Author Archives: Riley Strother

My Final Day: Seal Show

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots West during the day, 20-25 W in the evening.
  • Sky: clear and sunny
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • Ten elephant seals on Great Race.
  • Three elephant seals on Middle Rock.
  • A few of the seals put on a good display of water battles.

Maintenance

  • Cleaned the solar panels.
  • Swept loose debris off the pathways.
  • Ran the desalinator.
  • Cleaning etc. in preparation for shift change tomorrow.

Boats

  • Several eco-tours, pleasure craft, and fishing boats came by today.

Farewell to Race Rocks, and good luck to Laas!

Riley Strother

Saturday

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 15-30 knots West all day
  • Sky: mostly quite sunny
  • Water: 1′ chop

Ecological

  • The eleven elephant seals became ten at some point during the day.

Maintenance

  • Ran the desalinator with sunshine power.
  • Cleaned the solar panels.
  • Lots of general shift change preparations.

Boats

  • An eco-tour or two came by.

 

Windy Friday

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-40 knots West all day.
  • Sky: mostly overcast, sunny in the late afternoon.
  • Water: 1′, later 2′ chop

Ecological

  • The same eleven elephant seals on Great Race.

Maintenance

  • Ran the desalinator.
  • Was going to clean some algae, but it was too windy to be up a ladder.

Boats

  • Two brave eco-tours came by.

The Census of Birds and Mammals

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles, later 15 until…
  • 19:35 onwards foggy, 100 yards.
  • Fog horn sounded for over 3 hours.
  • Wind: 0-5 knots South East.
  • In the evening 15-25 West.
  • Sky: overcast, then sunny, then foggy.
  • Water: calm

Mount Baker near sunrise.

Strangely disturbed water.

Ecological

  • Census day! Counting stuff!
  • Found what to me is a solo mystery bird.
  • Surprised to see no Black Turnstones around today.
  1. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 53
  2. Harbour Seals: 35
  3. California Sea Lions: 29
  4. Elephant Seals: 13 (11 on Great Race, 2 on Middle Rock)
  5. Seagulls unspecified: 304
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 225
  7. Cormorants unspecified: 21
  8. Canada Geese: 18
  9. Savannah Sparrows: 10
  10. Harlequin Ducks: 9 (6 males and 3 females)
  11. Black Oystercatchers: 7
  12. Bald Eagles: 2 (2 adults, 1 immature)
  13. Mystery bird: 1
  14. Black Turnstones: ZERO!

Maintenance

  • Ran the desalinator.

Boats

  • Lots of eco-tours cameth by today. Over 10!
  • Some of them were perhaps a bit too close to the mammals at times?
  • Kyle brought me my final food order; milk, red and green bell peppers, sour cream, and onions.
  • Eerily reminiscent of the Thin White Duke’s diet..

Visitors

  • Kyle with food stuff.

Eleven Elephant Seals

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles, later 15
  • Wind: 0-5 knots West, later 5-10 knots NE
  • Sky: overcast, mist in the morning and evening
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • The ten elephant seals were joined by an eleventh. He is very big!

Maintenance

  • Did a bunch of goose work.
  • Sprayed 30 second spray on one side of the main house and then pressure washed it. Not very effective against lichen compared to algae.

Boats

  • Several eco-tours came by.
  • Noticed the HMCS Regina in the mouth of Pedder Bay.

Navy Submarine!

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 15-20 knots North East
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: 1′ chop
  • Borderline fog in the evening.

Ecological

  • The same ten elephant seals on Great Race today.
  • Through the window I saw a small flock of black songbirds perched in the bushes, but they had flown away before I could take a photo.
  • I went outside to try and find them, but by then they were gone.
  • Perhaps they were red-winged blackbirds? That’s the only predominantly black songbird that has previously been recorded in these parts that would fit what I saw.

Maintenance

  • Finished up and submitted the April report.
  • Hand pumped diesel into the day tank.
  • Goose work.

Boats

  • A few eco-tours came by.
  • One boat was fishing in the reserve, but I have seen it before, and I am pretty sure that it is a First Nations boat.
  • What I can only assume was a US Navy submarine with an escort passed through the strait south of Race Rocks shortly before 18:00.

May Day

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 0-10 knots West
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • Ten elephant seals on Great Race today!

Maintenance

  • Worked on month end reports.
  • Hand pumped diesel into the day tank.

Boats

  • A few eco-tours came by today.

April Ends Now

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 25-30 knots West
  • Sky: clear
  • Water: 2′ chop

Ecological

  • The same eight elephant seals on Great Race today.

Maintenance

  • Added 55 gallons of diesel to the tidy tank.
  • Cleaned the solar panels.
  • Started work on the month end report.

Boats

  • Saw four stationary whale watching boats to the west of the reserve.
  • I suspect they had found some whales, although it was too far for me to spy anything.
  • Some of them passed by the reserve afterwards.

On this day: some Rain

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots West in the morning.
  • At 13:00, 10-15 knots North.
  • From 19:00 onwards, 0-5 knots North.
  • Sky: overcast and rain
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • The same eight elephant seals on Great Race today.
  • More California sea lions than usual (for this time of year) were on the jetty.

Boats

  • Several eco-tours came by.
  • One of them was a boat I did not recognize!

Friday Morning Visitors

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 0-5 knots North in the morning.
  • From 15:00 onwards, 15-20 knots West.
  • Sky: clear
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • The same eight elephant seals on Great Race today.
  • Most of them spent a couple of hours in the water by the jetty.

Maintenance

  • Lots more goose work.
  • Disentangled a large amount of rope from various branches and kelp fronds.
  • If you lost your rope, be careful! Animals can get tangled up in it.

Boats

  • Second Nature.
  • Multiple eco-tours.

Visitors

  • Kyle brought out a group of visitors in the early morning.