Category Archives: Ecoguardians Log

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

Warden’s Report for Race Rocks Ecological Reserve #97 Sept 5 2025

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On September 5 , I was able to get transportation to Race Rocks for Guillaume Roy and his father Réjean Roy   The photos in the gallery presented here were taken by Réjean.  Along with me was former Pearson College student Brian Nainee who had been an active diver with the college here at Race Rocks in 1980.   Richard from Pearson College drove us out along with a group of marine Biology students.

It is always good to look at the Ecological Reserve through the eyes of a visitor who is seeing it for the first time, so the following gallery of photos has been provided by Réjean Roy 

 

Windy Day

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Today we had a very windy day with 30kt gusts all day.

The sea lions took this opportunity to nap hard.

Facilities Work

  • Filled Generator
  • Swept out battery room/generator room
  • Fixed fence

Weather

  • Wind: SW 25 kts
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Sea State: 2 ft wind chop
  • Temp: 10 C

 

We have WATER!!!

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Today was a very PNW day… a slow steady rain all day.

I know it gets old quick, but I really love a nice, cozy, rainy day at Race Rocks!

But also because of the rain, most of the sea lions spent the day in the water, making the census counts low.

Of note today, Greg came out to the island, and we fired up the Desalinator after more than an entire year of issue after issue. Greg was jubilant to say the least :).

Facilities Work

  • Checked and filled battery levels
  • Fixed fence
  • Ran the desalinator (300L)

Weather

  • Sky: Rainy (12mm)
  • Wind: NNE 5.2 Kts
  • Sea State: Calm
  • Air Temp: 9C

Census:

  • Harbour Seals – 5
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 79
  • California Sea Lions – 99
  • Seagulls – 353
  • Cormorants- 515
  • Turnstones – 15
  • Oyster Catchers – 12
  • Canada Geese – 3
  • Snow Goose – 1
  • Elephant Seal – 1