A whole flock of Pelicans!

Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles
  • Wind: 20-25 knts NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: 1-2 meter waves with white caps

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Not too many ecotour boats around today.
  • Spotted the HMCS Calgary leaving Pedder Bay and heading out towards the open ocean

Technical

  • Yesterday Kyle and Guy visited the island to go over all the energy and support systems. They identified some issues with the desalination pump, and the solar panel grid. There will be a technician coming soon to fix those.

Bird Notes

  • I saw a whole flock of Pelicans fly over the island – about 15-20 in number.

Census

Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knts N
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Ripply
  • Light rain all day

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Average amount of ecotour boats around the island today
  • Another group from the Kule foundation came for a tour of the island.

Marine Mammals

  • It was an exciting day for Elephant seals as 2 new males showed up, bringing the total count of male Elephant seals to 4. One of the new males stayed in the water on the south side of the island, but the other came on to the shore which led to a fight between the new adult male and the existing adult male. The new adult male was slightly injured near the mouth during the fight. Guy filmed part of the fight, and the video is below.
  • The sea lions were barely seen today on the shore, I assume because of the rain. This affected the census count.

Census

  • Elephant Seal
    • Male = 4 (1 young one, 1 only in the water)
    • Female = 3
  • Sea lions (see note above)
    • Steller = 3
    • California = 12
  • Seagulls = 220
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 82
  • Geese = 6
  • Eagles = 2
  • Oystercatchers = 12

Video by Guy Ouradou

Pelican and new male elephant seal

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knts NW
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Garry Fletcher (ER Warden) and the IT team from Pearson College came ashore this morning. The IT team worked on replacing some of the wiring at the top of the lighthouse while I gave Garry a brief rundown of the happenings on the island.
  • A group of 9 visitors from the Kule Foundation came for a tour later in the afternoon. They spent close to an hour exploring every part of the island, including the top of the lighthouse, as Guy and I provided information, facts and stories.
  • After a Seaking Adventures boat violated the rules of the reserve day before yesterday and went into the eastern channel, I called the company this evening to give a warning. They explained that they have a new driver who is new to the area, but assured me that there would be no more boating violations on their part.
  • HMCS Edmonton was headed towards Pedder Bay this evening, along with a tail of two hard-hulled inflatables.

Bird Notes

  • A Pelican spent a good part of the afternoon on the island, just north of the student house. I haven’t seen this Pelican here before in the last 10 days that I have been at Race Rocks.
  • More seagull eggs. None hatched yet. Seagulls are relatively less aggressive than usual for this time of the year.

Marine Mammals

  • Garry spotted a new male Elephant Seal on the island today. It’s a fairly young one with remarkably unmarked/scarred skin. We believe that’s because it may have recently finished molting.

Census Day!

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-30 NW
  • Sky: Mostly clear
  • Water: Waves 1-2 metres

Boats/Visitors

  • one or two scattered ecotour boats
  • Guy brought 3 tour groups, only one of which docked. The tides and currents were uncooperative for the other two groups. The group that came ashore spent about 30 mins visiting the student residence and lighthouse.

Census

  • stellar sea lions – 16
  • california sea lions – 8
  • elephant seals – 3 female, 1 male
  • gulls – 200
  • pigeon guillemots – 105
  • oyster catchers – 12
  • geese – 4
  • eagles – 4

 

New Ecoguardian gets Orca welcome!

I took over the Ecoguardianship this morning from Laas, and spent the day familiarizing myself with the systems here.

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-35 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves 1-2 metres

Boats/Visitors

  • Guy dropped me off early this morning, and brought three other visitors with him who spent about an hour touring the island
  • Quite a few ecotour boats went by today. Most of them spent their time near the kelp patch just north of the jetty – possibly due to otter presence as I understand from the past ecoguardian.
  • Two whale-watching boats were able to catch a sight of the orcas that swam through the middle channel

Ecological

  • About 9 elephant seals, 7 females and 2 males. No changes from yesterday
  • No sign of baby seagulls yet. Noticed a few broken eggs though possibly due to accidents or attacks by other birds.
  • 2 orcas spent about 30 mins in the middle channel this evening, playing with the currents. Two whale watching boats were able to catch a sight of them. What a great first day!

 

Sunday

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 10-30 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • a few ecotours went by today, the weather was so nice, hardly any wind in the early afternoon but the wind has come up to 30 now
  • Guy came by with a group that were visiting the college for a symposium

Ecological

  • saw the first seagull eggs today, the gulls are starting to get more protective of their nests
  • about 9 elephant seals around today and hardly any sea lions

Swiftsure

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • a few ecotours went by today
  • many sailboats for the swiftsure race
  • Guy came by with his family for a little visit

Ecological

  • looks to be yet another goose nest near the tank shed
  • the seagulls should be nesting very soon

Thursday

Weather

  • Visibility: 10-15 Miles
  • Wind: 20-30 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves 1-2 metres

Boats/Visitors

  • a few ecotours went by today
  • Guy and Dan came by this morning, Dan to work on the internet and Guy and I got a few chores done

Ecological

  • Not many sea lions around today, there seems to be less and less each week
  • a bit windy today the elephant seals stayed around the front yard and there new favourite spot by the shed that operates the crane
  • looks like there are more seagull nests around, will probably be seeing eggs very soon

Census and Visitors

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • a few ecotours went by today
  • Guy came by with some of the japan house students

Ecological

  • About a dozen elephants seals
  • not many sea lions around lately, some stellars on the south rocks and a few californias on the jetty

Census

  • stellar sea lions – 12
  • california sea lions – 15
  • harbour seals – 23
  • elephant seals – 11 female, 1 male
  • gulls – 180
  • cormorants – 12
  • pigeon guillemots – 124
  • harlequinn ducks – 12
  • oyster catchers – 14
  • fox sparrows – 8
  • geese – 16
  • eagles – 2

Final Exam

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • a few ecotours went by today
  • Lauras marine science class had their final exam here today which was about 45 students so that was fun

Ecological

  • about a dozen elephant seals, one male still here, the rest female
  • I am so sure I got the final goose nest today and am hopefully done addling