Category Archives: Ecoguardians Log

A Gale of a Day

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 25-30 knots West at 7:45
  • 40 knots West at 9:20
  • 43 knots West at 10:20
  • Down to 10-15 knots West by the evening
  • Sky: mostly clear, sunny from 12:45 on
  • Water: 1′ chop, later 3′ chop

Ecological

  • The two older elephant seals were gone by noon.
  • Only the weaner remains.

Boats

  • One eco-tour came by in the morning.
  • The amount of wake it was leaving made it look like it was going too fast?

Drizzly Kind of a Day

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 10-15 knots North, later NE
  • Sky: overcast, periods of soft rain
  • Water: 1′ chop
  • Nice view of Mt. Baker this morning.

Ecological

  • The same 3 elephant seals on Great Race

Boats

  • Only saw one eco-tour today.

 

Whale Sighting!

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 10-15 knots West, later 5 knots South, then 5-10 West
  • Sky: clear and sunny!
  • Water: rippled

Ecological

  • Census day!
  • Shortly before 15:30 as I was counting shorebirds, I heard a loud noise to my right. Glancing over, I was thrilled to see a whale surfacing in the South Channel. I managed to get some photos as it resurfaced farther south-west.
  1. California Sea Lions: 79
  2. Harbour Seals: 69
  3. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 33
  4. Elephant Seals: 3, all on Great Race, 2 young males, 1 weaner
  5. Whale: 1 (I think it was an Orca)
  6. Seagulls unspecified: 269
  7. Pigeon Guillemots: 45
  8. Cormorants unspecified: 30
  9. Double Crested Cormorants: 9
  10. Surfbirds: 37
  11. Harlequin Ducks: 27 (15 males and 12 females)
  12. Canada Geese: 24
  13. Black Turnstones: 20
  14. Bald Eagles: 20 (4 adults, 16 immature)
  15. Black Oystercatchers: 6
  16. Rock Sandpipers: 4
  17. Crows: 3

Boats

  • A few eco-tours passed by today.
  • Second Nature came out with food supplies for me.
  • A large navy sailboat passed by north of the reserve.

Visitors

  • Kyle and Jeff came out in Second Nature.

Other

  • One helicopter flew just south of the reserve in the morning.

Muddy Shingles

Posted on by

Weather

  • The 8am weather report.
  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 1 knot West, slowly rising all day until 20-25 k W after 21:00
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • Still the same 3 male elephant seals on Great Race.
  • The two larger ones returned from the water in the morning.
  • The weaner is still over by the base of the tower.
  • The spotted harbour seal returned to play near the jetty.

Maintenance

  • I collected up several muddy shingles from the middle part of the island.
  • Removed one large log from the ramp.

Boats

  • About 5 eco-tours came by today.

Turkey Vulture

Posted on by

Weather

  • The 8am weather report.
  • Visibility: 10 miles, 15+ later on
  • Wind: 10-15 knots North, continuous 25-30 knots W noon onwards
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: 1′ chop
  • Last night the foghorn sounded off between 23:00 and midnight.
  • This morning there was a pleasant rainbow over the reserve.

Ecological

  • At around 13:45 a Turkey Vulture appeared over Great Race.
  • It flew around the island for about 15 minutes, engaging in many aerial battles with the seagulls.
  • Apparently their appearance in the reserve at this time of year is uncommon.
  • There remained the same 3 elephant seals on Great Race today.
  • In the late afternoon a harbour seal was planked on a rock near the jetty.

Boats

  • 3 eco-tours came by in the afternoon.

 

Ecoguardian Changeover

Posted on by

Weather

  • Guy et Christine’s 8am weather report.
  • Visibility: 13 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots West
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: 1′ chop

03-13 Waves

Ecological

  • The elephant seal weaner was back on the grass between the buildings.
  • One juvenile male spent the day sleeping by the tower.
  • A second young male appeared in the afternoon and pestered the weaner.
  • I was pleased to spy several oystercatchers, a pair of harlequin ducks, two bald eagles, and a raven, amongst the usual seagulls, cormorants, and black turnstones.

03-13 Weaner and male

Maintenance

  • Guy, Christine, and Kyle gave me a tour of the facilities.
  • Various little changes here and there, but overall no massive differences.
  • Unpacked and settled in to the house.

Boats

  • Kyle and Second Nature brought me out around 12:30.
  • They departed at 1:20 with Guy et Christine.
  • 3 eco-tours came by in the afternoon.

03-13 Eco-tour 1 03-13 Eco-tour 2

Visitors

  • Kyle

Other

  • I am excited to be starting my fourth lengthy shift out at Race Rocks.
  • This is Riley Strother signing off and wishing you a goodnight!

Change of the time and Elephant pup gone

Posted on by

Weather

Very calm day ,overcast but some sun in the afternoon ,some rain too. A true Spring weather.  South East wind ,3 knots at 8:00 (we have to understand 7:00 of Yesterday usual nightmare for a few days ),Visibility over 13 miles,Atmospheric pressure:102.2KPA.

Vessels

Busier on Sunday :at least 5 boats around :recreational and eco tours vessels.We tried the air pump horn for the too closed one and it was efficient. they left…Made Guy happy!

Overflight

3 times the same helicopter

Ecological

This is really the news of the week : the little elephant seal pup is gone.!We couldn’t believe it and went 3 times around the rocks …We realised at the same time that more geese than the day before were around ! We counted 17  so that means 8 couples and a lonely one  and  for sure many eggs  next month!. The gulls too are everywhere… the nesting season is on. If the solar panels were still clean ,the rocks,roofs and alleys had already some white spots and it has been a lot noisier that even a week ago. The Sea lions with the clear sky Yesterday night were  very loud… Boss was back and 1 juvenile Elephant Seal

Maintenance

We have been busy with the general cleaning of the place . It is our last day.We have to leave this wonderful rock but welcome to Riley !

Census and gale again in the evening

Posted on by

Weather

At 8:00:10 North East wind ,calm and overcast .Rain in the morning and no wind at all around 10AM .The usual calm weather before a storm and  around 6:00PM to 11:00, The wind from West raised steadily from 20 to 40 knots . We noticed that the darkness is coming only after 6H30

Vessel and aeroplans

The morning was really calm so it was easy for me to notice that something was wrong…like a chainsaw running somewhere and looking by the window all around the rock you could see a small grey zodiac, full speed creating a panic all around!!! Finally It headed to Pedder Bay…End of the story. I Coast guard’s helicopter

Census

Eagles :2 but 5 on Sunday

Gulls:320

Steller Sea Lions :22

Californian Sea Lion:60

Elephant Seals:2 juvenile males and 1 pup

Harlequin Duck:21

Cormorants:90

Geese :8 on Saturday and 17 on Sunday!

Pigeons- Guillemots :around 35

Crow:2

Black turnstones:10

Harbour Seals:50

Oystercatchers:8 on Saturday but 18 on Sunday

It is interesting to notice that on Saturday with the coming storm the Island was not as busy as on Sunday where we could see more animals especially birds around.

 

 

 

 

 

Rainy and windy days

Posted on by

Weather

On Wednesday: It has been a calm day with a light west wind ,cloudy and some rain in the afternoon  and pretty cold around 4 degrees in the morning. On Thursday: North east wind light in the morning but a warning of gale  expected for the night. Grey and low sky and rain later in the day at 5pm the wind was already above 20 knots. In the night it raised slowly but at 3 in the morning we had gusts above 30 knots and at 7h00 AM  between 38 and 42 knots. on Friday it blowed to 3 PM but it was sunny and that gave a beautiful scenery …The sunrise is now at 6:36 and the sunset  at 6:11 Pm so really longer days…the atmospheric pressure was 101.2 KPA on Friday.

DSC_0211DSC_0081DSC_0151

Ecological

On Thursday we had  a new young male on the rock so that makes 5 Elephants seals around . The pup is very active now and if Chunk doesn’t come back he could survive and now it is really time for the birds : first the geese they are all around and can be spoted in very surprising place . Because of the rain lately we had nice pools and they enjoyed  long bathing sessions and feathers cleaning .Delicious to look at… but at the same time they are very dirty and we have to clean again the alleys every day. We count 5 couples and a lonely limping one . The second major group of birds are the gulls and today for the first time we had a Summer feeling : they were getting noisy and were scattered all around at their own precise spot. We even saw some picking herbs and branches and observed the first fights .With the rain  and the rising wind we noticed that all the Sea lions were gone . They came back at the end of the day (Friday)

DSC_0209DSC_0083DSC_0039

Grey day before the gale

Posted on by

Weather

East wind ,9 knots calm . Despite the quiet atmosphere the current has been very strong with a big swell coming from East . It would have been impossible to land Today and it has been a grey day cloudy with a low sky .It has been foggy on Sooke and Vancouver Island You could feel the change of weather and the gale expected for the night. At 7:30 PM the wind was already between 29 and 34 knots.and 42 at 9:00PM and 43 at 10PM

Ecological

The colony of Guillemots is back(around 70) around the jetty like usual fishing in the strong currents of the outgoing tide.There were still some Stellers Sea Lions but not more than 15 but very closed on the rocks under the yellow tanks. The geese were getting so busy and noisy . You could see them on the most surprising spots of the island. We had to clean the alleys again . they put so much mess..dropping everywhere.

other

No eco tour boats  and a blast from DND