Category Archives: Bird Notes

Snow in the Distance

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Weather

  • Visibility: 5 miles in the morning but cleared up throughout the day
  • Wind: Quite windy throughout the day with gusts reaching upwards of 32 knots, calmed down by evening.
  • Sky: Mostly cloudy with some sun
  • Water: rough throughout the day, large swells

Boats/Visitors

  • Boat traffic was pretty minimum today with the rough waters
  • No visitors today

Ecological

  • Saw a group of about 16 Cormorants and 8 Oyster Catchers amongst around 100 seagulls on the SW corner of the island
  • Canada geese are still around in small groups
  • Lots of Black Turnstones out on the grass the past few days

Other

  • Didn’t get any snow on the island but could see lots of it on shore. Also had power and internet all day without interruptions.

Census, birds and mammals

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 6-10 NE throughout day
  • Sky: cloudy with some sun
  • Water: mostly calm, a bit choppy

Boats/Visitors

  • had a few eco tour boats cruise by
  • no visitors today

Ecological

Census:

  • California Sea Lions – 120
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 102
  • Harbour Seals – 4
  • Seagulls – 252
  • Eagles – 5
  • Cormorant – 22
  • Canadian Geese – 12
  • Black Turnstone – 3

Hungry Gulls & Solo Elephant Seal

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles, clear day
  • Wind: 2-9 knots NE
  • Sky: sunny with cloudy periods
  • Water: mostly calm

Boats/Visitors

  • had the same whale watching boat cruise by again
  • no visitors today

Ecological

  • small group of canada geese stopped by today
  • saw two seagulls fight over a fish
  • large elephant seal was on west rocks by himself today

Mystery Raptor

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 6-10 NE throughout day
  • Sky: sunny with cloudy periods
  • Water: mostly calm

Boats/Visitors

  • had one whale watching boat cruise by
  • no visitors today

Ecological

  • saw a large brown raptor of some kind. I think it was a Red-tailed Hawk
  • lots of killdeer around
  • large elephant seal male is still on the island

Other

  • a lot of DND blasts today, very startling for the sea lions.

DND Blast and a Surprise Audience

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 12-16 NE throughout the day
  • Sky: sunny, very few clouds
  • Water: mostly calm, a bit choppy

Boats/Visitors

  • Had one large eco tour boat full of passengers sneak up on me and yell “Hello” as a group. That was fun (:
  • lots of large shipping vessels passing by including two huge logging barges

Ecological

  • still a decent amount of sea lions around
  • there is another, smaller harbour seal pup hanging out now too
  • Bernard (the elephant seal) is back!
  • haven’t seen any canadian geese in a few days

Other

  • had more large DND blasts go off from Rocky Point that shook the house and startled birds today.

Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-10 NE
  • Sky: cloudy and rainy
  • Water: a bit choppy this morning, calm now

    • Boats/Visitors

    • Had a couple boats cruise by and a helicopter flew by a couple times

    Census

    • California sea lions – 215
    • Stellar sea lions – 159
    • Harbour seals – 22
    • Elephant seals – 1 large male
    • Gulls – 307
    • Cormorants – 68
    • Geese – 14
    • Eagles – 4

    Notes

    • well I am off tomorrow and Mikey will be the new ecoguardian until my return in 5 weeks