Category Archives: Bird Notes

Busy Week -end for the gulls

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Weather

Saturday:Wind:20 knots Westerly breezes stayed almost the whole day,Visibility : over10  miles;Forecast:30 knots in the afternoon,Sky clear to cloudy;Sea state :choppy.

Sunday:Wind : between 17th and 25 knots for the most part of the day and a gust around 30 knots in the evening at 9:00PM. Sky : clear

Ecological

Gull incubation is happening right now. You can see laying female almost everywhere with their protecting mate . I guess more gulls are coming because it looks to me that it was more crowded last year. Only 2 geese this WE: the couple with the incubating female .. More pigeon- guillemots (some mating) and a few Steeler Seals (5)on the rocks closed to the jetty. 10 Elephants Seals at night …the 2 large males and even the bad looking one always in the same spot closed to the solar panels building. Her skin is not so pinkish so her condition has maybe improved.

 

Boats

Saturday:A few whale watching boats today . The usual  cruising boats going out in the sunset.

Sunday:Early in the morning a tug hauling a big barge with a mechanical pele on, going towards Sooke ,Vancouver Island side. Many many whale watching vessels:5 at a time around noon and even one of them came back 5 times in the same day.

Maintenance

Chainsaw:filling up and sharpening. Some wood shopping for the reserve.Cleaning of the jetty (with the sea water pump and hose :a lot of fun !)soiled by the Sea lions living there almost all the time . They even get so much used to us that it’s difficult to make them dive when we have to get fresh water for the sampling . Solar Panels

Other

Plane heard maybe not above the Rocks but not far .

 

Census day

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Weather

g 5:00 17 knots West wind;Visibility:10m;Sky:cloudy,Sea:Wavelets,white caps.In the evening 8:00 PM. A gust of South wind ,very local ,not expected brought an heavy rain that clean our windows and the solar panels!

Boats

Intense traffic the whole day in the strait and around the Rocks …eco-tour boats more than 30 for sure! We got call from Amatuana coming back from its trip . We had a look on it.

Ecological

7 elephants seals back from fishing at 7:00AM.(9 on the main Rock at night) Census done during the whole day. We were lucky to see for a second like in a dream a humpback whale, tail outside the water. The flowers are almost done this year ..so early if we compare with last year…I found a dead gull .

Visitors

Kyle brought some stuff,took back some barrels,went to check the whaler engine with Guy. A tool was needed to do the job so we will go to the college tomorrow.

Maintenance

Guy emptied completely the diesel barrels in the tank of the main house.. He looked at the yellow cistern:old pipes ,hoses and lines need to be removed pretty soon. With Kyle they looked at the best way to put the new ladder on the jetty.We weeps the alley and did the solar panels. Guy modified the outside pipes for the eco-mar toilets :he put an elbow shape pipe to let the air in but not the rain…Eco-mar toilets are working perfectly well.Heavy duty oven cleaning done …

Census 

Harbour seals: 103

Seagulls :around 350

Canada guess:5

Californian lion seals :20

Stellers :0

Black oystercatchers:10 birds and 3 nests found

Elephant seals:9 and none on the other Rocks

Humpback whale : 1 (one today and another one this week at the green boyd) on the south side

Orcas : a few this week

Harlequin ducks: 1

 

Other

What do you think about this I found today (Yogi tea bag): “You are the sky the rest is just the weather”..Made my day!

 

Gale Warning

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Weather

At 5:00AM Wind:17 knots from West ,Visibility:8 to 10 miles,Sea:choppy. At 6:30 no wind and foggy :Horn on.Wind getting Southwest and raising later.Gale warning in effect for the night.Air temperature at 5:00:12.5 degrees celsius.and 9.5 at dew point.From 6:30 to 1:00 the horn has been honking despite the 18 knots wind.All the sudan it was pretty foggy on one West/North side but totally clear on the South side of the rocks and just the time to spot a humpback whale fishing around the green boyd:beautiful scenery.a little too far for good pictures.In the beginning of the afternoon we could observe some large patches of fog but later the wind picked up to 30 knots and no fog anymore for the day.

Ecological

When we had finished with the solar panel cleaning I went around looking for the nest Riley was speaking about,the one we couldn’t find with James the other day .Finally I found it with 2 eggs in it an by the way I discovered a  hatching goose and the male close by.She was amazingly hidden and protected by 2 rocks and hard to see…so that means that we have 5 geese instead of 3 and maybe more pretty soon. Guy saw on South Rocks 5 huge Steeler sea lions and one had the word ROB on its left side.No time to get pictures ,they jumped hastily.

Did you have a look on the oystercatcher nest? beautiful especially by night !

I realized that I have seen no pelagic cormorants this year.  12 elephant seals in the morning on main ;none on the other Rocks.We will do the census as soon as the weather will be good enough.

Boats

7 to 10 eco-tour boats and the first one not before 11AM. Around 18:00 a big US coast guard vessel at the border line.

Maintenance 

We restart the new camera connection.

Guy finished to repaired the starboard corner of the whaler :water infiltrations in the hule in that spot.

I brought to date the freezer. Windows need attention as soon as possible !

 

 

 

 

Oystercatcher Cam – Race Rocks Ecological Reserve

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Recently James and Max from the It Department at Lester Pearson College have set up a live camera to follow the development of one of the Black Oystercatcher nests with two eggs in the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve. The camera had infrared night vision, so this samople of night behaviour was captured, see the video below taken at 11:30 PM June 6 2016
Other references and images of Black Oystercatchers at Race Rocks can be found at these links:

2bloy BLOY headshot
The Black Oystercatcher with more videos and pictures in the Gallery of the Race Rocks Taxonomy All entries on this website tagged with Black Oystercatcher:

Calm and beautiful week-end

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Weather

Saturday at 5H30
Wind: East wind,4 knots to 0.4 later
Sky :clear
Visibility:+10 miles
Sea like a mirror

Ecological

The same 3 geese on the main lawn.
The old or sick elephant seal finally went to the water. at 10:00 .It took her a long time but she managed…

Gulls are getting more aggressive ; Proof:one tried to poop on me ! The whole day was hot and the elephants spent the day in the water…The old /sick one came back to her favorite spot.In the evening we had 13elephant seals on Great Race Rocks.

Vessels

No eco – tour boats to 1:00PM because of the tide I guess…3 cruising ships in a row   going out slowly from Victoria in the sunset…That means that around 5000 people could have looked at The Rocks at the same time…scary!

Maintenance 

Guy took out the boat for a checking . We did a short trip to the college . Everything OK but the spark plugs need to be changed so a kit has been ordered.
Sunday
Weather
At 5:30: Wind :North 6 knots,Sky :clear ,Visibility:over 10 miles,Sea like a mirror. Around 7PM the wind got stronger to 30 knots at 9:30 PM.It was expected.The direction changed to Southwest/West.

Boats
Many  recreational fishing boats at the entrance of Pedder Bay and between East Sooke and the First Nations territories.Again cruising boats closed to the american coast leaving.

Other
Small plane above at 9:45 AM.

 

IT Visitors

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Weather
Sea:calm
Wind :8 knots
Sky:Cloudy to clear
Later very hot day with a mirror sea

Ecological
Seawater is getting warmer
Long bathing time for the 2 big males and 2  young elephant seals at the jetty.
The tide was very low and I found 2 huge mussels as big as my hand ! Impressed!
One elephant seal never moved for 2 days . She looks old or sick ,maybe both?
Found a gull and a harbour seal dead (not recent).

Maintenance

Max changed the routers in the houses
Max and James installed a camera on a oystercatcher nest with 2 eggs in it. The nest is closest to the boat shed at the top of the rocks, actually just under the camera 5. The new 24/24 camera will be on youtube pretty soon .
Aziz ,a 2nd year student, working at the college this Summer, took pictures and came with me to the top of the lighthouse.
Kyle and Guy pulled the diesel hoses through the island and empty them (around 10 litres) and put them back in their shed
Seawater house: heavy cleaning ,floor and bank inside and outside (old shingles from the roof)
Solar panels and alleys swept.

Vessels

Busy day . More than 30 eco tours vessels and around 4:30 ,8 at the same time …

Other 

Summer is here Quiet and beautiful evening on the rock especially
White everywhere ..More gulls. Can’t wait for the census next week!

 

1st full day on the rocks

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Weather

Wind : NW wind ,26 knots at 5:30 ,up to 30  at 7:30 and back to 3 :00 in the afternoon

Sky: Rainy first and cloudy later.

Visibility: 5 miles at 5:30 getting better later

Sea: Wavelets,white caps to calm later in the day.

Ecological

All the elephant seals went fishing this night,came back one after the other this morning.

13 geese pay a visit in the evening and left one hour later.

In the evening an eagle flew over 2 times and post itself on the crane ! the gulls got mad.

Sea water :Temperature 11.1 and salinity:32.1

We found a dry tailbone

Boats

Huge traffic the whole day . All kinds of boats: around 10 Whale Watchers,a few fishing boats,a Canadian sailboat,2 cruising boats,a logging boat with its tugboats,tankers and containers ,an American ship,The Port – Angeles ferryboat,Later I made a quick research on one big square gray one : it was a vehicules carrier coming from Bahamas going to San Diego,Draught:9.1 meter,Speed:20 knots,Gross tonnage :58.767 tonnes . Her name Genius Highway (From Marine Traffic Website).

DND Activity

A few blasts at 9:40,9:44,10:42 ,10:44,and 5:30 in the evening.

Maintenance

Student house tank filled up

Student main house tank filled up

Run the generator for 2 hours and half

Main house :Inside tidying up.

DSC_6630

 

Spontaneous Whale Watching!

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Mt. Baker visible at times today.
  • Wind: 10-15 knots West
  • Sky: clear and sunny!
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • We spied three eagles on Turbine Rock this morning.
  • 14 elephant seals on Great Race today, including both Chunk and Chuckles.
  • As Second Nature was departing Race Rocks sometime after 9:00, Kyle spied several whale watching boats following a pod of orcas outside the reserve.
  • I hopped aboard (sans camera) and we went off to join the fleet.
  • Over the next half hour or so, we watched 5 or 6 orcas as they repeatedly surfaced on their southerly course.
  • Christine (Guy’s wife) took several photographs; perhaps she will share them with us soon.
  • Pam Birley discovered a Black Oystercatcher nest today via webcam. That makes 3 known nests.
  • As Pam noted, it is “not a good spot to nest because the Otter likes to sunbathe in that spot on the rocks.”

Maintenance

  • I did some yellow paint touch up on the jetty.
  • Sprayed more algicide on the students’ house.
  • Shut-down the students’ house.

Boats

  • Second Nature arrived around 9:00, and properly departed around 10:00 after our unexpected whale watching trip!
  • Many eco-tours came by today.
  • A few of them appeared to be too close to the sea lions.

Visitors

  • Kyle, Guy, Christine, and their daughter arrived at 9:00.
  • Guy and Christine were dropping off some gear for their upcoming shift.
  • Maya, Tazi, and Ali departed on Second Nature.

Tazi, Maya, Ali

Ali, Maya, Tazi, Mt. Baker

The Grand Sailboat Regatta

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Weather

  • Visibility: 8 miles in the early morning, 15 later on
  • Wind: 15-20 knots East, then North, then West
  • Sky: foggy and overcast, then sunny, then overcast
  • Scattered raindrops throughout the day
  • Water: mostly calm, with swells in the afternoon

DSC_6437

Ecological

  • Maya and Tazi conducted 4 intertidal transects today.
  • Studying an intertidal transect involves measuring out a certain distance from a peg, and then documenting the different species found every 0.5 metre.
  • In some transects the 0.5 metres are measured by water elevation; in others simply by distance.
  • By comparing the species found in every zone of the transect with transect data from previous decades, you can see the change in intertidal ecosystems due to climate change.
  • We saw a California Sea Lion with the brand U374 and another with a tracker.
  • While most of the gull eggs all look the same, one particular egg is quite different.

Maintenance

  • Maya and I ran the fire pump in the morning.
  • This added a few inches to the cistern.
  • We removed the old Canadian flag and hoisted a fresh one.
  • Tazi and I removed some algae.
  • Ali whacked away at the thistles.
  • We cleaned the solar panels.

Boats

  • Over 150 sailboats from Victoria passed by Race Rocks in the late morning on their way towards the Western horizon.
  • Some of them started to return as late as 22:30.
  • The colours of their sales included: red, blue, white, fluorescent yellow, green, purple, black, orange, and many combinations of all of the above.
  • Some standouts included the Miles Davis sail and the Union Jack.
  • I couldn’t stop taking photos and ended up with dozens. Below is a selection of the best.
  • One coastguard zodiac and a search and rescue boat appeared to be accompanying the sailboats.
  • Several eco-tours came by, including one Eagle Wings tour that drove through the South Channel.
  • Passing through the South Channel is prohibited as the width is too narrow.

Proficient Pearson Painters

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-25 knots West
  • Sky: overcast, then sunny, then overcast
  • Water: 2′ chop

Ecological

  • Much frenetic elephant seal activity throughout the island and surrounding waters.
  • The speed with which they go from slow motion sparring to sleeping side by side is adorable.
  • One seal was even snoozing on the ramp with his head under water.
  • Between 11 and 15 elephant seals on Great Race.
  • We discovered several seagull nests with eggs in them. First ones of the year!

Maintenance

  • The four of us engaged in much painting.
  • The boathouse floor was finished, along with the derrick room floor, and the yellow on the jetty.
  • In the afternoon we used the shorefront pressure washer to remove algae from several walls.
  • As is customary out here, we cleaned off the solar panels.

Boats

  • Kyle and Guy brought out the pressure washer and various other items at 8:10.
  • One rental boat was caught fishing illegally within the reserve.
  • I called Pedder Bay Marina to inform them.
  • One coast guard boat passed through the reserve today.
  • Also a few eco-tours.

Visitors

  • Kyle and Guy briefly to drop off items.
  • In the late afternoon, Maya, Tazi, and Ali came over to the eco-guardians house for tea, cookies, and the American version of Rubber Soul.