Category Archives: Mammal Notes

Gale

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Overcast sky. Strong to Gale Westerlies all day. Force 6-7.
The barometer peaked midday and then dropped. The forecast is for the strong Westerlies to continue.
June has proven to be a very windy month. Usually a bit calmer in the morning, and blowing string West by mid-afternoon.
Big tides today: 0.1m low, 2.8m high. And strong currents: -6.7kn and +5.7kn. The flood is probably a lot faster at the surface with these strong West winds.

6 tour boats

Business as usual in the reserve today. The Gulls are getting very defensive of their nests. A few Eagles flew over throughout the day. There are 5 elephant seals behind the boat shed.

-Island wide putter/tidy
-Shift change prep

Back on Station

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Overcast, with moderate Westerlies in the am. Clear with Gale force West in the pm.
The barometer is on the rise. The Gale is forecasted to continue tomorrow.

Looks like business as usual for the animals in the reserve today. The cranking wind is keeping the Gulls on the ground. The few Elephant seals are behind the boat house in the lee of the West bluff.

Max came into the college this morning. I was back on station by ~0900.

Business as usual

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Fog in the am. Clear the rest of the day. Moderate Westerlies all day (Force 4), Strong Westerlies this evening (Force 8).
The barometer peaked around 1000 and then dropped. Forecast continues for calm mornings, strong West afternoons.

2 tour boats
3 halibut boats on the edge of the reserve
2 fishing boats passed through

Today was business as usual for the reserve animals. There were 4 California Sea lions and 1 Steller on the South seal rocks. The large male elephant seal wasn’t around. There are lots of eggs in the Gull nests.

-Max came out for some training for his stint next week as station relief while I am away
-We almost got the vhf antenna set up on the Science house, but had some ladder troubles
-Finished Keeper’s house bathroom painting
-Tidied Keeper’s house

 

Animal Census

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Clear skies. Glassy calm most of the day (Force 0), 23 W in the evening (Force 6).
Barometer peaked around noon at 1019 hPa, then dropped. Forecast is for strong West all of tomorrow.

2 tour boats
3 fishing boats passed through the reserve

Elephant seal: 6
Harbour Seal:112
California Sea lion: 1
Steller Sea lion: 0
Eagle: 3
Canada goose: 4 + 4 goslings
Guillemots: 23
Gull: 295
Oystercatcher: 5

I saw the pair of Caspian Terns again today. A MASSIVE male Elephant seal was on the boat ramp when I cam back this afternoon. He had lots of scars on his back so it could be the seal known as ‘Slash’. There are still 3 juvenile Elephant seals running amok on the boat ramp, and one adult female. There is only one lone Sea lion in the reserve, I think this time of year the California Sea lions head South to their breeding grounds, and the Stellers head North to their breeding grounds. The juvenile Eagle that has much more white mottling than typical was sitting on the crane today. There were 2 crows in the reserve in the afternoon.

Off station in the am for groceries
-Keeper’s house basement tidy-up

Swiftsure day 2

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Clouds with rain. Light winds. Force 3-4
The barometer has levelled out as of this evening. Strong westerlies forecasted for tomorrow, but for some reason today I just don’t think the forecast is right.

12 tour boats
2 halibut boats

The Swiftsure boats were steadily passing by all day with their colourful spinnakers flying in the light winds.

Business as usual in the reserve today. 3 Bald eagles in the am, two of the juveniles have really light coloured mottling. The Elephant seals are mostly behind the boat shed. ~20 California Sea lions have camped out on the rocks East of the jetty. The Canada Geese are roaming the island in a slightly angry and aggressive pack. The gulls are getting a bit defensive about their nest sites, which means they are starting to attack me as I walk around the island. Lots of jellies in the water by the jetty at high tide.

-finished bathroom mini-reno
-finished spring cleaning Keeper’s House

 

Injured Steller Sea lion

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Clear skies. Strong West winds. Force 6-7.
Barometer was rising most of the day, started to drop around 1200. West gale warning continues for tomorrow as a low pressure moves towards the mainland.

9 tour boats
2 recreational boats passed through the reserve

Yesterday, around midday, an injured Steller Sea lion arrived at Great Race. I saw it swimming through the current below the West cliffs while I was looking for transect pegs. It sussed out the boat ramp (which was full of Elephant seals) and then settled just East of the boat ramp, not far from the crane. It was in the same spot this morning, and stayed there all day. It has a salmon flasher caught in its mouth, and large wounds on both sides. Garry Fletcher suggested it might be an injury from a shark or orca bite. A lot of tour boats have gone through the reserve these past two days, right past this Sea lion, so I expect that it has been thoroughly documented in many people’s vacation photographs.

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Animal Census

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Clear skies, variable light to no wind. Force 0.
Barometer is falling. Forecast is for light to moderate Easterlies.

9 tour boats
2 recreational fishing boats passed through

Animal Census
Steller Sea lion: 24
California Sea lion: 8
Elephant Seal:30
Harbour Seal: 111
Eagle: 3
Canada Goose: 39 adults, 8 goslings
Gull: 180
Oyster Catcher: 10
White Fronted Goose: 1
Pigeon Guillemots: 34

This is the highest number of Elephant seals we have ever counted in the reserve. This morning there were 2 juvenile eagles, and one adult. I have found 3 Oyster Catcher nests: one by the Keeper’s House, one on the bluff West of the jetty, and one on the rocks by the energy building. The Cackling goose is gone. I took the boat past the West bluffs yesterday on my way home and there is no sign of Pigeon Guillemot nesting yet.

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Population Growth of Elephant Seals (Mirounga angustirostris) at Race Rocks, 1990-2014

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The following is a draft copy of a graph I am working on to illustrate the growth of the elephant seal population at Race Rocks over the past few years. The information has been retrieved from logs of current and past Ecoguardians and photos and notes taken over the years.

To be continued:  G. Fletcher

Elephant Seal census

Advisee group

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Patchy clouds. Strong Westerlies, low West swell. Force 5 most of the day.
Barometer on the rise since last night. Forecast is for more strong West.

4 tour botas
2 halibut boats on edge of reserve
1225 fly-over by a small plane

The Elephant seals have officially moved all the way to the other side of the path. They are now next to the water tank shed. Not sure why they decide to move, or how they choose the location, but they are busy creatures in their own way. There are lots of Gull nests taking shape all over the island. No sign yet of any of eggs or nesting though. There are still 3 Canada goose goslings being aggressively guarded by their parents.

Erik dropped off an Advisee group for the weekend.

-Checked battery bank specific gravity
-topped up batteries
-put voltage controller back together
-Ran generator and monitored inverters and battery bank

Making water with sunlight

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Light Easterly wind. Clear skies. Force 1.
The barometer is still falling, but no bad weather yet. It is supposed to blow in overnight.

The Steller Sea lions are now all on the East side of Middle Rocks. There are about 10 California Sea lions around the jetty. It was a hot day for the Elephant seals. All of them except Scabby-molt went down to the water at some point. Scabby-molt just splashed in a nasty puddle for a while. The littlest seal spent some time lying in the shade by the Tank Shed.

I was told when I started out here that you have to run the generator when the desalinator is on, otherwise you draw down the battery banks to potentially fatal levels. However, last month the generator shut down without me noticing and the desal unit ran for another hour and a half with no problems. So today I decided to test running the desalinator without the generator. I made sure the PV panels were clean and turned on the desalinator at 1100. I checked it at 1115 and 1130, and every half hour after that until 1530. It ran no problem, with a good charge on the battery bank. The lowest voltage reading was 51.6V and the highest was 54.0V (bare minimum charge is 48V, we don’t usually go above 56.0V). So i was able to do 4.5 hrs of water production (~400 litres) off of sunlight. The success of this test is good news, because it means that on a clear day with 14 hours of daylight we can run our highest drawing appliance and still get the island through the night just off of the PV panels. I’ll have to try it out on a cloudy day, and it might need to be monitored closely on shorter days. But it means that we are closer to our energy sustainability goals than we thought.

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