Category Archives: Bird Notes

Killdeer

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Ecological Notes first Killdear spotted today.
Animal Tracking and Injuries: California sea lion with fishing gear around neck
Elephant seal pups:moving around the island.
Vessel Traffic.Sooke SAR vessel speeding in the park
Weather Events:spring flowers on island.
Weather– Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather–Past:  http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?id=72

Peregrine Falcon returns

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Pam Birley from England took this image on the remote camera 5 today.  Almost yearly, she has spotted peregrines on Great Race Rocks using the remote control cameras . 

Falco peregrinus: Peregrine falcon –The Race Rocks Taxonomy

Pigeon Guillemots Return to Nesting Grounds.

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Pam Birley of England made the first observation today for this year using the remote control camera 5, of the return of the pigeon guillemots to their nesting  grounds here on Race Rocks . She commented: “I haven’t seen them mentioned by the guardian yet but I took this screenshot on 3rd Feb”.

Christmas Bird Count at Race Rocks 2020

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Today was the annual Christmas bird count. Martin Stewart provided the transportation on the boat Ecosphere for Matt and Courtney Cameron to go out to Race Rocks Ecological reserve from Pedder Bay with Garry Fletcher. 

Observations were done from the marine a out through Pedder bay and then we docked at Race Rocks to be met by Courtney the Ecoguardian.  We had only a brief window of time, probably an hour  there before the wind started to pick up from the North East, but that was adequate to get a good count of the birds on shore.

Pam Birley from England took these photos on camera 5 :

Striking in their abundance were the and Pelagic and Brandts Cormorants. On leaving we circled around the South side of the islands and out past West Rock where there were also large numbers of cormorants.  From West Race Rocks we went over to Emdyck Pass behind Bentinck Island and found another large gathering of Cormorants, and some alcids.  The other bird that seemed much more frequent than previous years were the Black Turnstones

On the island, after stepping carefully past a male elephant seal on the jetty, we were able to view the new pup and mother elephant seal with the large male up on the lawn by the house. 

The following three sets of data are from their e-bird posts,

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Clear Skies + Elephant Seals! (census)

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Weather:

  • Visibility 15+ NM
  • Sky mostly clear, overcast in late afternoon
  • Wind 0-10 knots N
  • Sea state: calm, glassy!

Visitors: A small number of pleasure crafts trickling through. Only a handful of tourism vessels over the weekend and a few through the late week.

Ecological Notes: 

  • This week has brought some of our favorite visitors to Race Rocks: elephant seals! We’ve been joined by two huge male elephants seals as well as two younger pups that look to be only a year or so old. Unfortunately we haven’t seen any tagged elephant seals yet so that’s all we know for now.
  • We’ve still been spotted seagulls displaying odd behavior. We’ve noticed a total of 7 over the past month.
  • Whale sightings have slowed down now, seemingly as the weather gets colder and salmon runs slow. We have still been seeing around one per day but the sightings are less consistent.
  • Today we noticed a tiny sea lion pup nursing! We mostly only see male sea lions on race rocks, but recently we’ve been noticing very small sea lions arriving. It’s hard to tell the sex of sea lions from a distance so this was the first female we’ve identified in the crowd.
  • The bald eagles have continued to visit to fish and hunt gulls in the early to late morning. They particularly like to sit under the tower containing camera 5, sometimes up to 10 at once! The color variation throughout their different life stages is particularly striking.

Census:

  • 54 Harbour seals
  • 177 Stellar sea lions
  • 233 California sea lions
  • 4 Elephant seals
  • 275 Brandt’s + pelagic cormorants (too far away to distinguish)
  • 6 Double-crested cormorants
  • 5 Surfbirds
  • 3 Dunlins
  • 25 Black turnstones
  • 12 Harlequin ducks
  • 7 Bald eagles
  • 290 Thayer’s gulls

Busy Shorebirds, Sea Lion Shot?

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Weather:

  • Visibility 15+ NM
  • Sky partly cloudy, blue sky and sun!
  • Wind 0-15 Knots NW
  • Water calm

Visitors:

  • A few supply drops to the island otherwise quiet, not much traffic
  • Some navy vessels on the water today as some blasting was taking place on the DND land.

Ecological Notes:

  • Today we spotted a young seagull displaying the same symptoms as the one we found a few weeks ago: extending its neck as if to catch its breath or perhaps dislodge something stuck inside its throat. We noticed it initially because it had separated from the group and had tucked under some foliage. Within 15-20 minutes it appeared to be unable to move aside from lifting its head, and with wings splayed it died. We did inspect inside the mouth and throat that we could see and nothing appeared to be lodged inside. We are not sure what caused these deaths (or if it was the same cause), but we are interested to learn more. We are hoping that we will be able to send it for a necropsy.
  • On Saturday we were surprised by a large male elephant seal! He was so huge that he dwarfed even the largest sea lions here in the reserve. Wow! He must have had places to be and moved along the next day.
  • Our whale sightings have slowed down now, although we have been still spotting at least 1 humpback whale every day. They seem to appear around peak ebb current to feed around the reserve.
  • We have been periodically checking on our dead sea lion that appeared last week. Although not officially determined, after some input we strongly believe that the animal was shot. It appears as if it was shot and then made it onto land here before passing. While it is a heartbreaking find, we are excited to observe the decomposition process.
  • We have been observing gulls pecking at the remains of gulls killed by eagles. The cannibalism is not necessarily a surprise to us, having also observed adult gulls eating the chicks of other gulls over the nesting seasons. However, it is interesting, given how much food is readily available.

 

A Canada Goose Curiosity

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Weather Today: 

  • Visibility 10-15 NM
  • Sky overcast
  • Wind 20-30 knots NE
  • Large swells and some whitecaps

Visitors and traffic: 

  •  There has not been many boats coming through, probably due to the poor conditions.

Notes: 

  • The weather since our last post was very rough, we had winds of over 50 knots (about 100km/h) and some very rough surface conditions.
  • We have been having some equipment issues but we are back and have some great photos to share!
  • On Saturday we spotted an oddity – a Canada Goose with a mostly white neck. It really stood out from the rest of its feathered friends and it was a rush to the camera for us. We think it may be leucistic. Leucism is not one specific condition, and this ‘depigmentation’ probably has an underlying genetic cause.
  • We have seen a variety of eagle but most exciting was the bird about 20 feet in front of the house, perched on top of a freshly caught seagull!
  • On Sunday a seagull with a badly injured and nearly missing wing was around, perhaps the result of a predator attack gone badly for both parties. It was completely alert and walking around with the other seagulls but we haven’t seen it since and presumably it succumbed to its injuries or predation.
  • Canadian Coast Guard Ship John Cabot, an offshore fisheries science vessel, paid the area a visit. The vessel hung around for about an hour and looked to be doing something with a lifeboat, maybe training? CCGS John Cabot was just recently constructed at Seaspan Shipyards and was launched in July, champagne bottle and all, by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
  • Visibility has been erratic – we will have a census posted when first possible.

Stormy Seas

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Weather:

  • Sky partly cloudy, sun/blue sky
  • Visibility 15 NM
  • Wind 26-30 knots W
  • Sea state: swells up to 5 m (high enough to cover the south islands!)

Visitors: 

  • Greg visited briefly yesterday to top up supplies before the stormy weather
  • Yesterday morning a coastguard team arrived by helicopter to do some work on the lighthouse

Ecological Observations: 

  • The sea lions and other animals have come further onto land than usual, presumably because of the stormy seas. Interestingly, the seagulls species have been mixing and not fighting at all as they need to remain closer together in the tough weather.
  • There have been quite a few more geese over the past few days. They have been enjoying the puddles created by the rain and grazing the greener areas now that the gull nesting season is over.

Sun Before the Storm

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Weather: 

  • Sky clear, blue
  • Visibility 15+ miles
  • Wind 0-15 knots W, NW
  • Sea state: calm
  • We are preparing for a large amount of rain over the next few days. Every year the “first big rain” on the west coast is quite an event!

Visitors: 

  • Today Greg visited with supplies for the island and contractors
  • Few whale watching boats now that school in Canada is back in session.

Ecological Observations: 

  • There have been quite a few more stellar sea lions this week. We will be completing our census tomorrow, weather permitting- we’ll see what the numbers show! (last week the fog delayed our census significantly)
  • The bird life has continued to change daily, with many sparrows and gulls migrating with the seasons. The pelican spotted previously stayed in the reserve for a couple of days but we did not see it today.
  • We observed a small pod of orcas passing outside of reserve yesterday evening. We have been seeing fewer humpback whales in the strait this week.
  • Elephant seal E103, or “Erica” has been enjoying the jetty with the sea lions. When we fence the island to prevent damage due to the sealions arriving we are mindful to leave space for the elephant seals to move through the island freely (the fence is high enough for them to pass underneath). Notably, Erica has chosen to remain with the sea lions nearer the jetty, as opposed to her preferred grassy areas at other times of the year. We wonder if she like the company, or if there may be a more survival based explanation for this behavior.

Other notes: 

  • As wet winter weather approaches we have been mindful to collect firewood and store it in the dry areas available to ensure dry heat throughout the winter. It is still necessary to use the diesel furnace as it distributes heat to all areas of the residence but the dry heat from the woodstove just can’t be beat! This wood is collected from the ocean as winds in the winter season push logs fallen from barges into the jetty waters.

 

Break in Foggy Weather: Census + Pelican!

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Weather: 

  • Sky partly cloudy, some sun and blue sky
  • Visibility 10-12 NM
  • Wind 20-15 knots W
  • Sea state: fast moving currents, still fairly flat despite wind

The fog horn continued for 20+ hrs each day until today. For most of this week we have had less than 100m visibility, making it impossible to see even a boat passing through race passage or the end of the jetty. At some points, we could barely see the guest house from the main residence! It can be difficult to focus and/or work productively during these long periods of fog, as the fog horn sounds three long high-pitched “beeps” every 45 seconds. More info on the history of Race Rocks foghorns Here!

Visitors: 

  • There have not been any visitors to race rocks since Monday when Greg and a contractor stopped in briefly.
  • There have been 1-2 tour boats in the reserve daily, but we can often hear them before we see them in the fog. The sea lions are easily startled by them because of the limited visibility, and sometimes when the boats emerge from the fog the sea lions run into the water.

Ecological Observations: 

  • The sea lions have officially taken over the island! We have been dutifully repairing the electric fences daily to keep them from damaging the buildings and especially from disrupting the burial cairns.
  • There have been an incredible amount of interesting birds to observe this week, despite the weather. Today we saw a pelican while enjoying the sunshine right from our back porch! This is a new sighting for us at Race Rocks and we were quite ecstatic.
  • On the note of bird sightings, we are hopeful for the installation of a new bird tracking device on Race Rocks sometime soon which will allow us to view migratory birds passing through the reserve as it detects their tracking bands.
  • One of our favorite elephant seals, E103 or “Erica” has returned again. We were happy to see her looking healthy yesterday- she had been hiding behind the piles of sea lions, and we only saw her once we had shooed them to install more electric fencing.
  • Identifying gulls is incredibly difficult. Some of them look the same aside from a slight wing color difference or color of feet determining them as a separate species! We are wondering if the gulls we have been assuming to be non-breeding california gulls are actually thayer’s gulls. Back to the id books!

Census:

  • 96 Stellar sea lions
  • 383 California sea lions
  • 88 Harbour seals
  • 1 Elephant seal
  • 1 Sea otter
  • 52 Brandt’s cormorants
  • 1 Brown Pelican
  • 1 Oregon junco
  • 2 Fox sparrows
  • 15 Savannah sparrows
  • 1 Yellow-rumped warbler
  • 1 Short billed dowitcher
  • 14 Black turnstones
  • 8 Canada geese
  • 320 Glaucous winged gulls
  • 113 California gulls
  • 20 Heerman’s gulls