Category Archives: Ecoguardians Log

Pressure Cleaning

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Ecological Notes:

  • 6 female Elephant Seals, 2 “pups”
  • Lots of time in the water, staying close to the ramp
  • 2 Canada Goose nests lost all their eggs to other birds, they are extra aggressive now!

Just Chillin’

Visitors:

  •  Shorefront Manager, food and de-ionized water delivery

Facility Work:

  • Fine Tuning Deck work
  • Pressure washing until rain water storage was dry

Never ending

Fresher look

Then, you run out of rain water for the pressure washer!

DND events:

  • 4 Detonations YESTERDAY (Wednesday April 28) …… noted animal anxious startled, especially those in the water

Weather Events:

  • Mostly sunny, some light overcast. Light westerly winds

 

Weather – Current:

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

 

Weather – Past:

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

Student Morning

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Ecological Notes:

  • 6 female Elephant Seals, molting well underway, some are completed
  • Elephant Seal pups: 2 pups on land, moving around lots
  • Even more Gulls preparing nests

Visitors:

  •  Pearson College: 11 students in the morning doing marine biology class

Facility Work:

  • Power maintenance, more building cleaning

DND events:

  • 6 Detonations today, very little animal disturbance noted

Feature Event:

  • Although a very regular event, today was a great day to clean the Solar Panels, and do the battery maintenance. Overcast, so the panels don’t dry too fast as you’re cleaning, and not too much wind, making it safer to be on the roof!

    Soft Brush and Squeegee

    Gulls “left-behinds”

    Nice and Clean!

    Safety first for battery maintenance.

 

Weather Events:

  • Overcast and medium winds, mostly from the south until this afternoon when it switched to west. Calm seas.

 

Weather – Current:

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

 

Weather – Past:

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

Sunny Day

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Ecological Notes:

  • 6 female Elephant Seals, 2 “pups” (looking about 150 – 200 Kilos now) …. half moved closer to the ramp to enjoy some cool dips in the water. They were observed rubbing their noses and heads on the underwater rocks to aid in moulting
  • Another big influx of Pigeon Guillemots, and most Gull nest building

Cooling by the ramp

Visitors:

  • 1 – Seafront Coordinator… Reviewing tomorrow’s student landing area with the new Eco Guardian

 

Facility Work:

  • Door and trim painting, general tidying. Reset some of the fencing.

 

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 1 Eco Tourism boat
  • Reasonably close pass by a float plane, looked like sightseeing. No noticeable animal disturbance.

 Feature Event:

  • Wildlife Census (see additional post)

Spotting

 

Weather Events:

  • Mostly sunny, with a mix of sun and clouds. Westerly winds, averaging 15 knots (28km) all day

** All 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

  • Harlequin duck 10
  • Bald eagle adult 5
  • Bald eagle juvenile 8
  • Turnstones 19
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western 152
  • Cormorants 28
  • Pigeon guillemots 74
  • Oyster catcher 8
  • Canadian geese 18
  • Surf Birds 6

 

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion 53
  • Harbour seal 115
  • California sea lion 28
  • Elephant seal female 6
  • Elephant seal pup 2
  • Sea otter 1
  • Animal Tracking and Injuries: 0

Bird Courting Time

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Ecological Notes:

  • 6 female Elephant Seals, 3 molting very heavily
  • 2 Elephant Seal pups, one spent much of the day soaking in the water at the end of the boat ramp
  • Although not right in the reserve, observed one Humpback whale, about 1 mile south, and Transient Orca between the reserve and Bentinck Island. Identified as the T101’s and T100B’s
  • Lots of courting behavior observed with the Pigeon Guillemots, and also the Harlequin ducks

Pigeon Guillemots

Harlequin Ducks

Facility Work:

  • Pressure washing main building

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 5 EcoTourism boats, spread throughout  the afternoon
  • 3 separate sport boat went through the reserve at high speed, luckily no obvious disturbance of the animals other than noticeable wake

Weather Events:

  • Cloudy with sunny breaks, Calm seas

** All 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?

Surface Temperature and Salinity

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Ecological Notes:

  • 6 female Elephant Seals
  • Elephant Seal pups: Only 2 pups on land

Packing tight to preserve heat!

  • lots of nest building by the Gulls and Oyster Catchers

Checking out a good spot

Bringing the goods!

 

Black Oyster Catcher

Facility Work:

  • Continuing the fine work done by the previous Eco Guardians, more scrubbing and pressure washing

Feature event:

  • Daily Water Sampling – Taken each day and reported monthly to The Institute of Ocean Sciences

Waiting for the pier to clear ….

The peanut gallery …

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

 

Weather Events:

  • Cloud coverage, light drizzle, and Calm Seas

 

Weather – Current:

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

Weather – Past:

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

New Eco Guardian Arrival

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Ecological Notes: 6 female elephant seals.
Elephant seal pups: Only 2 pups on land
Visitors: 1, and Last Eco Guardian departed … Thank you Rod!
Facility Work: More Painting, Water Tank refill
Weather Events: Cloud and rolling water.
Weather– Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather–Past:  http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Canada Goose nest by the Science Building, one of many on the island.

Touch up painting

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Ecological Notes: 6 female elephant seals.
Elephant seal pups: Only 2 pups on land.
Visitors: 2
Facility Work:  More wood delivered this morning.  Starting front stairs.  Finishing touches on back railings. Touch up white painting around facility.
Vessel Traffic:  0
Weather Events: Fog this morning. By noon there was sun and flat water again.
Weather– Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather–Past:  http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Census

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Birds

  • Harlequin duck 16
  • Snowy plover 0
  • Bald eagle adult 2
  • Bald eagle juvenile 4
  • Turnstones 28
  • Killdeer 0
  • Gulls 236
  • Cormorants 18
  • Pigeon guillemots 57
  • Oyster catcher 10
  • Canadian geese 10
  • Surf Birds 10

 

  • Mammals
  • Steller sea lion 49
  • Harbour seal 133
  • California sea lion 32
  • Elephant seal male 0
  • Elephant seal female 8
  • Elephant seal pup 2
  • River otter 0
  • Sea otter 1
  • Animal Tracking and Injuries: 0