State: yesterday chop up to 1 m, today rippled then up to 1 m chop in afternoon
Visibility: yesterday 10 NM, today 5-15 NM
Sky: yesterday clear, today partly cloudy and rain in afternoon
Temperature: yesterday 5-10 °C, today 5-9 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 413.05 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The tide has been getting low in the evenings over the past two days, revealing lots of neat intertidal creatures. With no sea lions hanging out on the east side of the island, I was able to explore the rocky shoreline to see feather duster worms, sea stars, barnacles, surf grass, many types of seaweeds and long ago discarded metal pieces from former buildings and equipment at the lightstation that only reveal themselves at low tide.

There are six very stationary elephant seals on the island: one adult female, two adult males, two female pups and one male pup.

Today, I drained the cistern which stores the seawater before it gets treated by the desalinator. The cistern is a large concrete box located between the lighthouse and the main residence. It measures 12 m long by 8 m wide by 3 m deep. It holds a lot of water. The water was slightly turbid and causing the desalinator pre-filters to work harder than needed. The water pump ran for four hours to drain the many thousands of litres of water back into the ocean. I used a long pressure washing wand to reach in to clean the rocks on the bottom and concrete walls, at least the parts I could reach. Tomorrow, I will refill the cistern when the tide is higher and the intake hose can be put off the end of the jetty.

Yesterday morning, six visitors came to the island: Travis, Hilary, Antoine, Hannah, Val and Greg. There was one tour boat that passed by. Today, two tour boats were in the ecological reserve in the morning.

Elephant Seal Excitement

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Wind: yesterday 0-36 knots from W, E, S, W throughout the day, today 9-40 knots from W
Sea State: yesterday rippled changing in late afternoon onwards to chop up to 1 m, today calm in early morning then up to 1 m chop for rest of the day
Visibility: both days 10-15 NM
Sky: both days overcast
Temperature: yesterday 5-9 °C, today 7-10 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 413.72 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The ecological highlights of the past two days were a bald eagle eating a bird and as usual the very entertaining elephant seals.

A new female elephant seal arrived on the main island this morning. She is tagged T563 on tags on each of her tail flippers. I contacted elephant seal researchers to check her history. She was tagged as a pup in the birthing season of 2010-2011, on the Farallon Islands, off the coast of San Francisco. That makes her just over nine years old. She hasn’t been seen by those researchers since. Last year, Ecoguardian Laas spotted her for the first time at Race Rocks on March 21. This morning, the alpha male was attempting to mate with her. Now she is hunkered down by the flagpole, shielded from the strong west wind. The adult males were bellowing at each other for most of the day. The beta male has an advantage of a high lookout point, on the helicopter pad. He has been up there since January without leaving. I am not sure he knows how to get down, as I have seen him attempt a few times before turning around. He must be getting hungry.

The oldest of the two female pups might have gone for a swim yesterday. I saw her with wet fur climbing up the rocks from the east bay.

The youngest female pup and oldest and only male pup have been hanging together, vocalizing with each other and appearing to play fight.

In between watching nature neatos, I did some maintenance around the island. I used a new two metre pressure washer wand to get the algae off the north side of the boat house, tank shed and Race Rocks sign. I hope to clean off the rest of the buildings over the next few weeks, now that the desalinator is pumping lots of freshwater. I also fixed the door on the freshwater shed with a new hasp and a piece of wood to stop the door from blowing inwards.

No boats or visitors were in the ecological reserve over the past two days.

Here are some photos from the past two days:

Leap Day Weekend

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Wind: yesterday 12-35 knots from W, today 2-28 knots from N to S to W
Sea State: yesterday rough with chop up to 1 m, today calm until turning rough in evening
Visibility: both days 10-15 NM
Sky: yesterday partly cloudy, today clear turning overcast in late afternoon
Temperature: yesterday 6-7 °C, today 4-7 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.12 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Routine tasks were done over the weekend: making water with the desalinator, tidying the Tank Shed, refuelling the generator and writing the month end report.

The elephant seals rested on land for most of the weekend. The youngest female pup joined the oldest male pup on the boardwalk by the jetty.

There was more than the usual amount of self-propelled activity in the ecological reserve today. This morning, a group of five people spent two hours snorkelling at various spots around the main island. One person spotted in the small inflatable boat, while the other four snorkelled in pairs. This afternoon, two big canoes with 12 people each paddled by. They might have paddled around the island, but I only noticed them passing north through Middle Channel.

No boats were around yesterday, due to the rough seas. Today, other than the boats mentioned above, there were four tour boats and one pleasure boat.

February Daily Sea Surface Temperature and Salinity Observations

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Day             Time                                       Temp ºC   Salinity ppt

1                  8:03                                          8.1               31.3

2                  8:21                                          7.7               31.4

3                  8:37                                          7.7               31.2

4                  8:49                                          7.6               30.9

5                  9:06                                          7.8               31.1

6                  10:08                                        7.9               31.2

7                  10:37                                        7.9               31.0

8                  11:34                                        8.1               31.1

9                  12:35                                        8.1               31.1

10               13:58                                        8.2               31.3

11               15:16                                        8.2               31.2

12               16:59                                        8.1               31.5

13               17:45                                        8.0               31.6

14               7:57                                          7.9               32.0

15               8:15                                          7.9               31.4

16               7:49                                          7.9               31.5

17               8:16                                          7.8               31.5

18               8:37                                          7.7               31.3

19               9:12                                          7.8               31.3

20               10:03                                        7.8               31.2

21               11:47                                        7.9               31.1

22               12:04                                        8.0               31.2

23               13:21                                        7.9               31.6

24               14:15                                        7.9               32.0

25               15:03                                        7.9               31.9

26               16:22                                        8.1               31.8

27               16:44                                        8.0               31.5

28               17:49                                        7.9               31.3

29               7:27                                          7.8               31.7