Category Archives: Animal census

Animal Census

Posted on by

Mostly clear skies. Strong West wind all day.

The flag was set at half-mast today to mark the national day of remembrance of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.  According to the Canadian War Museum, the capture of Vimy was more than just an important battlefield victory, it became a symbol for the sacrifice of the young Dominion. Brigadier-General A.E. Ross declared after the war, “in those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation.”

 

Animal Census

Steller Sea lion: 41
California Sea lion: 8
Harbour Seal: 153
Elephant Seal: 16!
Gulls: 301
Canada Geese: 20
Black Turnstone: 6
Harlequin Duck: 4
Oystercatcher: 8

Continue reading →

Spring Equinox

Posted on by

Clear skies. Variable North-East to South-East winds.
Waning gibbous moon, only one low day-time tide (~1m), and 4 to 5 kt currents.

I’m a day late, but Spring has officially arrived as determined by the sun crossing over the celestial equator.
There was a lot of Harbour seals out on Middle and Turbine rocks today. The Elephant seals are on the West Rocks. The Sea lions are still out on South Rocks. There was a large group of Harlequin ducks (14) in the water off the East beach. Cormorants were arriving in the reserve all day so assume my count dramatically under-estimates their numbers. The Canada geese with the nest next to the Keeper’s house have two eggs now. None of the other pairs of Geese seem to have settled enough to have eggs. The gulls are starting to pair up and settle into nesting spots. Amazingly, there were 7 Bald Eagles in the Reserve this morning. Most of them were sitting in pairs on the tops of various rocks. They were a fairly even mix of juveniles and adults. I saw a few sandpiper-like birds, but they were too fast for me to photograph or properly identify. Judging by the smell coming from the tank shed walkway, there is still a River otter living out here. And I saw some Scoters in the mouth of Pedder Bay on my way into the college this morning.

2 Tour boats

First Day of Spring Animal Census

Steller Sea lion: 31
California Sea lion: 6
Elephant seal: 3
Harbour seal: 144
Cormorant: 54
Gull: 133
Canada Goose: 15
Harlequin duck: 17
Black turnstone: 5
Unidentified sandpiper: 3
Oyster catcher: 6
Bald eagle: 7
Savannah sparrow:4
Pigeon Guillemots: 25
River otter: 1

Off station today from 0830 to 1030 to get keys and dive gear.
-fixed sagging corner on crane deck/walkway
-checked/cleaned Science House propane cleanout

Dec 31, visitors, octopus

Posted on by

overcast, wind light.

Chris came out in the morning with a group of 8 visitors.

Several octopus encounters today: there was an octopus near jetty as the guests were leaving, I heard a fisherman on the radio talking about having caught an octopus, and in the evening I came a across a small octopus in a tide pool at a very low (0.1 meter) tide.

1 ecotour and 1 recreation boat in the reserve today

-tidy engine room and house for visitors
-did a maintenance tour with Chris
-cut, chopped, stacked wood
-checked battery water level
-fuel inventory for month end report
-started preparing month end report

Christmas Bird Count at RR 2013

Posted on by

Also-Warden’s Report for Dec 28, 2013.
Link to the Index for the past records of the Christmas Bird Counts

2013-12-28songsavan

Song Sparow on the left and Savannah Sparrow on the right of this lichen covered log on the West side of Great race Rocks..

Ecoguardian Alex Fletcher picked up Val George and myself from the Pearson College docks mid- morning and we started our count by water in Pedder Bay, then across Rocky Point, through Eemdyck Channel and then across Race Passage to Race Rocks via West Rocks and Middle Rocks. The following includes only the Race Rocks portion of the census:

Observers:  Val George, Garry Fletcher and Alex Fletcher

2013  Christmas Bird Count – Summary      Date ___Dec28___Area or Sub-Area__Race Rocks Ecological Reserve__
Observers (in field)—3 Leader Garry Fletcher
Temp—-6 Wind NE,  3.5km Time Start__10:30___a.m.   Finish___12:00__a.m.
A.M. Clear,calm partly cloudy Moving water open ocean around
for your entire count team # hours (on foot) 1.5 distance (on foot) .35km, and top of tower
Northwestern Crow 2
Common Raven 2
Thayer’s Gull 200
Canada Goose 6
Black Oystercatcher 30
Black Turnstone 14
Harlequin Duck 10
Bufflehead 8
 Song Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 1
Glaucous-winged Gull 20
 Common Murre 4
Pacific Loon 2
Common Loon 1
Brandt’s Cormorant 80
Double-crested Cormorant 120
Pelagic Cormorant 17
Bald Eagle  (adult) 1
Bald Eagle
(immature		 7
Total Number of Birds 528
Total Number of Species 17

Cold weather

Posted on by

Friday morning the wind was blowing 25 NMPH NE and picked up throughout the day gusting to 40 NMPH in the evening with waves >5ft breaking on the jetty.  The wind brought cold weather from the interior with temperatures below 0 deg C.  A cold weather notice was issued by the Metchosin Fire Chief warning of windchill over night reaching below -15 deg C.  This morning temperature was -2.6 deg C, sunny, and winds had dropped by noon.  Sea water temp has fallen to 7.4 deg C today.

I ran heating coils on the lines out of the freshwater tank and into the main house. Kept a heater on low in the desalinator building overnight and shut off water to assist house and drained pipes.  No freeze up problems detected so far.

There was 1 dive boat and 1 ecotour boat in the reserve this afternoon.

Census yesterday (dec 6) at 11:00 from the tower:

47 California sea lions (2 sealions with plastic hoops lodged around their necks)
174 Stellar sea lions
2 harbour seals
5 elephant seals (on W rock, 1 male)
1 river otter
280 gulls
383 cormorants
2 Canada geese
1 raven
3 Eagles
1 Sparrow

animal census

Posted on by

Sunny all day. Light E-NE winds. Cold! It dropped below freezing over night.

I found some treasure on the boat ramp this morning in the form of a drift card. Although there are several groups that set out these small, buoyant yellow cards to study ocean circulation patterns, this card is meant to map the potential distribution patterns and impacts of an oil spill from a tanker. For more information, check out the website that’s written on the image of the card.

P1010565

Animal Census
California Sea lion: 371
Stellar Sea lion: 308
Harbour seal: 66
Elephant seal: 3
Gull: 647
Cormorant: 977
Eagle: 1

Jamieson and Jer are still out here
-Diesel to Keeper’s House
-Took down some electric fences
-Puttery yard work

Animal Census

Posted on by

Clear sky. Moderate W winds.
1 Tour Boat

Animal Census
153 Gulls
474 Cormorants
27 Canada Geese
2 Cackling Geese
1 White Fronted Goose
4 Turnstones
6 Oyster Catchers
1 Elephant seal
58 Harbour Seals
498 California Sea lions
345 Stellar Sea lions

P1010455

Branded Stellar #8329

-prepped student house, but group cancelled
-pressure washed walkways
-cleaned and organized Boston Whaler

storm warning in effect!

Posted on by

Light SE wind in the morning. 3ft East swell.
Midday it switched to 25 kts West.
Late afternoon it was blowing 45 kts West. With a 5ft+ West swell.

Bird Count
26 Canada Geese spent the day sheltering from the storm on Greater Race Rock
670 Adult Gulls + 96 Juvenile Gulls = 766 Gulls total
20 Oyster Catchers
136 Cormorants
I don’t know where the Turnstones and Sparrows hide during bad weather

Screenshot 2013-11-03 09.43.35

How I counted Birds: The nice thing about bad weather is that it forces all the birds to come to Greater Race Rock because of the waves surging over the outer islands. They also tend to sit in organized groups when it’s really windy. So I took photos of all the groups of birds and using a ‘cell counter’ macro in a great free program called ImageJ I counted all the birds and tallied the results.

 

[Daily Marine Conservation Link]
Sea stars up and down both coasts of North America are experience a mass die-off event now called Sea Star Wasting Syndrome. In recent years the populations of sea stars has been extremely high in the Salish Sea, and in September 2013 reports of mortality events started coming in from divers. A collaborative research effort is now underway and the Vancouver Aquarium is hoping that divers start to participate in some Citizen Science.
The Howe Sound Research and Conservation team is tracking this event by mapping observations of healthy and sick sea stars  but they need data! So if you see any sea stars while diving report it to this website

 

 

 

October month end

Posted on by

Cloudy. Ligh winds. Calm seas. Fog over US mainland.
Final day of counting recreational fishing boats for DFO.
First day that I didn’t see any eco-tour boats

Mammal Count
Stellar Sea lions: 244
California Sea lions: 378
Harbour Seals: 15
Elephant Seals: 4

-Did Month-end paperwork
-Submitted last of the boat count data to DFO
-Entered seawater data
-Tidied boat shed loft

mammal count

Posted on by

10kts NE wind. Cloudy, but still no rain.
Tour boats: 5
Dive boats: 2

Marine Mammal Count
Stellar Sea lion: 272
California Sea lion: 396
Harbour seal: 78
Elephant seal: 8

Harlequin Duck: 4
Sanderling: 1

P1010064

Sanderling (Calidris alba) and a Black Turnstone

P1010046

Another breakfast eagle sighting this morning.

P1010048

Sea lions on the North-Eastern flats of Greater Race Rock

-tidied boat shed