Category Archives: Bird Notes

Progne subus: Purple martin – The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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On June 20, 2045 , Race Rocks Ecoguardian Christine Chourmouzis found a purple martin in her house

she writes in her log: Two purple martins were spotted on top of the tower and on roof of the Keepers’s house around noon.  At 3 pm I discovered a purple martin had made its way down the chimney pipe into the wood stove. I am so glad the ashes were cold and I was able to get it back outside! 

 

  • Purple martins suffered a severe population crash in the 20th century widely linked to the release and spread of European starlings in North America. European starlings and house sparrows compete with martins for nest cavities. Where purple martins once gathered in the thousands, by the 1980s they had all but disappeared. (Wikipedia)

They have excellent aerodynamic  maneuvering control as they fly quickly over open areas catching insects with a wide opening mouth. They are valued for their voracious appetite for mosquitoes and flies. With their food being flying insects, the island certainly provides an abundant supply of the kelp fly Coelopa vanduzeei

Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Sub-phylum: Vertebrata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Hirundinidae
Genus:Progne 
Species: subis. (Linnaeus, 1758)
Common Name: Purple martin

Physical Description:

 It is the largest swallow in North America. 
With an average length of 20 cm (7.9 in) and a wingspan of up to 38 cm (15 in), the purple martin is the largest amongst the 90 odd species in the family Hirundinidae.[9]
Purple martins are sexually dimorphic. Adult males are entirely black with a glossy steel blue sheen, the only swallow in North America with such coloration. Adult females are dark on top with some steel blue sheen, and lighter underparts. Adults have a slightly forked tail.

Relationship with humans:

Continual maintenance and protection is required, as European starlings and house sparrows compete with martins as cavity-nesters, and will fight with martins over nest sites. Thus, unmonitored purple martin houses are often overtaken by more aggressive, non-native species.[3] Purple martin proponents are motivated by the concern that the purple martin would likely vanish from eastern North America were it not for this assistance.[24]( Wikipedia)

Other Members of the Class Aves at Race Rocks 
taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.

June 20 2024 Christine Chourmouzis – Ecoguardian

Race Rocks Ecological Reserve Warden’s Report June 14 2024

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Garry Fletcher, ER Warden for Race Rocks visited the reserve on June 14, 2024

Greg Dickinson from Pearson College provided transport in Second Nature for the following group: 

  • Lisette and Mads – Mads is a  former student and both are volunteering at Pearson College
  • Garry Fletcher – Park Warden
  • James Tuohy – future Ecoguardian
  • Ann Nightingale and Andrew Jacobs – Rocky Point Bird Observatory

Upon docking I was struck by the number of Pigeon Guillemots on the rocks . Although I haven’t checked back in our records, there certainly seems to have been an increase in numbers 

We were greeted by the new ecoguardian  Christine  Chourmouzis .  In addition to having a general survey of the reserve, I was able to direct Christine and James through the process of entering them as editors on racerocks.ca and creating a log and posting it on the Race Rocks website. 

Supplies for the Ecoguardian are off-loaded

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pigeon Guillemots also nest on the island

 

When I was teaching at Pearson College, we often monitored a set of tidepools out on the island’s West side. I checked out those pools again and took photos which show the state of algae growth. Some observations in the tidepool files provide a baseline for comparative studies in the future.  These files are on the tidepools

Today’s observations are in the set of photos below

I checked pool #4 which has a white quartz intrusion through it to see if the white periwinkle snails were still there. 

 

A review of some of the installations on the Island

 

Due to recent notices on social media about the problems that pet owners are having when their dogs get exposed to foxtail , I was concerned about whether there was a similar problem with marine mammals. This guy certainly seems to be enjoying the location however. 

I tried to find the small patch of the rare plant  seaside  plant Romanzoffia on the rocks on the East side of the house.  Unfortunately the area was covered with knotweed now. We will have to check again in the winter. 

The Turkish marsh gladiolus is now in bloom. This is a good example of a garden escape, planted by lighthouse keepers probably as much as 80 years ago, they still come up every summer .

 

 

Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink

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Water delivery:

A desalinator is used to produce fresh water at the Rocks. It hasn’t been working for several weeks, and while waiting for parts, we needed to boat in fresh water. Today Greg and Cedrick ran two fresh water delivery trips to the island. The water is pumped from a tank on the boat to the fresh water tank near the house using fire hoses.  Over the past week since I arrived, the water reservoir went from 1600 L to 1500 L. This an average use of 15L a day for the mandatory solar panel and window cleaning and for house use but with careful conservation (e.g. no daily dish washing, few and quick showers). An interesting water note: with the 10m run from the hot water on demand system to the shower, about 8 L of water will run from the faucet before hot water reaches the shower. In our city homes we let this amount of water run down the drain all the time – here I catch it in a bucket.  With today’s delivery of 1400L water today, our supply is up to 2900 L.  After tomorrows delivery, the tank should be full and I can consider doing a load of laundry at a cost of 150L of water!

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • water delivery
  • thistles
  • “weed whacking” – cutting grass from the walkway

Wildlife notes:

Eagles visiting again, the four Canada geese remain, and the elephant seal flattened at least one more nest. The gulls who had the interaction with the seal in yesterdays post, lost their last egg today – cause unknown.

Last to leave South Seal Rocks on the flooding tide

Eagle leaving the SW shore with what appears to be a sea creature not a gull.

Vessels:

> 5 Ecotourism boats

Weather:

Sunny day winds westerlies 10 – 20 knots

All in the day of a gull

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The elephant seal typically spends his mornings sleeping the grass near the east-west walkway leading from the Jetty to the Energy house. In the afternoon he moves to the east side of the house perhaps seeking the shade. He often moves in quick short bursts and with no regard to the gull nests in his path.  Today I watched him place himself on top of a nest near the house.

The gulls go to have a look for their nest which is mostly beneath him.

His first warning

The gulls try to persuade him to move

and try

and try

 

 

The seal reaches but can’t manage to grab the gull out of the air.

 

Eventually the seal moves a bit and the gull can take a look

One broken egg, one undamaged

They remove the shell pieces…..

and they eat the rest!  A few minutes later, she back on the nest as though nothing happened.

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels: from 12-1 pm generated 7.1kW !
  • thistles
  • chopped kindling

Wildlife notes:

Several eagles visited throughout the day causing great commotion. The oyster catchers seem to be the first to raise the alarm.  The California sea lions were notable absent from their regular spot near the Jetty. The four Canada geese are still here.

Vessels:

7 Ecotourism boats

Weather:

Another sunny day, winds WNW 10 in the morning building to W 30 midday.

Thistles

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Thistles:

During yesterdays visit, Garry Fletcher remarked on the expanding thistle population around the tower base and suggested they be pulled. Today I started to tackle this job.  The thistles have a tap root that connects to a horizontal root which can spread many feet.  The thistles are growing in patches where many of the plants could be connected to the same horizontal root.  When a larger plant is pulled, the tap root breaks at this junction and reveals the depth of the horizontal root.  The longest root so far is almost 10″ long suggesting there is in places 10″ of soil on Great Race Rock! Only the smallest of plants, which may have germinated from seed, can pulled with the entire root intact. Today I cleared 2 square meters – a bucket of small ones and bundle of larger plants.  I plan to do this amount each day (more would be too hard on the back). I may not finish before I leave but with the horizontal roots still in the soil, this may be a yearly task.

Developing thistle flowers and the longest root of the day.

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • thistles
  • split rounds of firewood

Wildlife notes:

No new wildlife sightings to report. The gulls continue the mate and fight, and the Elephant seal spent his day sleeping in the grass.

Battle wounds

Vessels:

7 Ecotourism boats and 1 private boat

Weather:

Steady westerlies all day 18 – 23 knots

E-Bird June Race Rocks gull survey and Census

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E-Bird Gull Survey https://ebird.org/checklist/S184107190

Subject: June Racerocks Gull Survey

Rocky Point Bird Observatory & Pearson College Race rocks Gull Survey June 2024
Survey conducted by Andrew Jacobs and Ann Nightingale
Thank you to Greg for getting us out there again on the boat and Christine with the assistance during the survey.
This survey was conducted to investigate the phenotypes of the glaucescens-occidentalis hybrid complex using the Great Race Rock as a nesting area. We looked for pairing preference of phenotypes, nest habitat preference and mapped the nests that had parents on them. We looked at the breakdown of the colony diversity into five phenotypic groups – pure type Glaucous-winged Gulls, Glaucous-winged trending hybrids or light morph Olympic Gulls, intermediate trending hybrids or intermediate morph Olympic Gulls, Western trending hybrids or dark morph Olympic Gulls, and pure type Western Gulls. The nesting of Western Gull on the island is of specific interest as there are adult Western Gulls near the island year round and we would like to see if Western Gull pairs are starting to breed in Canada or if they are forming mixed pairs.
The survey also counted other species of gull and age classes as well as other species using the rocks this time of year. The general nesting grounds on the main rock were used by the hybrid complex, Pigeon Guillemot, and Black Oystercatcher although no nests of the latter two were seen they were displaying as if nests were nearby.
Ebird link with photos and sound recordings.
The numbers of pure type Glaucous-winged Gull were up for the breeding season over our previous survey by about 6-7 times at 69 individuals with 64 adults and 5 immatures. The number of hybrid and intergrade type Olympic Gulls was 321 with 314 adults and 7 immatures. The breakdown of colour morphotypes in the Olympic Gulls was light morph (Glaucous-winged trending hybrids) 138 individuals with 133 adults and 5 immatures, intermediate morph (Intermediate trending hybrids) 166 individuals with 164 adults and 2 immatures, dark morph (Western trending hybrids) 17 individuals with 17 adults.
The island at this time contained 4 adult Western Gulls, two of which were on nests, one was in the grassy area on a rocky outcropping and one was on the outer rocky part of the island along the cliff. The two nesting Western Gulls did not have a partner present while we were on the island. Surprisingly one of the Western Gull nests appeared to have a rock placed in with its three eggs in the nest of roughly egg size.
Total glaucescens-occidentalis hybrid complex birds 394
Glaucous-winged Gull 69 (17.51%)
Olympic Gull 321 (81.47%)
-Light morph 138 (35.02%)
-Intermediate morph 166 (42.13%)
-Dark morph 17 (4.13%)
Western Gull 4 (1.01%)
Visible pairings 44
Glaucous-winged + Glaucous-winged 2 (4.54%)
Glaucous-winged + Light Olympic 6 (13.63%)
Glaucous-winged + Intermediate Olympic 3 (6.81%)
Light Olympic + Light Olympic 14 (31.81%)
Light Olympic + Intermediate Olympic 5 (11.36%)
Light Olympic + Dark Olympic 1 (2.27%)
Intermediate Olympic + Intermediate Olympic 11 (25.00%)
Intermediate Olympic + Dark Olympic 2 (4.54%)
Banded individuals included three Olympic Gulls one colour banded adult (cobalt blue over metal right leg and red over cobalt blue left leg), and one adult and one immature with metal bands.
Other Gull species in the survey area included California Gull with 3 immature individuals and Heermann’s Gull with 4 adults.
The other non larid species present
1 Canada Goose
3 Harlequin Duck
11 Black Oystercatcher
2 Killdeer
8 Rhinoceros Auklet
254 Pigeon Guillemot
3 Brandt’s Cormorant
23 Pelagic Cormorant
1 Bald Eagle
2 Barn Swallow
Pinniped abundance and usage of the area
2 Northern Elephant Seal – two immatures one small and one medium sized.
59 Harbour Seals
2 California Sealions
Map of nest locations.
Next time we will also log unidentified nests.
Any other questions or feedback is welcome.
Thank you,
Andrew Jacobs

New to the Rock

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Today is my first day as the Ecoguardian at the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve. I was dropped off at 8:30 am with my personal gear, bags of groceries and a reminder to monitor the solar panels, batteries and the electric fence – there are more duties and responsibilities but a source of power is one of the essentials.

Power

I unpacked, put groceries away and set off to tackle the my first chore – clean the panels. The solar panels are mounted on the roof and on the side of the Energy Building which houses the diesel generator.  At this time of year, with the long sunny days and daily cleaning, it is possible to power the house systems just on solar power.  Why the daily cleaning? There are hundreds of gulls nesting here and what do we will do at least once a day? Poop!

Panels on the Energy Building roof

After hauling the cleaning supplies up to the roof and turning on the water, I thought a methodical approach would serve me best. I climbed back down and noted my “starting point” of 3.1 kW of energy being produced by the panels.  After cleaning four panels, I climbed down to check the display.  It was up to 3.4 kW.  Cleaning is one of those tasks that provide instant gratification and now, doubly so.  With all the roof panels cleaned they were producing 4.2 kW and with lower side panels it was up to 4.8 kW!  I tell myself “what a worthwhile task and job well done Christine”

Well, later in the day I have some time to sit down and familiarize myself with OPTICSRE, the software package that lets you visualize your energy system production (solar or generator), storage (battery bank) and consumption levels. It turns out that in the long time it took me to figure out the best way to clean the panels and finally get the job done (between 10 am and noon), the sun was moving, as it does everyday, and with the clear skies, was naturally approaching its peak midday production levels (see graph below). Silly me, it wasn’t all my doing!  Shame there is no easy way to determine the added benefits of cleaning the panels.

OPTICSRE graph of energy levels produced by the solar panels (green bar), stored in the batteries (dark blue bar), taken from the battery by the house systems (light blue bar) for each hour on June 11.

The software also displays live time power use. I consult this throughout the day and find it memorizing.  The image below shows the current situation at night as I write this. Very little energy is going from the panels to battery, the batteries are at near full capacity and we are operating in the red, drawing power from the battery bank.  The house (appliances, computer, lights etc) generally draw 1.3 kW of power. If I turn on all the lights in the house and the bathroom fan, it jumps to 1.5 kW. I think if we had such a monitor in our homes, we would be more aware of our consumption and our footprint.

OPTICSRE live display of the energy system

 

Heads to the wind

The another thing I discovered today was all the gulls were facing the same way because of the wind!  We went from light winds at 8:00 am to 41 knots with gust of 46 by early afternoon. Like me, if standing, they took a wider stance, arching and bracing for the gusts. I watched one trying to move travelling side-to-the-wind and being blown off a rock; most scuttle side-ways like crabs.

Bracing and ruffled in a gust of wind

A very interesting first day.

It is a privilege to be here.

 

 

Gulls, Gulls, and More Gulls

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If you told me 6 months ago that I would one day be interested birds I would have called you crazy. Yet here I am, going cross eyed as I flip through every bird book on the shelf trying to decipher which gull is which and how to identify their various life stages. 

It started this morning when I saw a brownish/grey bird I’d never seen before fly by. It had a stumpy looking neck/head and its wings seemed almost stiff as it flew (if that makes sense). I only managed to get one terrible photo of it through the window and I have spent the majority of the day consulting colleagues and books trying to figure out what it was. I’ve got it narrowed down to a few options and will post a photo of it once I am confident in its ID.

From there I sat on the rocks with my camera hoping it would show up again and in the meantime snapping photos of the gulls – who by the way are still not acting aggressive in any way when I pass their nests. I took a photo which I’ll post a below in which there seems to be multiple different gulls but I really started going down the rabbit hole when I was trying to determine if they were different species or just the same species at different ages. Thankfully one of my relatives is a bird expert and photographer and was able to help me with a few!

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

Sunday Update

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There were about 50 sea lions on the rocks out front when I went to sleep last night, and I think all 50 of them decided to be particularly chatty from 4am onward. Needless to say, today ended up being an early morning start for me be but I’m glad it was! I opened my bedroom curtains to find about 15 brown pelicans resting on the rocks outside my window. I crept outside with my camera being careful not to disturb them and then sat on the back porch in the mist and watched them preen and dry their wings. I think I could stare at pelicans forever, they’re such funny looking creatures.

 

The Swiftsure International Yacht Race continued throughout the day with all boats on their way back to Victoria. Unfortunately the wind was at 0 knots and the ebb was strong so some of them appeared to be going backwards. Slowly I watched boat by boat as they admitted defeat, bringing their sails down and starting their engines. A few persevered but the same boat I saw at 7am was still bobbing outside the reserve at 1pm, trying its best to get past the currents.

Back to the animals —we are down to two elephant seals now, just one big and one small female. The gulls have officially started laying eggs which I know because one was dropped outside my front door this morning. They haven’t shown any aggressive behaviour towards me yet but I imagine I’ll be ducking for cover any day now. Ollie is still doing his best to blend in with the harbour seals, his bed of kelp and seaweed looking especially cozy today.

The weather today stayed windless with dark clouds and on/off rain. Quite a few ecotourism vessels passed by today, this time they did not bring the whales with them. Also noted a couple private vessels and one kayaker, all respecting the rules.

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

Happy Friday!

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We have been down to just 3 elephant seals the last few days! The two small females and one larger one are still enjoying the grass, however the largest female has not been around in a few days. The last I saw of her was 2 days ago when she was bobbing around in the water behind the student house, so I wonder if she’s just chosen to haul out on one of the surrounding rocks.

Ollie spent his day in the water near Middle Rocks, just floating and looking extra fluffy.

The Stellers were no where to be found today but the California sea lions have spent the week tucked in to the left of the jetty. They must be smarter than they let on because that area is definitely the most protected from the wind. They still require the occasional reminder to stay off the jetty throughout the day but otherwise behave themselves.

California sea lion proudly displaying his snaggle tooth

Lastly on the mammal side of things, the harbour seal numbers seem to have grown since I was here in March and with pupping season just a few weeks away I hope to see that number grow before I leave in June!

There are tons of pigeon guillemots around lately, I love to watch them on the rocks and I think my favourite thing about them is that their feet perfectly match the inside of their mouth. 

Hopefully this wind dies down in the next few days and I can get back to taking more photos!

Facility work:

  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Topped up battery electrolytes

Weather:

  • Sky: Cloudy, sun and clouds in afternoon
  • Wind: Low of 14 knots, High of 19 knots, gusts up to 30 knots
  • Sea: Small whitecaps
  • Temperature: Low 7•C, High  15•C

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