Category Archives: Admin

More Disappointing Eco-Tourism Activity

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This afternoon we observed a vessel enter the reserve while a humpback whale was present. The whales typically maintain position in the strong currents for upwards of 30 minutes, appearing to be feeding on plankton as it’s pushed towards them.

Today a humpback whale entered the reserve to hover in the current. Within 2 minutes an eco-tourism vessel came speeding towards it from the Victoria direction. The boat entered the reserve behind the whale, and the whale turned back the way it had come to move away from it and avoid becoming trapped. The whale was deterred from remaining in the reserve as they normally would do and made swiftly towards Victoria as the boat followed it closely away from Race Rocks.

We have observed vessels conducting themselves in this way on many other occasions, but often they leave the reserve quickly when we make ourselves visible.

 

Disappointing Activity

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Ecological:

Today we saw a group of orcas (4-6) within the ecological reserve, and noted that there was a horde of whale watching/ecotourism boats that followed. Shortly after the pod entered the reserve, we observed 12-15 boats convening in the area, forming a wall of motorized vessels on the border of the reserve. A diving boat was also present in the reserve, and had approximately 5 divers in the water at the same time.

While the ecotourism boats may have maintained an “appropriate” distance, it was undeniable that their approach from one direction as a large group negatively affected the wildlife. The diving boat had divers in the water, which inevitably means it is difficult to move away.

After only a few minutes of the boats approaching the orcas departed, heading away from the approaching boats, which gave chase.

Weather:

  • Wind: 10-15kn
  • Sky: Partially overcast
  • Visibility: 10mi
  • Water: Small waves not in excess of 0.5m

Boats/Visitors:

We have had no visitors over the last while, short of Greg delivering water yesterday.

Feels Like Summer

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Weather: 

  • Clear sunny skies, a few small clouds
  • 15+ miles visibility
  • Wind 20-30 knots SW
  • White caps and waves up to .5 m

Boats/Visitors:

  • A steady stream of whale watching boats today, but not too busy (15 or so). We were pleased to note that they seemed to be keeping mostly to the centre of the channel.
  • Quite a few small pleasure crafts just outside of the reserve, but only a few entered.

Ecological:

  • The seagull chicks are getting bigger every day and are beginning to wander more adventurously. This is making it harder for us to move around the island as they are unpredictable and often stray onto the paths. The adult seagulls are more aggressive than ever and have started to dive at our heads.
  • We noticed that the lack of wind yesterday and clear sunny day was causing the seagulls to pant like dogs. Apparently this is a way for them to shed excess heat through their mouth lining.

Cannibalistic Seagulls?!

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Weather:

  • Sky: Foggy morning, clearing around 2pm
  • Wind: 15-20 knots W
  • Water: Rippled
  • Visibility: Morning fog 0 miles visibility, clearing to 15+ miles

Visitors/Boats: 

  • Only a few whale watching boats today, as the fog was extremely thick until mid afternoon. One boat came very close to the jetty and a sea lion resting on it.

Ecological: 

  • Yesterday we noticed that the gulls are continuing to attack each others young. As the chicks grow larger and more continue to hatch, it seems as if the population as a whole may be running out of food on the island. We noted that one seagull was pecking at an evergreen shrub, which we haven’t seen them interested in until now. As the gulls become more desperate for sustenance, they appear to be cannibalizing their neighbours young to provide for their own. We found an interesting article about the appearance that Climate change may be turning seagulls into cannibals, written about the observations of biologist Jim Hayward on Protection Island, also located in the Strait of Juan de Fuca (2016).

A Foggy Day

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Weather:

  • Wind: 5-15 knots NE
  • Sky: Foggy, some showers
  • Water: Rippled
  • Visibility: Up to one mile

Visitors/Boats:

  • We haven’t seen very many boats today as it has been very foggy. We spotted three whale watching vessels, and one unmarked zodiac.
  • Yesterday was a busy day for whale watching, with boats heading in many directions through the main passage. There has been a young elephant seal resting on the jetty for the past two days, and it appears very agitated when the boats come close (within 25 m).

Ecological: 

  • We have noticed that there are a handful of sandpipers on the island this week
  • There is a small elephant seal with a few minor flesh wounds on its abdomen resting on the jetty. It appears to be part way through the moulting process.
  • We spotted two deceased oyster catcher chicks on the paths this week. They were very small, so its possible that they were unhatched. They didn’t appear to be injured. The other chicks are thriving and growing incredibly quickly.
  • Another male stellar sea lion hauled out onto middle rock a couple of days ago.

Maintenance:

  • On Monday a plumber came to fix a leaky faucet part in the main residence.

A foggy view of the jetty and north rock.

Visitors of All Kinds

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Weather: 

  • Wind 5-15 knots SW
  • Sky: Mostly grey, cloudy. Some rain and fog. Periods of partial clearing.
  • Water: Rippled, fairly calm.
  • Visibility: 10-13 miles

Boats/Visitors: 

  • Guy came to pick up our weekend visitors who headed home this afternoon. It was nice to have some company out here on the rock!
  • There were only a handful of whale watching boats in the reserve today since it was quite cloudy and rainy. We were surprised to discover a vessel hovering within 50 meters of a whale within the reserve this evening.

Ecological: 

  • While taking a water temperature reading we accidentally spotted a humpback whale hovering in the main channel! It stayed for about 30 minutes, surfacing approximately every 5 minutes in the same spot, facing towards the current.
  • The seagull chicks have continued to hatch and there are too many to count. They blend in with the yellowing grasses extremely well and have grown to be twice their original size in only a week. We noticed that one chick near the fuel shed hatched but did not survive, while its two nest mates appear to be healthy.
  • There has been one male stellar sea lion on middle rock for the past few days, and appears to not be moving much at all.
  • The goslings are nearly full grown now, and have been swimming

Census

  • 230 Harbour seals
  • 350 adult seagulls and many, many chicks
  • 4 moulting male elephant seals
  • 1 male stellar sea lion
  • A handful of pigeon guillemots
  • 8 adult oyster catchers, at least 7 chicks spotted
  • 1 humpback whale
  • 2 families of geese, and one additional adult pair
  • 1 nest of barn swallows

The Big Day Has Arrived!

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Weather:

  • Wind: 10-15 knots
  • Sky: Early morning thick fog, clearing mid morning to blue sky
  • Visibility: less than .5 mile this morning due to fog. Clearing to 15 miles.
  • Water: Calm, slightly rippled.

Boats/Visitors:

Today there were many whale watching vessels, presumably since it is a long weekend. This afternoon we saw over 20 boats between 12pm and 5pm, sometimes more than 6 in the main passage at a time. We also observed a handful of pleasure craft throughout the day, who were very respectful of the reserve.

Ecological: 

  • The seagull eggs have started hatching! We have spotted 5+ hatched nests today. The chicks are hard to spot in the dry grassy areas as they are a similar colour and blend right in!
  • We have also spotted two more oyster catcher chicks, which makes a total of 5 so far.

Census: 

  • Approx. 200 seagulls, chicks beginning to hatch
  • 4 large male elephant seals moulting
  • Approx. 30 harbour seals on surrounding rocks
  • 2 families of geese, and one additional adult pair
  • 2 barn swallows nesting in our rafters
  • Approx. 8 adult oyster catchers, 5 chicks so far
  • Approx. 20 pigeon guillemots

Big Creatures and Big Winds

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Weather: 

  • Visibility 14 miles
  • Partly cloudy, sunny
  • Wind 25-35 knots (gale warning in effect)
  • White caps and spray. Waves up to 4 m.

Visitors/Boats: 

  • The college boats are still in for maintenance, so we have not had any visitors. We are hoping to go to the main island soon but winds were much too strong and unpredictable today.
  • The past couple of days we have seen a handful of eco-tourism vessels and pleasure craft. Some vessels have approached within 20 m of our jetty and surrounding Great Race Rock. The elephant seals have been scooting up the jetty to get away and the few sea lions remaining appear disturbed.

Ecological: 

  • We were sad to find the missing gosling deceased. It seems that due to its injured foot it was easy prey for the bald eagles that have been swooping by lately.
  • We are now in the company of 4 very large male elephant seals who have stopped here to moult. They are enjoying taking regular baths in the shallow and protected jetty waters.
  • The occasional sea lion has stopped by and hauled out for a rest, but otherwise they have all moved on.
  • The seagulls are becoming more and more aggressive. We are anticipating the need to wear protective equipment sometime in the coming week!

Maintenance/Other:

  • We are still waiting for the delayed desalinator, so we are conserving water as much as we can in the meantime, as it is not possible for more to be delivered without the use of the college vessels.
  • We have been collecting shingles as the high winds are tearing them off of the sheds (new metal roofing is expected sometime soon), and often find fishing lures, bits of rope, and other litter wedged into the rocky intertidal.
  • The beautiful sunny days lately have meant that we have been able to operate entirely on solar power most days. We’ve been having some troubles with the battery charge readings but otherwise the system is working without a hitch!

An Injured Gosling

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Weather: 

  • Clear Skies
  • 15mi visibility
  • 10kn NE wind
  • Calm water

Boats/Visitors: 

There have been lots of whale watching boats over the last few days, most coming within 25m of greater Race Rocks. Greg has came from the college a few times to resupply diesel (today) and water (yesterday).

Ecological:

There are three large elephant seals here, and today they were all resting in the water at the end of the boat ramp. One of the goslings from the younger family of geese appears to have injured its food or leg. It has separated from the rest of them over the last few days, and can be seen limping and moving slowly, it is unable to keep up with the rest.

The DND has been blasting, it is very loud and sometimes occurs four to five times in a day. It startles all of the animals, and the birds take flight.

We have noticed some barn swallows flying around out front window. On closer inspection, they appear to be nesting under our eves where a soffit panel has blown out of place.

Maintenance:

We have replaced the hinges on both doors of the water tank shed, and removed old hinges fasted or corroded to the doorframe. Opening and closing the doors is easy now, and with a touch of anti-seize paste on the hinge pins it should stay that way.

We cleaned the solar panels for the first time in a while. The desalinator being out of commission means pressure washing is too resource intensive – we found an old hand pump sprayer, and found it to be very helpful for cleaning while conserving water.

Census:

  • 5 elephant seals
  • 12 geese
  • 2 seal lions
  • 190 seagulls
  • 8 oystercatchers
  • 2 barn swallows

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 →