Category Archives: Island Visitors

Last week of May’s Photos

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Big Steller - Little Steller

Big Steller – Little Steller

These are some of the more interesting photos the last week. I was able to lend a hand to the International Boundary Commission  technician who set up a GPS unit on the top of the tower in order to accurately determine the location of the US/Canada border.. to with in 4 decimal places! Why? Because we can!

Pigeon Guillemots

Pigeon Guillemots

 

The Guillemots are starting to nest along with the Glaucous-winged Gulls

Pinky in the Flowers

Pinky in the Flowers

 

 

 

 

 

This little female found a nice spot to spend a few days….

Sunset Gull

Sunset Gull

Swiftsure-Driftsure

Swiftsure-Driftsure

 

 

 

 

 

Stunning sunset…

 

 

 

 

 

A parade of sailing vessels…

Rambunctous Youth

Rambunctous Youth

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of jousting from these young males

Rambunctous Youth

Rambunctous Youth

FoER Field Trip ——–May 12, 2013

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The Friends of Ecological reserves sponsored a field trip to Race Rocks On Sunday May 12. Chris Blondeau, Director of Operations for Lester Pearson College operated the boat and Garry Fletcher led a  group of ten on a tour of the reserve. The following gallery of images shows some of the activities.

references:
The tagging of elephant seals indicating their origin:

The hurricane of 2006

 

 

Bertha is Back

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And more beautiful than ever!

Bertha and gang avoiding the strong Westerlies

Bertha and gang avoiding the strong Westerlies

Bertha's Scar

Bertha’s Scar

This morning 5 elephant seals were on the island, probably seeking some degree of shelter from the 35 knot Westerly wind that has been blowing all day. 4 are juveniles, but in the middle of the pile lies Bertha looking sleek and glossy-brown. She is easily identified by the large scar on her chest and her clouded left eye. Last year she arrived on Great Race on April 15th. I think she has been in the reserve for a little while now but I had not been able to identify her while she rested on Middle Rocks.

 

 

 

Biding their time...

Biding their time…

 

We appear to have about 300 Glaucous-winged Gulls on the island this spring. My estimate is that there are about 25% fewer individuals than last spring, when I counted about 200 breeding pairs. Other animals noted in the past few days have been several Dunlins, a small flock of Barn Swallows, a Whimbrel and what resembled a Solitary Sandpiper. I also saw for the first time a Mink (Mustela Vison) on Great Race; quite a swim for the little athlete!

Erik and I did an oil and filter change on the generator. Hopefully it will be the last one and we will soon be able to afford to install a wind generator to provide the last 20% of energy we require. We run the generator about 2.5 hours a day this time of year.

We had 3 groups of student this month, 2 roofers, 3 techs from Environment Canada, and several college staff. Tour boats and fisherfolk are being seen more regularly in the reserve as the nicer weather begins. We had to ask one group of fishers to pull their lines and leave the Reserve. Infractions are almost always due to ignorance and I am lobbying the government to post a few signs which, unattractive as they may be, could go a long way towards ameliorating those infractions.

Birdyfull Sunset

Birdyfull Sunset

Marine Traffic

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With the calm warm weather this week and approach of spring there has been a marked increase in vessel traffic in the reserve this week.  We have been averaging 5-10 vessels a day, mainly eco tour boats like this large one in the photo.springtideRecently there was an incident where a boater traveled through the reserve well in excess of the 7 knot speed limit.  Fortunately we have a good relationship with Pedder Bay Marina and I was able to contact them and someone spoke with the operator.  In my experience, the staff and management at the marina are always very cooperative and are willing to work with us to ensure that boaters are aware of the rules and that repeat offenders get reported or restricted from using their facilities.  Thanks Pedder Bay Marina!

Roofing, Flooring

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I returned to the island on March 26 after spending about a week off island.  While I was away a 55+ knot wind hit the island. The Guest house has been losing shingles all winter, this time it took a whole section of the roofing and tar paper off and blew it all over the island.  The guardian said he heard pieces hitting the main house.  A roofing crew has been out here each day since Tuesday and have nearly finished installing a new metal roof.  There has also been two guys working on installing new vinyl floors in the guest house.

Project Week

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cleaningTowerThere have been 6 Pearson College students staying at Race Rocks this past week for Project Week.  They have been helping out with various projects on the island including scrubbing algae off of the siding of the buildings and painting baseboard trim for the guest house. On Friday Garry Fletcher visited the island to talk with students about history and biology.

During their stay there have been some stormy days with wind speeds gusting over 40 knots from the West.

painting

cleaning cleaningSign

Crane work

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Erik was out today to help fix the crane and offload garbage from removing old carpet and linoleum from the guest house.  The cable had come off the upper pulley so Erik climbed the boom to get it properly seated again while i belayed him off the diesel transfer tank.

ErikCrane
Once fixed we were able to offload the two bulk bags and sling load onto Second Nature while at a low tide of 5.6 feet.  I went off island to unload the waste from the boat into a dump bin on campus.

RenovationWaste

 

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Winch house and sling load. Image captured from web cam (5) by Garry.

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Image capture from tower web cam by Garry

Pink-tagged female elephant seal

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Early November finds us at the end of the Sea Lion occupation of Great Race Rock. There are perhaps only 50 or 60 remaining in the Reserve and they have moved back to the smaller offshore islets. And though I shall miss them I admit to feeling some relief that the 7 weeks of the cacophonic onslaught is over! Never would I have imagined that I would have lived so close (almost under) a posse of Steller and California Sea Lions and have the opportunity to learn their ways. But it is also a bit lonely/solitary again; the misty grey days of November, the enveloping fog banks, glassy swells rolling up the Strait… there is something a bit ethereal about the whole experience living on the edge of the world.

Solitary Steller on North Race

A half dozen young Elephant Seals continue to occupy Middle Rock with random forays over here. Yesterday there was a little fellow in the boathouse, and a new individual with a pink tag!

Elephant seals enjoy the comforts of the boathouse

 

 

 

Tagged elephant seal female N472

Many visitors have been dropping by including Pearson College Director David Hawley and his advisee group for a weekend, and a visiting group of trustees from a UWC school in Germany. I am puttering away at a few maintenance projects, keeping the energy and weather systems functioning, and cleaning up after the Sea Lions. They have coughed a pink, fishy mucus all over the white walls of the buildings and it dried and adhered in the late September sunshine. A charming souvenir of their stay!

 

More coming soon….

 

 

 

 

Students snorkelling with sea lions

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Student snorkelling with Sea Lions

This week I am lucky to have the company of some great students from Pearson College. Along with the privilege of living out here for a week, they are helping me with some of the maintenance duties and sharing some adventures. Unfortunately for them the sea lions have all moved to their side of the island and are surrounding their house, making for some noisy nights! But they have front row seats to a spectacle that is better than any TV show.

These days birds are showing up in winter plumage and look different from when they passed through in the spring.

A Dunlin in winter plumage.

We’ll have an animal census for you in just a couple of days… stay tuned.