Category Archives: Mammal Notes

Prep for shift change

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Weather: Light South wind in the morning becoming West 30 -40 knots in the afternoon with rain.

dsc_0128Ecological:  Seagulls, Black Turnstones and Bald Eagles have all started feeding on the elephant seal carcass. With the rain, a lot of elephant seal blood washed out over the rocks and into the sea.  I removed the flipper tag from the carcass, we will mail it to DFO to handle.

Boats: 2 ecotour

Maintenance:

  • filled day tank and pumped one barrel of diesel into generator tidy tank
  • added propane tank to main house
  • clean/pack

 

green tag, C-586

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Weather: West wind, 30 knots reaching up to 40 knots. Visibility limited by rain.

Ecological: While doing the Christmas Bird count I came across a female elephant seal on the West side of Great Race.  She is flipper tagged, green, c-586 and appears to be moulting. She also appears to be stuck in between some rocks.  With an iron bar I was able to move a rock that was against her neck, this exposed a nasty wound where the rock had been embedded into her flesh.  With the impediment removed I left her to see if she would be able to move freely.  When I returned a few hours later she had only changed position by 90 degrees.  I could see signs of abrasion on her underside as well.  I took photos and sent a marine mammal injury report to the DFO and a veterinarian at the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Centre.

Boats: 1 ecotour

Maintenance: continued firewood stacking, basement tidying.

christmas bird count and census

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Birds:

  • Turnstone: 12
  • Dunlin: 4
  • Bald Eagle: 13
  • Raven: 2
  • Harlequin Duck: 22

     

  • Black Oyster Catcher: 13

 

  • Cormorant (pelagic and double crested): 57
  • Gull: 67

Pinnipeds:

  • California Sea Lion: 106
  • Northern Sea Lion: 94
  • Elephant Seal: 2 male, 1 female green flipper tag c-586
  • Harbour Seal: 10 (probably more, West Rock)

 

 

elephant seal scuffle

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Weather: North wind, 20 knots, mostly clear sky.

Ecological:  The two male elephant seals have been back and forth between West Rock and Great Race over recent days.  Chunk has always appeared to be the dominant male, the other male stays around the periphery of the island and seems to avoid him.  Today though for the first time I saw Chunk being chased by the other male.  They had fought, both males had tooth mark cuts on them from their interaction.

Maintenance:  Moved firewood to basement, stacked.

Census

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Weather: 10 knot N wind

Ecological:

  • Due to cold temperature and frozen ground/puddles birds that scavenge in the mud (turnstones) and depend on fresh water (geese) have been absent lately.  Today temperature is above freezing and ground is mostly thawed.
  •  Census:
    • Peregrine Falcon: 1
    • Harlequin ducks: 8
    • Bald Eagles: 7
    • Cormorants: 82 (see photos, poor lighting for distinguishing pelagic vs double crested)
    • California sea lion: 84
    • Northern sea lion: 33
    • Black Turnstone: 1
    • Sparrow: 1
    • Elephant Seals: 2 females and 1 male (Chunk) on West Rock, 1 male on Great Race
    • Gulls: see photos (Gulls NE and Gulls West Rock)
    • harbour seals: 25

Boats:

  • 1 dive boat
  • 2 sailboats passed by the outside of the reserve

Maintenance:

  • replaced in line water filter in basement of keepers house
  • continued clean up in basement, built firewood storage rack for better circulation.

clear sky, humpback

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Weather: steady west wind, 20-30 knots.  Mostly clear sky.

Ecological:

  • One humpback whale was visible near the reserve for several hours beginning around noon.
  • 3 Male elephant seals have been staying mostly on Great Race, traveling individually to middle rock occasionally.
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Humpback between North Rock and William Head

Maintenance: Flushed rainwater barrel pipe to cistern.

Boats: 1 ecotour, caused some disturbance of sealions near jetty as well as on South Islands.

Guardian shift change

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Guy left the station around 800 in the morning. We met around noon at the college and debriefed. I came out in the whaler and landed around 1400.  I will be here for the month of December.

Ecological

  • There were 3 male elephant seals on Great Race when i arrived, 2 of them are adult including Chunk, the other appears to be adolescent.  There was another male elephant seal on West Rock.
  • There are more sealions in the reserve than I recall from previous years at this time and they are more present on Great Race as well,  including a persistent congregation on and around the jetty.

Boats

  •  3 ecotour boats after I arrived in the afternoon.  Two of them appeared to be within 100 m (DFO setback guideline) of sealions.

Last Full Day of the Shift

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 15-20 knots W, later 10 knots E, then 20 knots N
  • Sky: sunny in the morning, cloudy in the afternoon
  • Water: calm
  • Too cloudy to see the large moon tonight.

Ecological

  • 3 elephant seals on Great Race.
  • The little female did not return with the others.
  • I observed two armadas of cormorants in the afternoon.
  • Then they all flew away!
  • Also one young seagull is wandering around with a broken wing.
  • I think it is the same gull that I saw a couple of weeks ago.

Maintenance

  • Added one 55 gallon barrel of diesel to the tidy tank.
  • Finished hauling the various unused pieces of the electric fence back to the tank shed.
  • Stacked some firewood.
  • Cleaned the house for Guy.
  • Published the July, August, September, and October seawater data sheets on the website.

Boats

  • One boat appeared to be inspecting the Rosedale Rock buoy.
  • Two eco-tours came by.

Other

  • This is my last log post out at Race Rocks, until next time.
  • Hopefully I will be back out here in the springtime!
  • Signing off now. Good luck Guy (and Alex)!

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