Category Archives: Mammal Notes

Nice Day for a visit

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The wind dropped and sky cleared up today.  I counted 15 bald eagles on West rock and Middle rocks in the morning

Angus Mathews, Executive Director of the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre and long time champion of the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve, visited Race Rocks with some staff members from the Shaw Centre as well as Bruce Obee, freelance author and photographer, Todd Golumbia, Ecologist formerly with the Gulf Islands National Park and Garry Fletcher, Race Rocks Ecological Reserve warden. They came out on a Eagle Wing Tours boat with Brett Soberg, co-owner of Eagle Wing and long time tour guide, who carefully manoevered the sleek fiberglass boat, with three 250 hp outboards, alongside the unforgiving concrete jetty.

All images below were taken by Bruce Obee:

Angus and Garry both have a long history with Race Rocks so we had a good tour and heard some good stories. Todd noticed that one of the black oyster catchers on the south side of the island was banded, likely a banding he had done in the gulf islands. We weren’t able to get a reading on the ID number so I will try to follow up with this information.

The Shaw Centre has initiated the Salish Sea Institute.  To learn more about this important project check out this article by Bruce: http://bruceobee.com/readers-picks-2/ and this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SNhwzhk-oA&feature=youtu.be

One private sports fishing boat toured around in reserve today.

-9 visitors to the island today
-did some preparations for visitors including installing bumpers on jetty
-toured island with visitors
-cut, chopped, stacked firewood
-did some tinkering with boat house door. It has new hardware installed and is working better than before but is still derailing sometimes. Maybe installing some roller brackets at the bottom could help keep it aligned.
-observed nice sunset

Change of Guardian, Snow

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I got a ride out to Race Rocks today with Erik to start my winter shift.  Pedder Bay was covered in ice up to around the college’s main docks.  Courtney updated me on operating procedures and returned with Erik. There was supposed to be a chimney cleaner coming too but it has been snowing since this morning and it was too slippery.

Chunk was in the water by the jetty when we arrived and came up the ramp. He is so big that i thought it was the alpha male, Misery, at first. The scars, from getting chewed up by Misery, are visible on his back.

The snow stopped before sunset so I cleaned off the solar panels. The tilted panels were partly clear whereas the horizontal panels had accumulated about an inch of snow.

last day

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Clear skies. Strong NE winds. Cold

Despite the winter weather, it is still a busy place out here in the reserve. The female elephant seals are hauled out on Middle Rock. The male Elephant seal is next to the Science House. There were lot’s of Oyster catchers, and way more Cormorants then I was expecting. There are also still quite a few Sea lions (~470) in the reserve; mostly on the South side of Great Race and South Rocks. I finally got a decent picture of a Savannah Sparrow today; and the Sandpiper stopped long enough to get a good photo so I could finally ID it.

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Mirounga angustirostris: Taxonomy and Image Index File

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 4 videos of the elephant seal birth in 2016

 

 

 

Announcement in the Log – Ecological reserves –Update on Elephant seals   Birth of this years elephant seal pup occurred as scheduled on January 14, 2016, same date as 2014.

The Jan 2015 pup was stillborn.

The posts for the follow-up of this pup are at   https://www.racerocks.ca/e-seal-pup-born/

All posts on elephant seals at Race Rocks from the website. All posts on elephant seal births at Race Rocks

Male

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river otter

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Cloudy. Strong West wind.
2 Eco-tour boats.

I saw a river otter scurry down the rock bluff by the boat ramp. Earlier in the season there was one living under the pile of wood next to the tank shed, maybe it moved a little down the path and now lives under the crane platform. This could also be a critter that is leaving broken and emptied urchin shells on the end of the jetty.

Erik brought out David Hawley + adivsees in the late afternoon to spend the night.
The replacement solar panel arrived. And Erik took away fuel spill rags and the jugs to fill with deionized water for battery top up.

visitors

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Light winds. Clear skies.
Two Eagles this morning.
The Canada Geese have all left the reserve.
There are two elephant seals on the boat ramp.
 

Jamieson and Jer are out for the night
-Worked on SOPs
-Replaced boat ratchet winch
-Put the rest of the paving stones on the boat dolly

 

rainbows

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A day of squalls. Sunny periods, followed by sideways rain. Lot’s of rainbows all day.

This photo was forwarded on to me out at Race Rocks from a client on one of the eco-tour companies that operates out of Victoria and is a frequent visitor to the reserve. Because of the challenges in tranquilizing a marine mammal, there is very little that can be done for these animals. However, this incident highlights the fact that eco-tour companies can play a critical role in marine conservation by reporting these incidents and by educating their clients about issues surrounding marine debris. There are some great programs out there that focus on shoreline cleanups. Keep an eye out and volunteer for your local beach  cleanups. They usually happen in the summer and are a lot of fun.

For older posts in the log on the topic of sea lion entanglement or ‘rings’ see this link, and for newer incidences search the tag “entanglement“. For injured marine mammal photos from a previous eco-guardian Ryan Murphy see this flikr site.

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October month end

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Cloudy. Ligh winds. Calm seas. Fog over US mainland.
Final day of counting recreational fishing boats for DFO.
First day that I didn’t see any eco-tour boats

Mammal Count
Stellar Sea lions: 244
California Sea lions: 378
Harbour Seals: 15
Elephant Seals: 4

-Did Month-end paperwork
-Submitted last of the boat count data to DFO
-Entered seawater data
-Tidied boat shed loft

Bertha

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'Cranky Pants' (aka scabby molt) resting next to the desalinator shed. Her skin is healing and she is less cranky.

‘Cranky Pants’ (aka scabby molt) resting next to the desalinator shed. Her skin is healing and she is less cranky.

-Issues with underwater camera. Checked junction boxes and lines from jetty to tank house.
-Pressure washed South side of keepers house. Waiting for rain to fill water tank to continue.