Category Archives: Marine Vessels

Divers And Disappearing Eggs

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Weather: 

  • 5-10mi visibility
  • Clear skies
  • 25kn wind
  • Small whitecaps

Boats/Visitors: 

We had three tours from the college over the last two days, two today and one yesterday. Now, with the seagulls becoming more aggressive every day, non-essential visits restart after nesting season.

The whale watching continues, with roughly 10-15 boats a day – most coming in close (inside of 25m from the jetty, and other areas of greater rock). The recreational/rental boats are becoming more frequent, and sometimes appear to be operated a bit dangerously. Today we saw a small speedboat boat going against the current passing the jetty, and a large tour catamaran came around the corner and they both had to manoeuvre quickly to be a safe distance from each other

We noticed a dive boat in the marine protected area, with five to six divers on it. After holding position in middle channel for about 15 minutes they entered the water.

Ecological:

The injured gosling is nowhere to be found, yesterday and the day before it could be seen taking shelter in the long grass beside the house. The oyster catcher nests seem to have been robbed, perhaps by the seagulls. The eggs are missing and the adult birds seem distressed.

We’ve been seeing bald eagles every few days. They kill seagulls and leave them dismembered all around. When an eagle appears, the gulls take flight as one big cloud and seem to try and chase the eagle away.

Maintenance:

We were able to get up and running in the Race Rocks whaler. Following the other boat between the two trips today, we went to the college dock and back for training purposes.

An Injured Gosling

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Weather: 

  • Clear Skies
  • 15mi visibility
  • 10kn NE wind
  • Calm water

Boats/Visitors: 

There have been lots of whale watching boats over the last few days, most coming within 25m of greater Race Rocks. Greg has came from the college a few times to resupply diesel (today) and water (yesterday).

Ecological:

There are three large elephant seals here, and today they were all resting in the water at the end of the boat ramp. One of the goslings from the younger family of geese appears to have injured its food or leg. It has separated from the rest of them over the last few days, and can be seen limping and moving slowly, it is unable to keep up with the rest.

The DND has been blasting, it is very loud and sometimes occurs four to five times in a day. It startles all of the animals, and the birds take flight.

We have noticed some barn swallows flying around out front window. On closer inspection, they appear to be nesting under our eves where a soffit panel has blown out of place.

Maintenance:

We have replaced the hinges on both doors of the water tank shed, and removed old hinges fasted or corroded to the doorframe. Opening and closing the doors is easy now, and with a touch of anti-seize paste on the hinge pins it should stay that way.

We cleaned the solar panels for the first time in a while. The desalinator being out of commission means pressure washing is too resource intensive – we found an old hand pump sprayer, and found it to be very helpful for cleaning while conserving water.

Census:

  • 5 elephant seals
  • 12 geese
  • 2 seal lions
  • 190 seagulls
  • 8 oystercatchers
  • 2 barn swallows

Extreme Tides & Extraordinary Critters

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Weather: 

  • Visibility: 10-14 miles
  • Wind: 10-20 knots
  • Sky: Slightly cloudy clearing to sunny and clear
  • Water: rippled

Boats/Visitors: 

  • Yesterday there were 20+ whale watching vessels in the reserve.
  • Today we had a group of 9 from Pearson College visit and tour the island.

Ecological:

  • Lately we have been having very low tides, and today we spotted two gumboot chitons on the jetty track in an area that would not normally be exposed.
  • The younger goslings are learning to swim!
  • The two large male elephant seals appear to be beginning to moult. Today we noticed that one of them has some cracking skin in his chin area.
  • Over the past few days we have noticed more bald eagles, and notably a few young ones.

 

 

Whales! (and census)

Gallery

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This gallery contains 4 photos.

Weather:  Visibility: Very clear, 15 miles Wind: 15-25 knots Sky: Mostly clear, some clouds Water: Choppy, white caps Boats/Visitors:  Today a contractor visited to fix our internet/ phone cable in the main residence. At the same time Corey, two BC … Continue reading →

Spotted: Turkish Marsh Gladiolus!

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Weather:

  • Visibility: 5 miles
  • Wind: 12 knots
  • Sky: Overcast in the morning, clearer skies in the second half of the day
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors:

Greg came again on Tuesday to bring us more water, we get a few hundred litres per load so our main water tank is over half full again. There has been a steady trickle of tour/whale watching boats, approximately 10-15 per day.

Ecological:

The two moulting elephant seals are still here, and they appear to be in less pain and are doing well.

The seagulls continue to get more and more aggressive, we’ve noticed that their eggs go missing. Yesterday, near the main path to the jetty there was a nest containing one egg and a territorial pair of gulls. Today, they are off the nest and the egg is missing.

Near desalination building we found a great example of what appears to be Gladiolus Imbricatus in bloom. According to a previous log post by Garry Fletcher: “Originally from south-eastern Europe/Turkey, it was introduced in the garden of an early lightkeeper and has been growing unattended here for over 50 years.”

While doing our daily seawater salinity and temperature sample, we were able to get a great picture of two sea lions on the jetty that were basking in the evening sun.

Wind, Fog, and Eggs!

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Weather: 

  • Visibility varied today. This evening visibility is excellent, 10-13 miles. This afternoon we were surrounded by fog and could not see even nearby north rock (less than 1 mile).
  • Wind this evening is blowing 30-40 knots. This morning was calmer, 12 knots.
  • Sky clear. This was interrupted mid afternoon by thick fog.
  • Water white capping and breaking into spindrift.

Boats/Visitors: 

  • Today was fairly quiet, with only a few whale watching boats in the morning which seemed to mostly keep a good distance. Greg visited this afternoon to deliver water as we are still waiting for the new desalinator. A former student visited as well.
  • The swiftsure international sailing race passed Race Rocks on Saturday, so we have been seeing the boats trickle back towards Victoria over the past couple of days.
  • Yesterday we spotted a rental boat from Pedder Bay Marina attempt to pass through the channel between our main island and the south islands.
  • Lately whale watching boats have been present viewing the elephant seals and sea lions. Many have appeared to be well within the 100m distance from sea lions required by DFO.

Whale watching boat disturbs sea lions on jetty

Whale watching boat approaches sea lions on rocks

Ecological: 

  • Two evenings past we noticed the first seagull eggs of the season. We noticed that one nest was missing its egg the next morning. The seagulls have become quite aggressive towards us but only if we get too close to their nest by accident.
  • There are still four elephant seals on the island, two moulting, the juvenile male from this past spring, and an older female.
  • The sea lions have remained on the SE side of the island, although fewer than what we were seeing before surrounding our jetty. They have been enjoying surfing the waves periodically.
  • Another oyster catcher nest spotted on the SW side.
  • We have been finding dead seagulls presumably killed by the bald eagles that have been hanging around. They especially like to sit on top of camera three.

Seagull guarding its egg and nest.

Other: 

  • Except for in the occasional presence of fog, we have been able to operate the island completely with solar on clear days.
  • We were in need of batteries so missed a few days of salinity/temperature data collection.

New Eco-Guardians, Many Visitors, and Catastrophic Moults

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We’re Mara and Kai, the new Eco-Guardians. We’re very excited to be on Race Rocks. It’s been a busy few days (we arrived Monday), but lots has been done so far. Now that we are settling in, we’ll be sure to log post more frequently and with pictures!

Weather:

Visibility: 20 miles

Wind: 30 knots S

Sky: Overcast

Water: Waves up to half a metre, whitecaps

Boats/Visitors:

Over the last few days there has been traffic: visitors including people working on costal radar, the weather station, seismic monitoring, and guests of Pearson College. The costal radar antenna had to be shipped back to its manufacturer to be recalibrate, and is now working as intended.

Some whale watching boats have been getting close, well inside of 100m of the animals. They usually make more distance if they can see us. Lots of traffic today specifically, well over twenty visits by whale watching.

Maintenance:

The desalinator is still broken so we are conserving water, and our drinking water is being brought from Pearson College. Earlier this week they brought a fire hose to pump clean water into the tank when we get low. A new four wheeled cart was brought to facilitate safer diesel fuel transfers between the shed by the jetty and the generator room.

Ecological:

One elephant seal has been on land near the boat ramp for days now. It seems to be undergoing catastrophic moulting, a process in which they shed all of their fur as well as the underlaying skin. They appear to be sick, but we’ve been assured it’s normal.

Yesterday’s Census:

9 elephant seals: youngest one is still here on our lawn, two moulting

About 30 sea lions

2 families of geese with 6 goslings per

5 additional pairs of geese (one laid eggs today that we had to collect and addle)

About 200 seagulls- they are starting to build nests and are becoming more aggressive

About 20 pigeon guillemots

A handful of oyster catchers

T 562 pink tag, pregnant

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Weather: Overcast, light wind. Showers in the afternoon.

Ecological:

-Around noon a large, pregnant looking female elephant seal hauled up the boat ramp and onto the island.  She is the first pregnant female to show up on the main island this season and is possibly the first flipper tagged pregnant female to come here.  She has a pink flipper tag (T562) which indicates that she was born at Point Reyes or the Farallones Islands near San Francisco. One of the male elephant seals took immediate interest and rushed over to her, there was some physical contact, some biting (him) and lots of wailing and wriggling (her). She did not seem interested at first but eventually they were lying side by side and seemed calm.  The larger male seemed only semi-interested and let them be.

-The Polar Adventurer, a crude oil tanker, passed by on its way from Anacortes to Valdez.  It is in the photos below with a male elephant seal in the foreground. The Alaskan Legend, also crude oil tanker,  passed by on its way from Valdez to Cherry Point.

Vessels: 2 tour boats

Maintenance:

-cut wood

-work on month end report, records and write up

-send in December sea water sample data

 

 

Pigeon Guillemots, winter plumage

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Weather: mostly clear sky and light wind from the West.

Ecological: 

-A flock of Pigeon Guillemots with winter plumage (photos) were in the foreshore by the jetty, these were the first PGs I have seen on this shift.

-The Snow Bunting was out and about (photo)

Vessels: 2 tour boats and 1 private/sports fishing boat

Maintenance:

-cut firewood

-moved fuel barrels

-stocked up firewood in basement

-continued to look in to energy system issues.

Puddle seal

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Weather: visibility dropped in the morning as a wet west wind picked up with driving rain.  Wind reached up to 40 knots and pushed in large swells.

Ecologcial:

-As the rain accumulated and low spots started to fill with standing water, the female  e-seal (C887) didnt seem bothered about being in a puddle.

-One of the larger male e-seals move up under one of the house decks where i could get an easy photo of the scar pattern on his back.  There are so many (4) large males now that it is hard to keep them sorted.

-The Valrossa, an oil/chemical tanker, passed by on its way from Guaymas, Mexico to Cherry Point, USA

Maintenance: Finished energy assessment report.