Category Archives: Island Visitors

Jan 22-26: fog, eagles, orcas

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juvenile bald eagle on the tope of the crane boom

Jan 22: Misty, low visibility. Wind N 10-15 knots. 1 private pleasure craft in the reserve. Cut and chopped firewood.

Jan 23: Rain, wind N 10-15 knots.  1 ecotour vessel in the reserve.  Followed up with eco tour company I spoke to a couple days ago about one of their boats, distance to mammals and avoiding disturbance. Also called a different eco tour charter company, that I hadn’t seen here before, about distance from mammals and speed in the vicinity of the rocks.  Cut and chopped firewood. Could hear elephant seal pup again today.

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juvenile bald eagle on one of the anemometers on top of the tower

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Jan 24:  A blanket of fog rolled in from the North in the morning reducing visibility and triggering fog horn including in the middle of the night. Periods of rain too.  Two ecotour vessels in the reserve. Went off island around noon in the fog, navigated by GPS on boat with cell phone as back up.  Picked up supplies in Colwood including extra chains, files and lube for the station chainsaw.  Brought three guests back out with me in the afternoon to stay overnight.  Sea was very calm on the way over and the fog had lifted enough to see to Port Angeles. The fog came back before dusk but lifted overnight.

Jan 25:  Cloudy, light rain, light wind.  10-15 orcas passed through race passage going with the current, heading SW. I brought guests back to college around noon. On the way over we passed by elephant seal rock and were able to see the pup with its mother.  It was on the West side of the mother, out of sight from the main island or tower cam. Came back out before dark.

Jan 26: Foggy in the morning, fog horn went off during the night. Cloudy throughout day, wind light.  1 ecotour vessel.  Cut and chopped wood. Foggy again in the evening.

Jan 15-19

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Jan 15: cloudy, N wind 10-15. DND blasting on Bentinck Island

Jan 16: wind light, clear sky. DND blasting on Bentinck Island. female elephant seal came into the boat ramp area but didn’t haul out for very long. Did some fire wood cutting. Went off island to pick up guest in the late afternoon.

Jan 17: cloudy with periods of rain, wind North 10-20 knots becoming West overnight. 1 dive boat, 2 eco tour.  Built a firewood cutting jig.

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dive boat getting tossed around in waves, Jan 17

Jan 18: wind 30-40 knots West overnight, gusting over 50 knots. The wind decreased in the afternoon. The younger male elephant seal came onto the main island in the afternoon. I was able to get a closer look at him, he has many small scars and marks on his back likely from Chunk bitting him. Sealion with orange data transmitter on its back off East side of island.

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California sealion with data transmitter with marking “5” visible

Jan 19: Partly clear, some rain.  Wind west, some gusts throughout day, light in the evening.  Went off island in the morning and returned in the afternoon.  Chunk and the younger male were both on the main island when I got back.

Census (Jan 17):

California Sea lions: 10

Northern Sea Lions: 2

Harbour Seals: 28

Elephant Seals: 3

Cormorants: 88

Canada Geese: 25

Gulls: 50

Bald Eagle: 1

Harlequin Ducks: 2

Black Turnstone: 5

Black Oyster Catcher: 32

 

 

dec 25- 29

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A few days to catch up on…

Dec 25th: good weather,  went off island early and got to spend the day with family. On the way back there was a very cooperative juvenile bald eagle on top of the crane and I was able to photograph it from the jetty.  In the vertical photo the eagle’s nictitating membrane is half way across it’s eye.

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I got back to a nice sun set and a very calm sea.

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Dec 26th: NE 10-15 knot wind. 1 sports fishing boat, 1 eco-tour vessel.  Went off island in afternoon to bring guests out for the night.  Had a wet ride and in the evening a lot of driftwood got blown in to the jetty.

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rainbow in the morning, to the East.

Dec 27th: Calm in the morning but picked up to 30-25 knots West around noon.  Rain throughout the day, often sideways. Went off island in the morning to bring back guests, wet ride again.  2 eco tour vessels. Cleaned up boat ramp/jetty and cut wood.

Dec 28th: Wind N 10 knots, partly sunny.  Went off island in the morning to pick up Garry and Val for the annual bird count (see previous post). Notably, Val and Garry discovered a (regionally) rare Boreal Owl during their count.  Earlier in the morning 3 juvenile bald eagles wrestled over a small fish and displayed some impressive acrobatics. In the evening the internet and phone connection went offline.

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Dec 29th: Clear sky, 20 -25 knots N wind in the morning that picked up to 35-40 knots before noon. Strong winds persisted most of the day dropping to around 25 knots in the afternoon. Winds picked up again in the evening gusting to 35 knots.  I went up the tower in the morning to check on the internet/phone disconnection.  Was able to reboot and get it working again.  I had a good view of the elephant seals on the W rock today, there are two males, Chunk and a younger male as well as one fairly large looking female, possibly Bertha.  Temperature is going down, will be keeping an eye on water lines  More driftwood accumulating with the NE wind. Cleared boat ramp and cut fire wood.

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Shift change, census

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Wind NE 15-20 knots becoming N 10-15 knots in the afternoon. Sky cloudy with periods of rain.

Courtney brought me out this morning in Second Nature to start a 3 month winter shift. She brought Nick back after I was able to get a quick update on systems and supplies.

Census:
California Sea lions: 20
Northern Sea Lions: 155
Harbour Seals: 1
Elephant Seals: 7
Cormorants: 70
Canada Geese: 5
Gulls: 252
Bald Eagle: 1
Harlequin Ducks: 2
Black Turnstone: 2
Sparrow: 1

3 Branded northern sealions observed: 870R, 347Y, and 975? (last symbol not visible)

Spent most of the day moving in, unpacking and getting reacquainted. We brought two full propane tanks out in the morning. Running diesel this evening.

The house is clean and things look to be in order here. Thanks to Nick, Ann, Jeff, Julie, and Courtney for their work out here since my last shift.

Trip to RR to Plan for neck-ringed sealion treatment

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Today Chris Blondeau,. and Courtney Edwards  took Martin Haulena , and Joe Gaydos to Race Rocks to meet with Ecoguardian Anne Stewart and take stock of the facility and make plans for how to deal with the plastic neck bands  that we have are observing with the onset of the large numbers of sealions each year.

Martin is the Head Veterinarian at the Vancouver Aquarium, Joe is with Sea Doc Society in the San Juans and with U.C. Davis , California.

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Martin, Courtney, John, former PC student from Wales and friend who are volunteering this term at the college.

 

Out of the Fog

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I returned to Race Rocks today after attending the Trans-Atlantic workshop on Ocean Literacy and the European Marine Science Educator’s conference last week, in Gothenburg, Sweden. I am refreshed and inspired to finish off my shift at Race Rocks.
It was warm and sunny when Courtney and I left Pearson College in Pedder Bay this morning but as we drove southeast towards Race Rocks, we were soon enveloped in the cool, damp fog. As the sunny peaks of the Olympic Mountains slid out of view, obscured by fog, the dark shape of North Islet emerged and behind it came Great Race and the light-tower, out of the fog. It is great to be back and was just as great for Jeff, who was filling in, to leave.
It was foggy on and off all day with a few periods of sunshine with visibility of over a nautical mile. Throughout the day, the foghorn blew and I could hear ships signaling as they navigated the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the fog. There was no wind for most of the day but it has been consistently blowing about ten knots out of the west for the past several hours and the fog is thickening.
The fog did not deter the whale watching boats as there were Humpback Whales feeding in the area today and the last cruise ship of the season in port. One smaller Humpback was diving and presumably feeding right in the Ecological Reserve diving against the flooding tide. I wonder if they can use the flow to their advantage in feeding more efficiently with less effort? Natural history speculation aside, the count of observed whale watching boats from 11:00 to 19:00 (dusk) was thirteen with some vessels visiting more than once.
The Chum Salmon run started in earnest while I was away and there appears to be fewer sea lions hauled out than there were before. There are many in the water however. Sea lions of both species are very busy eating Chum Salmon with most of the kills I observed, happening right in or at the edge of the tidal flows. They thrash the fish and rip it apart at the surface and swallow large chunks tail last at the surface as well. This source of scraps, of course attracts gulls. Several species of gull were seen in these sea lion driven feeding flocks today; Glaucous-winged, Hermann’s, Thayer’s and Ring-billed Gulls. There were three or four fairly hefty Elephant Seals hanging around the marine railway today. They have such huge eyes and such clean looking pink mouths. Many of the Sea Lions have serious tooth decay and oral disease.

While I was away there were several a visits to the island. The Victoria Natural History Society made it part of their birding trip on September 27, sixteen friends of the Royal BC Museum made a visit October 4th and a family visit was made by by Mike and Carol Slater, one of their daughters and several grand-children. Mike and Carol were the last light-keepers at Race Rocks and the first Eco-Guardians. They survived some epic storms and I am sure they have some great stories to tell. If you are interested in the “contemporary” history of Race Rocks, there is a lot of information on this web-site, including ancient videos, images and even historic weather events.

My main tasks today were to get moved back into the house, to do the seawater sampling, fix the pier fence and run the generator for a few hours in order to top up the batteries. There is new clean oil in the Lister gen-set and new filters etc. thanks to Jeff. The old Lister seems to run better than ever tonight a I finish my last task, posting this blog..

Victoria Natural History Society Field Trip-Bird Count

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Thanks to the participants of the VNHS Field Trip today and especially to Daniel Donnecke for tabulating this detailed bird census list.

For the boat crossing between Pearson College and  Race Rocks, Daniel and the group on the boat made the following observation:

2 Great Blue Heron
110 Double crested cormorant
2 pelagic cormorants
160 rhinoceros auklets
45 common murre
3 pigeon guillemot
25 Heermann’s Gulls
8 Glaucous winged gull
20 California Gull
30 Gull sp.
4 Oystercatcher
4 Harlequin duck
1 common Goldeneye
4 mallard
1 red-throathed loon
56 greater white fronted geese (single flock crossing the strait)
20 band tailed pigeons
2 coopers hawk
400 turkey Vultures (attempting to cross the Strait but turned  around)
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American Pipit–Anthus rubescens photograph by Daniel Donnecke

At Race Rocks Daniel made the following census notes which he entered on eBird : 23 species (plus 2 other taxa) total:

4
Greater White-fronted Goose
11
Canada Goose
2
Harlequin Duck
17
Surf Scoter-(-east-bound)
42
Brandt’s Cormorant
8
Double-crested Cormorant
18
Pelagic Cormorant
25
cormorant sp.
10
Turkey Vulture- (-distant, ketteling)
16
Black Turnstone
2
Dunlin
1
Western Sandpiper
1
Short-billed Dowitcher
2
Common Murre-(-low number, most alcids closer to Vancouver Island)
1
Rhinoceros Auklet-(-low number, most alcids closer to Vancouver Island)
41
Heermann’s Gull
1
Western Gull
110
California Gull
1
Herring Gull
25
Thayer’s Gull
36
Glaucous-winged Gull
85
gull sp.
8
6
Savannah Sparrow
1
Song Sparrow

For other images of the species above see the Race Rocks Taxonomy

Field trip for VNHS

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Members of the Victoria Natural History Society accompanied ER warden Garry Fletcher on a field trip to Race Rocks this morning. Most of the members were avid birdwatchers so this time of year was ideal to view some of the many species that stopover at Race Rocks in their fall migration. See the census records submitted by Daniel Donnecke

 

 

 

Some of the birds seen on the trip”

wtattlerAlso on a trip on a ecotourism vessel, Liam Singh took this image of this  wandering tattler which we had missed.

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One branded california sealion was hauled out near the docks. The number was not clear.

Generating History

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High clouds settled in today and there were even a few minute raindrops for a short time in the late morning and early evening. Hazy marine air was evident along the coast to Victoria while across on the American side, it looked like it might really be raining in the Elwha Valley, Olympic National Park. The barometer continues its slow slide, which started last Thursday. The westerly wind is forecast again for tomorrow and it has already started.

A Humpback Whale feeding and resting to the south of the rocks and Killer Whales to the west, continued to draw whale–watching boats from Victoria and a total of 22 were noted in the Ecological Reserve today, mostly observing pinnipeds (Steller’s and California Sea Lions, Harbour and Elephant Seals). One commercial, charter, fishing boat also stopped by to watch the sea lions.

One of the Brown Pelicans came back today and some members of the Victoria Historical Society group saw it on their way out to the island. Three groups of twelve people each had historical tours of Race Rocks today.

The historians were very interested in Garry Fletcher’s on-site presentations about the history of Great Race Island, the 500 year-old plus, indigenous rock cairns and the 154 year history of the Lighthouse. Race Rocks is designated as a heritage site but that only means it is registered in Ottawa, not offered any conservation protection. The Race Rocks Ecological Reserve protects Race Rocks’ biodiversity and natural history and is part of BC Parks, but it does not include human history.

Federal law passed specifically three years ago to protect historical lighthouses does not apply to the six original Imperial Lighthouses, of which this is one. Race Rocks  light-tower pre-dates the confederation of Canada and it is the only stone-constructed light tower and one of a handful of standing stone structures this old, in western Canada. It needs protection. You can learn more about its’ fascinating history through this web-site under history. There is even historical video footage of the demolition of the historic, granite, light-keeper’s house in the 1960s by bulldozer and explosives. Fisgard Light which was completed six weeks before Race Rocks is a much less impressive brick tower and is endowed with full heritage protection by Parks Canada.

With 37 visitors to attend to, I did not spend much time making ecological observations today. I did a few maintenance chores before they arrived, washing windows, sweeping the main walk-way with an historical broom and weed-eating around the fly wheels of an old Fairbanks-Morse engine from the turn of the last century, with an historical weed-eater from late in the last century. There are quite a few pieces of old Fairbanks-Morse machinery lying around that could be of historical interest. Here is a YouTube link to a similar 1906 Fairbanks-Morse engine, running. What a beast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTiK2B88EJs

My last tasks of the day are to move deionized water, delivered with the guests by Courtney on MV Second Nature, up to the energy building, and to make fresh water with the desalinator, while the historic Lister generator tops up the batteries which are powered mostly by solar panels.

Trustee Tour Day

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The wind was out of the west today although it did swing to the southwest a few times and is trending that way now. The barometer has been slowly dropping for a few days. A few real clouds made another gorgeous sunset with a super crescent moon low in the west.

There were three tour boats today and one recreational fishing boat was noted fishing inside the reserve boundary today. They must have known as they stopped as soon as it was clear that they were being observed. There was military blasting today.

An animal census indicated 200 fewer sea lions than last week and brought to light 17 tagged and branded animals, with nine complete tag numbers recorded and seven partials. One of the Northern Sea Lions appears to have a badly embedded line around and growing into its’ neck. Only seven Glaucous–winged Gulls remain unfledged although some of the adults, presumably with failed nests are still carrying around nesting material and acting broody. At least one Pigeon Guillemot is bringing fish into the large boulder scree just west of the jetty, presumably they have a late chick there that they are feeding.

The struggle for sustainability continues and the solar panels contributed well to the island’s energy needs today even though it was not sunny all day.

Chris brought out a family group of 11 people with at least three generations today on Second Nature. They were delighted to make first hand observations of sea lion and elephant seal behaviour and enjoyed the beauty of the place.

Maintenance work consisted of the routine cleaning of solar panels, mucking out the waste, repairing the jetty fence line, collecting seawater salinity data and making biological observations. The generator was only run for an hour and a half, thanks to the solar panels.