Category Archives: Ecoguardians Log

Doing some Chores

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 15-20 knots West, later up to 35.
  • Sky: mix of sun and cloud
  • Water: 3′ chop

Ecological

  • 15 elephant seals on Great Race.
  • Quite social and entertaining today. Some of them even trying to follow me around, though they didn’t like the noise of the weed eater.
  • About half as many Canada Geese on the island today!

Maintenance

  • Did some more weed whacking along the paths.
  • Cleaned the solar panels.
  • Stacked some firewood.
  • Cleaned part of the students’ house with algicide.

Boats

  • 3 eco-tours today.
  • 1 rented pleasure craft was seen fishing to the East of Great Race, quite likely within the reserve area where no fishing is allowed.
  • The photos I took aren’t the best. I spied them fishing with the binoculars before I could grab the camera.

 

Strong Gale

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 0-5 knots W in the morning, by 14:00 it had jumped to 40+ knots.
  • The highest reading I saw was 48 knots, which is no longer a “strong gale” but a “storm”.
  • Sky: clear in the morning, dark clouds by evening.
  • Water: initially calm, but the wind kicked up massive waves!
  • Forecast: looks like more gale tomorrow.

48 knots winds! stormy waters!

Ecological

  • 15 elephant seals on Great Race.
  • A few California Sea Lions on the jetty today.
  • One lone crane fly was attached to a window for the second day straight. The gale blew it away.
  • The same elephant seal who blocked me outside yesterday tried the same trick again! Only this time I was already inside, so I wisely used a different door.

Maintenance

  • Goose work.
  • Weed eating. Or “whacking” if you prefer.

Boats

  • 6 eco-tours today.
  • 1 small pleasure craft had what appeared to be a family with young children fishing in the reserve. They departed very quickly before I could identify their boat, perhaps realizing their mistake independent of me?

 

Blocked out of the house!

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 0-5 knots North, later 10-15 West
  • Sky: clear
  • Water: calm

Sunset last night

Ecological

  • 15 elephant seals on Great Race today.
  • For about an hour either side of noon, I was blocked out of the house by one elephant seal who insisted on sleeping against the door.
  • The two deck entrance doors to the house were both locked, and seem to require keys no longer on the main key ring.
  • One of the female elephant seals has a tag on her flipper: 980S (?)
  • Update 13 May 2016: the flipper tag was upside down. It actually says: 5086
  • A new flower has opened today, the beautiful red Gladiolus imbricatus.

Gladiolus imbricatus 2

Maintenance

  • Finished cleaning the outside of all the windows of the two dwellings.
  • Set up the new weed whacker.
  • Cleaned the solar panels.
  • A bit of goose work.

Boats

  • At least 9 eco-tours came into the reserve today.
  • Didn’t get photos of them all, as I was blocked outside for some of them.
  • One small fishing boat was fishing to the east of Great Race; it looked like it might be just inside the borders of the rockfish conservation area?
  • Two fishing boats passed through the reserve at speeds that appeared to be too fast.
  • The first of these created a very large wake near the jetty; unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a photo of the peak wake.

Other

  • Two medium DND blasts today; 9:52 & 10:15~

SUP’ers and Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 0-5 knots South in the morning, 15 knots West in the evening
  • Sky: clear and sunny
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • Conducted a census.
  • Surprised I didn’t see any Black Turnstones today.
  • Saw one Northern sea lion branded 524R.
  1. Northern Sea Lions: 93
  2. California Sea Lions: 59
  3. Elephant Seals: 20 (15 on Great Race. 5 on Middle Rock)
  4. Harbour Seals: 6
  5. Seagulls: 355
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 101
  7. Canada Geese: 18
  8. Black Oystercatchers: 10
  9. Harlequin Ducks: 6 (5 male, 1 female)
  10. Cormorants: 4
  11. Bald Eagles: 4 (1 adult, 3 immature)
  12. Rock Sandpipers: 2
  13. Crow: 1

Maintenance

  • Cleaned more exterior windows.
  • More goose work.

Boats

  • 12 eco-tours today!
  • Some of them appeared to get too close to the sea lions.
  • Three uninvited SUP’ers (stand up paddle boarders) came by Great Race today.
  • After a short rest and a quick chat I sent them on their way again.

Other

  • Five DND blasts today.
  • Two medium blasts at 10:13 and 10:15.
  • One big blast at 10:17.
  • Two medium blasts at around 12:10.

Retrieval of the Lost Buoys!

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles in the morning, 15 miles rest of the day
  • Wind: 10-15 knots West
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: 1′ chop

Ecological

  • 15 elephant seals on Great Race today.
  • More Canada Geese on Great Race today.
  • Several fierce battles ensued between resident geese and new geese.

Maintenance

  • Cleaned some exterior windows on the student’s house.
  • Applied 30 second spray to part of the student’s house.
  • Scrubbed off the algae afterwards.
  • Goose work.

Boats

  • Kyle, his father, and Guy came out at 8:50 to drop off a weedeater and take a look at the old diesel transfer hose system.
  • On their return they pulled up the lost buoys!
  • 5 eco-tours came by today. Some of them seemed to be too close to the animals.
  • A fishing boat and a pleasure craft also seemed to be encroaching a bit.

Other

  • The lost buoys were retrieved today.
  • There was nothing significant attached to them.
  • 4 DND blasts today.
  • One huge blast at 11:01.
  • Three big blasts at 11:03, 12:17, and 2:34.

All West Wind

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 25-30 knots West
  • As I write this at 20:00 the wind has picked up to 35 knots
  • Sky: cloudy, now raining
  • Water: 4′ chop and whitecaps
  • Gale warning in effect until tomorrow.

Early morning Mt. BakerEarly morning Mt. Baker 2

Ecological

  • 15 elephant seals on Great Race today.

Seal FestPeaking over the Rocks

Maintenance

  • Some goose work this morning.

Boats

  • Saw the HMCS Winnipeg out in the straight.

HMCS Winnipeg

Other

  • Got a phone call today from Pearson College indicating that CBC All Points West was interested in interviewing me about my experience following Leicester’s Premier League win at a lighthouse on an island.
  • They found out about me from a comment I had on The Guardian’s live blog.
  • Anticipating a possible phone call from CBC Radio, I spent all afternoon near the phone, but nothing happened.

Glorious Food and Weather

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 10-15 knots NE, later West
  • Sky: mostly clear, sunny, warm!
  • Water: calm

Mount Baker!

Rainbow!

Ecological

  • 15 elephant seals on Great Race today.
  • They spent much of the afternoon playing in the water near the jetty.

Like a pack of sausages!

Maintenance

  • Goose work.
  • Added one entire 55 gallon barrel into the Tidy Tank.
  • Cleaned the solar panels.

Boats

  • One small pleasure craft came through the reserve today.
  • It looked like it might have been too close to the harbour seals on Turbine.
  • Kyle and Guy brought me two boxes of food today. Much appreciated and needed!

Other

  • I know this isn’t really related to the reserve, but I hope that Pam Birley, our honorary eco-guardian, is enjoying the celebrations of Leicester City’s first ever English Premier League win! Cheers to all you do for the reserve, and your city!

Sunny May Day on the Rock

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 0-5 knots NE, then S
  • Sky: clear and sunny!
  • Water: calm
  • Welcome springtime!

Ecological

  • The usual 15 elephant seals on Great Race today.
  • Thought I saw whales out West at sunset. I definitely saw something coming up for air and blowing jets of water.

Elephant seal salad

Maintenance

  • Wrote the April month end report today amongst the usual chores.

Boats

  • 5 eco-tours came by today.
  • Some of them appeared to be too close to the harbour seals on Turbine Rock.
  • The viewing distance for boats near marine mammal haul-outs has been accepted by the Ecotour community to be 100 metres.

Other

  • DND blasts at 10:14, 10:16, and 10:20.

Last Day of the April Month

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind 0-5 knots most of the day, 15-20 West in the evening
  • Sky: sunny
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • 15 elephant seals on Great Race today.
  • 10 of them were in the water playing at 6 AM.

E-seal rest time

Maintenance

  • Cleaned the windows of the eco-guardians house.
  • Entered the sea water data and sent it off to Peter Chandler.
  • More goose work.
  • Ran the desal.
  • Had to restart the communications in the tower after shutting off the generator.

Boats

  • 3 eco-tours came by today.
  • One black boat that looked like an eco-tour came by, but it only had one occupant,

Other

  • The mystery buoys are still appearing from time to time in Middle Channel.
  • However they don’t exclusively appear at low tides, so I am baffled.
  • Will have to get out there to remove them sometime.

No Boats Go

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-30 knots West
  • Sky: overcast in the morning, cleared up later
  • Water: 1′ chop

Ecological

  • 15 elephant seals on Great Race

Maintenance

  • Cleaned the solar panels
  • Started applying algicide to the building walls during a brief lull in the wind.
  • Didn’t go so well when the wind picked up again.
  • Scrubbed the walls after. Moderate improvement.

Boats

  • No boats in the reserve today.
  • A group of students were supposed to come out here, but Second Nature isn’t back from overhauls yet, and it was too windy for the smaller boats.