Category Archives: Animal census

Animal Census

Posted on by

Another week, another animal census! The wind has finally dropped enough that being outside is enjoyable again which made today a perfect day for counting animals!

Mammals:
California sea lions: 19
Steller sea lions: 11 (1 branded 304Y)
Harbour seals: 87
Elephant seals (female): 4
Sea otter: 1

Birds:
Canadian geese: 8
Bald eagles: 4
Gulls: 318
Pigeon guillemot: 100
Cormorants: 35
Oyster catchers: 7
Savannah sparrows: 4
Shorebirds: 6
Harlequin ducks: 10
Raven: 1

Other:

While not a bird nor a mammal (but close in size), I’d like to include an honourable mention to the wolf spider that has taken up residence in the lighthouse tower. It is so large and fuzzy that I figured it deserves to be included in this week’s animal census.

On a totally unrelated note…I will not entering the lighthouse tower for the foreseeable future.

Additional info:

Ecotourism vessels: 1

Facility work:

  • Cleaned windows of both houses
  • Chopped wood and kindling
  • Deep cleaned kitchen in main house

Weather:

  • Sky: Blue skies and sunny
  • Wind: High of 18 knots, Low of 9 knots
  • Sea: Started calm ,whitcaps in the afternoon
  • Temperature: Low 8•C, High 14 •C

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

A Dream Come True! (and an animal census)

Posted on by

Everyone has a favourite animal, maybe its a dog or a cat or maybe its something elusive that you have a slim chance of ever seeing like a platypus. For some people, especially those in the marine mammal field it goes even deeper than that. We have specific animals within a species that we hope to one day see. For me I have two:

CA216C1 Frosty – an all white killer whale that travels between California and BC

T063 Chainsaw – a transient killer whale who visits the Salish Sea for roughly 2 weeks every spring and is recognized by his large jagged dorsal fin

Don’t get me wrong, the list is longer than that…I’ve yet to see K or L pod (Southern Resident Killer Whales), and I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing a narwhal or a leopard seal somewhere in the world one day, but as far as specific animals go – Frosty and Chainsaw are the top of my list.

Around mid afternoon I heard some chatter over the radio and spotted a few slow moving ecotourism vessels on the outskirts of the reserve which usually means there are whales nearby. I grabbed my camera and ran outside to find the man, the myth, the legend…Chainsaw! I almost didn’t believe it at first but that dorsal is hard to miss! He was travelling with at least 4 other whales including a youngster.

Not only have I been fortunate enough to see killer whales twice since my arrival yesterday afternoon but also my bucket list whale! I think this means that this Race Rocks trip will be a pretty spectacular one, I can’t wait to see whats to come. At this rate I should set my sights high, maybe a blue whale?

Now that I’ve shared my celebrity encounter, on to the rest of the day!

Today was animal census day and I proved myself wrong (see yesterday’s blog post) by spotting more pigeon guillemots than I’ve ever seen before. I did not however, see any turnstones today. Ollie was hauled out on Middle Rocks this morning but I heard over the radio that he was possibly near Swordfish Island this afternoon. Last but not least, I spotted my first whimbrel and hope to see more!

 

Animal Census:

Elephant seals: 4 female
Steller sea lions: 14
Harbour seals: 68
California sea lions: 19
Sea otters: 1 (Ollie)
Killer whales: 5 (T65s and T63s)
Gulls: 264
Canadian geese: 7
Oyster catchers: 10
Pigeon guillemots: 106
Eagles: 3 (2 adults, 1 juvenile)
Cormorants: 17
Savannah sparrow: 3
Whimbrel: 1
Raven: 1

 

Thankfully we don’t count bivalves in the census!!

Vessel Census:

1 private
4 ecotourism – far less today!

Weather:

    • Sky: Blue and clear
    • Wind: High of 11 knots, Low of 5 knots
    • Sea: Calm
    • Temperature: Low 8oC, High  12oC

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

Flowers bloooming

Posted on by

Eco-guardians Allen and\ ilka Olsen

THURSDAY 18 April
Clear and sunny with brisk breeze. Numerous VHF warnings of CA warship conducting
ammunition firings. DND detonating explosives. Continued to view wildlife and vegetation.
Calendula beginning to bloom; flowering beach pea (Lathyrus japonica) on stump battered by
gale. Magnificent display of brodiaea along west house foundation. Found that the invasive
sedum is supported on sealion felt; beginning to invade grass.
Good recovery of grasses and other greens.
Chopped wood/filled stove box and cleaned area; filled batteries; finished with solar panel
wash.
Not a single wildlife tour boat.

Animal Census April 17, 2024

Posted on by

WEDNESDAY 17 April CENSUS DAY
Calm & sunny. Wind N6/18 gusts mid-morning.
Began count on tower at 6.30 to count especially gulls while still mostly at rest.
Vessel Traffic: At any time, 5-8 freighters including what looks to be super tankers. CA naval
patrol vessel. 8-10 fishers out at all time of day. May be after prawns as some floats visible. Not
a single tour vessel!
DND detonated explosives 4 times; one blast shook windows.
Facility Work: Cleaned solar panels; attached hose from student bldg.
Began sawing/splitting wood but again interrupted by E seals near by.
Cleaned/rearranged kitchen drawers; cleaned top of fridge
Cleaned out freezer
Census Count
Mammals: Sealion 43
Steller 12
California 31
Seal 77
Elephant seal 5
Birds: Gull 1531
Guillemot 150
Oystercatcher 8 (4 pair)
Bald eagle 2 (1 adult; 1 immature; 7 immature on 18 th )
Harlequin 27
Cormorant 100
Scoter white wing 7
Dunlin 4
Turnstone 6
Surfbird 5 (10 seen on 15 th )
Savanah sparrow 1
Golden-crowed kinglet 1 (seen 13-14th)
Junco 1 (seen on 15th)
Crow 1
Canada goose 8 (4 pair)

Animal Census April14

Posted on by

by Eco-guardians Allen ilka Olsen MONDAY 15 April
Still windy. What a difference a day makes! At 7.15 only a single sealion on jetty (mature male
Cal); only 11 sealions on rocks near jetty/nine relocated to Middle Rocks. The ‘Two Sisters’
moulting Elephant seals separate but reunited and tucked into vegetation for wind protection.
Single moulting Elephant seal inactive most of day. The seal reported by Joan last week to Van
Aquarium not seen again.
Lots of freighter traffic—7 at once. Now watching for HMCS Max Bernays, new arctic patrol
vessel, to arrive at Esquimalt @1030. Failed to see its arrival, however a navy frigate was
observed. As well, US Coast Guard. Only one private vessel came in the turbulent seas.
Maximum flood today extremely dramatic with standing waves.

Cormorants and guillemots feeding in north water. Immature eagle on rocks next to jetty
keeping 50 guillemots from favourite, sunny east-facing perch. 20 Oystercatcher on seal rock
this morning; 10 surfbird; 6 Harlequin
Spent windy day (41 W/62 gusts) observing animal behaviour (and later in week):
1. Sealion— 18 mostly Cals have remained on rocks near jetty. 25 mostly Stellers have
relocated to Middle Rocks. On Saturday observed 18-20 sealions in water west & near
South Islands all day simply floating; occasionally one would swim staying nearby. They
remained there until dark but were gone Sunday morning. Observed this behaviour with
8 on Wed; group would occasionally go into herding mode.
2. Elephant seal—Moulting large females (?) very attached to each other; one observed
grooming/rubbing itself on the one less advanced in its moult. One quite vocal when
separated from the other. Youngster stays completely away from The Sisters (so
named by Joan).
3. Stellers roar; Cals bark; E seals honk/snore/growl/trumpet (played poorly).
4. Oystercatcher—single bathing in inter-tidal pool.
5. Surfbird—10 bathing in inter-tidal pool.
6. Eagles—three immature perched shoulder to shoulder on Turbine Rock; three more
immatures shoulder to shoulder on West Rock. Odd behaviour. A single elsewhere.
7. Cormorants leave the Rock each evening to roost (on DND land?) and return in droves in
early morning.

Animal census April 14/2024

Posted on by

SUNDAY 14 April
Internet restored by IT Dan by 1200.
1330 from tower:
Mammals: 51 seals on South Islands; 2 on Middle Rocks + 1 on West Rock. 27 sealions on Race
Rocks; 9 on Middle Rocks; 2 on West Rocks. 
Young Elephant seal observed heading to water; not seen rest of day.

Birds:
22 cormorants

 

Weather: Sunny with lots of solar power generated. Lowered flag. Gale force winds by mid-
afternoon; big blow all night.

Wednesday Census

Posted on by

I am writing this on Thursday although the census was done yesterday.

I was happy to welcome 3 new elephant seals to the island. Yesterday the count was at 5 and from what I can discern there are 2 large female, one subadult female, 1 small female and 1 small male. The small male is tagged. Update next post when I can get the number on its green tag.

Census

A sunny day in the intertidal

Mammals

Elephant seals 5

4 confirmed female and perhaps 1 male

Stellar sea lions 19

California Sea lions 33

Harbour seals 57 (mostly on surrounding rocks at low tide)

Sea otters 3 (seen off Turbine rocks 2 days ago)

Birds

Gulls   292 mostly glaucous wing and western and hybrids  (please see the amazing survey done last week by RPBO for species breakdown)

Bald Eagles 1 mature 2 immature about 1/2 and 1 year old

Turnstones 10

Cormorants 112 (roosting in the evening) the recent survey suggested the majority are Brandts, about 15% Pelagic and some Double Crested)

Dunlins 7

Surfbirds 56 (see photos below)

Rock Sandpiper? there may be some mixed in with the surfbirds see photo below

Fox sparrow 1

North western crow 1

 

Weather:

Clear and warm with mild variable winds mostly from the west

Visitors

Greg brought 3 boat loads of Pearson College biology students out with LAura to explore the low tides

Facility Work

Cleaned solar panels in the morning

wood to house

began cleaning fuel shed

Vessel traffic

A very noticeable change in the last several years in the marked increase in shipping traffic. I understand what a shipping lane is now. There is a CONSTANT stream of large container ships travelling by. There are about 6 on the horizon whenever I look out.

 

Constant shipping traffic

2? year old Bald Eagle

3 elephant seals , the 2 moulting are new

Surf Birds and others camouflaged

Race Rocks ER Gull Survey April 3 2024

Posted on by

Race Rocks Gull Survey April 3 2024
Andrew Jacobs  5 April 2024 at 21:35
Hello everyone here’s our survey results from this week out at Race Rocks.
Thanks to everyone for setting this up and Greg for getting us out there for the survey.
Checklist with photos here.
RPBO / BC Nature Gull survey.
Survey conducted by Andrew Jacobs and James Kennerley.
Survey conducted from Great Race Rock while tides allowed.Surveying adults setting up territory for the breeding season and lingering migrants.
Colour morphs for the resident population of Western x Glaucous-winged hybrids setting up territories recorded. Only one pair was displaying at this time although there were multiple probable pairs present in the area. The Western Gulls were not obviously paired up at this time. One of the Glaucous-winged Gulls was likely paired with a light morph Western x Glaucous-winged hybrid.
The gulls on the high cliff and grassy areas tended to be more positioned as if on territories and the gulls on the lower rocks formed more standard congregation flocks. The adult gulls are in breeding plumage at this date.

Other species
At this time a small number of shorebirds are foraging around the timelines and the Black Oystercatchers appear to not currently be on territory. The Rock Sandpipers and Dunlin are going into breeding plumage. Pigeon Guillemot were absent from the site at this time. Two active Canada Goose nests were present. Only 3 Brandt’s Cormorants were spotted as offshore birds however with time restraints we focused on nearshore surveying.

Western x Glaucous-winged Gull Hybrid (Olympic Gull) Colour Morph abundance results of 215 individuals.
202 adults 13 immatures, light morph (Glaucous-winged trending hybrids) 132 adults and 7 immatures, intermediate morph (Intermediate trending hybrids) 58 adults and 2 immatures, dark morph (Western trending hybrids) 12 adults and 4 immatures. There was a pair of intermediate trending birds courting with synchronized dance displays. One Western-trending adult had a very Western-trending voice.
Avian Species List:
7 Canada Goose
19 Harlequin Duck
4 Black Oystercatcher
17 Black Turnstone
13 Surfbird
5 Dunlin
3 Rock Sandpiper
5 Short-billed Gull (1 immature 4 adults)
3 Western Gull (1 immature 2 adults)
6 California Gull (1 immature 5 adults)
11 Glaucous-winged Gull (5 immature 6 adults)
215 Western x Glaucous-winged Gull hybrid (Olympic Gull) (13 immature 202 adults)
1 American Herring x Glaucous-winged Gull hybrid (Cook Inlet Gull) (1 immature)
3 Iceland Gull (Thayer’s subspecies) (3 immature)
43 Brandt’s Cormorant
11 Pelagic Cormorant
7 Double-crested Cormorant
2 Bald Eagle (2 adults)
Pinnipeds
24 California Sealion
4 Steller’s Sealion
1 Northern Elephant Seal
17 Harbour Seal
If there are any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.
250-507-5360, meowker use the at sign hotmail.com /
Cheers,
Andrew Jacobs

The Weekly Animal Census

Posted on by

Today, it was time for the weekly animal census on Race Rocks – a longstanding tradition (see the full archive, here) that allows us to keep track of an ever-fluctuating population of birds and marine mammals. The morning weather wasn’t particularly promising, with wind, rain, and dark overcast skies.

Combined with high tides and a rough sea state, perhaps it wasn’t entirely surprising that the numbers seemed a bit lower than usual – with the harbour seals in particular mostly hiding out in the waves surrounding the South Rocks, and thus rather tricky to count. Alas – who was about?

Census equipment – species list, binoculars, and a clicker to keep track of everyone

 

March 27th Animal Census

Birds:

Oyster catcher: 22
Harlequin duck: 15
Gulls: 195
Cormorant: 73
Pigeon guillemot: 101
Juvenile eagle: 1
Adult eagle: 1
Canadian geese: 9
Shore / Surf birds: 15
Turnstones: 10

Marine Mammals:

Steller sea lions: 14
Harbour seal: 21
Male Elephant seal: 1 (back on land after a lengthy morning expedition)
Female elephant seal : 0
California sea lion: 24

The weather did eventually start to calm down a bit – still hopeful to catch my first RR sunset of the trip later tonight!

 

Facility Work:

  • Weekly Animal Census
  • Continued algae clean-up on Generator Roof
  • Chopped Firewood
  • Prepared new Water Filters for both the Keeper’s Residence and the Marine Science Building
  • Early AM generator run to top up batteries, PM solar enough to reach charge status of 100%

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 1 ecotourism vessel, passing between the South Islands and Rosedale Reef

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Animal Census and Blog

Posted on by

The great weather had to come to an end eventually! Despite being a dark and cloudy day we lucked out with no rain and no wind.

I had 9 extra helpers for the animal census today, the Pearson students are extra observant so this may be the most accurate count yet!

No sea otters were seen today but the two new ones have been around the past few days. Still no additional elephant seals on the main island, just our solo male! A couple of females have been hauled out on the various surrounding rocks but none of come ashore here.

March 20th Animal Census:

Birds:

Oyster catcher: 15
Harlequin duck: 12
Gulls: 261
Cormorant: 62
Pigeon guillemot: 149
Juvenile eagle: 3
Adult eagle: 4
Canadian geese: 9
Shore birds: 10
Turnstones: 28
Savannah sparrow: 1

Marine Mammals:

Steller sea lions: 17
Harbour seal: 64
Male Elephant seal: 1
Female elephant seal : 2 (north rocks)
California sea lion: 20

Injuries:
Harbour seal with facial injury


DND Activity:

  • 2 blasts at 12:55 and 13:00. They did startle the harbour seals and the second blast sent a California sea lion fleeing into the water.
  • 3rd blast at 14:15 no obvious disturbance noted. 
  • 4th blast at 15:05 no obvious disturbance noted.
  • 5th blast at 15:08 no obvious disturbance noted.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • One ecotourism vessel
  • One Coast Guard vessel
  • Three RCMP vessels

 

 

Weather Events:

  • Wednesday, March 20:
    • Sky: Cloudy all day
    • Wind: High of WNW 13 knots, Low of  SW 4 knots
    • Sea: Calm
    • Temperature: Low 8oC, High  10oC

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

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Growing sea lion numbers…