Category Archives: Bird Notes

Census and so many sea lions

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Guy, Greg and Travis came by to help finish putting up the fence and also fix a couple things in the house
  • Still a lot of ecotours cruising by each day

Maintenance

  • The fence is up and working better than the old fence for keeping the sea lions out of certain areas
  • the washer is now also working, which is great for me
  • had to run the generator quite a bit today, the batteries have been running low

Ecological

  • About a hundred more sea lions than there were last weak
  • also seems to be more gulls and harbour seals
  • havent see the geese around today
  • also a sea lion with garbage wrapped around its neck, will contact the right people and keep an eye on him

Census

  • California sea lion – 371
  • Stellar sea lion – 184
  • Harbour seal – 77
  • Elephant seal – 1 female , there was another female but she left a couple days ago
  • Cormorants – 30
  • Seagulls – 486
  • Black turnstones – 25
  • Fox sparrows – 12

Census, rain and whales

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-15 NW
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Flat calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Quite a bit of boat traffic, most of it being whale watching tours
  • Guy came by with a couple more boat loads of students to give them a tour around the island

Maintenance

  •  Didn’t have to do any pressure washing today thanks to the rain although I did have to run the generator a bit to make up for not getting any solar energy today

Ecological

  • An elephant seal showed up yesterday and she is still around today, so thats exciting
  • also there have been a few humpback whale sightings and Guy said he saw some killer whales on the way over here but I missed them unfortunately
  • plenty of sea lions, seems like there is more everyday
  • not as many gulls as last week and I haven’t seen any cormorants on the outer rocks today

Census

  • stellar sea lions – 132
  • california sea lions – 314
  • harbour seals – 94
  • gulls – 261
  • elephant seals – 1 female
  • black turnstones – 12
  • fox sparrows – 2

New Students

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Flat Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Quite a bit of boat traffic, many ecotours, fishing boats and sailboats
  • Guy brought by a couple boat loads of the new first year students, as he did yesterday so we could give them a little tour of Race Rocks, its great when the students get to come out here and see another aspect of Pearson College, they don’t come out here that often and you can’t see it from the college

Maintenance

  • having some camera issues lately, will need to order a new SD card for the Race Rocks camera and the one in personal camera is not cooperating either, but hopefully we will be able to get more photos up soon

Ecological

  • still around 300 sea lion, mostly californias around the island.
  • plenty of harbour seals on the outer rocks, a few on the main island
  • also a few whale sightings, I saw two humpbacks by north rock yesterday morning and Guy said he also saw killer whales near there when he came he around 9:30am yesterday.
  • Also one of the younger seagulls I posted a photo of last week is dead, not quite sure what happened, just its body by the pathway
  • there are still about 4 of the younger ones all together

Its been an eventful week and hopefully I can start taking pictures again soon :)

Census and Visitors

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 20-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Quite a bit of boat traffic, most of it being whale watching tours
  • Guy, Greg and Mike came by today to take the old washer and dryer in for repairs

Maintenance

  • did some pressure washing today, but will probably do more of the solar panels tomorrow, need to fuel up the pressure washer first

Ecological

  • Quite a few sea lions, and harbour seals around
  • Birds consist of seagulls and cormorants, haven’t seen any eagles or harlequinns around, there aren’t even any geese here today
  • it looks like one of the young seagulls, there are still about 7 maybe 9 around of the really young ones, but it looks like one of them was pecked at around its head

Census

  • stellar sea lions – 104
  • california sea lions – 198
  • harbour seals – 55
  • gulls – 289
  • cormorants – 26

I’m Back

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles
  • Wind: 15-25 kn SW
  • Sky: slightly hazy/partly cloudy
  • Water: a bit choppy, under a metre

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Plenty of ecotours, whalewatchers around today, by the way they were circling the kelp patch I assume the otter was there

Island maintenance

  • had to run the generator for a few hours today because there was not a lot of sunlight
  • also cleaned off the camera by the helicopter pad, received a message saying the cameras were getting difficult to see through

Bird notes

  • Nice to see a few younger seagulls around, they were already a decent size and lost their baby feathers by the time I got here last september

Marine mammals

  • Plenty of sea lions already on the main island, will need to put up a fence soon to keep them away from important areas, such as the generator room, don’t want to run into them if I need to get to the generator

Bye-bye Race Rocks

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This is my last post as Ecoguardian for summer 2018 – I’m headed back later this afternoon and Laas will be returning to take over.

Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles
  • Wind: 15-25 knts W
  • Sky: slightly hazy/partly cloudy
  • Water: Calm
  • Strong winds last night cleared part of the haze, and we have blue skies after a long period of grey.

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Guy arrived yesterday to take away all the garbage and recycling from the island, so there would be less to take back today.
  • The increasing number of sea lions on the jetty have caused more and more boats to approach close to the dock – just a reminder that DFO guidelines set a 100m minimum for observing distance!
  • On Tuesday, a group of Pearson students from the SPELL group came for a short tour on the island.

Island maintenance

  • I raised a new Canadian flag yesterday after the old one was beginning to wear out.
  • The Ecoguardian house has been completely cleaned for the next Ecoguardian
  • Guy and I washed some of the pathways outside the science shed

Bird notes

  • The first of the juvenile seagulls have now taken full flight – they soar as high as the adults now and even fly above the ocean.
  • Saw one adult seagull with an injured leg and a juvenile with an injured leg as well. Not sure if this is just a coincidence or an attack tactic by other adult seagulls, but it immobilizes the injured bird almost completely.

Marine mammals

  • A tagged female elephant seal has arrived at the island. The tag number is C887. Apart from a few scratches on the back, the seal is in very good health.
  • The harbour seal pups seem to have grown quite a bit, gaining some weight and coming close to adult size
  • The sea lions have started settling around the helipad and the back of the guest house (near the tidal radar) – an electric fence will be needed soon to allow for movement space.

J-pod Orcas and the return of the haze

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Weather

  • Visibility: 5-10 miles
  • Wind: 10-20 knts W
  • Sky: Hazy
  • Water: Calm
  • After the strong winds cleared the haze day-before yesterday, the smoke has set in again since the winds died down

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • An average number of whale watching boats in the area
  • Quite a few private boats over the last couple of days trying to get a glimpse of the hauled-out sea lions

Bird notes

  • Spotted a lone pigeon on the island
  • The flock of geese are back on the island in search of food – about 9 of them
  • The juvenile seagulls have started to take flight – the highest I’ve seen one go is about 12 feet in the air, hanging in there for about a minute.

Marine mammals

  • The J-pod of orcas swam past late in the afternoon, going through Race Passage and slowly making their way towards victoria. See here for more details on the j-pod: https://orcaspirit.com/2012/05/the-resident-orcas-of-j-pod/
  • Sea lion numbers have started to stabilize over the last few days, but still growing slowly. Will get an accurate count in tomorrow’s census.

Census and haze

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles
  • Wind: 0-5 knts W
  • Sky: Hazy
  • Water: Ripply

Mammal Notes

  • More sea lions continue to arrive on the island – spotted a few branded ones, but could only make out one number (steller with brand 348R).

Bird Notes

  • The first of the juvenile seagulls have started to fly short distances (5-6 feet at a time). Most are still grounded though.

Census

  • Elephant Seals
    • Male = 1
    • Female = 0
  • Sea Lions
    • California = 32
    • Steller = 38
  • Seagulls = 305 adults + 128 juvenile
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 67
  • Eagles = 0
  • Oystercatchers = 4 adults
  • Harbour Seals = 16 adults, 2 (maybe more) babies
  • Geese = 9
  • Black turnstone = 85

First rain in a while, sea lion population rapidly growing

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles
  • Wind: 25-35 knts W
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Ripply
  • Light showers this morning, continuing into early afternoon

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • There were quite a few Pearson alumni who visited the island on short 20 min tours this past week, as a part of their 10 year reunion. Photo attached!

Technical

  • The washing machine is now non-functional – it suddenly stopped working earlier this week while I was doing laundry. Guy helped me drain the detergent water from it. We suspect there’s something wrong with the controller – it’s expected of a machine that’s 10+ years old.

Bird Notes

  • No new seagulls chicks have been born in the last 2 weeks, so I’m guessing that is all for this season. There remain a few unhatched eggs and I don’t expect they will hatch.
  • The geese population remains steady at 6-7 birds. They seem to be roaming around the island.

Marine mammals

  • After not seeing that injured/malnourished california sea lion for a week now, I think it most definitely has passed away.
  • There are now 12 sea lions near the jetty area, and many more on the surrounding rocks!

More fog and reunion visitors

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I would usually be doing a census count today, but the heavy fog has made it impossible to get an accurate count of the species. I’ll try again tomorrow.

Weather

  • Visibility: <1 mile
  • Wind: 20-25 knts W
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Ripply
  • Heavy fog over the last few days

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Guy brought some of the alumni who are on campus for the reunion, to the island for a very quick look around. They had leave within 20 minutes as the fog crept back in.

Bird Notes

  • The seagulls seem to be attacking each others offspring regularly now. The last of the chicks were born more than a week ago now.

Marine mammals

  • The injured female elephant seal that has been on and off the island, returned today. It’s resting on the jetty
  • More california sea lions and one steller have been hanging out around the jetty. I think this marks the start of the sea lion season. Time to start putting up the fences soon!