More Male Elephant Seals

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-10 N/NE
  • Sky: cloudy in the morning then cleared up by afternoon
  • Water: mostly calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Saw a few ecotours go by today
  • Two workers from Environment Canada came by for a few hours to inspect the weather monitoring equipment on the top of the lighthouse.
  • Kyle came out to deliver fuel and brought a student from Pearson college to see the island.

Ecological

  • There are now three other male elephant seals hanging around.
  • The older elephant seal pup has been sleeping away from the elephant seal family (dominant male, female and weaner) for the last few days now and the other males are starting to become interested in it. I really hope they don’t attack it!

Sunbathing Sea Lions

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-10 N/NE
  • Sky: sunny with cloudy periods
  • Water: mostly calm, bit choppy at times

Boats/Visitors

  • Had a few ecotours go by today
  • New batteries were installed for the main energy systems. The generator will only need to be run once a week for 2-4 hours rather than 2-4 hours a day! Huge decrease in carbon footprint.

Ecological

  • The sea lions and seals were enjoying the sun today
  • Lots of black turnstones running around the lawn throughout the day
  • An eagle flew right over me and my friend right when she arrived to say hi.

Growing Pups

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-15  N/NE
  • Sky: cloudy with some sun
  • Water: mostly calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Didn’t notice an ecotours today
  • Kyle came by with some food and a new cart for wheeling fuel around. New batteries for the generator and energy system are getting installed tomorrow which will greatly reduce the amount of time we will need to run the generator! Very exciting.

Ecological

  • Haven’t seen the young tagged C887 seal again
  • The elephant seal pups are getting so big, can’t believe how fast they grow. The weaner is so noisy, especially at night.
  • Lots of eagles and black oyster catchers out again today.

Growing Pups & Upgrades

Weather

  • Visibility:15 Miles
  • Wind: 3-15 NW
  • Sky: Sunny
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Not much boat activity today aside from the usual commercial freighters
  • Had some technicians come out to look at upgrading the internet routers for the island which is exciting. Lots of upgrades happening lately to the energy systems here which will greatly reduce the amount of fuel needed to burn everyday to keep things running out here.

Ecological

  • The pups continue to grow and get bigger by the day.
  • Lots of eagles and harbour seals on the south east rocks still.

 

Helicopter Visitor

Weather

  • Visibility:10-15 Miles
  • Wind: 3-10 SE
  • Sky: Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A coast guard technician and pilot came by today via helicopter to inspect the weather monitoring equipment for the lighthouse.
  • a couple ecotours went by today

Ecological

  • 15-20 harbour seals on the south east rocks for most of the day
  • The youngest elephant seal pup is very vocal! Always crying for milk

 

 

February 3rd

Weather

  • Visibility:15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-15 NW
  • Sky: Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • a couple ecotours went by today

Ecological

  • Some photos included of a possibly wounded female juvenile elephant seal that showed up yesterday that I haven’t seen since

Notes

  • finally replaced the flag, because the old one was getting pretty worn out, one of the red stripes was gone
  • ran the diesel and topped up the fresh water tank

Jan 31st

Weather

  • Visibility:15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NE
  • Sky: Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • quite a few fishing boats went by

Ecological

  • Got a photo of the juvenile female on the east side of the island, her tail was tagged D-018, she seemed to be doing alright, no clear injuries
  • The younger pup seems to be cuddling up to both moms quite a bit, she tried to nurse off the other mom again, I didn’t catch her actually nursing off the other mom but included a photo of her trying
  • I suspect the new pup is female as well but I am not completely sure

Notes

  • quite a bit of the roofing came off the tank shed in the last big storm a couple days, I collected it and managed to get most of it in one spot

Census

Weather

  • Visibility:15 Miles
  • Wind: 10-15 SE
  • Sky: Cloudy
  • Water: Choppy under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Kyle and Mike came by today to finish setting up the new inverter, next week they set up the new battery bank

Ecological

  • noticed another large male elephant seal out on middle rock, he’s been there for a little while now but I don’t see any other elephant seals out there

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions – 167
  • California Sea Lions – 94
  • Harbour Seals – 61
  • Elephant Seals – 5 males, 1 female and 1 pup
  • Cormorants – 84
  • Gulls – 260
  • Eagles – 16
  • Black Turnstones – 27
  • Black Oystercatchers – 12
  • Pigeon Guillemots – 12
  • Harlequinn Ducks- 14

January 25th, 2018

Weather

  • Visibility:15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-15 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves about 1 metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Kyle came by with electricians from Power to the People to set up the new inverters, next week they working on the new battery bank

Ecological

  • the elephant seals are all doing well
  • as are the sea lion
  • and the pigeon guillemots are back, will update the census with photos tomorrow

 

Beautiful Day

Weather

  • Visibility:15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 SE
  • Sky: Some clouds, mostly sunny
  • Water: Flat calm for the most part

Boats/Visitors

  • Kyle, Jeff and Jack came by to deliver more batteries and help get that big log off the jetty
  • a couple ecotours and fishing boats went by

Ecological

  • the elephant seals are all doing well
  • as are the sea lions

Notes

  • Having some problems uploading the photos, will try fix it tomorrow