Category Archives: Animal census

Otter, Caspian Terns, Goslings (!) & Sunday Census

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Weather:

  • Sky clear, a few clouds
  • Visibility 15+ NM
  • Wind: 30-35 knots W
  • Sea state: fast moving, white caps breaking at .5 m

Visitors:

  • Greg visited with a water delivery on Friday
  • One eco-tourism boat in the reserve yesterday evening.
  • One vessel fishing within the reserve on Friday afternoon. They approached the sea lions around the jetty very closely and their dog on board barked loudly at the animals. They approached the animals within a stones throw and hovered for roughly 20 minutes. The animals appeared distressed and fought with each other as they tried to move away from the boat (it was too close for them to enter the water).

Ecological: 

  • On Thursday evening a river otter came onto land near the jetty. We wonder if it was trying to steal seagull eggs.
  • On Friday afternoon two caspian terns flew overhead. The seagulls were not happy to see them and chased them out of the reserve.
  • Related to the post linked above, we spotted an oyster catcher nest on the west side of the island. We think it could be the same one that Mike spotted in 2012!
  • There are five goslings total, one family with two and one with three. The family of three has been joined intermittently by the other two. The two chicks seem confused as to which geese are their parents, and they’ve even managed to sneak under a wing with the rest for shelter. The parents continuously try to separate them from their own three chicks and the parents of the two follow closely behind.
  • We have observed the geese moving around the island trying to find fresh water. When it rains it is easier for them to come near the structures and drink the water from our roofs. When it is dry, they are limited to what they are able to find in the pools high on the rocks, usually full of algae and very dirty. We have been learning about their adaptations to drink salt water here.
  • The two oyster catcher chicks that we spotted earlier in the week have maintained their elusive nature. We haven’t been able to spot them again, as they are hidden by their parents among rocks where the seagulls are not able to attack.
  • This week has brought an influx of stellar sea lions, particularly smaller youngsters.

Census:

  • 2 Elephant seals (1 male, 1 female)
  • 46 Harbour seals
  • 326 Seagulls
  • 10 Stellar sea lions
  • 17 California sea lions
  • 10 Black Oystercatchers(adult)
  • 2 Oystercatcher chicks
  • 16 Canada Geese (adult)
  • 5 Goslings
  • 2 Pigeon Guillemots

Sunday Census

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Weather: 

  • Sky partly cloudy
  • Visibility 10 NM
  • Wind 20-25 knots W
  • Sea State: white caps, chop less than 1/2 m

Visitors/Marine Traffic: No visitors

Ecological: 

  • The last elephant seal seems to have departed since yesterday.

Census: 

  • 46 Sea lions
  • 8 Oystercatchers
  • 16 Canada Geese
  • 116 Harbor Seals
  • 1 Bald Eagle
  • 1 Elephant Seal
  • 470 Seagulls

Returning Sun, Census

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Weather: 

  • Visibility 15-20 NM
  • Sky partly cloudy clearing to blue sky
  • Wind 15-20 Knots W
  • Sea state: calm, rippled

Visitors/Marine Traffic:

  • No visitors
  • Yesterday we spotted a group of kayakers who had emailed to let us know they were coming: We tried to wave, but you were too far away to see us- hope you had a good paddle!

Ecological: 

  • The seagull population has skyrocketed this week, but still no fully constructed nests
  • The elephant seals have left now, aside from one. We anticipate that we may see a few large males in a month or so.

Census: 

  • 16 Geese
  • 8 Oystercatchers
  • 39 Sea Lions
  • 40 Harbor Seals
  • 1 Elephant Seal
  • 1 Bald Eagle
  • 580 Seagulls
  • 42 Pigeon Guillemots

Blooming Biodiversity

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Weather:

  • Visibility 15+ NM
  • Sky clear
  • Wind 15-20 NE diminishing to 5-10 SE
  • Sea state: calm
  • Temperature 22.5°C

Visitors/Marine Traffic: 

  • A trickle of pleasure crafts outside of the reserve, 4 inside of the reserve
  • Yesterday a very small vessel came to the reserve with 3 people aboard. They approached each outcropping very closely, scaring the animals into the water.
  • This evening a boat with 6 passengers sped through the reserve. They passed the resting sea lions very closely, and sped through the passage where many were swimming and fishing.
  • On Friday Greg visited to work on the generator, and Nick came too
  • There have been large commercial barges steadily passing through the straight. Since the weather has been so calm we can hear them inside the house, even though they are nearly 8 km away.

Ecological:

  • The elephant seals have been taking daily soaks in the shallow water surrounding the jetty in this warm weather.
  • In the shallow and warm waters this week we have been spotting schools of small fish. The larger animals in the water seem to ignore them completely.
  • There have been blooms of jellyfish passing by in the currents, mostly water jellies and the small “sea gooseberries” which seem to glitter in the light due to the the tiny hairs (cilia) that pulsate to move them through the water.
  • A few harlequin ducks spent the evening in the reserve on Friday

Census: 

  • 16 Canada Geese
  • 8 Oyster Catchers
  • 4 Crows
  • 8 Elephant Seals
  • 300 Seagulls
  • 2 Cormorants
  • 2 Bald Eagles
  • 48 Sea Lions
  • 9 Harbour Seals

April 11 and 12 – Weekly Census

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Wind: yesterday W-S 0-32 knots, today W-SE 2-17 knots
Sea State: both days calm
Visibility: yesterday 10-15 NM, today 15 NM
Sky: yesterday partly cloudy then clear from mid morning, today clear
Temperature: yesterday 8-14 °C, today 7-14 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 416.33 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The lawn in front of the house got busier this morning with nine elephant seals, two more than yesterday. A tenth seal, the pup, was near the jetty. The two new arrivals have green tags on their tail flippers. One is a male tagged C887. The other is a juvenile tagged G512 on the right flipper and E779 on the right. I will update the information on age and past sightings when I hear back from the researchers. The green tags signify the elephant seals were tagged at Año Nuevo, south of San Francisco.

[UPDATED April 13: I heard back from Dr. Patrick Robinson, the researcher from Año Nuevo Reserve. The elephant seal with green tags E779 and G512 was tagged as a pup in February 2019, where he was born at Año Nuevo. This is the first time the male juvenile has been spotted outside of Año Nuevo, where he was last seen as a weaner in March, 2019. The elephant seal with the green tag C887 is a juvenile male that was born at Año Nuevo in February 2017. He has been seen at Race Rocks in the month of December in 2017, 2018 and 2019.]

There was one boat seen in the ecological reserve on each of the past two days, a pleasure boat yesterday and a sailboat today.

Census results observed this afternoon at low tide:
10 elephant seals (1 female pup, 1 female juvenile, 1 juvenile, 2 sub adult males, 5 female adults)
16 steller sea lions
91 california sea lions
1 sea otter
72 harbour seals
5 bald eagles (2 juveniles, 3 adults)
16 Canada geese
1 black brant goose
99 gulls (mostly thayer’s)
17 pelagic cormorants
4 brandt’s cormorants
5 double-crested cormorants
6 black oystercatchers
24 pigeon guillemots
7 harlequin ducks
2 surfbirds
5 black turnstones

  • Two eagles on Turbine Rock and a colourful sailboat passing through Race Passage.
  • Newly arrived juvenile elephant seal tagged G512 and E779
  • Green tags G512 and E779 on the juvenile elephant seal.
  • Newly arrived sub adult male elephant seal tagged C887
  • Green tag C887 on the sub adult male elephant seal
  • Black brant goose
  • Four elephant seals waiting for the water to come to them
  • Newly arrived juvenile seal exploring the boardwalk
  • A view from the top of the lighthouse this afternoon of the clear water of the east bay. A group of sea lions can be seen on the rocks.
  • These lucky gulls won of the goose egg hunt

Humpbacks still around

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Weather: 

  • Sky: Overcast
  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 5-15 knots NE
  • Water: Choppy under a metre

Boats/Visitors: 

  • Saw a couple tour boats going by today, and a dive boat

Ecological

  • The sea lion numbers dropped a little again and the elephant seal numbers have gone up a tiny bit
  • Census
    • Sea Lions – 438 (96 Steller and 342 California)
    • Harbour Seals – 32
    • Gulls – still around 200
    • Cormorants – 75
    • Canada Geese – 14
    • Black Turnstones – 30
    • Eagles – 6
    • Elephant Seals, 2 males, one of them is the alpha the previous two years, Bernard and the other is slightly smaller male and then 1 small female tagged V173 who I found out was born in Point Reyes last February 2019
    • Humpbacks – 3 are going by just now, photo below is very blurry due to low light

Sea lions coming and going

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Weather: 

  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 15-30 knots SW
  • Water: Choppy

Boats/Visitors: 

  • Didn’t see any boats today
  • I am expecting some visitors tomorrow, we are working on decluttering and getting the desal going

Ecological

  • The sea lion numbers were dropping but it seems there is a lot more today than there have been in the past week, possibly due to the sudden change in weather the wind came up today
  • Census
    • Sea Lions – 500 (145 Steller and 315 California)
    • Harbour Seals – 0
    • Gulls – 240
    • Cormorants – 56
    • Canada Geese – 23
    • Black Turnstones – 30
    • Eagles – 10, there have been quite a few eagles hanging around lately
    • At least 2 male elephant seals around as well

Less Sea Lions

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Weather: 

  • Sky: Overcast
  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 5-15 knots NE
  • Water: flat

Boats/Visitors: 

  • Not as many boats out lately
  • some visitors to work on projects around the island having to do with energy, infrastructure, desalination

Ecological

  • Over a period of a few days the sea lions left in big numbers
  • Census
    • Sea Lions – 370 (200 Steller and 170 California)
    • Harbour Seals – 24
    • Gulls – 360
    • Cormorants – 150
    • Fox Sparrows – 10ish, harder to count these guys
    • Canada Geese – 22
    • Black Turnstones – 30
    • Eagles – 6
    • Haven’t seen any humpbacks in a little while, I would expect most of them to be well on their way south by now
    • At least 2 male elephant seals around as well
    • some of the stellers look pretty young

Census update

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Weather: 

  • Sky: partly cloudy
  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 0-10 knots NE
  • Water: flat

Boats/Visitors: 

    • still a few tour boats cruising around along with some fishing and sailing boats
    • had visitors recently, the marine mammal rescue team came and I will post more on that later

Ecological

  • So many sea lions, here is an updated census
  • Census
    • Sea Lions – 1085 (365 Steller and 720 California)
    • Harbour Seals – 37
    • Gulls – 400
    • Cormorants – 210
    • Fox Sparrows – 10ish, harder to count these guys
    • Canada Geese – 22
    • Black Turnstones – 30
    • Eagles – 6
    • Raven – 1
    • possibly 1 sea otter, bit hard to see from this distance
    • still seeing a humpback here and there but less frequent than last week

census

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visibility greater then 15 kms.

sky clear

wind 6 knots from the northeast

sea calm

 

Sea Lions 1072 (including the islets)

Gulls 1660

Cormorants 180

Canada Geese 21

Seals 36

Eagles 2

black turnstones difficult to count because they are so camouflaged (see picture below) but more then 50

Many humpback whales

?dolphin

4 distinct groups of whales this morning. Because they were so entertaining I watched them both from the lighthouse and the back porch for several hours. I also saw what I believe was a dolphin, it just broke the surface and it’s spout was much smaller then the whales. It’s spout was straight. I saw it blow several times about 5 minutes apart but I didn’t see it’s body.  it was only about 100 mtres from the lighthouse nowhere near the whales.

harlequin ducks were seen yesterday 2 males and one female

Sandpipers

one group of about 200 sandpipers flying south today

I saw 5 groups on October 25 during gale force winds but none were as large as this group.Those were  between 10 and 100 individuals.