Wildlife notes

Eagle eyes doesn’t refer to me – I miss much of what is happening here. But the eagle is known to see the smallest detail and could hardly miss three sea gull nests around it within a 6 foot radius, all filled with eggs. For ten minutes an eagle stood on the ground with several options of food around it and chose none. The sea gulls and the oystercatchers took turns diving at the eagle. The oystercatchers got involved because ten feet away was the West Jetty oystercatchers nest.

Bald eagle with gulls and oystercatchers swooping at it. Concerned gulls and oystercatchers spectating.

After the eagle left I went over to inspect the gull nests expecting a disaster but two nests had three eggs each, one had two eggs and not a broken shell to be found. I went to where I last saw the West Jetty pair’s nest expecting to find the chicks torn apart.  Two very well camouflaged oystercatcher chicks were motionless, wedged in beside a rock. Gull chicks are equally obedient and freeze when they receive the call from their parents. They are also equally well camouflaged for their nesting environment.  Below is a photo I took last year in June of a newly hatched gull chick to compare with the colouring of the new oystercatcher chicks… marvels of nature!

Having verified that the West Jetty chicks hatched and have survived, I updated the oystercatcher nesting map. Two nests still have unhatched eggs. I also learned why the oystercatchers were hounding the eagle with the blue fish on the southwest beach yesterday. They were the Coast Guard oystercatchers that had moved their chicks off the high rocks by the fog horn down to the beach – a long walk for a little chick. Their well hidden chicks were just meters away from the eagle. They were moved to the beach between June 13th and June 16th.

One item of note is the lack of sea lions today.  The female elephant seal is on day 14 of her molt. The last bits seem hard to shake and from a distance she looks like she is sporting dread locks.

Half and Half after soaking on her side at the end of the boat ramp.

The last bits curling off.

Facility work

• cleaned the solar panels
• topped up battery fluid levels
• continued with organizing and cleaning the Tank Shed

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 11
• Private: 1

Weather

Winds light and variable in the morning, moderate westerly breeze in the afternoon. Skies cloudy. Daytime temperatures: low 11, high 16.

Wildlife notes

An eagle found a blue fleshed fish in the rocky beach on the southwest shore.  I wonder if it is cabezon or a blue lingcod? When the eagle pulled it out of the rocks it was already eviscerated.  The black osytercatchers were relentless in their harassment. Eventually the eagle, with some effort, took the fish to Seal Rocks. Eagles flyby often and they seem to leave empty footed every time, at least when I am watching, so this was a rare treat to watch one tear away at and maneuver a large carcass.

Bald eagle tearing at its eviscerated fish.

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Bald eagle bothered by black oystercatchers swooping at it.

Bald eagle taking its fish to Seal Rocks to eat in peace.

The female elephant seal is on Day 13 of her molt. If she weren’t in the lee of the rocky hill by the flag pole, I think today’s winds would have blown the last remaining bits off her back.

Female elephant seal on Day 13 of her molt.

The egg collection in the killing fields, and strewn about here and there, continues to grow. I am always surprised to walk by nests and see fewer eggs than on the last pass. They so rarely leave their nests, I wonder when they get taken.

Growing collection of gull shells in the killing fields by the Keeper’s House.

Facility Work

• cleaned solar panels
• put away fire hoses
• scrubbed the north porch

Vessels

• Ecotourism:  12
• Private: 2

Weather

Strong westerly breeze until early afternoon, building to near gale in the afternoon (first time in a while that winds were higher than forecasted). Mostly clear skies with short periods of high clouds. Daytime temperatures: low 10, high 15.

I recently discovered the Marine Traffic website marinetraffic.com, where you can track ALL kinds of marine traffic ALL around the world. It is fascinating and utterly consuming – the sheer volume of the traffic, the various activities, the routes and the coloured veins around the globe.

Today I decided to monitor all the large vessels that passed by between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m (ships are travelling day and night, 24/7). Eleven ships larger than 100 m in length passed by Race Rocks in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The smallest at 104m was the Coho Ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria, the largest at 347m was the Quantum of the Sea, a cruise ship travelling from Juneau, Alaska to Victoria, BC. Their cargo — humans. I became curious about the other nine large ships that passed. What was their cargo? Where did they come from? Where were they going? How long had they been at sea?

On the Marine Traffic website, all vessel types are colour coded. Ships transporting goods are indicated by either a green (cargo, bulk carrier, container ships) or a red (oil, chemical or liquid gas tanker) arrow showing direction of travel. If you click on an arrow, a pop-up window provides information on type of ship, size, port of departure, destination, duration of trip, speed and what flag they are sailing under. Most of my questions answered except what was exactly in those holds!

In those nine hours there were nine ships moving goods from Vancouver to places as close as Seattle, down to El Salvador, down and over to Brazil or across the Pacific to Japan and Korea. Goods were being brought to Vancouver from California, Mexico, China and Korea. Interesting that of these 9 ships, 3 were flying under the flag of Marshall Islands, 2 Panama, and 1 Singapore, Philippines, Hong Kong or Liberia — none of these were coming or going to ports in the countries with the same flag under which these ships sailed!

Here are three screen shots from Marine Traffic this evening that can be expanded by clicking on them (Colour coding: Green – cargo, Red – tanker, Orange – fishing, Dark blue – passenger, Pink – pleasure craft, Light blue – tugs and special craft).

Here are some of ships that passed between 8am and 5pm today.

INBOUND

Quantum of the Sea, 347m long, Passenger ship, Alaska to Victoria.

SM Mumbai, 260m long, Container Ship, Korea to Vancouver

OUTBOUND

Common Atlas, 199m long, Bulk Cargo, Vancouver to El Salvador.

AD Astra, 228m long, Bulk Cargo, Vancouver to Brazil.

Wildlife notes

Not too much to report. Some gull nests lost eggs (carnage continues), others gained eggs (egg laying continues).

Facility Work

• cleaned solar panels
• cleaned the Jetty remote camera
• mounted the purple martin bird houses

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 9
• Private: 1

Weather

Fresh westerly breeze until early afternoon, increasing to 25. Clear skies. Daytime temperatures: low 10, high 12.

Seeing as Merriam-Websters word of the day is vexillology (the study of flags), I thought it would be the perfect day to replace our wind ravaged, faded and torn Canadian flag. As with most things they seem to take longer than you expect. The retainer line (attaching the two ends of the flag halyard to make a continuous loop) was frayed so that was replaced first. I struggled a bit attaching the line on the bottom of the new flag and settled for an anchor bend knot and a half-hitch and left a long tail in case someone wanted to change the knot. A proud patriotic moment – Oh Canada….. was sung out loud.

Wildlife notes:

It was a glorious sunny and windy day. The currents and waves were lively. I watched a gull swallow an entire large chiton in one gulp and found a blue egg in the killing fields. I was worried at first that it was a pigeon guillemot egg but it seemed to be too large.

Mysterious blue egg amongst the gull eggs.

Female elephant seal on day 11 of its molt.

Facility Work

• cleaned solar panels
• replaced the Canada flag

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 24
• Private: 6

Weather

Fresh westerly breeze until early afternoon then blowing 30 knots for the remainder of the day. Skies partly cloudy. Daytime temperatures: low 10, high 12.

Mammals:

• Steller sea lion: 0  (June 7: 2, May 30: 10, May 23: 6, May 15: 21, May 8: 37)
• California sea lion: 3 (June 7: 12)
• Harbour seal: 211 (June 7, 103, May 30: 90, May 23: 50)
• Elephant seal: 1 female

Birds:

• Gulls:  603 plus a group of 122 immature gulls and some visiting California gulls on the western rocks  (June 7: 645, May 30: 464, May 23: 467, May 15: 391, May 8: 114)
• Pigeon guillemot: 36 – should be more but out fishing (June 7: 82, May 30: 6, May 23: 30, May 15: 78, May 8: 153)
• Cormorants: 33
• Canada geese: 3
• Bald eagle: 5
• Black oystercatcher: 12 adults plus 5 chicks

Wildlife notes:

The highlight of the day was finding the Coast Guard oystercatcher pair’s three chicks alive and well. Unless a parent comes with a meal, the chicks are hidden in the vegetation and are impossible to spot. What a relief they survived predation from the gulls! It was also a great comfort to find the West Jetty oystercatcher pair delivering food to their chicks. The chicks remained hidden behind a rock so I couldn’t determine if all three eggs hatched.

General location of the Coast Guard oystercatchers. They are in the area of the fog horn.

The Coast Guard black oystercatcher parent and its three chicks who have come out into the open for meal time.

Other things of note were what appeared to be vomit on the solar panels and odd looking fleshy bones on the walkway. I thought maybe a Canada goose leg, but they seem already plucked and were probably flown here from someone’s backyard barbeque.

Vomit on the solar panels. I do not know whose.

D’em bones.

The last remaining female elephant seal on day 10 of her molt.

Facility work

• cleaned the solar panels
• topped up battery fluids
• fresh water delivery, another is coming on Monday and I’ll report on the final volumes then.

DND

Two of the loudest blasts I have heard so far – shook the house. Coincidently they occurred while I was reading about the Israeli strikes on Iran. I can’t image the terror of people living in war torn regions.

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 15
• Private: 1

Weather

Fresh westerly breeze. Skies with scattered clouds. Daytime temperatures: low 10 , high 12.

I spent last night and most of today cursing the @#$* gulls after I found the East Beach oystercatcher nest empty yesterday.  Seeing all the gull egg shells strewn about I figured they had taken the oystercatcher eggs as well. Today I visited the other nests on the island:

East Beach oystercatcher nest surrounded by sea lion bones with 3 eggs on May 17 2025

• East beach – empty, 5/27/2025 3 eggs
• West Jetty – empty, 6/1/2025, 3 eggs
• Coast Guard nest – empty, 5/27/2025 3 eggs
• Keeper’ House – 2 eggs, as previously observed
• Energy Building – 2 eggs, as previously observed

I found it interesting that they still occupied the area and called when I approached. This is in contrast to the gulls on the walkway that lost their last egg to predation, who just vacated. It took about 24 hours before it occurred to me that they may have hatched. I researched incubation period and reviewed when I first observed an oystercatcher chick last summer – it was June 12th 2024!  I ran out and sat for a while with the binoculars watching the East Beach parents. What joy! Two chicks were scrambling about.

East Beach oystercatchers with two chicks on June 12 2025

Tomorrow is census day so I will spend some time sitting still and watching the other empty nests. It may be more challenging as the West Jetty and the Coast Guard nests are not on a beach but several meters above the shore and it is possible they took their chicks to down to the shore line.

In today’s reading I discovered this amazing Haida story explaining their pale feet and bright beak ( I used to picture them as old, heavily lip sticked ladies in panty hose):

“When Xaw’s North Wind son brought the daughter of Xyuu Southeaster to live at his father’s house, she found it covered in icicles. These were her father-in-law’s fingers. When she inadvertently broke some, Xaw grew angry and trapped his daughter-in-law in ice and snow while she searched the shore for skats’aguu limpets. After some time she called her father from the south, singing continually for his help. Then the wind blew from Gangxid Kun, the southern-most point of Gangxid Gwaay.yaay Kunghit Island. The ice trapping Xyuu’s daughter melted. Then Xyuu himself arrived attended by black clouds full of rain and Xaw’s icicles fell.

Today sgaada.nga black oystercatcher skitters along the coasts of Haida Gwaii on crooked legs, still white and bent from the cold Xaw brought upon her for breaking his fingers. She pokes the shore with her long nose, reddened with Xaw’s frost. Their distinctive, long legs never carry them far from shorelines where they forage.” (See source)

Some of what I learned today (For more fun facts see source 1, 2)

• they are monogamous, loyal long term mates
• the incubation period averages 27 days, both sexes incubate
• their eggs are hardy enough to withstand occasional cold water submersion
• estimates of population size 10,000 pairs from the Aleutian Islands to Baja California – at least 5 of these are here on this tiny rock

I also learned too much about their incubation and sex roles in Prince William Sound, Alaska (See source)

• they attend their nest for 96% of the day
• nest failure due to predation by mammals or flooding (there are gulls there)
• females spend 20% longer on the nests because they aren’t as disturbance-motivated as the males
• duration of disturbance ending incubation period  is 56-73 minutes and duration of incubation period ending for duty relief is 94-110 minutes
• the night time incubation bouts are longer, which could be due to prevalence of nocturnal predators or the lower temperatures at night

Revised map of black oystercatcher nests on Race Rocks in 2025

Facility work

• cleaned the solar panels
• started cleaning in the tank shed

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 4
• Private: 1

Weather

Fresh westerly breeze most of the day, winds increasing to WNW 30 knots by early evening. Daytime temperatures: low 11, high 14.

There were visitors, a fresh water delivery and a technician from Veridian to inspect and trouble shoot issues with the solar panels.

I wore my helmet today as it was required to lay out the fire hoses. The hoses run from the Water Tank Shed, across the fields, walkways and rock down to the Jetty where the boat and portable water tank are tied up. There were may gull nests to weave the hose around and they were not pleased with me. Sometimes one can carry a small broom over your shoulder as a target for the swooping gulls but this job required two hands. I was spared a direct head strike this time. After the hose was place and I left, they simply went back to their nests or on look out duty. The elephant seal however was very unsure of the hose. To avoid it, she went the long way around from the field to the walkway intersection to make her way to the water via the walkway to the Fuel Tank Shed.  When she discovered the hose there as well, she went back up to the intersection and took the other walkway to the Boat Shed instead. She clearly has a good mental map of the place.  With all the effort and the lack of options, she braved the last section of hose on the boat ramp to make it to the water. The hoses were left in place as the next water delivery is scheduled in two days.

The female elephant seal on Day 8. She is almost there.

In terms of other wildlife, four pelicans did a tour over the eastern part of the island and headed back across the straight to the east. As I watched them approach, their dark colour and size and their lengthy periods of soaring alerted me to fetch the camera. It was been a while since a pelican last visited.

Brown pelicans

Also of note, the egg thief, or at least one of the culprits responsible for the growing patch of shells revealed himself with a new egg. No distinguishing features or obvious marking so it would be hard to put on a “Wanted” poster…last seen with a wet beak. I watched him walk away and stand near a female a nearby nest. He’s from the neighbourhood! The number of scattered egg shells at the front of the house is also increasing.  Why they deposit them near the house, like proud cats with their catches, is curious.

It seems the other female elephant seal “Silky Smooth” has left for good and is now back in the sea. The last sighting and photo of her was on June 9th. I will miss watching her.

Facility work

The solar technician found two failed solar panels and replaced many of the corroded wire connectors. Tomorrow we will have a better idea how our solar input has increased with the new connectors.

• cleaned solar panels
• laid out fire hoses and water pump

Visitors

The park warden, marine biology instructor, two seafront staff, the solar technician and one visitor were on the island today.

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 11
• Private: 1
• Paddleboarder: 1

Weather

Steady westerly moderate breeze until mid afternoon, then increasing to a strong breeze with gusts of 30 knots. Skies clear with periods of overcast conditions. Daytime temperature: low 10, high 16.

Wildlife notes

I had a special treat today. Three killer whales swam past the west side of the island and up the straight. One was a little one hard to spot without the camera. These are first I have seen arriving on May 15th!

There was more carnage on the walkway. Soo much orange. I wonder if this was dropped from a height? There are two gull nests nearby, one of which is now down to a single egg. If only our store bought eggs had were so dark in colour, although looking at this I loose my appetite for eggs.

The female elephant seal made huge progress in her molt the past 24 hours. She looks to be half way there.

Facility work

• cleaned the solar panels
• finished weeding the bricks by the Energy Building

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 7
• Private: 0

Weather

Clear skies and light and variable winds in the morning. Scattered clouds and gentle westerly breeze in the afternoon. Daytime temperatures: low 11, high 13.

Wildlife notes:

The bigger female elephant seal is in day 6 of the shedding part of her molt. The smaller post molt female is still here. These days they seem to be dragging themselves to the water several times a day. There is nothing unusual to report with the other wildlife. Some of the gulls haven’t laid their eggs yet but the majority are sitting on nests. It is a relief not to see any entangled sea lions. There have been whales in the area the past two days as evidenced by the distant groupings of ecotourism boats, but they have been too far off for me to see.

Day 6 – dressed in rags an tatters

The silky smooth post molt female elephant seal making the slow trip (many rests required) up the ramp after a swim.

Facility work

• cleaned the solar panels
• topped up fluid levels in the batteries
• cut a few rounds and chopped kindling

Visitors

A group of staff from Pearson College came for a site tour.

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 12
• Private: 1

Weather

Skies clear. Winds light and variable most of the day. A gently westerly breeze developed by late afternoon. Daytime temperatures: low 12, high 20.

Wildlife notes:

The gulls are eating something new.  The solar panels today were covered with exceptional large sprays of pinky-orange gull poo. One day I may write a Cleaners Guide to Gull Poo, rating ease of clean up from 1: requiring several rounds of pre-soaking and excessive scrubbing to 5: easy wipe, little water needed. Today’s poo rates as a 4: no scrub, extra water due to chunky consistency.

The egg thief is making a statement. Their collection of gull eggs shells near the house is growing.  I’d love to discover who is responsible – if only I had a trail camera to set up.

Unlike the egg thief, the female elephant is quietly minding her own business in the field.

Four chattering purple martins (3 female or immature and one male) visited today. I believe they are trying to find a nesting spot and were inspecting the pipes on the south side of tower that emit signals for the fog detectors. There are two nesting boxes on the island that have not yet been mounted. Seeing they have returned, I’ll look for a place to stand them up.

Facility work

• cleaned the solar panels
• worked on the walkways
• cleaned the outside windows on the Keeper’s House
• 690 L of diesel fuel was delivered today (415 L large tidy tank, 100L small tidy tank, 175 L into a barrel). The next delivery will not be until the fall.

Vessels

• Ecotourism:18
• Private: 11

Weather

Light SE and NE winds until late afternoon when the temperature reached 25 degrees C. Westerly fresh breeze in the early evening bringing the temperature down to 13 degrees C. Daytime temperatures: 13 low, high 25.

Parts of Vancouver Island reached over 30 degrees today. Here it is comfortable – no long underwear needed and I even skipped lighting the woodstove tonight.