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Weather
Visibility: 15 miles
Wind: 15-20 knots West, later 30
Sky: mix of sun and cloud
Water: calm, later 2′ chop
Ecological
16 elephant seals on Great Race.
Lots of empty seagull nests scattered about the rocks now.
Maintenance
Boats
At least 8 eco-tours today.
Fairer weather=more boats.
A few small pleasure craft as well.
Weather
Visibility: 15 miles
Wind: 5-10 knots West, later 0-5 South
Sky: clear and sunny
Water: calm
Temperature: Just a match under 16C (60F)
Ecological
Got a better view of the tagged elephant seal today. The tag reads: 5086.
Apparently she was born at Año Nuevo in 2011, the daughter of G2234, an 8 year old born at Año Nuevo in 2003.
She was last documented at Race Rocks on April 22 2012.
Maintenance
Took out all the remaining Canada Thistle with the weed-eater.
Cleaned the solar panels.
Began painting.
Boats
A couple of small pleasure craft came by today.
One boat appeared to be only a few yards from the sea lions on South Rock.
Weather
Visibility: 15 miles
Wind: 15-20 knots West, later up to 35.
Sky: mix of sun and cloud
Water: 3′ chop
Ecological
15 elephant seals on Great Race.
Quite social and entertaining today. Some of them even trying to follow me around, though they didn’t like the noise of the weed eater.
About half as many Canada Geese on the island today!
Maintenance
Did some more weed whacking along the paths.
Cleaned the solar panels.
Stacked some firewood.
Cleaned part of the students’ house with algicide.
Boats
3 eco-tours today.
1 rented pleasure craft was seen fishing to the East of Great Race, quite likely within the reserve area where no fishing is allowed.
The photos I took aren’t the best. I spied them fishing with the binoculars before I could grab the camera.
This photo doesn’t really show it, but they were fishing
Leaving after fishing. Still within reserve?
Weather
Visibility: 15 miles
Wind: 0-5 knots W in the morning, by 14:00 it had jumped to 40+ knots.
The highest reading I saw was 48 knots, which is no longer a “strong gale” but a “storm”.
Sky: clear in the morning, dark clouds by evening.
Water: initially calm, but the wind kicked up massive waves!
Forecast: looks like more gale tomorrow.
Ecological
15 elephant seals on Great Race.
A few California Sea Lions on the jetty today.
One lone crane fly was attached to a window for the second day straight. The gale blew it away.
The same elephant seal who blocked me outside yesterday tried the same trick again! Only this time I was already inside, so I wisely used a different door.
Maintenance
Goose work.
Weed eating. Or “whacking” if you prefer.
Boats
6 eco-tours today.
1 small pleasure craft had what appeared to be a family with young children fishing in the reserve. They departed very quickly before I could identify their boat, perhaps realizing their mistake independent of me?
Weather
Visibility: 15+ miles
Wind: 0-5 knots North, later 10-15 West
Sky: clear
Water: calm
Ecological
15 elephant seals on Great Race today.
For about an hour either side of noon, I was blocked out of the house by one elephant seal who insisted on sleeping against the door.
The two deck entrance doors to the house were both locked, and seem to require keys no longer on the main key ring.
One of the female elephant seals has a tag on her flipper: 980S (?)
Update 13 May 2016: the flipper tag was upside down. It actually says: 5086
A new flower has opened today, the beautiful red Gladiolus imbricatus.
Maintenance
Finished cleaning the outside of all the windows of the two dwellings.
Set up the new weed whacker.
Cleaned the solar panels.
A bit of goose work.
Boats
At least 9 eco-tours came into the reserve today.
Didn’t get photos of them all, as I was blocked outside for some of them.
One small fishing boat was fishing to the east of Great Race; it looked like it might be just inside the borders of the rockfish conservation area?
Two fishing boats passed through the reserve at speeds that appeared to be too fast.
The first of these created a very large wake near the jetty; unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a photo of the peak wake.
Other
Two medium DND blasts today; 9:52 & 10:15~
Weather
Visibility: 15 miles
Wind: 0-5 knots South in the morning, 15 knots West in the evening
Sky: clear and sunny
Water: calm
Ecological
Conducted a census.
Surprised I didn’t see any Black Turnstones today.
Saw one Northern sea lion branded 524R.
Northern Sea Lions: 93
California Sea Lions: 59
Elephant Seals: 20 (15 on Great Race. 5 on Middle Rock)
Harbour Seals: 6
Seagulls: 355
Pigeon Guillemots: 101
Canada Geese: 18
Black Oystercatchers: 10
Harlequin Ducks: 6 (5 male, 1 female)
Cormorants: 4
Bald Eagles: 4 (1 adult, 3 immature)
Rock Sandpipers: 2
Crow: 1
Maintenance
Cleaned more exterior windows.
More goose work.
Boats
12 eco-tours today!
Some of them appeared to get too close to the sea lions.
Three uninvited SUP’ers (stand up paddle boarders) came by Great Race today.
After a short rest and a quick chat I sent them on their way again.
Other
Five DND blasts today.
Two medium blasts at 10:13 and 10:15.
One big blast at 10:17.
Two medium blasts at around 12:10.
Posted in Animal census , Bird Notes , Ecoguardians Log , Island Visitors , Mammal Notes , Marine Vessels , Vessel Observations
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Tagged bald eagle , Black Oystercatcher , branded , california sea lion , Canada goose , cormorant , crow , DND blasting , elephant seal , harbour seal , harlequin duck , Northern sea lion , pigeon guillemot , rock sandpiper , seagull
Weather
Visibility: 10 miles in the morning, 15 miles rest of the day
Wind: 10-15 knots West
Sky: overcast
Water: 1′ chop
Ecological
15 elephant seals on Great Race today.
More Canada Geese on Great Race today.
Several fierce battles ensued between resident geese and new geese.
Maintenance
Cleaned some exterior windows on the student’s house.
Applied 30 second spray to part of the student’s house.
Scrubbed off the algae afterwards.
Goose work.
Boats
Kyle, his father, and Guy came out at 8:50 to drop off a weedeater and take a look at the old diesel transfer hose system.
On their return they pulled up the lost buoys!
5 eco-tours came by today. Some of them seemed to be too close to the animals.
A fishing boat and a pleasure craft also seemed to be encroaching a bit.
Other
The lost buoys were retrieved today.
There was nothing significant attached to them.
4 DND blasts today.
One huge blast at 11:01.
Three big blasts at 11:03, 12:17, and 2:34.
Weather
Visibility: 15+ miles
Wind: 10-15 knots NE, later West
Sky: mostly clear, sunny, warm!
Water: calm
Ecological
15 elephant seals on Great Race today.
They spent much of the afternoon playing in the water near the jetty.
Maintenance
Goose work.
Added one entire 55 gallon barrel into the Tidy Tank.
Cleaned the solar panels.
Boats
One small pleasure craft came through the reserve today.
It looked like it might have been too close to the harbour seals on Turbine.
Kyle and Guy brought me two boxes of food today. Much appreciated and needed!
Other
I know this isn’t really related to the reserve, but I hope that Pam Birley, our honorary eco-guardian, is enjoying the celebrations of Leicester City’s first ever English Premier League win! Cheers to all you do for the reserve, and your city!
Weather
Visibility: 15+ miles
Wind: 0-5 knots NE, then S
Sky: clear and sunny!
Water: calm
Welcome springtime!
Ecological
The usual 15 elephant seals on Great Race today.
Thought I saw whales out West at sunset. I definitely saw something coming up for air and blowing jets of water.
Maintenance
Wrote the April month end report today amongst the usual chores.
Boats
5 eco-tours came by today.
Some of them appeared to be too close to the harbour seals on Turbine Rock.
The viewing distance for boats near marine mammal haul-outs has been accepted by the Ecotour community to be 100 metres.
Other
DND blasts at 10:14, 10:16, and 10:20.
Weather
Visibility: 15+ miles
Wind 0-5 knots most of the day, 15-20 West in the evening
Sky: sunny
Water: calm
Ecological
15 elephant seals on Great Race today.
10 of them were in the water playing at 6 AM.
Maintenance
Cleaned the windows of the eco-guardians house.
Entered the sea water data and sent it off to Peter Chandler.
More goose work.
Ran the desal.
Had to restart the communications in the tower after shutting off the generator.
Boats
3 eco-tours came by today.
One black boat that looked like an eco-tour came by, but it only had one occupant,
Other
The mystery buoys are still appearing from time to time in Middle Channel.
However they don’t exclusively appear at low tides, so I am baffled.
Will have to get out there to remove them sometime.
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