Category Archives: Animal census

Census Day! Humpbacks ..30!

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It’s census day! 

This is my first time doing the census since June when we only had about 20 sea lions so this count required some focus.

Mammals:
California sea lions: 731
Steller sea lions: 422
Harbour seals: 72
Elephant seals: 2
Cetaceans: more humpback whales than I could keep track of! At least 30+

Birds:
Gulls: 579
Cormorants: 195
Canadian geese: 16
Turnstones: 12
Whimbrel: 1
Savannah sparrow: 1

Today was beautiful out, a perfect sunny Sunday!

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 10
  • Private: 13 + 2 jet skis

Weather:

  • Sky: Blue sky and sun
  • Wind: NONE
  • Sea: Glassy
  • Temperature: Low 9•C, High 18•C

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

Our Last Census Day!

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Sunday, September 29, 2024

Today was our last census!!!

We took our coffees up to the tower for the 7am Low tide.

Animal Census:

Birds:

  • Gulls: 1580
  • Cormorants: 22
  • Canada Goose: 22
  • Turnstones:
  • Shorebird: 1

Would love help on the ID of this.. email us if you know!

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea Lion: 306
  • California Sea Lion: 834
  • Harbour Seal: 81
  • Elephant Seal female: 2

Animal Tracking and Injuries:

Spotted a Stellar Sea lion with fishing line wrapped around his neck ☹

Reported to DFO.

Since we are leaving on Tuesday, we spent the day cleaning the house, and washing the windows.

As well as our daily fence repair. It’s a particularly nauseating feeling to wake up each morning, look out at the beautiful view, and survey the extent of fence damage that has happened overnight…. This is a task I definitely will not miss.

Weather: Sunny all day, Very windy all night (35+ Knts, dropping all day to around 20knts W/SW)

Whale Watching Vessels: 10

Private Vessels: 2

**Loads of Humpbacks hanging about 😊

Census on a Cloudy Day

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Sunday September, 22

Census Day!

This morning, Scott and I headed up to the top of the tower for our weekly animal count.

We added the elephant seal to this week’s survey because she is still sticking around!

Yesterday we beefed up the fence on the West side of the island between the helipad and the generator shed. Since this one isn’t anchored into the bedrock, it has been taking quite a beating from the westerly winds.

Greg also dropped by yesterday and gave us some groceries for the week. The water cistern is quite low, so we have ceased using the desalinator, and are trying to be more conservative than normal with the water. Fingers crossed, Greg will be able to boat over some more water this week!

Today, we checked and topped up the batteries, and tidied up the basement in the main house. I can’t believe we only have a week left on the island!

Whale Watching Vessels: 15

Private Vessels: 4

Weather: Cloudy and Overcast Day, Winds SW picking up to 15 knts in the Afternoon

Animal Census:

Birds:

  • Gulls: 1155
  • Cormorants: 228
  • Oystercatchers: 3
  • Canada Goose: 6
  • Turnstones: 17 ** They are hard to see amongst all the sea lions

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea Lion: 397
  • California Sea Lion: 780
  • Harbour Seal: 85
  • Elephant Seal female: 1

The Fence is up!

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There is now a perimeter around all the facilities! Now, Scott and I just need to make sure that they keep standing…

We also did the census this morning at low tide. There has been a dramatic increase in sea lions since last week!

Birds:

  • Gulls: 1454
  • Cormorants: 42
  • Oystercatchers: 3
  • Canada Goose: 15

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea Lion: 360
  • California Sea Lion: 933
  • Harbour Seal: 127

Animal Tracking and Injuries: Noted one California sea lion with Salmon Flasher. Will report to DFO Tomorrow.

 

Whale Watching Vessels: 15

Private Vessels: 5

Weather: Clear and Sunny all day. Winds W 10knts

Census Day!

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Sunday September 8th

Today we spent a lot of time on the fence again. We painstakingly went through each section to ensure that charge was being held the whole way through. This was a very tedious process and we still don’t have the voltage up to where we want it to be…. but there have been no pinniped breaches yet, so fingers crossed!

Today, Scott and I climbed the lighthouse tower to complete our first wildlife census. As a marine ecologist, I have a lot of experience counting fish underwater. However, counting over 600 Sea lions that all look like overlapping brown logs or trying to count birds that keep on flying away or are hidden between all the sea lions was way harder. With that said, being a top the tower made everything much easier to see and to conceptualize on a greater scale.

While we were up there we also got to enjoy a couple of humpback whales engaging in tail slapping or “lobtailing” behaviour for well over 30 minutes. It is thought that the sound and force generated by the slaps frighten the bait fish into tighter schools making them easier to hunt. Based off gull activity, there were definitely a lot of bait balls around, so hopefully we will get to see more of this behaviour in the coming days!

  • Water Sample
  • Ran Generator
  • Washed Solar Panels
  • Patched and checked new electric fence
  • Island animal census

Whale Watching Vessels: 25

Private Vessels: 7

Census Results:

Birds:

  • Turnstones: 15
  • Killdeer: 1
  • Gulls: 528
  • Cormorants: 70
  • Oystercatchers: 2
  • Canada Goose: 6

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea Lions: 115
  • California Sea Lions: 497
  • Sea Lions (Too Far for confident ID): 205
  • Harbour Seals: 63

Weather: Slightly Hazy/Overcast. Wind NW Building all day to ~ 15knts

Aug 14 Census

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Mammals

sea otter: 1
elephant seal: 1 female
harbour seal: 34 (6 South Islands, 1 South Seal Rocks, 19 Middle, 1 Turbine, 7 North Is.)
Stellar sea lion: 185 (48 Great Race Rocks, 136* Middle, 1 Turbine)
California sea lion: 108 (107 Great Race Rocks, 1 Turbine)

Birds

cormorant: 45 (21 South Islands, 24 Great Race Rocks)
gulls**: 761 (33 South Islands, 4Turbine, 7 North, 717 Great Race Rock)
oyster catcher: 20
pigeon guillemot: 123
surfbird: 46
black turnstone: 149
ruddy turnstone: 3
harlequin duck: 1
barn swallow: 1
Canada goose: 7
song bird: 3

*  Note: all sea lions on Middle Rock were counted as Stellar sealions, there may be a couple of California sea lions mixed in.
** Note: Gull counts do not include this season’s chicks

Wildlife notes:

The entangled Stellar sea lion was not spotted today on Great Race Rocks. A Stellar sea lion with a dark coloured stain around its neck (possibly a packing band), reported previously by naturalists on the ecotourism boats, was sighted on Middle Rock during the census.

The Stellar sea lion on Middle Rocks with a possible new entanglement is located in the bottom centre of the photo and has a dark coloured ring around its neck.

I wish I could sleep like a sea lion, on any surface, cold, hard, flat or bumpy and with only a log for a pillow.

Visitors:

Greg and Gabe came out to work on the electric fence

Facility work:

  • Clean solar panels
  • Electric fencing work – Jetty is now 3/4 electrified.

Vessels:

  •  27 Ecotourism

Weather:

Clear skies. Moderate to fresh westerly breeze. Daytime temperatures: low 13, high 15.

August 1 Census

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Census Results:

Mammals:

  • Elephant seal: 2 (female and male)
  • Steller sea lion: 34
  • California sea lion: 11
  • Sea otter: 1
  • Harbour seal: 78

Birds:

  • Bald eagle: 1
  • Canada goose: 3
  • Cormorant: 33
  • Gull: 584
  • Black oystercatcher: 20
  • Pigeon guillemot: 131
  • Whimbrel: 1
  • Surfbird: 28
  • Black turnstone: 137
  • Song sparrow: 2
  • Least sandpiper: 1

Facility work:

  • Reacquaint myself with the standard operating procedures and various systems on the island
  • Check boat electronics, safety equipment, and winch
  • Clean solar panels
  • Sample seawater

Vessels:

  •  Ecotourism: 23
  •  Private: 5

Weather:

  • Sea: Rippled
  • Sky: Clear in morning, then partly cloudy
  • Wind: Variable light winds overnight until sunrise ~06:00, when wind switched to easterlies varying from 3-14 knots throughout the rest of the day
  • Daytime air temperature: low 13 C, high 24 C
  • Seawater temperature at max flood: 10.6 C

** All wildlife photos are taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

July 24 Census

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Mammals

elephant seal: 2 (male and female)
harbour seal: 186 (45 South Islands, 53 South Seal Rocks, 29 Middle, 20 Turbine, 39 North Is., 6 Great Race Rock)
Stellar sea lion: 20
California sea lion: 2

Birds

cormorant: 11
gulls*: 607 (4 South Islands,  603 Great Race Rock)
oyster catcher: 10 adults, 1 chick
pigeon guillemot: 124
surfbird: 36
black turnstone: 123
ruddy turnstone: 6
short billed dowitcher: 2
western sandpiper: 7
least sandpiper: 1
harlequin duck: 2
barn swallow: 1

* Note: Gull counts do not include this season’s chicks

A collection of gulls on the western shore, many of which are California gulls.

Pigeon guillemot

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • cleaned Keeper’s House windows
  • Pumped salt water to cistern

Vessels:

12 ecotourism, 1 private, 1 spill response vessel

Weather:

Partly cloudy. Predominately westerlies, fresh to strong breeze most of the day, gale force for two hours in the early evening, moderating to near gale by late evening. Daytime temperatures: minimum 11, maximum 15 degrees.