Category Archives: Bird Notes

Gale

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Overcast sky. Strong to Gale Westerlies all day. Force 6-7.
The barometer peaked midday and then dropped. The forecast is for the strong Westerlies to continue.
June has proven to be a very windy month. Usually a bit calmer in the morning, and blowing string West by mid-afternoon.
Big tides today: 0.1m low, 2.8m high. And strong currents: -6.7kn and +5.7kn. The flood is probably a lot faster at the surface with these strong West winds.

6 tour boats

Business as usual in the reserve today. The Gulls are getting very defensive of their nests. A few Eagles flew over throughout the day. There are 5 elephant seals behind the boat shed.

-Island wide putter/tidy
-Shift change prep

Business as usual

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Fog in the am. Clear the rest of the day. Moderate Westerlies all day (Force 4), Strong Westerlies this evening (Force 8).
The barometer peaked around 1000 and then dropped. Forecast continues for calm mornings, strong West afternoons.

2 tour boats
3 halibut boats on the edge of the reserve
2 fishing boats passed through

Today was business as usual for the reserve animals. There were 4 California Sea lions and 1 Steller on the South seal rocks. The large male elephant seal wasn’t around. There are lots of eggs in the Gull nests.

-Max came out for some training for his stint next week as station relief while I am away
-We almost got the vhf antenna set up on the Science house, but had some ladder troubles
-Finished Keeper’s house bathroom painting
-Tidied Keeper’s house

 

Animal Census

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Clear skies. Glassy calm most of the day (Force 0), 23 W in the evening (Force 6).
Barometer peaked around noon at 1019 hPa, then dropped. Forecast is for strong West all of tomorrow.

2 tour boats
3 fishing boats passed through the reserve

Elephant seal: 6
Harbour Seal:112
California Sea lion: 1
Steller Sea lion: 0
Eagle: 3
Canada goose: 4 + 4 goslings
Guillemots: 23
Gull: 295
Oystercatcher: 5

I saw the pair of Caspian Terns again today. A MASSIVE male Elephant seal was on the boat ramp when I cam back this afternoon. He had lots of scars on his back so it could be the seal known as ‘Slash’. There are still 3 juvenile Elephant seals running amok on the boat ramp, and one adult female. There is only one lone Sea lion in the reserve, I think this time of year the California Sea lions head South to their breeding grounds, and the Stellers head North to their breeding grounds. The juvenile Eagle that has much more white mottling than typical was sitting on the crane today. There were 2 crows in the reserve in the afternoon.

Off station in the am for groceries
-Keeper’s house basement tidy-up

Pictures

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Clear skies. Moderate West in the am, Force 3. Strong West this evening, Force 6.
Barometer rose until 1600, then dropped. The daily West wind cycle continues, light in the am and picking up in the pm.

3 tour boats

The Race Rocks website says that there are typically 6 Oystercatcher nests on Great Race, I have only found two. Tomorrow I will see if I can find more. The Oystercatcher nest next to the jetty no longer has eggs in it. A bird was sitting on the nest yesterday when I showed the nest to my Mom. If I had to guess, I would say that the River otter ate the eggs because it lives under the walkway very close to the nest. I am curious to see if the pair tries another nesting site. I saw two Oystercatchers poking around the rocks on the West side of the jetty so maybe they will try again. There has been a lot of Eagles around lately. Juveniles and adults. My Mom saw one empty the eggs out of a Gull’s nest. Apparently Glaucous winged Gulls can learn to recognize particular people, to a point where they will allow familiar researchers right up to their nests. My new plan is to befriend the Gulls that are nesting next to the tank shed and maybe they will stop flying at my head whenever I walk past.

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Caspian Terns

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Clear skies. Light variable winds. Force 1-2. The barometer has been on the rise today. Although the forecast for today called from strong West winds, the barometer does not lie, and it was a lovely calm day. The forecast for tomorrow is for the usual strong West winds in the afternoon. 1 tour boat I saw two Caspian Terns (Hydroprogne caspia) today. They briefly flew over the island in the morning, and then came back in the late afternoon while I was washing my dive gear. They stayed up pretty high, coming maybe as low as the top of the tower, and are really hard to photograph. But their loud croak and dark heads gave them away. I also saw a Heermans Gull (Larus heermanni ) while I was taking my dive kit apart. It’s the first one I’ve seen, but as far as gulls go, it is one of the easiest species to identify because of it’s dusky grey colour. According to the Cornell Bird lab, the Heermans Gull is “unmistakable; [it is the] only North American gull with a sooty gray body and a white head.” Erik came out today at low slack and we went for a dive. We cleaned the camera, checked some camera connections, and cleared the path through the kelp to the jetty. Ok visibility, but it is always awesome to get underwater.

Swiftsure day 2

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Clouds with rain. Light winds. Force 3-4
The barometer has levelled out as of this evening. Strong westerlies forecasted for tomorrow, but for some reason today I just don’t think the forecast is right.

12 tour boats
2 halibut boats

The Swiftsure boats were steadily passing by all day with their colourful spinnakers flying in the light winds.

Business as usual in the reserve today. 3 Bald eagles in the am, two of the juveniles have really light coloured mottling. The Elephant seals are mostly behind the boat shed. ~20 California Sea lions have camped out on the rocks East of the jetty. The Canada Geese are roaming the island in a slightly angry and aggressive pack. The gulls are getting a bit defensive about their nest sites, which means they are starting to attack me as I walk around the island. Lots of jellies in the water by the jetty at high tide.

-finished bathroom mini-reno
-finished spring cleaning Keeper’s House

 

Angry birds

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Clear skies. Moderate to strong West wind. Force 5.
The barometer has levelled out around 1007.0 hPa. The forecast is for the moderate to strong West winds to continue.
Big tides and currents these past few days: Low tide is 0.3m and high tide is 2.3m today, and the current is running -6.1kn and +5.6kn.

17 tour boats
6 recreational boats
3 boats fishing on the edge of the reserve

There could be two Cackling geese on the island, or it might just be two small, scruffy Canada Geese, it’s pretty hard to tell. I saw a Canada goose attack a Gull today and break the Gulls wing. I also saw a Gull chase a Canada Goose away from its nest. Lots of antagonistic birds with all this nesting. Judging by the disaster that I have to wash off the solar panels every day, the Gulls are capitalizing on these low tides and catching lots of small fish. I find entire fish skeletons and lots of scales among all the poop on the solar panels. The Elephant seals spent most of the day in the water by the jetty. There are 5 super fat and healthy-looking California Sea lions hanging out on/making a mess of the jetty. I saw the river otter sneak up from the water by the crane and hang out under the crane deck. I think it has a hole/home somewhere under the walkway between the crane deck and the tank shed. I have only ever seen a single otter, but I wonder if it is two and I just never see them together.

I will go as far to say that two recreational fishing boats almost wrecked on the South seal rocks today, but they probably don’t even know how close they came to doom. Two rental boats from Pedder Bay marina came ripping East to West between Great Race and the South seal rocks (which is about a 30m gap). It was pretty close to max flood with the water moving at about 5kn. By sheer luck, they both made it past the rock slab of the South Seal rocks, but I heard one of the boats bottom out on a rock turning around the South-West corner of great race. Thankfully that made him turn away from Great Race because he was headed straight for a very shallow, very sold rock that sits just below the surface. I reported it to the Pedder Bay Marina since they have asked that we contact them when their rental boats are in the reserve. Boating tip from Race Rocks: if there is a patch of ocean that looks like a river, with standing waves and whirlpools, go around it not through it.

-started spring cleaning the Keeper’s house
-pulled nails and tacks from walls, puttied, and did some paint touch ups in the Keeper’s house
-painted upstairs door frames in Keeper’s house

Advisee group

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Patchy clouds. Strong Westerlies, low West swell. Force 5 most of the day.
Barometer on the rise since last night. Forecast is for more strong West.

4 tour botas
2 halibut boats on edge of reserve
1225 fly-over by a small plane

The Elephant seals have officially moved all the way to the other side of the path. They are now next to the water tank shed. Not sure why they decide to move, or how they choose the location, but they are busy creatures in their own way. There are lots of Gull nests taking shape all over the island. No sign yet of any of eggs or nesting though. There are still 3 Canada goose goslings being aggressively guarded by their parents.

Erik dropped off an Advisee group for the weekend.

-Checked battery bank specific gravity
-topped up batteries
-put voltage controller back together
-Ran generator and monitored inverters and battery bank

Albatross..?

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Strong Westerlies, clear skies. Force 4-5
Barometer is falling again, with a strong West wind warning overnight.
The Washington Marine text forecast has not been updating since yesterday.

4 tour boats
3 halibut boats on the edge of the reserve

RIP Farley Mowat: acclaimed Canadian author, and ardent environmentalist.

I saw another pair of Canada geese with a single gosling today. There are now 3 goslings in total. I realized the other day that there are no Black Turnstones around any more, I guess they’ve gone North for the summer breeding season. There is a pair of Oyster catchers setting up shop on the steep slope East of the jetty, I hope they make a nest there where it is easy for me to observe them. The Cackling goose and White Fronted goose are both still on Great Race. The animal highlight of the day was a mystery bird. It was up really high above Great Race when I first came out this morning. It was mostly white underneath and was clearly an offshore bird because it had that albatross-esque silhouette. It made a really awkward, throaty sound, almost like a heron. On the Race Rocks species page the only offshore birds list are the Sooty Shearwater and the Laysan Albatross. The Shearwater is ruled out because it is grey underneath, so my best guess is that this morning I saw a Laysan albatross.

-Trouble shooting temperature issues on inverter 1
-Finished leak repair on outside of Science house door
-Washed Keeper’s house windows