Category Archives: Ecoguardians Log

First Elephant Seal Pup of the Season!

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It’s that magical time of year where the Northern Elephant Seals come ashore and give birth! Our first mom is the same female who showed up first last year, Pink Tag 2 (who we affectionately call Bev), who came ashore on December 15th. After several days of being sassy and pregnant she gave birth to a new male pup on December 21st.

Bev seems to have a purposeful strategy showing up and birthing before the other females. Last season Bev showed up almost a month before the other moms, and left before the other moms were even getting ready to birth. By this time her pup was pretty huge and mobile. She gave birth last year on December 22 2020, so pretty much on schedule with what she did last year.

One of the first big hurdles for newborn pups is just figuring out just how to nurse, some pups take days to figure this out, but not this first pup: he was nursing within hours of being born is already looking plumper than when he was born.

A view from the top

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Ecological Notes:

  • 1 Female Elephant Seal
  • 1 Male Elephant Seal, appears to be last year’s Beachmaster
  • First time I’ve personally noticed this type of tag …. On the Female Elephant Seal

Tag with holes in a pattern

 

harlequin ducks

Facility Work:

  • Cleaning and firewood prep for the next Ecoguardians
  • Looks like tomorrow morning will be all about clearing the pier area of debris and redoing the electric fence. The swells and incoming wind knocked concrete blocks right off the pier.

DND events:

  • 2 days of blasting with noticeable reactions from the Scea Lions.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 3 different Ecotourism vessels
  • Several Sailboats back and forth, cutting between the reserve and Bentinck Island

 Feature Event:

  • Took a few Pictures from the top of the light while I was doing the animal Census.

 

Weather Events:

  • Mostly average winds from the west. Wednesday greeted us with 30-40 knot southeasterly wind, with very large swells!

 

** 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?

census

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Birds

  • Bald eagle adult                          2
  • Bald eagle juvenile                     6
  • Turnstones                                   22
  • Dunlin                                            7
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western    88
  • Cormorants                                  48
  • Canadian goose                          10
  • Crows/ Ravens(?)                         7
  • Harlequin Duck                             9

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion                          302
  • Harbour seal                                42
  • California sea lion                       98
  • Male Elephant Seal                      1
  • Female Elephant Seal                  1

Weather Days

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Ecological Notes:

  • The large Male Elephant Seal has been coming and going from the island, often bellowing for a while each day.
  • During the stormy weather over the last month, I had noticed more than one Sea Lion with what looked like minor injuries. Now that there are less on the island, I can move about into “their” areas. Unfortunately, I have found 2 of what looked like healthy animals that have passed. This is not uncommon, but always sad.

Visitors:

  • The Waterfront Coordinator delivered fuel for the generator, and electric fence parts.

Facility Work:,

  • Cutting salvage wood recovered from the ocean is hard on the saw chain. Add to this that some of  it is hardwood and you find yourself touching up the blade and/or sharpening it very often.

  • The more you cut, the more you get to split!

  • Rain days mean time best spent on indoor projects ….. some are mundane, but still have to be done.

Clean the fridge

Replace furnace filter

 

DND events:

  • Thursday included several blasts  on the west beach.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Several Ecotourism Vessels, including one that paused for all the guests and crew to sing Happy Birthday to the Ecoguardian!

Weather Events:

  • Several days of high, cold Northeasterly winds gave way to Westerlies of 25 – 30 knots on Thursday. Mix of sun, cloud, and rain squalls throughout the day.

 

** 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?

Census

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Birds

  • Bald eagle adult                         4
  • Bald eagle juvenile                    9
  • Turnstones                                   32
  • Dunlin                                            9
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western    132
  • Cormorants                                  63
  • Canadian goose                         10
  • Crows/ Ravens(?)                        4
  • Surf Skoters                                    7

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion                          265
  • Harbour seal                               23
  • California sea lion                     123
  • Male Elephant Seal                     2
  • River Otter                                   1

Sunny with a chance of Elephant Seal

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Ecological Notes:

  • The Large Male Elephant Seal that has been visiting the water by the jetty decided to come up for a sunbathe and snooze today. He is larger than I originally thought!

  • The Sub-Adult Male Elephant Seal is still hauled out on middle rock.

Facility Work:

  • Although some large drift logs were lost during the last couple weeks, now the tide is lower while it is still daylight, allowing me to tie them off at high tide, and buck them up at low tide.

  • Today though, the large male was in a place that would have put me between him and the water …. not a place I want to be while using a chainsaw and not able to keep a good eye out!

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  •  Just 2 Ecotourism vessels.

Weather Events:

  • Clear and sunny all day, winds primarily westerly 15- 20 knots. Winds shifted to Northwest early evening and dropped to 5 knots. Swells up to 1.5 meters from the west.

 

** 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?

Mature Male Elephant Seal

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Ecological Notes:

  • A new Adult Male Elephant Seal has been visiting the main ramp area for periods of time. While not quite as large as the Alpha and Beta males here last winter, this guy is pretty big!

  • The Sub-adult Male Elephant Seal, that was hauled out for a week or so last month, has been hauling out on middle rock.

Facility Work:

  • We got the Desalinator up and running! After changing the control panel, we re-checked and adjusted some settings and it’s working fine now.
  • Finished the new layout on the pier electric fence. As we had added a new, more powerful, fence energizer, many of the old wires and connectors were failing. Each Ecoguardian comes to Race Rocks with their own skillsets and ideas. This new idea will hopefully be more  sturdy, and easier to repair and maintain. ……. (but we’ll see!)

  • Received and assembled a new cart for the portable diesel tidytank. As the last one failed, will be adding an additional safety strap to this one for when someone has to move it by themself..

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Ecotourism vessels and private vessels have been visiting to enjoy the sights and sounds of Race Rocks.
  • A single paddler in an outrigger canoe also ventured out and through the main channel.

Weather Events:

  • Heavy rains over the weekend gave way to light fog on Monday. Westerly winds of 5 – 10 knots prevailed.

 

** 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?

Freedivers, and fixing things

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Ecological Notes:

  • 1 Male Elephant Seal out on Helicopter rock
  • California Sealions moving about with a little coaxing.

Visitors:

  • Greg, the waterfront Coordinator, came out to help with maintenance.

Facility Work:

  • Replaced door handles on 2 of the generator building doors.
  • Replaced Control Panel on the Desalinator. It cleared the “stuck in standby” problem we were having, but now we have a new problem we’re troubleshooting.

  • Continued troubleshooting of the hardline (VOIP) phone system. Reset all gates and routers.
  • Made several new fence parts for the electric fences, ready for install.

DND events:

  • Several blasts. Noted disturbance of Sea Lions. They have been very edgy these last few days.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 4 different Ecotourism vessels
  • 2 different private(?) vessels in the reserve, facilitating freedivers in the water. Good boating practices adhered to.

Weather Events:

  • Westerly winds of 30 knots, gave through to westerly winds of up to 40 knots in the evening.mix of overcast and clear skies, swells of up to 1 meter.

 

** 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?

Census

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Birds

  • Bald eagle adult                          5
  • Bald eagle juvenile                     6
  • Turnstones                                   19
  • Dunlin                                            9
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western    68
  • Cormorants                                   57
  • Canadian goose                           8
  • Crows/ Ravens(?)                        7
  • Pacific Wren *                               8
             * could not get a picture, ID based solely on size, colour, and behavior

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion                           164
  • Harbour seal                                19
  • California sea lion                       192
  • Male Elephant Seal                     1

Eagle Eye

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Ecological Notes:

  • As the California Sealion numbers decrease, I’m noting more Steller Sealions on the main island. They are a lot more skittish to my movements around though.

    Wary of any movement on land …

    Keeping an eye on me

  • Still lots of juvenile Bald Eagles on the island, primarily in the mornings.

Juvenile Bald Eagle, scanning the water from a good perch

More Gull remains

  • At least 3 Humpback whales seen to the southwest of race about 2 miles out, more blows in the distance.

Facility Work:

  • Temporary fix to the generator room door, awaiting new handle to install.

  • Repaired and re-installed the top of the VHF antennae on the main house.

  • Repaired and re-attached the vent hose on the Natures Head in the main house.
  • Hauled out more drifting wood and serviced the chainsaw after cutting through some hardwood logs.
  • Rebuilt and reinforced some old sawhorses to use when cutting smaller firewood.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 2 private vessels and 4 Ecotourism vessels enjoying the sights and sounds of the ecological reserve.

Weather Events:

  • Westerly winds of 5 – 10 knots. did a quick rotation around past north, becoming easterly for a brief period before noon, but returned to westerly after that. Clear skies in the morning gave way to overcast by mid afternoon. Seas were flat calm all day.

 

** 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?