Category Archives: Bird Notes

Light snow

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Tuesday, January 29, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 2.5C Min. 0.0C Reset 1.1C Rain 3.0 mm — Snow 2.0 cm Total Precipitation 5.0 mm
MARINE LIFE: 14 Bald Eagles -all mature- arrived as usual early a.m. but gradually left as the weather deteriorated in the late morning.The snow showers were heavy enough at times to activate the fog horn, however the ground was too warm for the snow to accumulate.5 mature eagles returned as the weather cleared and stayed for most of the afternoon.
HUMAN INTERACTION: at 1:25 pm 1 tour boat came through the reserve.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:06 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Overcast Vis. 1 1/2 Miles – Light Snow  Wind North East 5 Knots  Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:42 AM

Elephant seal (probably Slash) comes to Race Rocks

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Friday, January 25, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 6.9C Min. 1.9C  Reset 3.8C Rain 25.8 mm
MARINE LIFE: This morning we had a special visitor hauled out just below the boat house and although he did not stay long enough to get a video camera organized we hope the 35m photos turn out ok. The adult male Northern Elephant seals seen lately atop middle rock look quite big from a distance but up close it’s amazing! In the early morning before daylight we heard an elephant seal vocalizing and it sounded very close by,turns out he was very close! Over the 12 years we have been here quite a few juvenile elephant seals have hauled out along the boat ramp, some have even made their way half way across the island but never before has one this size come ashore. This fellow has a very dark brown coat and estimate his length 13-15 feet and weighing at least 3000lbs. Although he was not afraid of us he was very wary and gave us a few ‘bellows’ as we inched towards the tank room to get the video camera-unfortunately he decided to amble down the ramp and back out to sea, it was great to see him so close.There were 11 (8 mature) Bald Eagles today but they left the area when a weather system roared in from the west about 2:30. The horizontal hail only lasted 30 minutes and the wind let up in about an hour but the great birds did not return.There was no blasting as had been scheduled.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:05 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Cloudy  Vis.15 Miles  Wind West 30 G Knots Sea 5 Foot Moderate – Low South West Swell
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:28 AM

Sealions disturbed by DND blasting

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Thursday, January 24, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 8.9C Min. 5.9C  Reset 5.9C  Rain 8.2 mm
MARINE LIFE: Today we monitored the scheduled detonations at the D.N.D. site on Bentinck Island. There were three sets of blasts,each consisting of two detonations separated by about 2 minutes.The first blast at 10:54 sent the gulls,cormorants into the air and alerted the sealions hauled out on the middle rock.About 20 animals moved towards the water then the second blast went off and caused a stampede of all the hauled out sealions. The birds as usual settled back down in a minute or two. Very gradually a few at a time, 10-15 sealions returned to the haul out areas.The Elephant Seals raised their heads and looked around but did not move away.The Second set of blasts at 11:53 and 11:55 cleared Middle Rock of sealions and also sent 40-45 Harbour Seals hauled out on the western slopes of the Southeast Rocks scrambling into the water. The Last 2 blasts( 12:48 and 12:50 ) sent the 5 sealions that hauled out again about 20 minutes after the 11:55, back into the water. Do not know the size of the detonations but they shook the cameras and most of the pictures on the walls.There are more blasts scheduled for tomorrow.There were 7 Bald Eagles – 4 mature.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:21 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Overcast �� Vis. 15 Miles �� Wind South West 17 Knots �� Sea 2 Foot Chop – Low West Swell
posted by Carol or Mike S at 8:13 AM

Blasting continues

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Friday, January 18, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 5.7C  Min. 3.8C  Reset 4.7C  Rain 3.6 mm
MARINE LIFE: At 8:30 there were only 75-80 sealions hauled out on middle rock, not all the animals have returned since the blasting yesterday.The first blast at 9:58 alerted all the sealions and 20-25 went into the water,the second blast 2-3 minutes later sent all but 6 animals scrambling into the sea.The last blast at approx. 10:25 sent 12 of the 20 sealions that had hauled out after the 10:01 blast, back into the water.There will be blasting exercises again next week on the 24th and 25th.There were 11 (7 mature ) Bald Eagles today.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:03 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER : Sky Overcast Vis. 15 Miles Very Light Rain Wind North 8 Knots Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 8:07 AM

Blasting disturbs birds and sealions

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Thursday, January 17, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 6.1C  Min. 2.7C Reset 4.7C
MARINE LIFE:At 8:30 there were 150-170 Sealions, 2 large bull and 1 smaller Elephant Seals on Middle rock. With the first blast at 11:10 the gulls and cormorants took flight, most of the sealions were alerted and some went into the water. When the second blast went off 2 minutes after the first, the sealions scrambled over each other in a rush to get to the water.The elephant seals although alerted (raised their heads and looked around ) did not move off their spots. With each blast the eagles,gulls and cormorants all took flight but within 1 or 2 minutes settled back down. During the hour between blast series 10 to 15 sealions hauled out again but appeared to be somewhat ‘edgy’ and were much quicker to move into the water when the blasting occured again.There were 14-7 mature Bald Eagles in the M.P.A. today.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:11 PM
The smoke, some of it coloured that can be seen at times in camera one is coming from the D.N.D. property,there may at times be blasting sounds. These exercises will continue until friday afternoon.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 9:53 AM

Birds feeding in Strait

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Monday, January 14, 2002
 Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max 8.1C  Min 3.7C Reset 5.0C
MARINE LIFE: The calendar does say January but it was like spring on the ‘rock’ today with the very light winds and bright sunshine.Another good day for the birds,from 1/2 km off the island as far as we could see thousands of feeding sea birds.Only 9 ( 5 mature) Bald Eagles came into the reserve today,spent a little time eating, resting then back out to sea. Just after noon noticed a California Sea Lion haul out on North Rocks with a fresh wound on the top side of the left flipper.Looking with the telescope could see a bigger area of raw flesh under the flipper -like the armpit area – Orca nibble maybe??? About 15:30 a Heron landed on the railing of the boat dock,sat there almost half an hour then flew over the little bay on the east shore of Gr.Race, was still there as the sun was setting.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 1 pleasure craft through the M.P.A. today
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:09 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Cloudy  Vis. 15 Miles  Wind North East 4 Knots Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 8:21 AM

Eagles Fishing

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Sunday, January 13, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 7.7C  Min. 3.9C  Reset 5.7C Rain 0.6 mm
MARINE LIFE: With calm seas the tidelines were very active with feeding birds.We saw a lot of fish taken by the 11( 5 mature ) Bald Eagles.Most of them chose to eat their catch sitting on the ridge of the Southeast Rocks. There was one eagle -immature- with very pale, buff mottled colouring all over except for dark brown tail and head.This colouring is probably not that rare,we have just never seen it before and it stood out so much amongst the rest of the immatures.The Harbour seals seem to favour the southeast rocks for haul out the past few days, counted 167 just before dark.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 3 Pleasure craft through the M.P.A. today.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:16 PM

Good Morning

WEATHER: Sky Cloudy  Vis. 15 Miles  Wind North West 2 Knots  Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:01 AM
Saturday, January 12, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 9.1C  Min. 6.7C  Reset 7.0C  Rain 13.8 mm
WEATHER: Sky Cloudy  Vis 6 – 10 Miles in Rain Showers + Fog  Wind has been West 35 G 45 Knots all day Sea 7 Foot Rough with Moderate Swells
MARINE LIFE: 2 mature Bald Eagles today but they spent less than an hour in the area before flying over towards Bentinck Island.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:08 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Overcast  Vis. 6 Miles Fog + Rain Showers  Wind South West 35 Gust 47 Knots Sea 6 Foot Moderate With Low – Mod. West Swell
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:19 AM

Herring

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Friday, January 11, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 9.0C  Min. 6.9C  Reset 8.7C  Rain 0.8 mm
MARINE LIFE:13 Bald eagles (4 mature) visited today and even with a fairly choppy sea were quite successful getting a good feed of fish that looked like herring.The feeding area attracted a lot of birds but was a good distance from the M.P.A. south and east of the Rosedale buoy.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 2 Whale Watch boats through today.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:02 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Overcast  Vis 15 Miles Wind North East 17 Knots  Sea 2 Foot Chop – Low East Swell
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:21 AM

Feeding at Sea

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Tuesday, January 08, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 10.3C  Min. 8.1C Reset 8.8C  Rain 16.0 mm
MARINE LIFE:The Bald Eagles started to arrive early in groups of 2 and 3 and by 8:30 there were 8 ( 1 mature ) sitting shoulder to shoulder along the ridge by the chopper pad.They were holding their wings at about a 45 degree angle as if to dry off.By 9am there were 17 eagles -4 mature- mostly on the southeast Rks. At 11:30 I noticed quite a number of birds flying around the Rosedale buoy,with the telescope we could see thousands of birds feeding in the tide line.There must be a lot of fish as the birds were active all afternoon.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:08 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Overcast Vis. 8 Miles Rain Wind West 5 Knots  Sea Rippled Low South East Swell
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:51 AM

Eagle predation on gulls

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-2002-01-06′, ’16:06:28′, ‘ Another good day for watching eagles, 23 altogether – 5 mature ).They were spread out along the ridges of West Race, North Rks. and The Southeast Rks. At 9:15 one mature eagle caught a juvenile gull just over the northwest ridge above the boat house,unfortunately the gull which seemed lifeless dropped and landed in a pile of drift wood washing against the shore on the west side of the boat dock. A group of gulls hurried to the area but with the breaking waves and some fair sized logs crashing about, the gulls were unable to get at the dead bird.The weather started to worsen with winds picking up to 22-27knts. from the northeast, and by 12:50 in moderate rain showers all but 2 eagles left the area.The 2 remaining -immatures) left just before 13:30 ‘, ‘Mike or Carol’, ’16:07:22 ,