Category Archives: Bird Notes

Geese on the rock

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Like yesterday it has been foggy early in the morning so good for us:damp solar panel and quicker job. 4 Californian sea lions were on the jetty in the morning so we prepared the electricity gate and everything is now ready to work. The forecast was wind between 25 and 35 for the evening.

Many chicken have been practicing their flying exercises and it ‘s funny to see the oldest one closed to the youngest; maybe 3 weeks difference between the 2. We have a geese issue: I discovered 2 days ago that they were drinking in the water bucket under the solar panel. The problem is that we have found a real mess around the diesel tank even if the spot had been cleaned with water. And the worst it’s new geese arrived late in the afternoon. We wondered if those one were not the other family that was here in June? Any way maybe the brown bucket will be empty. Too bad we love those busy creatures!

34 knots around 7:30PM and the forecast for the 3rd: very windy. Interesting to have a look on the website: windyty .com

 

 

 

 

A noisy place

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It has been a lovely day with westerly wind rising from 2knots to 22knots in the evening. The desalinator has been working those last 2days but thanks to the solar panels no need of generator for 10 days. We have some issues with the desalinator in the sense that we have to wait 25 to 45 minutes before reaching the good level of salinity. It looks like we will have to change the big filter pretty soon (once a year). Guy changed the connector of the seawater pump that was broken.
An eagle this morning tried to fly by the island but no way the seagull army was ready. At date we found 3 eggs never hatched and 5 chicks bodies (one was floating in a kelp bed in the water). The bird I identified as a solitary sandpiper was in fact a whimbrel. (No doubt after checking the photograph I took). A seaplane flew over, not directly across the main rocks but over the South rocks. The island those last days and nights became a very noisy place maybe because of the full moon. We can’t tell which are the noisier ,gulls or sea lions? I tell you it’s a pretty amazing concert!

Unusual use of the solar panel water bucket

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It has been a gorgeous summer day, not too warm here with the fresh breeze coming from the ocean. We found another Chick’s dead body under the gasoil tank, which makes the total number to 5 dead ones. We guess that is the job of a river otter because they have all the same look, guts facing the sky? We had Whale watchers as usual around, 15 in the day and in the strait a navy vessel, a tugboat pulling a wood load, and 2 RCMP zodiacs could be seen. Those last days it’s just evident that we have a bigger birds population and new species too like 5 Harlequin Ducks swimming in the south rocks and a flock of around 50 shore birds that could be sandpipers. The young middle size elephant seal was spotted swimming alone in the south rocks which were a pretty busy place, animated all day long by the new little harbor seals. This young one came back and spent the night behind the boat shed. Around 10 AM I saw the spout of whales a few times closed to the green buoy .I never saw the animals by themselves and pretty soon no more spouts.Going to double check the solar panels in the afternoon (getting dirty quickly enough !) I discover for my pleasure that the 5 geese had their neck in the soft water bucket under the panels. Those ones are everywhere ,all the time going back and forth. They even went swimming in the race currents. Amazing busy birds!

 

A Californian Sea Lion on the railway

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Nice weather, almost no wind and very sunny We were expected more wind and it came but late in the evening and raised to around 30 knots. Like usual it was a west wind.
Floyd and Chunk have not been in sight for a while now I would say that Floyd disappeared 7 days ago and Chunk 5 days ago. The little one left 3 days ago. The 2 big one were at that time really slim and it would be not surprising if they would be gone for good. Just the new young female is still around and yesterday we had the surprise to find this little elephant seal (in the rocks) closed to female Californian seal taking a nap on the railway. She was very curious of us and it was really a pleasure to spend time looking at this so gracious animal. She stayed there for at least 5 hours because she was just at the same spot when we came back for the water sampling. We really had to go on the jetty and she couldn’t handle to have us just above so she softly glided in the water.
At the same time closed to the jetty we were the witnesses of the first bath of a gull chicken. Nice! And on the other side you could see 2 beautiful shorebirds called Ruddy Turnstone easy to identify. Lot of life is going on around.
From the eco guardians house windows in the morning I could count 87 chickens. Now they are big enough and are not anymore closed to their birth spot. Actually they are really everywhere and on the high rocky spot too. At date we found 3 dead bodies of young gulls. The last one was on the stairs of the house.
Those days we had a lot of whale watchers around, closed to 20 each day.

July 23rd: animals

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Waking up we discovered the first sea lion of the season resting on the jetty. Now we can see more shorebirds almost everywhere on the rocks. The little chicks actually looking more like chickens are now using their wings to help them when they climb the rocks. They follow the adults even on steep spots. Beautiful view. Some are even trying to fly jumping and flapping the air at the same time. The adults are still very cautious around them and even the eagles don’t try to come around. We never crossed anymore the rock without our yellow helmet and one hit me the other day and it has been a pretty strong impact.

We heard one detonation coming I guess from the DND territory.

 

July 17 to 19th : A calm week-end

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It has been 3 beautiful and sunny days .The wind was light at the most 20 knots in daytime and 30 knots on Sunday night .The North wind from the morning became West in the afternoon. The water temperature was still around 12 degrees Celsius. The water salinity stayed around 31.5 and the air at 5 OOAM 10 degrees. The barometric pressure was 903.1 HPa and 1001.8 HPa the day after.
We had no visitors and around the Rocks around 15 whale watchers.
Now we can count around 25 chicks from the front window. Some are already half size of the adults one but a few one have been born only a week ago. At date we found just one body and a half broken egg with the dead chick inside.
We did a few maintenance jobs like the cleaning of the students’ house windows and tidying up the basement in the eco-guardians place. Guy took off the ladder at the jetty, which has to be repaired, or changed .He sanded part of the trailer boat and begin repainting it with some rust paint.

Gale warning forecast

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We began the day with 32 knots and the wind never stopped rising to 40.7 knots around 8:00PM. What a pretty windy month!

All the birds were in the sheltered side away from the wind so it was easy to spot them. Before dusk we saw 10 Turnstones, 2 Western Sandpipers and 3or 4 Dunlins. They were not around a few days before. Exciting!

I even found a ladybug, a small one in the house. Another new species on this small rock

No whale watchers today …Thanks to the wind.

 

Birdy stories

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On Sunday, which was a sunny but windy day, we found one dead chick, the first one and beyond the student house on the rocks we discovered some newcomers, two beautiful little birds. By deduction and with the pictures sent to Garry, we came to the conclusion that they were 2 Western Sandpipers. A change from gulls!
On the 13th when we went to clean the solar panels we discovered the fresh, bloody, half eaten body of a pigeon – guillemot. We think that it was a Sea otter’s job because of the hidden place where we found it. Busy night!

Day off !

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It has been 10 days without leaving this nice place so it was good to have a little break even if coming back delighted us…

No wind, no current, flat sea.

The South, South West wind brought a very iodineic smell above the usual strong smell of the island at this time of the year!

We have noticed very high tides those days and especially on that day( full high tide in the night around 11PM).

When we came back around 6PM a pleasure boat was anchored just on the other side of the jetty. I will say 30 meters. They seemed not understand why they were not allowed to do so! And soon they got some problems ( had to dive ) because their anchor got stuck in the kelp or rocks! At least that we didn’t have to explain! for the rest they were gone …before we got the camera .

Around 9PM with the coming darkness and a lovely pearl colored sky, we had (first time that happened at that time of the day) the last watching boat of the day.

Nursery Island

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Nursery island

It was still 20 knots when we awake but the rest of the day was pretty calm from 15 knots to 22 at the most. What a change! We could see very far that day…

After so much wind we were not alone outside enjoying a normal summer day. ..We could call the rock “Nursing Island “because chicks are really everywhere and the gulls are pretty nervous never stopping between feeding the young one and watching out for danger. No way to go around without your yellow helmet like a big bill on the top of the head! Those birds hit you once but not two times and it hurts! You remember!

We had another show from Chunk and the young female in the water. She really wanted to please him! Even after weeks we are still amazed by those attaching animals. They have lost a lot of weight and are now pretty active spending a lot of time in shallow water and each time going back and forth from water to a grassy spot.

 

Desalinator and generator have been on for a few hours. Everything is working perfectly.