Weather
- Visibility: 15 Miles
- Wind: 0-5 SE
- Sky: clear all day
- Water: calm
Boats/Visitors
- Had quite a few ecotours drive by
Ecological
- plenty of sea lions still
Notes
- The weather has been really nice today, good for solar input
Category Archives: Facility work
October 23rd
Weather
- Visibility: 15 Miles
- Wind: 10-15 NE
- Sky: pretty cloudy most of the day
- Water: calm
Boats/Visitors
- Had some ecotours drive by
Ecological
- so many sea lions
- 5 elephant seals scattered around
- a gull with a broken wing
- and some california gulls around
- also saw the eagle again today
Notes
- go to run the desalinator for awhile today, its been difficult to get to with all the sea lions around
Census Day
Weather
- Visibility: 15 Miles
- Wind: 0-10 NE
- Sky: Overcast
- Water: calm, sort of, there was a bit of a swell out there
Boats/Visitors
- Kyle dropped off a food order and helped with some facility work other than that there were the usual ecotours
Ecological
- More sea lions than last week
- Same 5 elephant seals
- a lot of birds, gulls, turnstones, oystercatchers, geese, cormorants and an eagle
- Still not sure if the sea otter is out there, he is very hard to see from here
Notes
- DnD was blasting today
- The new generator is working great, just need more fuel
Census
- California Sea Lions – 512
- Stellar Sea Lions – 141
- Unspecified Gulls – 620
- Cormorants – 228
- Black Turnstones – 26
- Oystercatchers – 22
- Geese – 16
- Eagle – 1
- Harbour Seals – 30
- Elephant Seals – 5
Cold Seas
Weather
- Visibility: 15 Miles
- Wind: 0-15 NE
- Sky: overcast all day
- Water: flat but the current was moving
Boats/Visitors
- Ecotours and fishing boats coming by today
Ecological
- plenty of sea lions around not sure if the numbers have peaked yet
- saw humpbacks again out the kitchen window, they’ve been around for awhile
Notes
- The water sample the last couple days has shown a temperature of 9 degrees which is the lowest I’ve seen it in awhile
- The generator is working nicely
Census day
Weather
- Visibility: 15 Miles
- Wind: 0-10 W
- Sky: cloudy throughout the day and a but of a drizzle this morning
- Water: calm, but the current was running pretty good
Boats/Visitors
- The new generator was set up today so we had a few people to come in and set that up which is great
Ecological
- even more sea lions this time, of both stellars and californias
- also 2 more elephant seal showed up this morning, both female
Notes
- tried to set up the electric fence again by the generator room but the sea lions tear back it down in minutes
- Saw the sea lions today that was darted a couple weeks ago and he is still healing (pictures in gallery)
- And the sea lion that currently has a band around its neck is still around
- There was a stellar that I thought might have something around his neck but it was just a gash, possibly from other sea lion?
Census
- Stellar Sea Lions – 62
- California Sea Lions – 456
- Elephant Seals – 5 (all female)
- Harbour Seals – 128
- Gulls (unspecified) – 524
- Cormorants – 367
- Black turnstones – 32
- Sparrows – 43
- Oyster Catchers – 6
- Sea Otter ( I can’t sea it very well but I’m sure it was around ) – 1
Windy Day
Weather
- Visibility: 15 Miles
- Wind: 20-30 W
- Sky: cloudy throughout the day
- Water: a bit choppy, no more than a metre
Boats/Visitors
- Some ecotours braved the winds and came by
Ecological
- plenty of sea lions around they are coming up more to the middle island, which can be a problem, the elephant seals are up here too
Notes
- Ran the generator for a few hours today, had a little power outage last night and can’t have that happen again
- Everything else is going alright here, hopefully have the new generator up and running next week
An Elephant Seal
Weather
- Visibility: 15 Miles
- Wind: 10-15 SW
- Sky: cloudy this morning had a bit of fog then cleared up in the afternoon
- Water: calm
Boats/Visitors
- Had a few ecotours and personal vessels cruise by today
Ecological
- plenty of stubborn sea lions along with one female elephant seal mixed in with them
Notes
- It was nice to see an elephant seal around, I walked around taking a few pictures today
- The sea lions were very stubborn today, I couldn’t fix the fence by the student house because they would charge me whenever I got close
I am Back and the Census
Sorry about my last 10 days being absent but I am back now and here is an updated census.
Weather
- Visibility: Pretty clear 15 Miles throughout today
- Wind: 0-5 SW with small range all day
- Sky: Sunny all day
- Water: pretty flat but the current is very visible and moving
Boats/Visitors
- I came in today and so did a few students to have a look around, we also had an engineer to come look at the new generator
Ecological
- quite a bit of sea lions, I don’t see the elephant seal sticking around anymore and I have not seen any oyster catchers today. Also the sea otter in the north kelp patch is back
Census
- Stellar Sea Lions: 142
- California Sea Lions: 186
- Elephant Seals: 0
- Harbour Seals: 28
- Unspecified Gulls: 153
- Pigeon Guillemots: 0
- Cormorants: 18
- Canada Geese: 12
- Oystercatchers: 0
- Black Turnstones: 48
Foggy week and dead gull chicks
Weather
These first days of August were pretty foggy:Everyday the fog was around Race Rocks from 3:00 AM to 9-10 AM and for the 2 last days it was all day long. One day was warm but the others not so much because of the wind. On the 6th the fog around the rock was just like a thick wall…
Ecological
No more Elephant Seals and slowly the Sea lions are coming back .We saw the first one on the jetty and 2 big stellers on middle were pretty noisy like usual.The 3 last days many dead gull chicks around and gulls are really aggressive (they attack you)…I saw an amazing show:2 eagles and 4 vultures hunting the chicks together (the 2 eagles going to a dive and the vultures staying at the same level in the air). Many pigeons guillemots . 2 beautiful and big cormorants spend a full day on the same rock. and 2 times we had orcas in Race Passage around 11:00 AM followed by so many boats!The second time some were almost on them (10 to 30 meters) …disgusting!
Maintenance
The sea water pump has been repaired and is working well now. Cleaning days before the shift.
Other
Shift over done on the 6th in the afternoon. James got a full tour of the rock and has been introduced.
Flying practice time for the first born chicks
Weather
West light winds most of the time but we had some wind coming from North East for the 1st time this Summer.last Friday I got a lot of fog with no visibility at all and again two nights ago for a few hours.We have some very low tides .
Ecological
I have been attacked by the gulls getting very nasty. I had a helmet!There are chicks everywhere and the eagles and vultures are hunting almost every morning and I found already 3 bodies and 2 of the small ones had been recently killed. Territory fight! Many oyster catchers(not true last year). Only 4 elephant seals and 12 sea lions on Middle Rocks. Early a morning I found a very small harbor seal on the railway; 50cm not more with a lot of fur!
Maintenance
The solar panels ,the house windows are getting so dirty!The house entrance too… I pumped more sea water for the underground reserve …This week I had a training everyday at Pedder bay (Navigation and radio operator license Training) So I was gone a big part of the days with some challenge for launching the boat (Low tides). I had to do it around 4AM
Vessels
The number of whale watchers around the rocks is insane . On Saturday I counted that at least 1000 people were around ! It’s a number really!