Category Archives: Ecoguardians Log

New Man

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I left Race Rocks for a dental appointment and returned to find a new man. The male elephant seal looks fantastic and has a smooth, shinny silver sheen to him.  He is still bothering the female elephant seal but at least now she is permitted a piece of subprime real estate, while he lounges in grassy hollow and near the house.

The new man asleep in the grass

Having a stretch

The male and female elephant seals by the boat ramp

Wildlife notes:

Only a few more gull chicks have hatched with the majority of the gull parents still incubating their eggs.  A different banded gull than that noted on June 20th was found on the southwestern shore. Both gulls were reported to researchers at the Salish Sea Gull Project… read more.  Two surfbirds and one black turnstone visited the northeast rocky beach and one newly fledged California gull on the rocks east of the jetty.

A gull egg starting to hatch

A gull nesting in the grass. I always wonder if she thinks I can’t see her.

A banded gull

Black turnstone and surfbirds

Young California gull

Facility work:

  • topping up battery fluid
  • filled generator with fuel in preparation for the next equalization charge, tidy tank refilled

Vessels:

A full count was not conducted today: > 3 ecotourism boats, 2 private

Weather:

ESE 4-9 knots most of the day, veering to W 17 by early evening.

Unwelcomed visitor

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The male elephant seal was disturbed this morning to find a new female in his favourite grassy spot.  He chased her around, bit her, climbed on her and sent her down the boat ramp into the water. This all took a while as both had to stop frequently to rest. I had a chance to watch him in the water – effortless!

Wildlife notes:

Still only a few nests have chicks hatching. The chicks that hatched on June 28 are growing rapidly.  They wander less than a foot away from their old nest and sit motionless and cuddled together when an approaching eagle sends their parents to the air.

3 day old chick.

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • cleaned windows
  • house cleaning
  • month end report
  • seawater data entry

Vessels:

17 Ecotourism boats

Weather:

Partly cloudy, winds SSW to WSW, 11 to 23 knots, high of 16 degrees.

Bare belly

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More house deep cleaning today – getting behind the furniture and doing baseboards. A quiet day for the elephant seal in the grass. He didn’t move than a few meters, mostly just rolling over. His belly is now mostly bare but his back is still covered.

Wildlife notes:

1 surfbird, 2 Caspian turns, 2 harlequin ducks and several eagles were sighted. Did not see any others gulls near the house with newly hatched chicks.

Surfbird

Two days old. Hungry for lunch.

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • thistles – new record, a 13″ root
  • house cleaning

Vessels:

18 Ecotourism boats, 5 private, 3 kayak

Weather:

Westerlies 9 knots and partly cloudy in the morning. Westerlies 15, overcast and scattered showers in the afternoon.

Gull chicks are hatching

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Wildlife notes:

The first gull chicks are hatching! I may not be so happy about this in the coming days as the gulls become less tolerant of my presence (I got nailed again today). Just as some checks are hatching, a few gulls are still building nests. This week while lowering the flag before a gale, I noticed a new nest with one egg on the west side of the flag pole base.  Now two sides of the pole could be inaccessible should they protest.

The elephant seal has become interested in the crawl space under the Keeper’s house. He’s pushed against the crawl space door and succeeded in dislodging it. I also caught him glancing in the basement window. I hope he never sees his reflection.

Facility work:

We had trades people at the site today.  The woodstove and chimney were cleaned and the fire bricks replaced. This inspired me to do some cleaning inside the Keeper’s house that didn’t require much water like windows and other shiny things.

  • cleaned solar panels
  • cleaned Keeper’s house windows
  • cleaned inside Keeper’s house
  • thistles

Visitors:

  • Darren and Tavin, WETT Certification
  • Matt, Metal worker
  • Hugo, Volunteer at Pearson College

Vessels:

21 Ecotourism boats, 2 private

Weather:

Winds variable, seas calm, high of 17 degrees.

Moving house

Windy Day

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It was a windy day – blew the door off the Derrick Shed and the hair off the elephant seal’s head. The electric fence suffered from the winds over the past few days and needed replacement strands in two sections.

Wildlife notes:

The pigeon guillemots were around in the morning and mostly left again by 7pm. I found what I assume to be a pigeon guillemot nest in the rocks at the west end of the helipad.  Judging by the egg orientation, the little bone and other items which get moved around, it seems to be an active nest. Two least sandpipers were spotted on the northeast shore.

Least sandpiper

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • replaced 2 sections of electric fence
  • thistles – new record, an 11″ root.
  • topped up battery fluid

Vessels:

10 Ecotourism boats, 1 private

Weather:

WNW 13 and clouds in the morning, clearing early afternoon with winds building to WNW 33 by late afternoon.

June 26th Census

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Mammals

sea otter: 1
California sea lion: 4 (2 South Islands, 2 Great Race Rock)
elephant seal: 1 (male)
harbour seal: 139 (60 South Islands, 9 South Seal rocks, 29 Middle,  24 Turbine, 17 North Island)

Birds

bald eagle: 4
cormorant: 14
gulls: 415
oyster catcher: 8 adults, 2 chicks
pigeon guillemot: 5
barn swallow: 4

Wildlife notes:

Only 5 pigeon guillemots remained on the island today. The elephant seal has large areas of dark skin showing and spent his day in the same spot. It was a quiet day.

Facility work:

The overcast conditions necessitated running the generator for 4.5 hours.

  • cleaned solar panels
  • thistles
  • kindling

Vessels:

9 Ecotourism boats, 1 private

Weather:

Windy day. Low cloud, distant fogbank, winds W 29 in the morning with gusts to 36 by mid-morning. Cloudy throughout the day, scattered showers. Winds WNW 19 in the early evening.

DND:

Several blasts today.  No obvious signs of distress.

White stuff

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The male elephant seal is an unsightly mess. His hair is falling out, he is covered in flies, foaming from the nose and has a poo smear running the length of his belly from dragging himself through his excrement. He probably can’t see well, is slow moving, uncoordinated, and can’t grab a hovering gull <1 foot away from his open mouth.

To be fair, we are seeing him at his worst. In the sea, this creatures is an extremely manoeuvrable master diver and hunter! He can easily hold his breath for 20 minutes and dive to 800 m (maximums of up to 100 min long and 2 km deep have been recorded). His eyes have adaptations for low light, his vibrissae (whiskers) can detect vibrations, he can reduce blood flow to his extremities, has a large blood volume with a high red cell count and can store extra blood in his abdomen and spleen to release slowly during his dive. And that white stuff oozing from his nostril?  It is a pulmonary surfactant that reduces the surface tension of the fluid in the lungs but it also acts an anti-adhesive. When he dives to great depths the pressure is so high his lungs collapse and this surfactant stops the lung tissue from sticking together allowing the lungs to later expand again.

References:

The Remarkable Non-Stick Lungs of Elephant Seals, The Common Naturalist – read more

The Northern Elephant Seal, by Veronica Pagowski, Northwest Wildlife Preservation Society – read more

Wildlife notes:

The gulls were very testy today. I got nailed with a wet, warm, smelly bomb right in the head and across my glasses, and it was first time I had raise my broom to intercept a diving gull. The first chicks should hatching any day now.

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • thistles
  • survey and brush the electric fence line
  • vacuum and clean main basement room

Vessels:

5 Ecotourism boats, 4 private

Weather:

Sunny day, calm seas, winds light and variable 4-7 knots.

DND activity:

Three blasts heard and seen from Bentinck Island. No obvious signs of distress.

 

Digital Dexterity

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An elephant seal moving on land is anything but graceful. Their rear flippers are not useful for locomotion on land. They use their front flippers to propel themselves forward on their bellies. Their forelimbs or front flippers however, are capable of precise, controlled movements, perfect for getting that itchy spot or wiping away the flies.

Wildlife notes:

Single eagles visited today. The gulls would really have an easier time if they just worked together in both scaring off the eagles and dealing with the steamroller elephant seal. While all the gulls are flying about and screaming bloody murder, only one brave gull chased the eagle on two trips around the Great Race and the surrounding islands.  The male elephant seal has lost more hair on his nose, around his eyes and the hair on his body is coming off in patches.

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • thistles

Vessels:

7 Ecotourism boats, 2 private

Weather:

Foggy morning, temperature 10 degrees, winds WSW 10. Daytime high of 12 degrees, winds steady 8-15 knots from WSW or W.

Low tide

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A quiet Sunday morning on land but a raging 6.3 knots of currents in the sea at 8:30 am. After cleaning the solar panels and second breakfast, I took a wander to experience a near zero meter low tide at Race Rocks. There are too many wonders to describe or photograph so I will share only one observation: the number of gooseneck barnacles is astounding!

A surge channel lined with gooseneck barnacles

Wildlife notes: 

The lacerated Stellar sealion from yesterday was not seen today. The male elephant seal is progressing with his molt. The most noticeable differences from yesterday are on his face and flippers. The year old elephant seal paid a visit today and enjoyed a sleep on the boat ramp.

Year old female elephant seal

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • clean windows on both houses
  • thistles

Vessels:

15 Ecotourism boats

Weather:

Partly cloudy, WNW 28 in the morning, W 15 in the early evening.

Progne subus: Purple martin – The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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On June 20, 2045 , Race Rocks Ecoguardian Christine Chourmouzis found a purple martin in her house

she writes in her log: Two purple martins were spotted on top of the tower and on roof of the Keepers’s house around noon.  At 3 pm I discovered a purple martin had made its way down the chimney pipe into the wood stove. I am so glad the ashes were cold and I was able to get it back outside! 

 

  • Purple martins suffered a severe population crash in the 20th century widely linked to the release and spread of European starlings in North America. European starlings and house sparrows compete with martins for nest cavities. Where purple martins once gathered in the thousands, by the 1980s they had all but disappeared. (Wikipedia)

They have excellent aerodynamic  maneuvering control as they fly quickly over open areas catching insects with a wide opening mouth. They are valued for their voracious appetite for mosquitoes and flies. With their food being flying insects, the island certainly provides an abundant supply of the kelp fly Coelopa vanduzeei

Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Sub-phylum: Vertebrata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Hirundinidae
Genus:Progne 
Species: subis. (Linnaeus, 1758)
Common Name: Purple martin

Physical Description:

 It is the largest swallow in North America. 
With an average length of 20 cm (7.9 in) and a wingspan of up to 38 cm (15 in), the purple martin is the largest amongst the 90 odd species in the family Hirundinidae.[9]
Purple martins are sexually dimorphic. Adult males are entirely black with a glossy steel blue sheen, the only swallow in North America with such coloration. Adult females are dark on top with some steel blue sheen, and lighter underparts. Adults have a slightly forked tail.

Relationship with humans:

Continual maintenance and protection is required, as European starlings and house sparrows compete with martins as cavity-nesters, and will fight with martins over nest sites. Thus, unmonitored purple martin houses are often overtaken by more aggressive, non-native species.[3] Purple martin proponents are motivated by the concern that the purple martin would likely vanish from eastern North America were it not for this assistance.[24]( Wikipedia)

Other Members of the Class Aves at Race Rocks 
taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.

June 20 2024 Christine Chourmouzis – Ecoguardian