Category Archives: Facility work

Flocks of gulls feeding

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Wildlife

Surface feeding by large flocks of seagulls around great Race island ,on a slack tide.

Entangled SSL on north west section of Great Race island today.

5 sparrows noted.

Weather: flat calm conditions in morning. 5 to 10 knots wind throughout the day.

Facility work: Repairing broken poles along fence line, solar panel cleaning, cleaned windows on student residence and main residence.

Visitors:

Two kayakers west of Great Race Rock and one paddleboarder circumnavigating Great Race, both at slack tide.

Vessels: Busy with tour boats around noon, 4 lined up to go through middle channel. 17 tour boats noted throughout the day.

Orcas near Middle Rock

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Wildlife

Looking out the west window at 730am, caught a glimpse of four orcas surfacing near middle rock on an ebb tide. They were later observed on the south side of the main island. Very quiet and little time at the surface. Last observed at 830 am.

Another branded California sea lion seen in the jetty.

Life and death are always close when so many animals live in such a small area, particularly fledgling sea gulls. One with a broken leg and another with head injuries noted.

Facility work

  • One of the reoccurring themes here are the two fences, the north and south, with there own power supplies. Given the size of sea lions it is rather impressive that this thin ribbon of electric fence holds the seal lions in place at all. It is the wonder of positive punishment and intermittent reinforcement. That said, daily repairs are integral to the fence’s continuing success.
  • Solar panels cleaned and water temp and salinity taken. Today’s were 31. 8 ppt salinity and temperature of 10.8 C
  • Assisted Richard in adding diesel fuel to tanks in the two residences and the 100 litre tidy tank in the generator building, in preparation for fall weather. Furnace still only needed to take the chill away in the morning.

Weather: Overcast to foggy to sunny to foggy at 5:00pm.

Vessels: 16 tour boats, 2 private

Branded CSL X2

 

Census day

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Wildlife: Census results

Thirteen pelicans sighted on Seal rock in the later afternoon.

Steller sea lion (SSL) with band around its neck seen on north beach near jetty. Appropriate agencies contacted.

Two more sea lions observed with scars around their necks. Do not appear to be infected.

Great day for whale sightings, 13 in total, mostly out beyond the green starboard buoy and to the east.

Weather

Clear, beautiful day on the rock

Facility work

  • Repaired fence. Encouraged three CSLs back over to their side. Moving forward slowly and then backing away (pressure on, pressure off, seems to work best in getting them to move in the direction you are hoping for.
  • Solar panels cleaned. Water and salinity readings taken.

Vessels

14 tour boats noted, 2 private boats

Census postponed

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Wildlife : Ready to take first census since arriving but fog had other plans. Could not seen west, middle, turbine or north islets. Postponed until Sunday.

Watched a California seal lion (CSL) walk past the east side of boat house to the east side of the helicopter pad and then pull itself up the wall onto the pad. Impression!

Midday noted a crow being chased by a group of seagulls around the island. Left in short order.

Weather: Heavy fog and overcast all day

Facility work:

  • Fence repair on north and south sides. Encouraged three CSLs back to their side of the fence.
  • Cistern restoration work continuing
  • Cleaned solar panels.
  • Checked battery water levels and topped up as required.
  • Temperature and salinity readings at max tide.

Visitors:

Students from LBPC left at noon. Hope they all will have many more occasions to visit and study on this very special place.

Students out until Saturday pm

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Weather: The day started with heavy fog in the morning, dissipating by noon.

Vessels: Fascinating watching tour boats emerging out of the fog in the morning, and then disappearing. Thirteen boats noted throughout the day.

Facilities: Heavy dew made cleaning the solar panels light work. Electric fences needed repair on the north side and along the jetty.

Visitors: Eight students from LBPC, with their instructor, Cam D. and assistant Bella M, came for one night. The Environment Reserve Warden Garry Fletcher, with three guests, arrived with the students, in the early afternoon. Wonderful two hour walkabout with Garry. Thank you.

Joined the students in a venture up to the top of the lighthouse. Two groups of four students made 14 humpback whale spottings. Best place ever for sighting whales.

Restoring the concrete cistern

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Up early to fix the southern electric fence, then onto solar panels and sea water temperature and salinity measurements. Took inventory of First Aid kits, expired items. Generator ran today.

Richard T. returned to pump out and start work on the large concrete cistern, in hopes that the desalinator and restored cistern may eventually bring an end to the paucity of usable water. Two killdeer and one turnstone seen on the western part of the main  island.

 

Solar panels, birds and the sun

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Wildlife: The morning presented itself with the barking of sea lions on the north side, closer than expected. Looking out to see the new north electric fence lying on the ground and three pleased California sea lions lying on the fence line itself. Repairs undertaken. A pattern with the fence seems to be emerging.

First sighting of entangled Steller sea lion mentioned by previous Eco guardians. May be a female, with a weeping wound around the neck. Wary of humans.

Oyster catchers, black turnstones on eastern part of big island.

Facilities: Solar panels require cleaning every day. Surprised at how tenacious bird droppings can be, especially if the sun has had a chance to bake it on. Became very apparent when trying to clean the science building windows. Needed to use a razor blade scraper to get it off.

Vessels: Twenty one tour boats today. 15 humpback whale sightings. Two pelicans on south islands.

Sea Lions and the north fence

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Richard T. was out to replace the rusted metal door on the battery room. With his expertise the electric fencing along the north side of the island was replaced. Much better charge in line now. Topped up water levels in batteries, cleaned solar panels, and took sea temperature and salinity readings. The pattern of daily life on the island is slowly emerging, wonderfully interspersed with the magic of being on Race Rocks.

Sea lion frustrations

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Much quieter day workwise today.

The sea lions are taking over! They have knocked the fencing down in several places and once again have cleared the fence posts from the jetty. I am conceding defeat! I know Greg and Richard are planning to redo the fence system this week, so the sea lions can claim victory–for now.

During yesterday’s census, I saw a Glaucous-winged Gull with a seriously broken wing. It looked like an old injury given the condition of the wing. I couldn’t relocate it after viewing it from the tower, but today it was near the solar panels. I managed to catch it and will take it to WildARC when I leave on Monday.

The bird of the day remains unidentified. I flushed a small sparrow twice today, but it went too far for me to get a positive identification. I suspect it is a Savannah Sparrow. I am annoyed I didn’t get a better look as there are very few songbirds here.

The entangled sea lion is still present. Fingers crossed for a rescue soon.

Facility work:

  • Clean the solar panels
  • Clean the west and north windows of the Science Building
  • Took hydrometer readings of the batteries in the generator building.

Weather:

  • Sky: clear and sunny all day
  • Wind: variable 0 – 20 knots
  • Sea: rippled
  • Air temperature: low 13 °C, high 27 °C
  • Seawater temperature at max flood: 10.9 °C

Photos from today:

Western Gull, an uncommon species for Race Rocks, although there are a few who are breeding with Glaucous-winged Gulls on site.

One of five Ruddy Turnstones seen today

 

 

August 23 Weekly Census

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First things first! Time to check out the solar panels, while at the same time, keeping track of what animals and birds are being seen. Census is usually conducted on Friday, but since I didn’t arrive until mid-afternoon, I opted to do it today.

The solar panels were in better shape than I expected given the look of the Science Building windows. I remembered all of the valves that needed to be opened to provide water on the generator building roof, so a single trip up the ladder was all that was needed. Once those were taken care of, it was off to tackle the Science Building. There are some great new tools available for reaching the second story windows, but they are quite unwieldy, especially for someone who is just a little over 5 feet tall! As I feared, the gull artwork was baked on, so although there was improvement, the windows were not fully clean when I was done.

Next, a trip up the tower to count marine mammals and gulls. I found a key outside the door as I entered. The fob looked somewhat familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. I thought one of the guests might have dropped it yesterday, so left it at the bottom of the stairs. A hundred steps up, I remembered why it looked familiar–it was the key to the hatch to the outside of the light. Down 100 steps and back up 100 steps. A double workout for today!

While at the top, I called my friends at Rocky Point Bird Observatory just the other side of Bentinck Island and arranged a neighbourly wave. There is a gap in Bentinck that provides a great view of Race Rocks from the other side.

Census complete, I headed back to ground level. Hmmm..Where are my glasses? You got it–back up at the light! Another trip to the top!  Although I had done a count of gulls from the top, I decided to count the young birds again. They are difficult to see from the light. At ground level, I found about three times as many as I had counted from the birds’ eye view.

The sea lions had dumped most of the posts and their concrete blocks off the jetty again. I managed to get them back up before the tide rolled in and repaired the fence–again. I have to say, I felt that I’d put in a full-day’s labour before noon!

Weekly Census
Observed today because of arrival too late on Friday for a fair census

Mammals:

  • Steller sea lion: 327 (including entangled female detected yesterday)
  • California sea lion: 142
  • Harbour seal: 64

Birds:

  • Canada Goose: 7
  • Black Oystercatcher: 5
  • Pigeon Guillemot: 34
  • Ruddy Turnstone: 1
  • Black Turnstone: 15
  • Brandt’s Cormorant 2
  • Pelagic Cormorant 30
  • Western Gull 2
  • California Gull 270
  • Glaucous-winged Gull 1042 (including about 300 young)
  • Brown Pelican

Facility work:

  • Clean the solar panels
  • Cleaned windows on the north and west side of Science Building
  • Returned posts and concrete blocks to the jetty and repaired the fence
  • Topped up batteries

Weather:

  • Sky: sunny and clear all day
  • Wind: variable 0 – 18 knots
  • Sea: rippled
  • Air temperature: low 15 °C, high 26 °C
  • Seawater temperature at max flood: 11.6 °C

Photos from today:

Entangled Sea Lion still being seen near the jetty.

Mom and pup Harbour Seal exuding cuteness

Jetty stripped almost clean of all the fencing posts

Young Glaucous-winged Gull in the early morning sunlight

One of several private vessels seen near the rocks today.

Looks familiar!