Category Archives: Ecoguardians Log

The Weekly Animal Census

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Today, it was time for the weekly animal census on Race Rocks – a longstanding tradition (see the full archive, here) that allows us to keep track of an ever-fluctuating population of birds and marine mammals. The morning weather wasn’t particularly promising, with wind, rain, and dark overcast skies.

Combined with high tides and a rough sea state, perhaps it wasn’t entirely surprising that the numbers seemed a bit lower than usual – with the harbour seals in particular mostly hiding out in the waves surrounding the South Rocks, and thus rather tricky to count. Alas – who was about?

Census equipment – species list, binoculars, and a clicker to keep track of everyone

 

March 27th Animal Census

Birds:

Oyster catcher: 22
Harlequin duck: 15
Gulls: 195
Cormorant: 73
Pigeon guillemot: 101
Juvenile eagle: 1
Adult eagle: 1
Canadian geese: 9
Shore / Surf birds: 15
Turnstones: 10

Marine Mammals:

Steller sea lions: 14
Harbour seal: 21
Male Elephant seal: 1 (back on land after a lengthy morning expedition)
Female elephant seal : 0
California sea lion: 24

The weather did eventually start to calm down a bit – still hopeful to catch my first RR sunset of the trip later tonight!

 

Facility Work:

  • Weekly Animal Census
  • Continued algae clean-up on Generator Roof
  • Chopped Firewood
  • Prepared new Water Filters for both the Keeper’s Residence and the Marine Science Building
  • Early AM generator run to top up batteries, PM solar enough to reach charge status of 100%

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 1 ecotourism vessel, passing between the South Islands and Rosedale Reef

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Full Moon Tuesday

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I woke up quite early this morning (not difficult when the seagulls keep jumping around on your roof, and the sea lions continuously bark at one another…!), and was rewarded with the most astonishing full moon:

The moon (!), the stars, and Race Rocks Lighthouse

The clear night translated into a beautiful sunny morning, so I headed up the ladder to the roof of the generator room to give the solar panels a good scrub and maximise energy generation…

Everyone’s favourite task…

… and duly managed to run the desalinator purely off solar power from just before noon until around 3:30, when the clouds started to fall in.

Generation eventually went as high as 5kw!

 

Ecological Notes: 

  • The juvenile male elephant seal continues to hang out on the island, whereas I didn’t spot either of the females all day.

    Always keeping a watchful eye in between snoozes…

  • Sea lion numbers continue to increase steadily: it’ll be interesting what tomorrow’s census yields

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Facility Work:

  • Solar Panel clean
  • Stagnant Water removal and Anti-Algae Treatment of Generator Room roof to ensure it doesn’t become treacherous to work up there
  • Topped up generator fuel
  • Hoisted new flag

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • No visits to the reserve
  • Extensive coastguard exercises on both sides of the Strait

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

 

Back on the Rock!

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Hello dear readers!

I’ve been lucky to come to Race Rocks on and off for just over twenty years – and there is still nothing quite like the magic of pulling out of Pedder Bay and first catching a glimpse of the lighthouse on the horizon.

I arrived yesterday afternoon to glorious sunshine and a warm welcome and handover from Kendra, and quickly felt at home once more amongst the island’s sights, sounds, (and smells!)

The weather had turned to grey and windy this morning – but who can worry about inclement conditions when there are boisterous sea lions going about their morning stomp down to the jetty for a quick dip?

The rest of the day was spent wandering around the island, re-familiarising myself with facilities and SOPs, and frequently just stopping for a moment to marvel. It’s great to be back!

 

Ecological Notes: 

  • Several orcas entered the reserve south of Great Race Rock, but didn’t stay for long or come in to feed.
  • The lone juvenile male is now consistently joined by two females, with Petal continuing to enjoy demolishing any flowers she can find around the island.
  • Spotted one of three currently resident sea otters.

Visitors: 

  • Greg and Cedric came on Second Nature to pick up Kendra and dropped off some fresh drinking water.

Facility Work:

  • Handover inspection of facilities, fuel, water &c
  • Checked Battery Acid levels and topped up as appropriate
  • Setting up in the Keeper’s cottage
  • Checked safety equipment (first aid kit, fire detectors & extinguishers, &c

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 2 ecotourism vessels

 Weather – Current:
http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:
http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Sunday Update

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This morning’s sunrise made up for yesterday’s gloom. All 3 elephant seals are still on the island. I’ve nicknamed the smaller female “Petal” because every time I find her she is squashing a different bed of flowers. Tonight she settled on the largest patch of grape hyacinth behind the house, but not before flattening the majority of the remaining daffodils. 

The darker of the new sea otters spent the morning around the South Island snacking on bright red urchins. It amazes me how they can make their way through the sharp spines and remain completely un-phased. I have not seen the little blonde one or Ollie this week. 

This afternoon I counted 26 California sea lions on the rocks near the jetty. I know this number may seem low for anyone whose here at busier times of the year but until today the most I’ve seen is 10! There was also one large Steller who snuggled himself in amongst the significantly smaller California boys. 

Lots of eagles around lately too!

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Grey and Rainy

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Today was very grey and rainy but it didn’t stop the animals from showing off.

All 3 elephant seals (1 male, 2 females) are now on the main island. The smaller of the 2 females has been asleep in the grass behind the student house since last night. The larger one was chased up the boat launch by the male. For about 20 minutes he chased her around, lunging and throwing his head, grabbing her hind flippers and shaking them, both were very vocal. Since they are large and not so graceful this event (I’d call it a low-speed chase) involved lots of rest breaks. Finally the male made his way back to the water and the female found a place to sleep in the grass.

 

The torrential downpour was the perfect opportunity to deep clean the main house. Between cleaning I spotted 2 transient orcas, as well as the darker of the new sea otters a little while later.

 

So close but yet so far

This place is pretty unbelievable even when the weather isn’t!

Facility Work: (today and yesterday)

  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Split wood
  • Deep clean main house 
  • Cleaned windows of the main house inside and out
  • Cleared boat launch of drift wood
  • With the help of a very motivated Pearson student we also finished gardening around the old bricks at the base of the flywheel!

 

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Ecotourism vessels

Weather Events:

  • Saturday, March 23:
    • Sky: Dark cloudy skies, on and off heavy rain
    • Wind: High of WNW 10 knots, Low of ESE 1 knot
    • Sea: Calm
    • Temperature: Low 8oC, High  10oC

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Happy International Seal Day!

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March 22nd is International Seal Day and what better way to celebrate it than with the arrival of a female elephant seal FINALLY coming onto the main island. That being said, the male has spent the whole day on the North Island so there is still only one elephant seal here right now, but I will take what I can get! 

True seals (especially the harbours and the ellies) have always been my favourite animal and I’ve been so lucky to spend these past 3 weeks surrounded by both. I’ve included some of my favourite seal photos below, hope you enjoy!

 

 

 

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

Wildlife Everywhere!

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Every day when I think I’ve seen it all here, somehow something new happens and its what I love most about this place. Aside from the seals that is…and the sea lions…and the sea otters.

This morning as I did my morning walk around I spotted one of the female elephant seals in the water next to the jetty. Shortly after, the male elephant seal joined her. There was a lot of chaos — heads thrashing, biting, splashing, vocalizing. It finished as fast as it started. The female was nowhere to be found and the male took back his spot on the boat launch.

 

This afternoon I spotted a lone male killer whale who may be one of the largest I’ve personally seen. I’m working on my ID skills still but I’d love to figure out who he is. He was quite far away so my photos aren’t too clear. One of these days I’ll get whales in the reserve! (I hope.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few hours later 4 more killer whales passed by about the same distance away. These ones appeared to have a baby with them and although they were travelling we did get to see a couple little spy hops!

 

As we were watching the whales, one of the California sea lions near the jetty popped up right in front of us with a large octopus in his mouth. He thrashed it around and put on a pretty great show!

 

As for the less exciting non animal notes — I’m still working on cleaning and getting the main house ready for the next Ecoguardian to arrive, including cleaning out the vents in the house now that the furnace is up and running. Talk about dusty! (see photos below).

I have also been trying to use the desalinator as much as possible to get the water level up. It dipped down low after we did some pressure pressure washing earlier this month and coupled with the 9 extra people here this week I want to make sure the Ecoguardian coming after me isn’t left high and dry!

 

It has been so great getting to know the students from Pearson. Everyone has such different interests and knowledge, I think I have learned more from them than they have me!

 

Additional information from the day:

DND Activity:

  • 2 blasts around 11:30
  • 2 blasts around 13:00
  • 2 blasts at 15:45
  • Observers were on the water all day. No blasts happened while orca in the area and no noted disturbance to animals within the reserve.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 5 ecotourism vessels
  • 5 RCMP vessels

Weather Events:

  • Thursday, March 21:
    • Sky: Sunny morning, some cloud cover in the afternoon
    • Wind: High of ENE 13 knots, Low of 0 knots
    • Sea: Calm
    • Temperature: Low 7oC, High  10oC

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Animal Census and Blog

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The great weather had to come to an end eventually! Despite being a dark and cloudy day we lucked out with no rain and no wind.

I had 9 extra helpers for the animal census today, the Pearson students are extra observant so this may be the most accurate count yet!

No sea otters were seen today but the two new ones have been around the past few days. Still no additional elephant seals on the main island, just our solo male! A couple of females have been hauled out on the various surrounding rocks but none of come ashore here.

March 20th Animal Census:

Birds:

Oyster catcher: 15
Harlequin duck: 12
Gulls: 261
Cormorant: 62
Pigeon guillemot: 149
Juvenile eagle: 3
Adult eagle: 4
Canadian geese: 9
Shore birds: 10
Turnstones: 28
Savannah sparrow: 1

Marine Mammals:

Steller sea lions: 17
Harbour seal: 64
Male Elephant seal: 1
Female elephant seal : 2 (north rocks)
California sea lion: 20

Injuries:
Harbour seal with facial injury


DND Activity:

  • 2 blasts at 12:55 and 13:00. They did startle the harbour seals and the second blast sent a California sea lion fleeing into the water.
  • 3rd blast at 14:15 no obvious disturbance noted. 
  • 4th blast at 15:05 no obvious disturbance noted.
  • 5th blast at 15:08 no obvious disturbance noted.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • One ecotourism vessel
  • One Coast Guard vessel
  • Three RCMP vessels

 

 

Weather Events:

  • Wednesday, March 20:
    • Sky: Cloudy all day
    • Wind: High of WNW 13 knots, Low of  SW 4 knots
    • Sea: Calm
    • Temperature: Low 8oC, High  10oC

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Growing sea lion numbers…

A Steller Monday

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What started out as a very foggy morning turned into a blue sky and sunshine kind of day with an unbelievable sunset!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s Animal Notes:

 

 

A large male Steller sea lion has been hauled out on the rocks near the jetty all day and he make the makes the California sea lions look tiny in comparison! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A female elephant seal spent the morning sunbathing in the water behind the student house. I think this may be the same one that’s been hauling out on the South Island. She’s yet to come ashore here though. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spotted 3 harbour porpoises just outside the reserve this morning, I see so many back home in Vancouver so I’m surprised that this was the first time I’ve seen them here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I came across a giant pacific octopus at low tide (deceased unfortunately) but it made a great meal for a young gull and an even better learning opportunity for the students that are currently on the island!

 

 

 

 

Finished the night off by watching the sunset with the blonder of the two new otters as it floated off the rocks behind the student house. (No photos, just enjoyed the moment).

Facility Work:

  • Filled the cistern 

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • One ecotourism vessel
  • Two private vessels

Weather Events:

  • Monday, March 18:
    • Sky: Foggy morning, clear blue sky until sunset
    • Wind: High of ESE 11 knots, Low of SE 1 knot
    • Sea: Glassy all day long
    • Temperature: Low 7oC, High  13oC

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?