Author Archives: Neha acharya-patel

Last day!

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Today was my Last day here on Race Rocks for the Year!

Spent the day tidying things up, and getting ready to pass on the torch to Christine who is coming over tomorrow morning.

The students and I also pulled up a huge log to be chopped up for the winter. There is a new wood splitter that will be soon be delivered, that will hopefully make short work for of it!

As always, I have had an amazing time here, and I am so thankful to Pearson College for keeping this place running. It is truly a privilege <3

See you next Year :)

Facilities

  • Cleaned Pathways
  • Re-rigged Tidy Tank
  • Collected logs
  • Cleaned main house
  • Swept tank shed

Weather

  • Sky: Sunny
  • Sea State: Calm
  • Wind: S 3kts
  • Air Temp: 9C

Bluebird Day on the Rock

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It has been an eventful couple of days here. Yesterday Richard came by with a new group of students here for the weekend. They are here to do some data collection for various marine science projects, and they also helped me with chores all day today!

They also removed all the grass growing up between the cracks in the sidewalks, and cleaned all the windows on the island!

Amazing students doing my work for me :)

Richard also brought along my MOM yesterday!! She is in town for a week, and it lined up perfectly with the students weekend, so we have been having a great time! She even helped me with the census today!

Counting seagulls!

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions: 446
  • California Sea Lions: 419
  • Harbour Seals: 24
  • Elephant Seals: 1 (Female)
  • Seagulls: 250
  • Cormorants: 230
  • Canada geese: 7
  • Snow Geese: 1
  • Turnstones: 10
  • Bald Eagles: 2

Today the students and I also noticed some new injured sea lions. These have now been reported.

Facilities (Since Thursday)

  • Ran Desal (~600L)
  • Cleaned Pathways
  • Sprayed south side of student house
  • Filled Generator
  • Checked and Refilled Batteries
  • Swept lighthouse platform and stairs

Weather

  • Sky: Sunny
  • Sea Condition: Calm
  • Wind: E 5kts
  • Air Temp: 9C

Algae Updates

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Last night was pretty windy on the island, with winds exceeding 25 kts. This extended into the morning with super high tides, and large waves building in the currents in middle channel.

I spent the day doing little tasks, and thought it was prime time for an update on the endless battle against algae.

Facilities (Yesterday and Today)

  • Refill batteries
  • Check Battery specific gravity
  • Cleaned main house basement

Weather

  • Sky: Partially cloudy
  • Sea State: Large chop (~3ft)
  • Wind: SW 25kts
  • Air Temp: 10 C

Cute stellar babies

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Yesterday Greg brought over a group of 8 students for a night in the Student House. They made themselves right at home and baked a bunch of delicious bread!

I went over for the evening, and was greatly entertained by the shenanigans of High School students.

Playing Catan on the New Couch

Today, I weed-whacked and cleaned up the edges of all the pathways on island, and I got very distracted by all the cute little stellar families chilling on the South Seal Rocks.

 

Facilities

  • Fixed Fence
  • Sprayed Boat shed and tank shed
  • Filled Generator
  • Ran Desal
  • Weedwhacked
  • Cleaned Pathways

Weather

  • Sky: Partially cloudy
  • Sea Surface: Wind Chop
  • Wind: NE 10kts
  • Air Temp: 8C

 

Census Day

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Though the day started out quite wet, It cleared up nicely for the census.

Census:

  • California Sea Lion – 371
  • Stellar Sea Lion – 408
  • Harbour Seals – 5
  • Elephant Seals – 1
  • Canada Geese -13
  • Snow Geese – 2
  • Seagulls – 238
  • Cormorants – 455
  • Bald Eagle – 3
  • Turnstones – 3

Facilities

  • Weedwhack the pathways
  • Battery fluid levels checked and refilled
  • Fixed the fence
  • End of Month Report

Maintenance Days

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It has been a quiet couple of days around the Rock.

The sea lions have been behaving surprising well, so the fence repairs have not been taking a lot of time.

That being said, there is one notable exception. A male CSL with a big 2X marked on his back. No matter how loud I yell at him, or bang my shield at him, he refuses to move. Greg said that 2X is a known problem child.

I have been chipping away at spraying down algae covered surfaces, so yesterday I tackled the South facing wall of the student house. (as far up as I could reach from the ground)

I also have pulled out the old weedwhacker to tidy up the edges of the walkways.

** Today there was some DND blasting that we were not made aware of. Really startled me and the Sea Lions.

Facilities

  • Weedwhacking
  • Spraying
  • Fixed Fence
  • Ran Desal (350L)
  • Cleaned pathways
  • Cleaned Facilities building windows

Weather

  • Sky: Partially Cloudy
  • Sea State: Small wind chop
  • Air Temp:9C
  • Wind: E 6kts

Taking Advantage of the Sun

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This morning when I looked out the window, I saw a large humpback pectoral fin sticking out of the water. Since, I hadnt seen any humpbacks for a couple days I quickly grabbed the camera! Looking closer, It seemed like the humpback was rolling around and playing with a Sea Lion! They kept at it for almost an hour!

Today was the first fully sunny day in a while, and for a while.. so I decided to take advantage.

I sprayed down as many algae ridden surfaces as I could (Before and After Pics coming soon), and I cleaned the windows on the main house and the student house.

Greg and Rich also came today for a diesel run. We filled the large Tidy tank in the main shed. They also sectioned out some of the logs that had been pulled out over the summer. I will keep chipping away at chopping them so we have more wood for the winter.

Facilities (Today and Yesterday)

  • Mopped the desal and battery rooms
  • Fixed the fence
  • Cleaned pathways
  • Washed windows
  • Sprayed down staircases and pathways
  • Filled generator
  • Ran Desal (200 L)

Weather:

  • Sky: Clear and Sunny
  • Wind: SSE 3 kts
  • Sea Conditions: Calm
  • Air Temp: 9 C

Beautiful Census Day

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After yesterdays rain, today was super beautiful with some dramatic clouds and even a rainbow! But it was still super windy with waves breaking on the Jetty most of the morning.

Windy day at the Jetty

You can see a hint of the rainbow in the background …

In other news, the Entangled CSL is still around, and also during todays census I spotted a Stellar who has a bad gash… prop strike maybe?

 

Facilities Work (Yesterday and Today)

  • Ran Desal (250 L)
  • Cleaned pathways
  • Chopped wood
  • Cleaned out house fridge
  • Checked and filled Battery levels
  • Filled Generator

Biological Census

  • Canada Geese – 14
  • Snow Geese – 2
  • Turnstones – 10
  • Oystercatchers – 4
  • Seagulls – 183
  • Cormorants – 530
  • Elephant Seal – 1
  • Harbour seals – 4
  • California Sea Lions – 723
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 300

 

Making things pretty

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The last couple days have been pretty chill over here. The seas have been calm, and the sea lions have been behaving.

Yesterday Greg, Mike and Oliver came over to bring a super comfy sectional couch (Gregs kind donation :)) over to the Student house.

The student digs are so cosy now! It is awesome that they have been getting used so much more this year. Fingers crossed, I have some students come stay during my shift!

Today, I ran the desal and I cleaned the goose poop off the pathways. I think of all the poop types on the island, Goose poo is the worst.

GEESE!

Facilities

  • Fixed the Fence
  • Swept/Swiffered student house
  • Ran the Desal (~300 L)
  • Refilled the generator
  • Cleaned the pathways

Weather

  • Sky: Partially Cloudy
  • Wind: 2kts E
  • Sea State: Calm
  • Air Temp: 10C

Endless battles

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Yesterday we had some issues with the wifi. Greg said that this often happens after a windy day, but I am rather inclined to blame the eagle, who sat on the Starlink reciever all afternoon :)

Today I spent a long time fixing the electric fence down at the Jetty. It seems like the more I try, the more the sea lions just don’t care.

5 minutes after I fixed the fence

I also sprayed down all the outdoor staircases with algae killer so they wont be too slippery all winter. Hopefully I will have some super satisfying before and after photos to share in a couple days.

On another note, we have another entangled sea lion. The bright orange flasher sticking out of his mouth was the first thing I saw this morning. I will continue to keep an eye out for him.

Facilities Work:

  • Fixed Fence
  • Filled batteries
  • Sprayed/Scrubbed stairs

Weather

  • Sky: Partially Cloudy
  • Wind: SSE 5 kts
  • Sea State: Calm
  • Temp: 10C