Category Archives: Bird Notes

Census Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  10-20 NE
  • Sky: clear all day
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Had some visitors come by from Eagle Wing Tours

Ecological

  • The 3 female elephant seals are still here
  • Spotted some California Gulls today too

Notes

  • There was another sea lion with a band stuck around his neck, will alert DFO so they can come out here and help out the sea lion, the last pictures are of this sea lion
  • It was pointed out to me that I have not been including the sea otter in my census, I admit I have a hard time spotting him from here so I often forget about him

Census

  • stellar sea lions – 42
  • california sea lions – 286
  • gulls – 324
  • oyster catchers – 8
  • black turnstones – 18
  • sparrows – 32
  • harbour seals – 87
  • sea otter – 1

Windy Day

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Weather

  • Visibility:15 Miles
  • Wind:  20-30 NW today
  • Sky: cloudy today with bits of sunshine
  • Water: choppy at least a metre at one point

Boats/Visitors

  • Some ecotours braved the ind and came around today

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around and a bird I have not identified yet but included photos

Notes

  • Very windy today and even a little bit rain but not as much as we would’ve liked

Census Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles throughout the day
  • Wind:  0-10 NW throughout the day
  • Sky: clear all day
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Mostly just whale watchers and other boats cruising by on this beautiful sunny day

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around but not as many as I thought there would be

Notes

  • DnD was blasting again today
  • I finally have a full fresh water tank so hopefully it rains soon so I can start pressure washing and cleaning the pathways and buildings off
  • Significantly less sea lions I expected I suspect many of them went for swim while I was doing the census because it was a rather hot day today but here are the numbers are I have right now

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions – 68
  • California Sea Lions – 97
  • Harbour Seals – 72
  • Gulls – 153
  • Cormorants – 73
  • Black Turnstones – 21
  • Sparrows – 24ish, hard to see and fast to fly off

Beautiful Sunsets

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-15 SE
  • Sky: cloudy this morning, cleared up in the afternoon
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Had some visitors come out for a sunset cruise, my coworkers had to drop off another spot checker for me

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around and it almost seems like there is more birds too, census tomorrow

Notes

  • DnD was blasting again today
  • Having some issues with spot checker, hopefully this other one works well
  • Here are some pictures of the beautiful sunset tonight and lastnight
  • and a photo of a sea lion who looked like there was something wrong with his hind flipper

Wishing for Rain

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles this morning cleared up to 15 in the afternoon
  • Wind:  0-5 SE throughout the day
  • Sky: overcast this morning, clear skies in the afternoon
  • Water: calm all day

Boats/Visitors

  • quite a few ecotours

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around

Notes

  • having a hard time with the fence between the generator room and the guest house, the sea lions tear it down every couple hours
  • Also I have not seen the sea lion around that recently had the garbage removed from around its neck, I’ve been looking around for him
  • We could use some rain though, it would be easier to pressure wash around here if it rained first

Sunny Days

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles throughout the day
  • Wind:  10-15 SW throughout the day
  • Sky: cloudy this morning and cleared up in the afternoon
  • Water: calmish, fast current

Boats/Visitors

  • quite a few ecotours throughout the day

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around

Notes

  • wind was blowing a bit harder today but it was still sunny, no visitors or anything out of the ordinary

I am Back and the Census

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Sorry about my last 10 days being absent but I am back now and here is an updated census.

Weather

  • Visibility: Pretty clear 15 Miles throughout today
  • Wind:  0-5 SW with small range all day
  • Sky: Sunny all day
  • Water: pretty flat but the current is very visible and moving

Boats/Visitors

  • I came in today and so did a few students to have a look around, we also had an engineer to come look at the new generator

Ecological

  • quite a bit of sea lions, I don’t see the elephant seal sticking around anymore and I have not seen any oyster catchers today. Also the sea otter in the north kelp patch is back

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions: 142
  • California Sea Lions: 186
  • Elephant Seals: 0
  • Harbour Seals: 28
  • Unspecified Gulls: 153
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 0
  • Cormorants: 18
  • Canada Geese: 12
  • Oystercatchers: 0
  • Black Turnstones: 48

 

Sun and Fog

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Weather

  • Visibility: 0 Miles this morning, the fog horn was going off for a good portion of the morning but I am getting a very clear and beautiful sunset now
  • Wind:  10-15 SW which went up and down slightly throughout the day but around 10ish knots
  • Sky: thick fog for a bit and then it cleared right up in the afternoon
  • Water: pretty flat

Boats/Visitors

  • Quite a few ecotours came by today

Ecological

  • The unspecified birds are still around and I have determined them to be black turnstones, however it is weird to see such a high number of them at once so it is possible there are some other species of surfbird mixed in there too

Notes

  • Had some power issues today, hopefully get everything fixed tomorrow and the dryer won’t die on me halfway through drying my laundry

Lazy Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  10-15 SW
  • Sky: overcast some rain
  • Water: pretty flat throughout the day

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours came by today

Ecological

  • Definitely more sea lions everyday plus that one female elephant seal that is sticking around

Notes

  • Puttered around today, almost have a full water tank again, and enjoyed taking photos of the frequently napping sea lions
  • Now that there is more cloud cover the solar panels aren’t bringing in a lot of energy so I do need to run the generator to run the desalinator

Foggy Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles sometimes less throughout the day
  • Wind:  10-15 SW sometimes a bit lighter sometimes a bit stronger
  • Sky: Cloudy this morning for a bit and then foggy for awhile, cleared up in the afternoon now you can see some blue sky and sunshine
  • Water: mostly flat a little choppy

Boats/Visitors

  • Had a special visit at 6:30 this morning, the Parliament Secretary to the Prime Minister of Canada and Minister of Youth dropped by for a quick visit

Ecological

  • Have to update my census, I saw an elephant seal this morning, a young female
  • the unspecified birds in the photo from yesterday are a type of gull that I still have not identified
  • There appears to be more sea lions everyday