Category Archives: Island Visitors

College Collaboration

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Ecological Notes:

  • 1 Female Elephant Seal
  • 1 Near-Adult Male elephant seal
  • 1 (sex to be determined) tagged Elephant Seal, sized as a near adult Female, or juvenile male

  • Elephant Seal pups: 3, spending most of their time on the boat ramp, with visits to the water
  • 2 Canada Goose nests now have eggs

Visitors:

  • 5 Students, and one of the owners of the WestCoast Adventure College spent 3 days at the Student and Science Centre, doing a Marine Mammals of the Salish Sea Program with the Eco-Guardian, as well as a thorough introduction to the operations of the facility.
  • A Group form the Beecher Bay First Nations visited to see the facility and the Student And Science Centre

Facility Work:

  • As part of the Community Involvement portion of their program the WAC students helped with Facility duties, including the animal census, solar panel cleaning, and helping to move driftwood from the lower area to the bucking area ….. some were particularly interested in learning the day to day tasks of operations. Future Eco-Guardians??

WestCoast Adventure College students with their Marine Mammal Instructor

Conducting the Animal Census for the tower

Bird Poop 101

Ready to buck and split

  • Battery servicing

DND events:

  • Ongoing detonations

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Eco-Tourism Vessels
  • Some private vessels viewing wildlife

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

BCIT Media Students Visit

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Ecological Notes:

  • Canada Geese putting together nests now

  • Gulls are still parading around, showing off their nest material collecting abilities, but now nests on the ground yet
  • Elephant Seal pups: 3

Visitors:

  • 2 BCIT Media students visited for 3 days to gather source material for a story on the life of an Ecoguardian

  • A Marine Biologist, BCIT Marine Studies student, and friend of mine, visited to enjoy some time between schooling and heading out for her 5 months sea time with a major cruise ship company.

Facility Work:

  • Weekly Battery Maintenance
  • Sweep and tidy all buildings
  • Replace weatherstripping on main house back door

DND events:

  • Ongoing Detonations

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Eco-Tourism Vessels
  • As weather improves, more sport fishers in the area, some entering the reserve to view wildlife, no new noted fishing violations though

Weather Events:

    • Full array of spring weather

 

 

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Helicopter Visit

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Ecological Notes:

  • 1-2 female Elephant Seals, 1 still nursing her pup, the other coming and going. Mom #1 has been gone over a week now
  • 3 Elephant Seal pups, 1 nursing and 2 weened
  • Still no Adult Male elephant Seal
  • Bald Eagles, both mature and juvenile, continue to visit daily for hunting

“Not much, but good enough for breakfast”

Visitors:

  • 2 Coast Guard techs visited via helicopter to trouble shoot tower electronics.

  • 3 student groups of 6 to see and learn about the Elephant Seals and pups
  • A VIP group, with students, visited for a quick overview or the reserve, with particular interest in the Power System

Facility Work:

  • Replaced all pier fencing, hoping the worst of the combination king tides and storms have passed

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Several visits by Eco-tourism vessels

Weather Events:

  • Friday, February 10:
    • Sky: Overcast, with occasional light rain
    • Wind: S 5- 15 knots, veering to W 20 kts later in the afternoon
    • Sea: Waves to 1 Meter
    • Temperature Low 6oC, High 8oC
  • Saturday, February 11:
    • Sky: Mostly clear with occasional overcast skies moving through
    • Wind: W 5 – 10 kts
    • Sea:  light chop
    • Temperature Low 6oC, High 9oC

 

 

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Third Elephant Seal Pup

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Ecological Notes:

  • 2 female Elephant Seals (first mom has left the island for now)
  • 3 Elephant Seal pups, 3rd one born just before sunrise on Jan 26th, one month after the first pup was born

Visitors:

  • 36 Pearson College students, (over 6 trips) with their instructor

  • The Marine and Seafront Operations Coordinator transported students, groceries, parcels, and supplies.

Facility Work:

  • Replaced the motherboard on the Desalinator (again) as the last one was defective

Concentrate outflow from the Desalinator

  • After the first run, the main unit was due for an oil change, completed for the  high pressure pump.
  • Pacing myself on bucking, splitting and moving firewood

DND events:

  • Several detonations over a couple days. No disturbance noted.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 4 Eco-Tourism vessels
  • 3  private vessels

 Feature Event:

  •  Checking heater tapes and heaters preparing for possible freezing weather.
  • Stored some extra tap water for dishes and washing, in case the lines freeze again

Not for drinking!

Weather Events:

  • Yesterday (Friday January 27):
    • Sky: Overcast
    • Wind: Variable 5-15 kts
    • Sea: rippled to 1 meter chop
    • Temperature Low 6oC, High 9oC
  • Today (Saturday January 28):
    • Sky: Overcast in the morning, afternoon, clear and sunny to overcast in the evening
    • Wind: E 5 to 15 knots in the morning,increasing to northeast 15 to 25 near noon and to NE 40+ kts in the evening
    • Sea:  1-2 meter waves and chop
    • Temperature Low  5oC, High 8 oC

 

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Students Visiting the Elephant Seals

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** Server not allowing photo uploads, will try to add later

Ecological Notes:

  • 2 Adult  Female Elephant Seals, 1 expecting, 1 with calf below
  • 1  Elephant Seal Pup, 2 weeks old
  • 1 Juvenile Male Elephant Seal (yearling?). He is determined to be with the others, but they keep chasing him away. He does a big loop around the flagpole mound and returns
  • Still finding gull remains from the Eagle hunts, but have also seen the eagles swoop diving on the Turnstones as well
  • Have seen all 3 types of Cormorants this last week – Pelagic, Double Crested, and Brandt’s 
  • Most gulls present are  Iceland (formerly Thayer’s)
  • Thanks to Ann Nightingale for helping me to learn to ID more birds!

Visitors:

  • Cedric brought 2 groups of 6 students with their Teacher over to see and learn about the Elephant Seals and pup

Weather Events:

  • Primarily N/NE winds for the last week, overcast with lots of snow
  • Tuesday January 10:
    • Sky: Slight haze, light haze, mostly sunny in the morning
    • Wind: N/NE winds 10-15 Kts in the morning
    • Sea: Flat calm
    • Temperature Low 7 oC, High 9 oC
  • Wednesday January 11:
    • Overcast with a mix of sunny periods
    • Wind: N/NE 10-20kts
    • Sea:  1 meter waves
    • Temperature Low 8oC, High  10oC

 

 

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Winter setting in ….

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Ecoguardian Notes:

  • (lack of photos due to no reliable  internet, and running this through a phone hotspot) Will try to add photos later!

Ecological Notes:

  • noted 2 Sea lions with raw injuries, trying to monitor them as they heal

Visitors:

  • 4
  • Greg, Marine and Seafront Operations Coordinator, and Cedric – grocery and fuel delivery, and help with some maintenance
  • 2 Techs form Environment Canada, to work on the weather electronics on the tower….. some success, but found more work than they anticipated

Facility Work:

  • Diesel delivery – 570L
  • We had wind speed (but no direction) on the monitor in the house, but now have wind direction, (but no speed!)

DND events:

  • A few blasts, scheduled to continue until Nov 13. Humpback Whales south, and west of reserve, none noted to the north.

Weather Events:

  • Yesterday (Tuesday November 08)
    • Sky: Mostly clear with some clouds moving past
    • Wind: NE 15-20 kts
    • Sea: Waves to 1 metre
    • Temperature Low 2oC, High 4oC
  • Today (Wednesday November 09):
    • Sky:Mostly high overcast, mixed cloud and clear overnight
    • Wind: N/NE 10-15 kts
    • Sea: 1/2 meter chop
    • Temperature Low  4oC, High  8oC

 

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

In Memoriam : Pam Birley

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For many years we had the privilege of having many contributions to the Race Rocks website by Pam Birley of Leicestershire, England. Pam was a regular observer on our remote-controlled cameras, and she made the most observations of any outside viewer on the website. For 10 years, from 2004 to 2013, she produced a monthly set of images, which we consider to be  a most valuable baseline record of the animal life at the ecological reserve during those years,  https://racerocks.ca/pam-birleys-images-of-race-rocks-2004-2013/

Clicking on   https://racerocks.ca/?s=Pam+Birley&submit=Search illustrates how prolific Pam was in reporting on unique as well as regular events at Race Rocks Ecological Reserve.  In 2005 and 2008  we were able to accompany Pam and her husband Dennis on trips to Race Rocks. She loved keeping track of activities of the sea birds and marine mammals and several times she was the first to report the birth of an elephant seal pup early in the year. We also mused that if a shingle was loose on a roof of one of the buildings, Pam would be the first to let us know. 

We are so sad to hear recently of her passing and we will miss her contributions greatly 

August 14 and 15

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It was a short but great stay for Carl and Brady Hughes. They managed to see all of the expected mammals and got to know the Glaucous-winged Gull community quite well during their visit. Carl spotted the season’s first Sooty Shearwater on Saturday and attempted overnight audio recording that night. He will post his recordings to iNaturalist and eBird. The compost rejuvenation project continues with 48 more buckets of aged compost removed from the first chamber.

Ecological Notes:

  • All three elephant seals were seen on August 14 and 15.
  • Passerines seen in the last two days were Brown-headed Cowbird, Barn Swallow and Northern Rough-winged Swallow. A Northern Harrier flew north over Great Race on Saturday.
  • A juvenile Short-billed Dowitcher was wandering the paths in the fog on August 15.
  • The branded Steller’s sea lion sighted on August 12 has a history! Originally branded at Rogue Reef, Oregon in July 2003, he has been sighted at least 70 times. Previous sightings on Race Rocks include Dec 2007, May 2008, Sept 2009, Aug 2014, and Aug 2017. The most spectacular resighting, though, involved an escape from a pod of Orca in the San Juan Islands in 2020.
  • Humpbacks and Orca are being seen regularly, but generally at great distance.
  • See photos below for more ecological sightings.

Weather:

  • Yesterday (Sunday, August 14):
    • Sky: Sunny with light cloud. Scattered fog patches
    • Wind: W 8-23 kts
    • Sea: up to 1′ chop
    • Temperature Low 12 oC, High 16 oC
  • Today (Monday, August 15):
    • Sky: Fog most of the morning, clearing to partially cloudy in the afternoon
    • Wind: W/WSW 11-37 kts
    • Sea: calm to 3′ chop
    • Temperature Low 11 oC, High 17 oC

Facility Work:

  • Solar panels cleaned daily. Windows washed.
  • Battery electrolyte level topped up.
  • Compost renewal project continues.

Vessel Traffic:

  • Many Canadian ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve. Cruise ship traffic is increasing.

Here are photo highlights from the past two days. Click on the photos for larger views and captions.

Second Nature taking visitors back to Pearson College.

Bonaparte’s Gull

Early morning fogbow

Almost empty!

Progress on the compost project

Young Pigeon Guillemot with adult

Elephant seal in the East Bay

 

Traffic jam on the ramp

California Gulls

Young Glaucous-winged gulls almost ready to fly

Young Glaucous-winged gulls almost ready to fly

Male elephant seal

Sleeping Harlequin Duck

Brown-headed Cowbirds

Male elephant seal

Cruise ship traffic

Juvenile Short-billed Dowitcher

Juvenile Short-billed Dowitcher showing diagnostic markings in tertials

Brown-headed Cowbird

August 12 and 13

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Two new visitors, Carl and Brady Hughes came to Race Rocks on Friday. They will be put into service helping clean solar panels, windows and decks. Carl will also assist with bird reports and attempt to record night-flying migrants passing over the island.

Ecological Notes:

  • Increasing numbers of California Gulls around the island. This smaller gull doesn’t tend to intermingle with the nesting Glaucous-winged Gulls very much.
  • Passerines seen in the last two days were Brown-headed Cowbird and Barn Swallow.  Readers are reminded that Race Rocks is an eBird hotspot and more detailed updates on bird sightings can be found at Race Rocks, Capital District, BC, CA – eBird Hotspot
  • Two Ruddy Turnstones continue to be seen.
  • Sea lion numbers continue to climb. A branded Steller’s sea lion (183R) was seen on the north rocks near the jetty.  Information is being sought and updates will be provided.
  • Whale action picked up on Saturday, Aug 13 with multiple sightings of humpbacks and Orca.
  • Low tides continue to expose the intertidal areas in the early morning.
  • Only one young elephant seal was seen on Aug 12 and none on Aug 13. The alpha male continues on the island, often resting near the researcher residence.
  • See photos below for more ecological sightings.

Weather:

  • Yesterday (Friday, August 12):
    • Sky: Overcast, with a few sunny periods
    • Wind: W 13-33 kts
    • Sea: up to 3′ chop
    • Temperature Low 11 oC, High 19 oC
  • Today (Saturday, August 13):
    • Sky: Cloudy most of the day
    • Wind: Variable calm-24 kts
    • Sea: calm to light chop
    • Temperature Low 13 oC, High 17 oC

Facility Work:

  • Solar panels cleaned daily. Windows washed. Two loads of water pumped from the Second Nature to the holding tank. Desalinator pump expected in the next week. Deck at the ecoguardian house partially scrubbed.
  • Compost renewal project continues.

Vessel Traffic:

  • Many Canadian ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve. Cruise ship traffic is increasing.

Here are photo highlights from the past two days. Click on the photos for larger views and captions.

Second winter Heermann’s Gull

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron with California Gulls

Very large mussels (with boot for comparison)

Velvety Red Sponge

Purple sea urchins, leatherback chiton, lined chiton, see anemone exposed at low tide

killdeer

Elephant seal on the move

California sea lions

 

Gulls can have vicious disputes even in the water

Young gull swimming in East Bay

Surfbird

Black Turnstone

Ruddy Turnstone

Branded Steller’s Sea Lion 183R

August 8 and 9

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We said good-bye (for now) to Jeremias and Abi on Monday. It was great having them on the island, helping with the chores and sharing their interest in this amazing place. I am here for another couple of weeks or so, and so have undertaken a new project to rejuvenate the large compost bins near the ecoguardian’s residence. The weather has shifted from the calm and beautiful days on the weekend to more typical wind and fog of “Fogust”.

Ecological Notes:

The elephant seals continue, much to the delight of the ecotourism boat operators who always check out the ramp for them.

Steller and California sea lion numbers are still on the rise. I’m looking forward to a good count on this week’s census.

Black Turnstones dominate the east bay, with high numbers still continuing. About 200 are on the island in the late afternoon.

Many of the young Glaucous-winged Gulls are stretching their wings, jumping into the wind in preparation for their first flights.

Harbour porpoises, including one with a youngster, were seen on August 8. No whale sightings in this report, but only one day of visibility was a factor.

Weather:

Yesterday (Monday, Aug 8)

  • Sky: Clear and sunny all day
  • Wind: Variable 4 to 29 kts
  • Sea conditions: rippled to light chop
  • Temperature: Low 13 oC, High 22 oC

Today (Tuesday, Aug 9)

  • Sky: Heavy fog in the morning and late afternoon. Partially cloudy for a few hours mid-day.
  • Wind: W 11 to 26 kts
  • Sea conditions: unknown to 3′ seas late afternoon
  • Temperature: Low 12 oC, High 16 oC

Visitors:

Volunteers Abi and Jeremias departed Monday morning.

Facility Work:

Solar panels cleaned; electric fence checked and in good condition. Battery bank checked and topped up with distilled water on Monday. Generator was run during fog on Tuesday morning to top up battery levels. Compost rejuvenation project got underway.

Vessel Traffic:

Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve. More alumni from Pearson College toured the area on Tuesday. Cruise ship traffic is picking up.

Here are photo highlights from the past two days. Click on the photos for larger views and captions.

Farewell to Jeremias and Abi. Safe journeys ahead!

View from the solar panel array at sunrise

Young Glaucous-winged Gull testing its wings

California Sea Lions and their most popular poses

A (very) little bit of sunshine

 

Glaucous-winged Gull pair doing courtship/bonding display.

A beachload of Black Turnstones (and a few Surfbirds)

Alumni tour from Pearson College

Young elephant seals on the move

Compost project supervisor

Large root masses at the top of the old compost

The first buckets of aged compost into the hole