Category Archives: Island Visitors

Visitors of All Kinds

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Weather: 

  • Wind 5-15 knots SW
  • Sky: Mostly grey, cloudy. Some rain and fog. Periods of partial clearing.
  • Water: Rippled, fairly calm.
  • Visibility: 10-13 miles

Boats/Visitors: 

  • Guy came to pick up our weekend visitors who headed home this afternoon. It was nice to have some company out here on the rock!
  • There were only a handful of whale watching boats in the reserve today since it was quite cloudy and rainy. We were surprised to discover a vessel hovering within 50 meters of a whale within the reserve this evening.

Ecological: 

  • While taking a water temperature reading we accidentally spotted a humpback whale hovering in the main channel! It stayed for about 30 minutes, surfacing approximately every 5 minutes in the same spot, facing towards the current.
  • The seagull chicks have continued to hatch and there are too many to count. They blend in with the yellowing grasses extremely well and have grown to be twice their original size in only a week. We noticed that one chick near the fuel shed hatched but did not survive, while its two nest mates appear to be healthy.
  • There has been one male stellar sea lion on middle rock for the past few days, and appears to not be moving much at all.
  • The goslings are nearly full grown now, and have been swimming

Census

  • 230 Harbour seals
  • 350 adult seagulls and many, many chicks
  • 4 moulting male elephant seals
  • 1 male stellar sea lion
  • A handful of pigeon guillemots
  • 8 adult oyster catchers, at least 7 chicks spotted
  • 1 humpback whale
  • 2 families of geese, and one additional adult pair
  • 1 nest of barn swallows

Gulls Galore!

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Weather: 

  • Wind: 15-25 knots westerly
  • Sky: Partly cloudy, grey
  • Water: Rippled, notably strong currents
  • Visibility: 10 miles

Boats/Visitors: 

  • We had a large group of visitors from the college this afternoon. The seagulls were surprisingly less aggressive, presumably because of the size of the group.
  • We have some guests staying for the weekend.
  • There were fewer whale watching boats in the reserve today, mainly in the evening.

Ecological: 

  • The seagulls have become very aggressive towards us. When we move around individually they fly towards us.
  • There have been quite a few harbour seals around on the outlying rocks.

First Hatching Eggs!

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Weather:

  • Wind: 10 – 20 knots
  • Sky: Overcast, short showers
  • Visibility: 10 miles
  • Water: Rippled

Boats/Visitors:

The winds have calmed down over the past couple of days, so we have been seeing more whale watching boats, about 10-15 per day.

Today Greg came with a college vessel with two tanks of water and one yesterday.

Ecological:

The oyster catcher eggs have hatched! Today we spotted two chicks with the two parents on the rocks in front of the crane nearby the jetty. The adults were picking food from the waters edge and carrying it to feed the chicks. We spotted one more pair with one chick on the other side of the jetty. It seems that only one of their two eggs hatched.

We are expecting the seagull eggs to hatch soon as well, as we found a deceased chick on our pathway yesterday that was nearly fully developed. The nearby shell appeared to have been pecked as well as the chick itself. There are eagle feathers scattered around the island from the eagles that have been swooping through the flocks of seagulls, but we are inclined to suspect that another seagull broke this egg due to the apparent pecking.

There are four large male elephant seals here moulting, and while they are fairly docile they have a hard time hearing us coming, and can be aggressive if they are taken by surprise.

Maintenance: 

We are still waiting on the new desalinator, but now have a sufficient fresh water supply thanks to Greg! He also brought us a new foot for the water pump which we installed. We continue to collect shingles as they blow off of the roofs awaiting repair. Kai is excited about his new project: repairing a ceased water pump.

Divers And Disappearing Eggs

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Weather: 

  • 5-10mi visibility
  • Clear skies
  • 25kn wind
  • Small whitecaps

Boats/Visitors: 

We had three tours from the college over the last two days, two today and one yesterday. Now, with the seagulls becoming more aggressive every day, non-essential visits restart after nesting season.

The whale watching continues, with roughly 10-15 boats a day – most coming in close (inside of 25m from the jetty, and other areas of greater rock). The recreational/rental boats are becoming more frequent, and sometimes appear to be operated a bit dangerously. Today we saw a small speedboat boat going against the current passing the jetty, and a large tour catamaran came around the corner and they both had to manoeuvre quickly to be a safe distance from each other

We noticed a dive boat in the marine protected area, with five to six divers on it. After holding position in middle channel for about 15 minutes they entered the water.

Ecological:

The injured gosling is nowhere to be found, yesterday and the day before it could be seen taking shelter in the long grass beside the house. The oyster catcher nests seem to have been robbed, perhaps by the seagulls. The eggs are missing and the adult birds seem distressed.

We’ve been seeing bald eagles every few days. They kill seagulls and leave them dismembered all around. When an eagle appears, the gulls take flight as one big cloud and seem to try and chase the eagle away.

Maintenance:

We were able to get up and running in the Race Rocks whaler. Following the other boat between the two trips today, we went to the college dock and back for training purposes.

An Injured Gosling

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Weather: 

  • Clear Skies
  • 15mi visibility
  • 10kn NE wind
  • Calm water

Boats/Visitors: 

There have been lots of whale watching boats over the last few days, most coming within 25m of greater Race Rocks. Greg has came from the college a few times to resupply diesel (today) and water (yesterday).

Ecological:

There are three large elephant seals here, and today they were all resting in the water at the end of the boat ramp. One of the goslings from the younger family of geese appears to have injured its food or leg. It has separated from the rest of them over the last few days, and can be seen limping and moving slowly, it is unable to keep up with the rest.

The DND has been blasting, it is very loud and sometimes occurs four to five times in a day. It startles all of the animals, and the birds take flight.

We have noticed some barn swallows flying around out front window. On closer inspection, they appear to be nesting under our eves where a soffit panel has blown out of place.

Maintenance:

We have replaced the hinges on both doors of the water tank shed, and removed old hinges fasted or corroded to the doorframe. Opening and closing the doors is easy now, and with a touch of anti-seize paste on the hinge pins it should stay that way.

We cleaned the solar panels for the first time in a while. The desalinator being out of commission means pressure washing is too resource intensive – we found an old hand pump sprayer, and found it to be very helpful for cleaning while conserving water.

Census:

  • 5 elephant seals
  • 12 geese
  • 2 seal lions
  • 190 seagulls
  • 8 oystercatchers
  • 2 barn swallows

Extreme Tides & Extraordinary Critters

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Weather: 

  • Visibility: 10-14 miles
  • Wind: 10-20 knots
  • Sky: Slightly cloudy clearing to sunny and clear
  • Water: rippled

Boats/Visitors: 

  • Yesterday there were 20+ whale watching vessels in the reserve.
  • Today we had a group of 9 from Pearson College visit and tour the island.

Ecological:

  • Lately we have been having very low tides, and today we spotted two gumboot chitons on the jetty track in an area that would not normally be exposed.
  • The younger goslings are learning to swim!
  • The two large male elephant seals appear to be beginning to moult. Today we noticed that one of them has some cracking skin in his chin area.
  • Over the past few days we have noticed more bald eagles, and notably a few young ones.

 

 

Whales! (and census)

Gallery

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This gallery contains 4 photos.

Weather:  Visibility: Very clear, 15 miles Wind: 15-25 knots Sky: Mostly clear, some clouds Water: Choppy, white caps Boats/Visitors:  Today a contractor visited to fix our internet/ phone cable in the main residence. At the same time Corey, two BC … Continue reading →

Spotted: Turkish Marsh Gladiolus!

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Weather:

  • Visibility: 5 miles
  • Wind: 12 knots
  • Sky: Overcast in the morning, clearer skies in the second half of the day
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors:

Greg came again on Tuesday to bring us more water, we get a few hundred litres per load so our main water tank is over half full again. There has been a steady trickle of tour/whale watching boats, approximately 10-15 per day.

Ecological:

The two moulting elephant seals are still here, and they appear to be in less pain and are doing well.

The seagulls continue to get more and more aggressive, we’ve noticed that their eggs go missing. Yesterday, near the main path to the jetty there was a nest containing one egg and a territorial pair of gulls. Today, they are off the nest and the egg is missing.

Near desalination building we found a great example of what appears to be Gladiolus Imbricatus in bloom. According to a previous log post by Garry Fletcher: “Originally from south-eastern Europe/Turkey, it was introduced in the garden of an early lightkeeper and has been growing unattended here for over 50 years.”

While doing our daily seawater salinity and temperature sample, we were able to get a great picture of two sea lions on the jetty that were basking in the evening sun.

Wind, Fog, and Eggs!

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Weather: 

  • Visibility varied today. This evening visibility is excellent, 10-13 miles. This afternoon we were surrounded by fog and could not see even nearby north rock (less than 1 mile).
  • Wind this evening is blowing 30-40 knots. This morning was calmer, 12 knots.
  • Sky clear. This was interrupted mid afternoon by thick fog.
  • Water white capping and breaking into spindrift.

Boats/Visitors: 

  • Today was fairly quiet, with only a few whale watching boats in the morning which seemed to mostly keep a good distance. Greg visited this afternoon to deliver water as we are still waiting for the new desalinator. A former student visited as well.
  • The swiftsure international sailing race passed Race Rocks on Saturday, so we have been seeing the boats trickle back towards Victoria over the past couple of days.
  • Yesterday we spotted a rental boat from Pedder Bay Marina attempt to pass through the channel between our main island and the south islands.
  • Lately whale watching boats have been present viewing the elephant seals and sea lions. Many have appeared to be well within the 100m distance from sea lions required by DFO.

Whale watching boat disturbs sea lions on jetty

Whale watching boat approaches sea lions on rocks

Ecological: 

  • Two evenings past we noticed the first seagull eggs of the season. We noticed that one nest was missing its egg the next morning. The seagulls have become quite aggressive towards us but only if we get too close to their nest by accident.
  • There are still four elephant seals on the island, two moulting, the juvenile male from this past spring, and an older female.
  • The sea lions have remained on the SE side of the island, although fewer than what we were seeing before surrounding our jetty. They have been enjoying surfing the waves periodically.
  • Another oyster catcher nest spotted on the SW side.
  • We have been finding dead seagulls presumably killed by the bald eagles that have been hanging around. They especially like to sit on top of camera three.

Seagull guarding its egg and nest.

Other: 

  • Except for in the occasional presence of fog, we have been able to operate the island completely with solar on clear days.
  • We were in need of batteries so missed a few days of salinity/temperature data collection.

Jumping Into the Deep End

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Weather 

Visibility: 5-10 miles

Wind: Less than one knot

Sky: Overcast with lots of fog

Water: Calm

 

Boats/Visitors: 

This morning students from the college took a dive into the deep end and swam from our jetty back to Pearson’s dock. Along with the swimmers, early this morning we greeted their coach, a team of Pearson staff supporting them in multiple vessels, as well as a team of kayakers to accompany them and a military college vessel.

We have observed very few whale watching boats over the past few days. It has been very foggy.

Over the past few days we have had groups of students visit with their families and a couple of outside groups as well.

Swimmers, safety boat, and accompanying kayakers.

Quite a few kayakers started their journey to rack rocks at 05:30 this morning, just in time to be greeted by the sea lions waking up.

 

Ecological: 

The two families of geese are still on Race Rocks, with the older gaggle starting to learn how to swim! The nest outside our door appears to have been abandoned after the seagulls cracked the eggs last week.

The elephant seals are starting to leave, only 4 were counted these past couple of days, two moulting. The larger elephant seal with one cloudy eye is gone.

Fewer sea lions lately, but with a lot of visitors it seems that most of them moved to the SE side of the island, away from the busy jetty. As well, there has been some very loud DND blasting.

We spotted an oyster catcher nest on the NE side of the main residence. Currently there are two eggs but one appears to be cracked.

Oyster catcher nest nestled in the rocks.

 

Still haven’t seen any seagull eggs, although they continue to seem less and less afraid of us as they build their nests.

Census Report:

115 seagulls

9 sea lions

7 geese, 12 goslings

2 seals

4 oyster catchers