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.
Category Archives: Population
Elephant Seal Pup Growth – Day by day
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.
https://youtu.be/ltMsnNRYTmU
Also see other posts on elephant seal pups born at Race Rocks, the most northerly pupping colony for e-seals on the Pacific coast: https://www.racerocks.ca/tag/pup/
December 23 Wildlife Census with a new baby Elephant Seal
Weather: A bit of light sleet/snow, light winds ~15knots.
Visitors/Traffic: 2 Whale watching boats, and a supply run by Gregg.
Ecological Notes: Baby Elephant Seal born last night! Around 22:00 at night our resident female (pink tag #2, also referred to as ‘Beverly’). The Beachmaster was present for the birth, and initially I thought he might be looking to kill the pup to force the female into estrus. Nope, just an observer, sniffing and mouthing the newborn pup, but no damage caused.
Newborn Elephant Seal Pup, which we’ve taken to calling ‘Cheermeister’.
Lots of eagles present in today’s Census, which may be related to the reduced number of birds counted.
Census:
Gulls: 164
Cormorants (mostly Brant’s): 430
Eagles: 13
Elephant Seals: 5
Steller Sea Lions: 329
California Sea Lions: 464
Turnstones: 22
Green Wing Teal: 4
Long Tailed Duck: 5
Canada Geese: 2
Steller Sea Lion haulout to the SE of the lighthouse.
It’s a Cormorant party.
Eagles on the island mean that a lot of the birds are choosing to be elsewhere.
Any space without Sea Lions and eagles mean the birds can really stretch their wings.
Elephant Seals pick the weirdest spots to sleep. Sometimes it’s inconvenient for maintenance, and sometimes it just looks gross. Soaking your wounded nose in a poopy puddle? Gross.
Unsafe Snorkeling, Fall Changes, Census
Weather:
- Visibility 15+ NE
- Sky overcast, cloudy
- Wind 15-25 kn N
- Water moderate waves, white caps.
Visitors/Boats:
- Around 15 whale watching boats yesterday
- Corey, Guy, and a student with their visiting grandparents visited yesterday, and delivered water- the desalinator is on the horizon!
- We are ending our term on Race Rocks tomorrow, so Greg and Guy will come for a debrief before the next eco-guardian takes over.
Yesterday we saw a pleasure craft enter the reserve and drop snorkelers into the water less than 100 m from our jetty, within 5 m of shore and the hauled out sea lions. The animals were distressed and swam around the snorkelers barking. The current was flooding very quickly (5 knots), which creates dangerous water currents, eddies, and upwellings. We as well as Corey in Second Nature motioned for the boat to move away, but they simply gathered the snorkelers and moved around the corner where they presumably thought we would not see them. An eco-tourism vessel in the reserve also noticed them and contacted us to let us know, out of concern for their safety given the animals present and the currents at the time.
In the past scuba divers and vessels have found themselves capsized or pulled away from their dive site and rescued by helicopter, and in 2015 a diver went missing and was found deceased days after they disappeared by a fisherman after rescue crews were not able to find them. We were especially concerned for this group’s safety due to lack of float marking their position and the frequent boating traffic through the reserve. In the past, seal pups have been decapitated by vessels passing through too quickly and unable to see them. If these snorkelers had been pulled away by the currents, there would have been a high chance of being struck by a vessel unable to see them in the rough water.
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- Snorkelers entering the water next in Race Passage.
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- A distressed sea lion very close to the snorkelers. Some of these animals weigh 500+ kg.
Ecological:
- The sea lions population continues to grow! We are having to repair the fences sometimes twice per day. It seems like a more powerful electric fence energizer could be a good idea.
- We spotted a little Greylag goose among the Canadian geese yesterday.
- The sea lion that we spotted on Sept. 12th with an apparent propeller wound to his head is still here. He stays near the jetty and seems to have some behavioural anomalies, presumably due to the head injury. He is not afraid of us like the others, and does not move away into the water with the others when we clear the jetty. We haven’t had any problems but are weary that his behaviour could be unpredictable. Marty (the vet that came to aid in rescuing the entangled sea lion) mentioned that sometimes when this happens a shard of their skull can splinter and cause a brain infection. We hope this little guy is on the mend.
- There have been many Canadian Geese passing through this week; A few days ago we counted over 20. The geese are not native to the island, but according to Gary Fletcher they arrived somewhere in the 80’s as the population of geese on Vancouver Island were introduced/grew. Addling the eggs began somewhere in the late 90’s. Unfortunately, this year two nests survived and hatched goslings, meaning that 20 geese left the island after 8 nested here in the spring.
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- The sea lion with a propeller injury (on head).
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- Greylag Goose
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- Greenery on the island returning with the rain.
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- Sea lions on the NW side of the island.
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- Canada Geese near main residence.
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- Short billed dowitcher (1)
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- (2)
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- Sneaking onto the helicopter pad for a warm nap.
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- We spotted the disentangled sea lion!
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- Looks like the healing area is itchy.
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- Solar panels clean after the rain this week.
Census:
- 500 Sea lions
- 15 harbour seals
- <20 seagulls
- Approx. 20 cormorants
- 3 short billed dowitchers
- 1 Greylag goose
- 1 sanderling
- 1 Savannah sparrow
- 20-23 Canada geese
Whales! (and census)
Gallery
This gallery contains 4 photos.
Weather: Visibility: Very clear, 15 miles Wind: 15-25 knots Sky: Mostly clear, some clouds Water: Choppy, white caps Boats/Visitors: Today a contractor visited to fix our internet/ phone cable in the main residence. At the same time Corey, two BC … Continue reading
Seagulls lay eggs
Weather
- Visibility: 15 Miles
- Wind: 15-20 NW
- Sky: Partly cloudy
- Water: Ripply/Calm
Boats/Visitors
- Few ecotour boats scattered through the day
Ecological
- Spotted a young elephant seal (about 3-4 ft in length) near the jetty.
- Seagulls have laid their eggs! I estimate about 30-40 eggs on the island so far, definitely growing in number. Some seagulls are still building their nest/adding more straw
- Spotted a tagged elephant seal near the jetty. Tag number was B198. Photo below
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Photos of the tagged Elephant seal:
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Christmas Bird Count at Race Rocks- Dec 28, 2017
This year is our 20th year in assisting the local birders with the Rocky Point Bird Observatory in doing a count at Race Rocks. Given the time of year this has to occur, it is often thwarted by bad weather, but in the past counts, some very interesting species and population numbers have shown up. See this index of past years Bird Counts. https://www.racerocks.ca/race-rocks-animals-plants/bird-observations-at-race-rocks-3/christmas-bird-counts-starting-in-1997/
Kim Beardmore same along to record the birds for the 2017 Christmas bird count. Here Kim on the left and the Ecoguardian Mikey Muscat check on one of the 5 male elephant seals.
Although we went to count birds, I found that the most impressive thing was that there were 5 large male elephant seals on the island and two juvenile females. When compared with other years this was quite unusual, and it could be interesting when the females come back in January to have pups. I predict there will be a lot of male aggression going on in mid-January.
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- Black Turnstones
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- Black Oystercatchers
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- 3 species of Cormorant
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- Pam Birley sent these Harlequin duck photos taken from camera 5
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- Most of the Harlequins we observed were on the outer islands today.
These four species other than several gull species and bald eagles were part of the count which we will add below .
Other observations around the island:
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- mud fields on North east corner
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- rise to west of jetty
Romanzoffia tracyi
I took advantage of the few hours there to check on other aspects of the island from the ecological reserve warden point of view. Especially noticeable this year were the massive fields of mud over most parts of the island where the california sea lions hauled out over the past few months. I was concerned about the erosion and rock disturbance that this has caused. Most of the plants in many parts of the island have been obliterated. I did however find this one healthy patch of Romanzoffia tracyi behind the boathouse. Protected because of its location among the rocks. I checked some of the other known locations of this rare plant but didn’t see any.
Black oystercatcher midden
One feature that was very evident with the lack of vegetation was the extensive beds of chiton shells which are evidence of black oystercatcher middens from last season.
Two immature or juvenile female elephant seals were on the island, one tagged ..green C887
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- The comfort of a sidewalk?
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- C887 juvenile female
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- juvenile female
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- Note muddy area below helipad
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- Green tag C887
The five males:
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- Male elephant seal 1
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- elephant seal 2
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- elephant seal 3
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- elephant seal 4
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- elephant seal 5
I have been watching the vegetation cover made up of the introduced species of Sedum or stonecrop which was on the top of the reservoir.. In my September photo the bed was quite dried and cracked. Now it has partially recovered.. This is one place the sealions seem to avoid.
Because Pearson College could not provide boat transportation this year, and because I was determined to continue the 20 year tradition of this valuable baseline collection of bird population data, we rented a boat from Pedder Bay marina for the trip to Race Rocks. A list of the birds observed by Kim Beardmore is attached here.
Race Rocks,
Dec 28, 2017 9:05 AM – 11:37 AM
Protocol: Traveling
7.5 kilometer(s)
Comments: CBC, Race Rocks
16 species (+1 other taxa)Harlequin Duck 10 (North and west Race Rocks)
Surf Scoter 55 (outer pedder bay)
Red-breasted Merganser 18 (mostly outer Pedder bay)
Common Loon 2
Horned Grebe 1
Brandt’s Cormorant 14
Pelagic Cormorant 18
Double-crested Cormorant 10
Bald Eagle 4
Black Oystercatcher 42
Black Turnstone 59
Common Murre 1 ( in outer Pedder bay)
Pigeon Guillemot 10
Mew Gull 14
Iceland Gull (Thayer’s) 8
Glaucous-winged Gull 69
Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid) 2
Dec 28, 2017 9:05 AM – 11:37 AM
Protocol: Traveling
7.5 kilometer(s)
Comments: CBC, Race Rocks
16 species (+1 other taxa)Harlequin Duck 10 (North and west Race Rocks)
Surf Scoter 55 (outer pedder bay)
Red-breasted Merganser 18 (mostly outer Pedder bay)
Common Loon 2
Horned Grebe 1
Brandt’s Cormorant 14
Pelagic Cormorant 18
Double-crested Cormorant 10
Bald Eagle 4
Black Oystercatcher 42
Black Turnstone 59
Common Murre 1 ( in outer Pedder bay)
Pigeon Guillemot 10
Mew Gull 14
Iceland Gull (Thayer’s) 8
Glaucous-winged Gull 69
Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid) 2
Marine Mammals Hauled out on Race Rocks Jan 2014-Feb 2016
This graph represents the 6 marine mammal species which haul out on Great Race Rocks in the Race Rocks Ecological reserve. providing the population numbers and the time of year CLICK to enlarge. The data was obtained from the Posts on census done by the Ecoguardians at Race Rocks.
The graph below represents the Elephant seal population at Race Rocks Ecological reserve with data taken from the Ecoguardian logs for January 2014 to January 2016. Click to enlarge.
ANIMAL CENSUS
July 9th Thursday: Animal census
The fog was still there pretty thick but around 11:30 it cleared up and we could go up the tower to do the census. We had a west wind and the forecast was a gale warning for the end of the afternoon.The wind at noon was from West at 24 knots and could go to 35 in the late afternoon. We saw a few Whale watchers boats around noon and we had no visitors. Water is getting colder under 12 degrees Celsius. Guy put a new VHF on the whaler.
The estimation of the population is:
Elephant seals: 3
Sea Lions: 180
Pigeon–guillemots: 80
Gulls: 450 (yesterday we could see a group of gulls with black winged maybe some west gulls)
Pelagic cormorants: 3
Geese: 11 (Today the smallest one of the family of 5 was not in the water swimming but looked lost alone in the island hanging around). They spend more and more time in the water.
Black oystercatchers :0
Bald eagle: 1 (they attack the colony almost every day once in the morning)
Population Growth of Elephant Seals (Mirounga angustirostris) at Race Rocks, 1990-2014
The following is a draft copy of a graph I am working on to illustrate the growth of the elephant seal population at Race Rocks over the past few years. The information has been retrieved from logs of current and past Ecoguardians and photos and notes taken over the years.
To be continued: G. Fletcher
