Pam Birley of England made the first observation today for this year using the remote control camera 5, of the return of the pigeon guillemots to their nesting grounds here on Race Rocks . She commented: “I haven’t seen them mentioned by the guardian yet but I took this screenshot on 3rd Feb”.
Category Archives: Ecoguardians Log
New Elephant Seal Pup: #5!
We got a late arrival to the party: Jolene, the fifth female to come ashore for the 2021 birthing season. She showed up on January 21st 2021, and birthed on the 28th around 10am. There is some inital commotion where one of the other moms came over to get a sniff and toss around our new baby Hector (named by the marine science class).
A few seconds after Hector was born.
Jolene getting a good sniff of her new pup.
After that initial bit of excitement Hector and Jolene settled in the pod of Elephant Seals. I’m pretty sure this is the new record for births on Race Rocks! Exciting to see the population growing.
We had the marine science class come visit Race Rocks today! Super fun to get a chance to talk with these super interesting students about Elephant Seals, Race Rocks, and manipulating the stock market.
Laura brought out the marine science class!
Courtney Edwards regaling the marine science class with stories of lighthouse keepers and Race Rocks itself!
Also: an eagle snagged a gull today. So cool!
Turns out there’s not that much meat on a gull. Lots of feathers though!
Cheermeister discovered his rear flippers the other day. Hilarity ensued.
Bernard defending his harem. A sneaky male thought he could get up the boat ramp without he Beachmaster noticing. Silly rival, Bernard knows all the tricks.
I like including moments of peace, because that is what it is actually like here. Moments of extreme excitement, followed by naps and nursing.
January 24th 2021 Census
Weather: Lighter winds with some sun. 50knots winds on January 26th. Frosty mornings on the 22-26th.
Visitors/Traffic: Some tanker traffic and 2 whale watching boats.
Ecological Notes:
Bernard drumming to defend his harem. The newest male is on the right trying to sneak around the Race Rocks Crossroads unsuccessfully.
Baby Elephant Seals get fat. REEEEEAL fat. So fat that they can’t really navigate some obstacles. https://youtu.be/tm0SC5lDBQw
We had a new female Elephant Seal show up on January 21st, bringing our total moms to 5 for 2021. We have four pups with only one weaned so far, but the other two fattest pups are expected to be weaned next week. The new female looks pregnant and is exhibiting the same behavior the other moms did before giving birth: lots of ‘chirping’ and wandering around trying out all the comfy spots. The new female also shuffled the other mothers: before the two oldest mothers would aggregate and keep the third mother away. Now the newest female has assumed the ‘shunned’ position while the three mothers are aggregating with their pups and little conflict.
We finally clued in that there have been 3 males hanging out around the island: the dominant male (Bernard), a male who became submissive after battle, and a third male who’s quite a bit smaller and clearly submissive. This third male has a bit of damage around his left eye, kinda like a classic Disney villian with a scar on it’s eye. He’s been coming up the ramp trying to sneak around Bernard, but would retreat after an impressive bout of drumming.
Our newest male (Jafar) trying to find a place to hide on the Island without the Beachmaster noticing.
Bernard not having any of these males advances on his harem. He really has a second level he can take his drumming to show his dominance. If you heard his super low drumming, better skedaddle, as he’s had enough of you.
Census:
Gulls: 118
Cormorants: 281
Eagles: 9
California Sea Lions: 160
Steller Sea Lions: 119
Elephant Seals: 9
Harbour Seals: 14
Turnstones: 7
The newest pup: Snuggles. Born January 16th 2021.
The whole gang hanging out together in the front yard.
Our newest arrival: Joelene! She’s quickly assimiliated into the Race Rocks pod. She arrived on January 21st, so we would expect her pup sometime around the 28th.
That amazing phase where the pups start to rival their mothers bulk. 14 days in and looking healthy little guy!
January 17th Census
Looking South from to the Lighthouse towards the Elwha.
Weather: Overcast morning, with a sunny afternoon. Winds 15-25knots. Big storm on January 11th that blew our doors and windows open.
Visitors/Traffic: After a week of no visitors we got 4 boats today: a whale whatching boat, 2 small fishing boats and a yellow sailboat that was very interested in getting in close to the jetty.
Ecological Notes: Immediately after the last birth a new female showed up on the island (January 11th). Cheermeister’s mom left him on January 12th (21 days of nursing) after making with the Beachmaster 76 times over 3 days. I didn’t inspect every event, so the total could higher than that, but it was an impressive feat. The Beachmaster has shown no interest in any of the other females. There are still 2 large males on the island, with the Beachmaster (previously referred to as Bernard) staying with the females and the other male hanging out around our compost.
The new seal gave birth last night, bringing our total seal pups to 4!
Jocelyn gave birth to her pup last night with lots of shouting and fanfare.
Elephant Seal flippers look so ridiculous when they’re born, just oversized and floppy. Kinda like puppy paws.
Tons of eagles on the island this morning, which usually coincides with a reduction in other birds counted.
Cheermeister: fat and alone. I don’t understand how he still gets fatter after being weaned.
The Beachmaster checking if anyone is interested in mating yet.
Census:
Gulls: 136
Cormorants: 360
Eagles: 40
Turnstones: 13
Elephant Seals: 9 [2 bulls, 3 females, 4 pups]
Steller Sea Lions: 142
California Sea Lions: 155
Harbour Seals: 6
Peace descends over the nursery. Seriously though, Elephant Seals are soooo loud.
Bonham over drumming next to the compost where the Beachmaster can’t find him.
January 10th Census
Weather: Overcast, but mostly sunny over the last few days. winds 15-20knots.
This feels like we got more sun in January 2021 all of 2020.
Visitors/Traffic: Pretty quiet week, a few fishing boats driving by.
Ecological Notes: Newest Elephant Seal pup was born today. This makes 3 pups total, with the oldest nearing the end of his nursing period. His mom is looking VERY depleted, with 3 more days estimated until the end of her nursing period. His mom has also had a large behavioural change: previously she would ‘fight’ with the Beachmaster when we attempted mating, but over the last 24 hours she’s now much more receptive to his advances. 13-14 times a day receptive.
Cheermeister at 19 days. Looking fat and healthy as his mom gets more and more depleted. In 2020 we saw the pups nurse for 23 days, so he’s getting close to the end of ‘free food’.
Census:
Gulls: 259
Cormorants: 719
Eagles: 6
Turnstones: 22
Elephant Seals: 8 [2 bulls, 3 females, 3 pups]
Steller Sea Lions: 160
California Sea Lions: 121
Harbour Seals: 10
Proof that I take photos of other animals than Elephant Seals. SE Steller Rookery going strong.
Mothers seem to have lots of aggression shortly after a pup is born. Every pup we’ve seen get born here coincides with a bought of mom-on-mom aggression. Although Courtney has pointed out that this is my interpretation of their behaviour, and this could just be a ‘welcome to the fraternity of motherhood’ moment.
Mating looks rough. In larger rookeries this often results in pups getting squished. Here, Cheermeister just needs to avoid getting pinned and he should be good. He’s repetitively gotten in the middle of that mating between his mom and the Beachmaster and hasn’t died…. yet.
Peace descends. As with all things Elephant Seal: the chaos doesn’t last long. After 30 min of excitement everyone rolls over and falls asleep until tomorrows moment of activity,
Elephant Seals From the Remote Control Camera
Three mother Elephant seals and two of the pups, the newest pup is hiding beyond the top right mom.
This year, so far there has been a very successful set of births of Elephant seals at Race Rocks. This is the 13th year that Elephant seals have been breeding and having births in the ecological reserve. Currently three females and four pups along with a large male can be seen from the remote-controlled camera 1 from the top of the tower:
26 days old Elephant seal pup and the male ~8 year old male.
nursing Elephant seal pup born January 12 2021.
Elephant seal pup born December 22 2020.
Seawater Temperatures and Salinities at Race Rocks 2019-2020
This graphic analysis was done by Peter Chandler of the Institute of Ocean Sciences.
Humpback Whales Feeding off Race Rocks
There has been 2 humpbacks hanging around the Becher Bay – Race Passage for the last couple of weeks. They have always been a little bit distant from the Lighthouse, but on December 30th 2020 they came right up to the SW corner of the lighthouse and did some feeding right at the current line. There’s lots of turbulence, so it could be some bubblenetting or lungefeeding. Really cool to see them use the crazy currents around Race Rocks to get a meal in.
Elephant Seal Pup Growth
The first Elephant Seal pup of the 2021 birthing season came on December 22 2020, and began it’s 23 days of nursing the day after (it took him awhile to figure out how to nurse). Elephant seal pups only have a couple of weeks to get big enough and healthy enough to survive alone after their moms wean them and abandon them on Race Rocks; which means their life is essentially just to feed, nap, and snuggle with their moms. It’s hard to show how impressive it is to see how fast they put on weight, with the pup doubling in size over the first few days. Here’s a video of the growth of ‘Cheermeister’ over his first 12 days of life.
January 2nd Wildlife Census
Weather: We’re getting that classic winter weather now: gusty winds and intermittent rain. A few moments of >30knots.
Visitors/Traffic: Lots of boats coming by to view the sea lions. A dive boat checking out the island and 3 large whale watching boats coming up to the jetty.
Ecological Notes: The newborn elephant seal (Cheermeister) is doing great! Doubling in size for the first several days, and now he’s just a fat little seal. Another female elephant seal has shown up all fat and ready to birth. We had a pretty epic battle between the 2 large male elephant seals on December 27th, and since then the 2 males have been sleeping off their battle damage.
Another day where the island is full of eagles and we’re seeing much less other birds.
Census:
Gulls: 290
Cormorants: 22
Eagles: 22
Elephant Seals: 5
Steller Sea Lions: 1
California Sea Lions: 11
Turnstones: 11
Harlequin Ducks: 11
Oystercatchers: 23
The flock of Oystercatchers seem to come and go. I wonder where they are when they’re not on the island?
Elephant Seals are really cute.
Why do Elephant Seals have these huge noses? So they can look all cool after battling for dominance. Just a theory.
For having only a few prominent teeth I’m pretty impressed with the amount of damage these Elephant Seals can cause.
Baby Cheermeister is FAAAAT.
The loser of the ‘Jetty Battle’ actually wobbled away with less damage than the winner. Will there be a new beachmaster next year?