Count aided by Pearson College students
Birds
Mammals
It has been almost four months since I was last here in July. Things have changed considerably. The water making system is operational and with an ample supply of water and student help, and the hard work of the waterfront staff and Ecoguardians, the buildings, walkways and decks have been scrubbed clean and the weeds are under control. The place looks fantastic!
The vegetation is green and all evidence of the summer nesting season chaos (gull nests, egg shells and chick corpses) has been blown away. The number of gulls is greatly reduced. The pigeon guillemots are absent. The cormorant population has exploded. A group of thirty plus oyster catchers were seen but they have given up on their evening fly abouts. The Canada geese are back and a lone snow goose.
East Beach is no longer covered with hundreds of turnstones and surfbirds. The beaches and rocks now belong to the sea lions and they make sure you know it. They would take over the entire island if it weren’t for the electric fence and removing them from the boat ramp when I collect the sea water data is a daily battle.
Noses in the air, refusing to move
Sea lions on East Beach
Sea lions on the west shore
With the gull population, and their rain of excrement, dramatically reduced, my summer morning ritual of cleaning the solar array has been replaced with electric fence patrol and repair. During my short stay from Nov 10 to 14, I have been occupied with fence upkeep, general cleaning, battery maintenance, getting firewood and transferring diesel.
Cutting rounds in the sunshine on Tuesday
An electric log splitter was delivered on Wednesday. I had mixed emotions, having a fondness for splitting wood but I am over it. It is an amazing new addition and sure made fast work of the splitting.
It has been a great short visit to Race Rocks. I am grateful for the opportunity to experience this incredible place at this time of year.
DND Activity
Several blasts on Nov 13 caused minor disturbance to the sea lions.
Facility work
Vessels
Nov 10 – ecotourism: 3
Nov 11 – ecotourism: 4, private: 4
Nov 12 – ecotourism: 2
Nov 13 – ecotourism: 0
Weather
The weather has ranged from crisp sunshine to high winds with driving rain.
Nov 10 – partly cloudy, W gusting 37 knots, daytime temp 10 -11
Nov 11 – partly cloudy, veering from SW to E 10 knots, daytime temp 8 – 10
Nov 12 – cloudy, NE 6-12 knots, daytime temp 9 – 10
Nov 13 – overcast, rain, W 3-27 knots, daytime temp 9 – 11
Today was my Last day here on Race Rocks for the Year!
Spent the day tidying things up, and getting ready to pass on the torch to Christine who is coming over tomorrow morning.
The students and I also pulled up a huge log to be chopped up for the winter. There is a new wood splitter that will be soon be delivered, that will hopefully make short work for of it!
As always, I have had an amazing time here, and I am so thankful to Pearson College for keeping this place running. It is truly a privilege <3
See you next Year :)
Facilities
Weather
It has been an eventful couple of days here. Yesterday Richard came by with a new group of students here for the weekend. They are here to do some data collection for various marine science projects, and they also helped me with chores all day today!
They also removed all the grass growing up between the cracks in the sidewalks, and cleaned all the windows on the island!
Amazing students doing my work for me :)
Richard also brought along my MOM yesterday!! She is in town for a week, and it lined up perfectly with the students weekend, so we have been having a great time! She even helped me with the census today!
Counting seagulls!
Census
Today the students and I also noticed some new injured sea lions. These have now been reported.
Facilities (Since Thursday)
Weather
Last night was pretty windy on the island, with winds exceeding 25 kts. This extended into the morning with super high tides, and large waves building in the currents in middle channel.
I spent the day doing little tasks, and thought it was prime time for an update on the endless battle against algae.
Facilities (Yesterday and Today)
Weather
Yesterday Greg brought over a group of 8 students for a night in the Student House. They made themselves right at home and baked a bunch of delicious bread!
I went over for the evening, and was greatly entertained by the shenanigans of High School students.
Playing Catan on the New Couch
Today, I weed-whacked and cleaned up the edges of all the pathways on island, and I got very distracted by all the cute little stellar families chilling on the South Seal Rocks.
Facilities
Weather
Though the day started out quite wet, It cleared up nicely for the census.
Census:
Facilities
It has been a quiet couple of days around the Rock.
The sea lions have been behaving surprising well, so the fence repairs have not been taking a lot of time.
That being said, there is one notable exception. A male CSL with a big 2X marked on his back. No matter how loud I yell at him, or bang my shield at him, he refuses to move. Greg said that 2X is a known problem child.
I have been chipping away at spraying down algae covered surfaces, so yesterday I tackled the South facing wall of the student house. (as far up as I could reach from the ground)
I also have pulled out the old weedwhacker to tidy up the edges of the walkways.
** Today there was some DND blasting that we were not made aware of. Really startled me and the Sea Lions.
Facilities
Weather
This morning when I looked out the window, I saw a large humpback pectoral fin sticking out of the water. Since, I hadnt seen any humpbacks for a couple days I quickly grabbed the camera! Looking closer, It seemed like the humpback was rolling around and playing with a Sea Lion! They kept at it for almost an hour!
Today was the first fully sunny day in a while, and for a while.. so I decided to take advantage.
I sprayed down as many algae ridden surfaces as I could (Before and After Pics coming soon), and I cleaned the windows on the main house and the student house.
Greg and Rich also came today for a diesel run. We filled the large Tidy tank in the main shed. They also sectioned out some of the logs that had been pulled out over the summer. I will keep chipping away at chopping them so we have more wood for the winter.
Facilities (Today and Yesterday)
Weather:
After yesterdays rain, today was super beautiful with some dramatic clouds and even a rainbow! But it was still super windy with waves breaking on the Jetty most of the morning.
Windy day at the Jetty
You can see a hint of the rainbow in the background …
In other news, the Entangled CSL is still around, and also during todays census I spotted a Stellar who has a bad gash… prop strike maybe?
Facilities Work (Yesterday and Today)
Biological Census