After an agitated night no more wind early in the morning. It has been a beautiful, sunny day. The light morning wind blew to 32 knots around 4:30 PM and was at 36 knots in the early evening and got down at only 30 knots at 9:30. It has been absolutely gorgeous here: the sea was at its best: a mix of blues, greens and white. We had closed to 40 watching boats around it’s why I said that we got the feeling of a fish in an aquarium but the day was so beautiful that it was great to share so much beauty. The smell coming from the Rocks around was amazingly strong! We still have one lonely little female Elephant seal .She has a white running nose. I guess it ‘s usual and means nothing serious.
Category Archives: Mammal Notes
A noisy place
It has been a lovely day with westerly wind rising from 2knots to 22knots in the evening. The desalinator has been working those last 2days but thanks to the solar panels no need of generator for 10 days. We have some issues with the desalinator in the sense that we have to wait 25 to 45 minutes before reaching the good level of salinity. It looks like we will have to change the big filter pretty soon (once a year). Guy changed the connector of the seawater pump that was broken.
An eagle this morning tried to fly by the island but no way the seagull army was ready. At date we found 3 eggs never hatched and 5 chicks bodies (one was floating in a kelp bed in the water). The bird I identified as a solitary sandpiper was in fact a whimbrel. (No doubt after checking the photograph I took). A seaplane flew over, not directly across the main rocks but over the South rocks. The island those last days and nights became a very noisy place maybe because of the full moon. We can’t tell which are the noisier ,gulls or sea lions? I tell you it’s a pretty amazing concert!
Unusual use of the solar panel water bucket
It has been a gorgeous summer day, not too warm here with the fresh breeze coming from the ocean. We found another Chick’s dead body under the gasoil tank, which makes the total number to 5 dead ones. We guess that is the job of a river otter because they have all the same look, guts facing the sky? We had Whale watchers as usual around, 15 in the day and in the strait a navy vessel, a tugboat pulling a wood load, and 2 RCMP zodiacs could be seen. Those last days it’s just evident that we have a bigger birds population and new species too like 5 Harlequin Ducks swimming in the south rocks and a flock of around 50 shore birds that could be sandpipers. The young middle size elephant seal was spotted swimming alone in the south rocks which were a pretty busy place, animated all day long by the new little harbor seals. This young one came back and spent the night behind the boat shed. Around 10 AM I saw the spout of whales a few times closed to the green buoy .I never saw the animals by themselves and pretty soon no more spouts.Going to double check the solar panels in the afternoon (getting dirty quickly enough !) I discover for my pleasure that the 5 geese had their neck in the soft water bucket under the panels. Those ones are everywhere ,all the time going back and forth. They even went swimming in the race currents. Amazing busy birds!
A Californian Sea Lion on the railway
Nice weather, almost no wind and very sunny We were expected more wind and it came but late in the evening and raised to around 30 knots. Like usual it was a west wind.
Floyd and Chunk have not been in sight for a while now I would say that Floyd disappeared 7 days ago and Chunk 5 days ago. The little one left 3 days ago. The 2 big one were at that time really slim and it would be not surprising if they would be gone for good. Just the new young female is still around and yesterday we had the surprise to find this little elephant seal (in the rocks) closed to female Californian seal taking a nap on the railway. She was very curious of us and it was really a pleasure to spend time looking at this so gracious animal. She stayed there for at least 5 hours because she was just at the same spot when we came back for the water sampling. We really had to go on the jetty and she couldn’t handle to have us just above so she softly glided in the water.
At the same time closed to the jetty we were the witnesses of the first bath of a gull chicken. Nice! And on the other side you could see 2 beautiful shorebirds called Ruddy Turnstone easy to identify. Lot of life is going on around.
From the eco guardians house windows in the morning I could count 87 chickens. Now they are big enough and are not anymore closed to their birth spot. Actually they are really everywhere and on the high rocky spot too. At date we found 3 dead bodies of young gulls. The last one was on the stairs of the house.
Those days we had a lot of whale watchers around, closed to 20 each day.
July 24th to 26th:Calm weekend
On Friday we had our first rainy day. When we came back from town the rocks were not so white. Everything around looked cleaner but the smell at around 50m from shore was the same unique strong mixture of crab shrimp and fish. On Saturday a nice and cool day many boats around 50 were fishing in the strait along the Canadian coast.
Those days the number of elephant seals on Race Rocks is not stable. The 2 big ones have been away since the 23rd and the 2 young females come and go. Maybe they will be all gone pretty soon. lately the 4 of them didn’t go far on the island and used to rest closed to the boat shed going often back and forth to the water.
No visitors.
July 23rd: animals
Waking up we discovered the first sea lion of the season resting on the jetty. Now we can see more shorebirds almost everywhere on the rocks. The little chicks actually looking more like chickens are now using their wings to help them when they climb the rocks. They follow the adults even on steep spots. Beautiful view. Some are even trying to fly jumping and flapping the air at the same time. The adults are still very cautious around them and even the eagles don’t try to come around. We never crossed anymore the rock without our yellow helmet and one hit me the other day and it has been a pretty strong impact.
We heard one detonation coming I guess from the DND territory.
July 21th: Oil transfer from the big tank
We had a West wind at 23 knots in the morning with a gale warning expected in the afternoon. A very good thing when it’s windy like that the solar panels are staying cleaner than usual.Guy has been busy emptying the big tank. He filed up 3 barrels of 200liters each, he completed the new small tank for the generator (450l when full) and 1 barrel of 150l.I went to the top of the tower (training) and looking at the shadow from on the small window I realized that that tower was a perfect huge sundial! I never thought about that before.The elephant seals maybe because they are a lot thinner go down the railway at least 3 times a day. Right now they stay behind the boat shed most of the time.
July 20th : A new resident
Just around 9 in the morning we saw a new female elephant seal. She was bigger than the small one already there. We were just pleased. It is so interesting to watch them. The sea lions are now closer. A dozen of them were on the south side of the Rock and some Californian one are on the middle Rocks. Many newborn harbor seals spend their energy playing in the water.
The wind never stopped rising from 33 knots around noon to almost 40 knots around 2PM. This situation kept us inside for the rest of the day.
Early in the morning we saw the big rescue boat going slowly. A few maybe 3 or 4 whale watchers came. It was a beautiful sunny day and the sea a gorgeous sight.
We were expecting visitors from the college but no way it was really too windy to tie to the dock.
Water Sampling using the old method
Once a month we need to be sure that every tool is still in good order.It was interesting to see the different results and if the new method is more accurate, we got exactly the same number for the water temperature: 11.2 Celsius. When we went to get the water in the bucket we heard a splash and first thought that it was a sea otter because it was very quick but just following was the most adorable creature: a small harbor seal.It might be 50 cm at the most. That one has not been born long ago! Happenings never stop on Race Rocks!
Birdy stories
On Sunday, which was a sunny but windy day, we found one dead chick, the first one and beyond the student house on the rocks we discovered some newcomers, two beautiful little birds. By deduction and with the pictures sent to Garry, we came to the conclusion that they were 2 Western Sandpipers. A change from gulls!
On the 13th when we went to clean the solar panels we discovered the fresh, bloody, half eaten body of a pigeon – guillemot. We think that it was a Sea otter’s job because of the hidden place where we found it. Busy night!