Category Archives: Mammal Notes

Blooming Biodiversity

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Weather:

  • Visibility 15+ NM
  • Sky clear
  • Wind 15-20 NE diminishing to 5-10 SE
  • Sea state: calm
  • Temperature 22.5°C

Visitors/Marine Traffic: 

  • A trickle of pleasure crafts outside of the reserve, 4 inside of the reserve
  • Yesterday a very small vessel came to the reserve with 3 people aboard. They approached each outcropping very closely, scaring the animals into the water.
  • This evening a boat with 6 passengers sped through the reserve. They passed the resting sea lions very closely, and sped through the passage where many were swimming and fishing.
  • On Friday Greg visited to work on the generator, and Nick came too
  • There have been large commercial barges steadily passing through the straight. Since the weather has been so calm we can hear them inside the house, even though they are nearly 8 km away.

Ecological:

  • The elephant seals have been taking daily soaks in the shallow water surrounding the jetty in this warm weather.
  • In the shallow and warm waters this week we have been spotting schools of small fish. The larger animals in the water seem to ignore them completely.
  • There have been blooms of jellyfish passing by in the currents, mostly water jellies and the small “sea gooseberries” which seem to glitter in the light due to the the tiny hairs (cilia) that pulsate to move them through the water.
  • A few harlequin ducks spent the evening in the reserve on Friday

Census: 

  • 16 Canada Geese
  • 8 Oyster Catchers
  • 4 Crows
  • 8 Elephant Seals
  • 300 Seagulls
  • 2 Cormorants
  • 2 Bald Eagles
  • 48 Sea Lions
  • 9 Harbour Seals

Marine Mammal Rescue

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On November 4th and 5th the Marine Mammal Rescue Team was here to help out a couple California sea lions that were entangled. They arrive on the 4th and after doing a thorough search around the island there were no tangled sea lions around so we were afraid they may have left the area but thankfully the team stayed the night and the next morning they were able to find two sea lions who needed some help getting the garbage off of their necks. The first animal was on the north east side of island up on the rocks and Marty was able to dart him without him fleeing into the water. His tangle was pretty bad but thankfully the team was able to help him out before it got any worse. I’ve seen him hanging around the same spot since he’s been untangled.

The second one was in a bit of a tougher spot he was already half in the water so he jumped right in as soon as the dart hit him and went for a swim. The dart was very helpful in making him easier to spot as he swam around until he was sedated and the team was able to get a hold of him to help him out.

Overall it was a very successful trip and I am so glad the Marine Mammal Rescue team was able to come out here and help these guys out. I have not seen any new tangles since and I’m keeping an eye out for the two that are on the mend.

 

Humpback Whales Breaching!!!

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Wind from the east at 25 to 30 knots

In the light house around 9 a.m. and noticed splashing to the south.

My binoculars caught the flukes of the whales hitting the water.

I watched and counted the flukes smashing the water 10 times.

Then the whales started breaching.

I counted 50 breaches. When I counted in the teens the 2 whales breached in synchrony, for about 3 breaches. Then one whale seemed to take a break and I saw a few breaths but the other kept leaping! After I counted 36 breaches both whales seemed to take a breath ( I saw 2 breaths ) then started up again until I counted 50.

So beautiful!

 

It was a wild, windy day

 

 

 

banded immature eagle

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wind 11 knots north east

sky clear

water calm visibility >15

Started the day watching the sunrise from the light house as I have for the past 7 days. This was the first morning whales were not visible. the water surface was like a mirror. There was no wind. Many groups of birds, between 20 and 50, were headed south. In the course of 30 minutes I saw over 10 groups. They looked like Alcids and I suspect common murre. There is a poor picture below but when I enlarge it I can make out the markings..

 

 

I saw what I believe was a dolphin twice. Just a blow much smaller then the whales and almost no animal visible. I only saw each blow because I was looking through binoculars at the birds, otherwise I would have missed it.

About an hour later I took this picture of an immature eagle eating a gull and when I looked online I could see its’ tag.

The humpback whales were visible again around 10 a.m. and I watched 2 of them for about an hour. There were lots of pectoral fins,dives and mouths breaking the surface followed by bubbles.

 

Maintenance

Greg and Guy came out today and filled the water tank, pressure washed around the generator house. We cleaned up some oil that is leaking in the generator house from the coast guard abandoned machinery. Brought fuel up to the generator. This week I brought almost all the wood from under the porch into the house and today I started moving the pile of driftwood by the jetty up under the porch. Also I am planning to have the lighthouse stairs swept by tomorrow (20 left to go). Electric fence mending continues daily.

 

Whale Watching boats

I have been pleasantly surprised at how respectful the whale watching boats have been. There has not been one incident of the sea lions plunging into the ocean. The boats go slowly and seem to watch the sea lions behaviour and veer away if they notice any activity suggesting anxiety. BUT TODAY after I had watched the humpbacks a boat zoomed over way too close and kept following the whales. they did not drift but actively pursued the whales for over an hour within 10 metres of them or closer. I took lots of photos and will send them to Tyron Pile. it was upsetting to watch. Maybe a new driver?

 

sick California sea lion

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Yesterday I spotted this sea lion when I was clearing the jetty

Today he looks worse. He is lethargic and thin. He does not ambulate normally. I did contact the marine mammal vet but I am not hopeful there is anything to be done. I am wondering about the diagnosis. Is there such a thing as a fractured baculum? I noticed online that genital cancer is a diagnosis in marine mammals.

There are over 1000 sea lions here and most look amazingly robust. it is expected that there will be disease and I noticed on this blog that many pictures of ill animals are posted. As this is my first time coming to stay here I was overwhelmed by the many many posts of sick, injured and neck banded sea lions. It is heart breaking but now that I am here and wrestling daily with the feisty beasts I am relieved that the posts, although necessary, certainly do not represent the majority! That is why I have added a sunset picture!

 

 

 

 

 

Barred Owl Sighting

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Weather: 

  • Sky: Overcast, a bit of sun midday
  • Visibility: 10-15+ miles
  • Wind: 5-20 knots NE
  • Water: swells less than a metre

Boats/Visitors: 

    • A few boats cruising by today, mostly tour boats
    • Greg came by today with a group of visitors

Ecological

  • I saw a barred owl last night around 7pm when I went to turn off the generator but it was too dark to get a photo, here is a link to our taxonomy page on the barred owl and the last time it was sighted in November 2010,
  • There was also a greater yellow legs running around which flew off before I get a photo of it
  • The elephant seal has been hanging out around the jetty for a few days but took off yesterday and I don’t expect to see her returning anytime soon
  • plenty of sea lions around and I’m having a difficult time keeping them away from the lighthouse, they come back as soon as I am out of their line of sight, would like to extend the fence to protect the burial cairns and lighthouse but we just don’t have all the material we need, we’ll see about that next season though

Branded Sea Lions

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Weather: 

  • Sky: Overcast
  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 5-15 knots NE
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors: 

    • A few boats cruising by today, mostly pleasure crafts and a couple tour boats and even a couple sailboats
    • No visitors today but yesterday Greg came by with a couple guests and also help with some decluttering moving fuel around and firewood, now that its getting a bit colder out I will be using the fireplace a lot more
    • There is a particular dive boat that has been coming around almost daily with divers who are getting pretty close to the animals

Ecological

  • there are quite a few of branded sea lions around, I have photos of a few of them but I could not clearly make out a couple of them but managed to get some clear shots
  • the young elephant seal is still here which is unusual but I expect her to be on her way soon
  • we also have a stellar who appears to have something around his neck
  • and a few adorable young stellers on the rock in front of the crane

Tagged Elephant GE103

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Weather: 

  • Sky: Clear and sunny
  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 5-15 knots NE
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors: 

    • A few boats cruising by today, mostly pleasure crafts and a couple tour boats and even a couple sailboats and kayaks on this beautiful day
    • Greg will also be dropping by this afternoon to bring some water and food

Ecological

  • the tagged elephant seal that the previous ecoguardians named Eric turns out to be an Erica, she is female
  • It is unusual for a juvenile elephant to be sticking around an area for this length of time, typically they would be moving along the coast now
  • There are so many sea lions right now and it seems she does not mind the smell or the noise but it isn’t unusual for elephant seals and sea lions to be hanging out together

Beautiful Day

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Weather: 

  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Sky: Sunny
  • Wind: 5-10 kn NW
  • Water: Flat

Visitors/Boats: 

  • More boat traffic on the nice days and there was also a dive boat with a couple divers on the east side of the island, it looked recreational

Ecological

  • The little steller is still around and adorable
  • seems like even more sea lions today but that might be  because they are so concentrated around the helipad and the jetty but at least they are away from the burial cairns and the generator room/lighthouse

Maintenance

  • Fuel and water have been delivered recently and hopefully in the next week we get more decluttering done around the island and start bucking up some more firewood so we have enough to last the year since driftwood does take months to dry out enough to be usable