Category Archives: Animal census

Animal Census Oct 8

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Sunday October  8 Allen & ilka Olsen, Eco Guardians 6 –13 Oct 2023
Warm, sunny, calm seas ~ 18C
Walked fence line; repaired as needed.
From tower:
1009 Sealion
3 Harbour seal

2606 Gull
3430 Cormorant
2 Surfbird
6 Savahna sparrow

Wed 11 Oct CENSUS DAY
Brisk NE wind; 1m swells; cloud/shower; sunny afternoon
Hundreds of cormorants stream by north-facing window before sunup to their daily rock perches.
Hundreds of gulls in feeding frenzy/many immature/~15 immature carcasses observed; 1 sick individual.
Began with walking fence line; a few lines down/another sealion breach/herded back across line.
Blubber Boy still asleep in compound; bestirred with yoga pose then went to derrick crane; not able to breach electri fence so returned to sleeping spot near keeper’s house.
Three trips up tower to again count animals. Allen cleaned solar panels/ residence; windows; filled gas tank.
Sealions intermingle though there are pockets of species-specific. Found 5 branded; will contact scientist:
All mature male California—XI, 303, 9116, 4X6, U92, green flipper tag
Ecotour vessels. Numerous humpback sightings/impossible to count.
1227 Sealion intermingled Steller/California All seem to be male though Cedric reported a single female
2 Elephant seal 3 in total for week
3 Harbour seal
670 Gull
712 Cormorant
15 Oystercatcher
4 Black turnstone
6 Surfbird
10 Canada goose
3 Harlequin duck 8 earlier in week
1 Varied thrush 12 Oct 0930

Animal Census Sat Oct 7

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Sat 7 October  Allen & ilka Olsen, Eco Guardians 6 –13 Oct 2023
Warm, sunny, calm seas ~19
Another full day of ecotours beginning at 0715 plus recreational boaters, cruise ships, freighters. Sealions observed at
jetty in feeding frenzy at max flood—fabulous action. Tower count and on walkabout:
1 Harbour seal
Hundreds of sealions, gulls to be counted —to be counted for census.
7 Humpback whale
660 Cormorant — mostly Brant; some Double crested
4 Oystercatcher
8 Savahna sparrow
1 Black turnstone
3 Canda goose
Warm, sunny, calm seas ~19
Another full day of ecotours beginning at 0715 plus recreational boaters, cruise ships, freighters. Sealions observed at
jetty in feeding frenzy at max flood—fabulous action. Tower count and on walkabout:
1 Harbour seal
Hundreds of sealions, gulls to be counted —to be counted for census.
7 Humpback whale
660 Cormorant — mostly Brant; some Double crested
4 Oystercatcher
8 Savanah sparrow
1 Black turnstone
3 Canda goose

Animal Census Oct 6

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Fri 6 October  by Allen and ilka Olsen, Eco Guardians 6 –13 Oct 2023
Warm, sunny, calm seas. ~18C
Thank you to Greg and Cedric for this second opportunity to serve as eco guardians. Arrived at jetty to numerous
sealions not wanting to leave; much trepidation until Cedric showed us how to deal with them before he reviewed procedures and duties. Water tank filled from tank on Second Nature. Much ecotour activity due to sunny, warm Thanksgiving weather; cruise ships. Much whale spouting from humpbacks.

California sealion

Count from tower:
270 Cormorants — mostly Brant
11 Black Turnstone
1 Surfbird
8 Harlequin duck
520 sealions (counted by Mark, outgoing guardian, on Great Race + islets)

Aug 2 – Census surprises

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One of the reasons for doing a weekly census is to put down in writing the numbers of mammals and birds that are actually in the reserve. This gives us the opportunity to compare the results, not simply rely on memory. And that’s a good thing!  My impression on my return to Race Rocks is that there were a lot fewer gulls here than last year.  A check of a census at a similar date in 2022 shows that not to be true. The numbers are actually very similar, but down about 15% from the same period in 2021. Census records the high counts of each species observed during the day. The marine mammals, for instance are best counted at low tide when most are hauled out. The adult gulls are at their highest numbers first thing in the morning and shorebirds gather on the east beach in late afternoon. Gull chicks can be counted anytime, but are usually undercounted because of their great hiding skills. In between, the census person watches for any other birds and animals that might show themselves.

Gull chick hidden in the marigolds.

Today’s census had several surprises apart from the number of gulls. While on the jetty, I thought I caught the flash of a bird in the corner of my eye.  It was more than one. At least 3 swallows were feeding on insects in the small bay beside the jetty. I managed to get some bad photos, but good enough to identify two different Barn Swallows and one Violet-green Swallow. Later in the day, a Lesser Yellowlegs was resting with the other shorebirds, and a Parasitic Jaeger (also identified by bad photos) headed west not far off Great Race. An adult and juvenile Glaucous-winged Gull were out for a little swim.  It always amazes me to see these youngsters in the water!

Lesser Yellowlegs, possibly the first documented for Race Rocks.  First on eBird for the Race Rocks hotspot.

Out for a swim

Among the sea lions today, I found one entangled with a fishing lure. This poor animal has been her for several weeks. Another had been branded for a research study. I’ll report this number to get its history.

tagged 746R

Sea lion entangled with sports fishing tackle.

More photos below!

Census, 2 August 2023

Birds

  • Harlequin Duck                              1
  • Black Oystercatcher                       23
  • Ruddy Turnstone                            1
  • Black Turnstone                              93
  • Surfbird                                           24
  • Western Sandpiper                         2
  • Short-billed Dowitcher                     2
  • Lesser Yellowlegs                           1
  • Parasitic Jaeger                              1
  • Pigeon Guillemot                            83
  • Heermann’s Gull                             2
  • Western Gull                                   1
  • California Gull                                 120
  • Glaucous winged Gulls                 332 adults, 237 juvenile
  • “Olympic” Gull                                3 adults 3 juvenile
  • Brandt’s Cormorant                        7
  • Pelagic Cormorant                         2
  • Violet-green Swallow                     1
  • Barn Swallow                                 2
  • Brown-headed Cowbird                 2

Mammals

  • Harbour seal                                195
  • Northern (Steller’s) sea lion         79
  • California sea lion                        7
  • Sea otter                                      1

Visitors:

  • No visitors
  • Ecotourism traffic has been slow.  Several boats a day, but rarely more than one in the area at a time

Facility Work: 

  • Cleaned windows and solar panels
  • Replaced batteries in smoke, CO alarm in Student House

More photos:

** All wildlife photos taken at safe distances with high-powered zoom, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

July 17-21 and Weekly Census

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Weather for July 17:
Wind: W 14 to 34 knots
Visibility: <1-15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 3′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 13-17 C

Weather for July 18:
Wind: W 9 to 25 knots
Visibility: 15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 2′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 11-14 C

Weather for July 19:
Wind: W 6 to 27 knots
Visibility: 15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 1′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 12-17 C

Weather for July 20:
Wind: W 21 to 40 knots
Visibility: <1-15 NM
Sky: Foggy in early morning, Partly Cloudy after 10:00
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 4′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 12-20 C

Weather for July 21:
Wind: W 19 to 40 knots
Visibility: 5-15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 3′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 12-14 C

Maintenance:
I did the routine tasks of cleaning the solar panels and house windows, topping up the water in the 24 deep cycle batteries, fixing the electric fence, tidying, testing the salinity and temperature of the seawater, maintaining the freshwater system, and running the desalinator with solar power to produce fresh water.

Visitors:
I drove the Race Rocks station boat to pick up a friend, who came for the night of July 18. Brad had visited Race Rocks before when we both worked for many summers on campus as coordinators for PSYL (Pearson Seminar on Youth Leadership).

Weekly Census observed on July 20:
Steller sea lion: 14
California sea lion: 1
harbour seal: 124
cormorant: 5
black oystercatcher: 24 adults, 2 chicks
pigeon guillemot: 162
glaucous-winged gull: 396 adults, 147 chicks
surfbird: 30
black turnstones: 87
western sandpiper: 4

Photo highlights from the past five days:

 

July 11, 12, 13, and Weekly Census

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Weather for July 11:
Wind: W 11 to 27 knots
Visibility: 15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 2′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 12-14 C

Weather for July 12:
Wind: W 18 to 35 knots
Visibility: 10 to 15 NM
Sky: Cloudy in morning, partly cloudy in afternoon
Sea: 1’ chop in morning, up to 4′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 11-15 C

Weather for July 13:
Wind: W 16 to 33 knots
Visibility: 15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 2′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 11-15 C

DND Blasting:
There was one DND blast at 14:05 on July 12 at nearby Rocky Point.

Visitors:
Greg and Bruce visited this afternoon to deliver 1,400 L of freshwater and a new first aid kit.

Maintenance:
I did the routine tasks of cleaning the solar panels and house windows, topping up the water in the 24 deep cycle batteries, fixing the electric fence, tidying, and maintaining the freshwater system.

Ecological notes:
There have been a lot of humpback whale activity over the past few days to the west, south, and east of Race Rocks. The whale watching boats have been active in the area. From what I hear on the VHF radio, they have been very pleased with the humpback viewing. I have not seen any whales swim through the ecological reserve.

I heard back about the tagged elephant seal, from the researcher at Año Nuevo Natural Reserve, in California. The juvenile seal, tagged H999 and K646, is a male who was born in January 2022. He was previously observed here and reported to the researchers on April 1, 2023. He has been moulting here for at least the past several weeks. He appears to be almost complete the moulting process, so he might be moving on soon to feed in the deep waters.

Weekly Census observed on July 13:
elephant seal: 1 juvenile (tagged H999, K646)
Steller sea lion: 3
harbour seal: 79
bald eagle: 2 adults, 1 juvenile
raven: 1
cormorant: 7
black oystercatcher: 6 adults, 1 chick (that I could spot today)
pigeon guillemot: 148
glaucous-winged gull: 387 adults, 120 chicks
surfbird: 12
killdeer: 4
western sandpiper: 3
barn swallow: 3

Photo highlights from the past three days:

Ecoguardians Allen and Ilka Olsen experience ecoguardian stay at Race Rocks

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Monday June 19:  Arrived 3.30 pm
TUESDAY June 20  Orientation of animals, systems and tasks. Counted, cleaned, performed tasks.

Wednesday June 21 Animal Census See previous post.

Thursday to SATURDAY, Days running together.

Continue to do animal counts.
Gulls seem to be diminishing (368 Sat); no chicks, yet. Lots of nests with mostly 3 eggs. Oyster catcher (single chick last seen Thur).

Only one swallow; assume one is on nest.

Thrilling to see orca: four on Thurs; single male performing

 

Saturday June 24; brought out the ecotours.

Two huge flocks of guillemot totalling 70.

Brandts cormorants always in same spot (7).

Seals 138; hard to determine number of e-seals—4 + large
female in front yard named Blubber Maid. At low tide she goes down the boat ramp then returns to continue moult.

Much boat traffic (sun/calm): Ecotours avg 12; Tugs/barges; freighters avg 20; pleasure boats-fishing/power/sail; Cruise
ships avg 2; military; helicopters 4 during exercises; Clipper; Coho.
Fog Thursday and Friday: fog horn began 3.30 am ‘til 8.30. Friday midnight ‘til 2.15 pm. Saturday clear.

Allen cleaning solar panels daily. Checked water in batteries. Washed keeper house windows. Ilka cleaned indoors;
counting all day and from tower x 3.
Gale force winds to 60k came in Fri afternoon until late Sat morning. Greg managed to visit late afternoon.
SUNDAY June 25 Last full day; changeover scheduled for Mon. Again, woke to foghorn –4 am to 4pm c only an hour’s reprieve.
Poor visibility most of day but counted 111 guillemots. Saw three OCs with two rejecting the third. The couple seems to be nesting. Have not seen the chicks from earlier in the week. Gulls which seem fewer still performing cloacal kissing,, building nests—still no chicks. From tower looking into clear water watched mother seal with baby on back or alongside. Impressive swimmer and quite the frolicker.
High wind and waves all day; still 10 or so ecotour vessels came out. All attempting to see Blubber Maid, our e-seal; she continues her daily trek at low tide down the boat ramp from the front yard. Lies with snout in water for a while before returning to yard. Will probably be leaving soon as moult seems complete. Saw a sealion near the jetty and heard barking from 1-2 others.
MONDAY June 26  7.30 sunny c 50k wind after wild evening and night of 60+k. Did a final gull count from tower…559—seems all gulls and more have returned. 100+ more flew in as I was leaving. Blubber Maid in one of her favourite dayspots—cross roads of walkways. Expecting Greg with changeover guardian plus two visiting ecologists for a couple of
hours only.
Cleaned house. Loved our fascinating 8-day stint.

Animal Census

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The following was submitted  by ECO-GUARDIANS Allen & ilka Olsen

WEDNESDAY CENSUS DAY
MAMMALS—Seals 182 (including 1 mounting elephant at house; 4 others on south rock)
BIRDS—Guillemot, pigeon 70
Cormorant, Brandt 11
Oyster Catcher, black 7 (includes 3 chicks)
Eagle, bald 3 (1 immature)
Gull 421 (I dead/seems to have hit student house window)
Swallow, Barn 2
Harlequin 4
Turnstones 2
INSECTS—Flies (countless)

 

VISITORS–none
FACILITY WORK—Regular tasks including cleaning.
TRAFFIC—Coast Guard 1; Us Coast Guard 1; US Research; Cruise Ship 6; Mega Yacht 1; Fishing 1;
Freighter 19; Whale/Wildlife 20; Tug 3

NOTES: Busy day. Started counting from tower at 0630. One DND detonation. Second Nature (Cedric came with supplies).

 

Census, Rescue, New Chicks

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I am here for another brief stint, just 4 days. After arriving in relatively calm weather within an hour boat a gale started. For about 30 hours the wind didn’t let up. Which means the electric fences came down and anything not tied down went flying or crashing (like the doors to the water tank shed).And seagull poop travels horizontally in a gale. That meant the amazing calm weather today came with some tasks, which are welcome when it is so easy to be outside. The 2 barn swallows are the only ones flying with gusto. Those two are everywhere and the wind did not seem to deter them. The gulls are sticking close to their eggs and I have only seen one eagle pass overhead. The oyster catcher eggs have hatched and it is easy to witness the chicks being fed from the lighthouse or our back porch. I saw another chick above the heli pad from the light house as well. I don’t dare go in the intertidal and scare any parent away from the nest so I didn’t record any activity in other O.C. nests.

Greg and Second Nature did a rescue today. An aluminium craft called for help as their boat engines had quit right in Race Passage. They reported “imminent danger” and Greg came and towed them back to safety! There apparently was a “very pregnant” woman on board as well so she was probably happy to get back to dry land.

Visitors

No visitors on the island

Few ecotourism boats, during the gale there were 2 or 3 and although it is flat calm today there have only been 3

Work

vacuumed and mopped the basement floor using the water that is leaking from the pipes

cleaned the science house windows and (as high as I could reach) the light house windows

cleaned the solar panels

fences, moved a bit of wood, cleaning and preparing for new resident will be done tomorrow

 

Census

Mammals

California sea lions 5

Stellar sea lions 1

Elephant seals 1 female

Seals 94

Birds

Pigeon guillemots  56

Swifts 2

Canada geese 2

Gulls 460 (and many nests with eggs)

cormorants 7

barn swallows 2

Insects

thousands of flies!

 

 

Second Nature to the rescue

3 chicks

feeding

 

Ollie, the land otter!

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I’m back for a short stint on Race Rocks, and it feels strangely like home–with some improvements.  I much appreciate the upgrade to the composting toilet! Yesterday, I  conducted a simultaneous seawatch with Daniel Donnecke at Beechey Head.  He always seems to have higher numbers of most species and more diversity, but we definitely had some overlaps yesterday. If you would like to see our respective lists for the first two hours of decent light, here are the links:
Beechey Head hour 1
Race Rocks hour 1
Beechey Head hour 2
Race Rocks hour 2

Many of the birds that appeared on yesterday’s list weren’t on today’s, as seawatch counts extend well beyond the boundaries of the reserve.  On a seawatch, you can count a bird clear across the strait, if you can identify it!

The gulls and the guillemots have been very “busy” this week. There have been a lot of double-decker moments and cloacal kissing going on. There should be a bumper crop of chicks in the next few weeks!

One surprising sightings is an apparent Western Gull nesting on the east side of the island. Although they do breed as near as the Columbia River area, they are not usual breeders in the Puget Sound/Salish Sea area.  She may well have some Glaucous-winged Gull genes in her lineage, but nothing obvious from her appearance.

Western Gull

The two highlights for me this week have been the continuation of the Barn Swallow pair.  It seemed to me that suitable mud for their nest might have been a limiting factor, but they appear to have chosen a storage cupboard on the outside of the generator building as their potential location. This is very exciting!!

Barn Swallows

The second was a great encounter with Ollie, the sea otter. Today, during census, I found him out of the water on one of the exposed rocks on the west side of Great Race.  I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see a sea otter in Victoria waters, but that bucket list item was checked off when I met Ollie several years ago.  I never even dreamed I would see him on land!  He came out to roll around in some seaweed, straighten some fur, have a little scratch, and then returned to his normal environment.

Ollie the sea otter

Census, 7 June 2023Birds

  • Bald Eagle                                       2 adult   1 juvenile
  • Glaucous winged Gulls                  412 many with nests, most nests with 3                                                                        eggs
  • Western Gull                                    1 (uncommon-not usual nester in this                                                                     area)
  • Caspian Tern                                     2
  • Brandt’s Cormorant                         55
  • Pigeon Guillemots                           139
  • Black Oystercatcher                         7
  • Barn Swallow                                     2
  • Canada Goose                                   2
  • Purple Martin                                     1 (at top of lighthouse)
  • Hummingbird sp.                               1 (probably Anna’s)

Mammals

  • Harbour seal                                 61
  • California sea lion                        10
  • Elephant seal sub adult male      1
  • Elephant seal adult female          1
  • Elephant seal pups                      1
  • Sea Otter                                       1

Visitors:

  • No visitors so far this week
  • Ecotourism traffic is building.  Several wildlife watching boats a day coming through now, sometimes multiple in the passage at once.

Facility Work: 

  • Cleaned windows and solar panels
  • Fixed basement screen door piston
  • Monitored leaking pump situation.  Attempted remedies didn’t work.

More photos:

** All wildlife photos taken at safe distances with high-powered zoom, 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?