Category Archives: Facility work

Grey and Rainy

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Today was very grey and rainy but it didn’t stop the animals from showing off.

All 3 elephant seals (1 male, 2 females) are now on the main island. The smaller of the 2 females has been asleep in the grass behind the student house since last night. The larger one was chased up the boat launch by the male. For about 20 minutes he chased her around, lunging and throwing his head, grabbing her hind flippers and shaking them, both were very vocal. Since they are large and not so graceful this event (I’d call it a low-speed chase) involved lots of rest breaks. Finally the male made his way back to the water and the female found a place to sleep in the grass.

 

The torrential downpour was the perfect opportunity to deep clean the main house. Between cleaning I spotted 2 transient orcas, as well as the darker of the new sea otters a little while later.

 

So close but yet so far

This place is pretty unbelievable even when the weather isn’t!

Facility Work: (today and yesterday)

  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Split wood
  • Deep clean main house 
  • Cleaned windows of the main house inside and out
  • Cleared boat launch of drift wood
  • With the help of a very motivated Pearson student we also finished gardening around the old bricks at the base of the flywheel!

 

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Ecotourism vessels

Weather Events:

  • Saturday, March 23:
    • Sky: Dark cloudy skies, on and off heavy rain
    • Wind: High of WNW 10 knots, Low of ESE 1 knot
    • Sea: Calm
    • Temperature: Low 8oC, High  10oC

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

A Steller Monday

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What started out as a very foggy morning turned into a blue sky and sunshine kind of day with an unbelievable sunset!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s Animal Notes:

 

 

A large male Steller sea lion has been hauled out on the rocks near the jetty all day and he make the makes the California sea lions look tiny in comparison! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A female elephant seal spent the morning sunbathing in the water behind the student house. I think this may be the same one that’s been hauling out on the South Island. She’s yet to come ashore here though. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spotted 3 harbour porpoises just outside the reserve this morning, I see so many back home in Vancouver so I’m surprised that this was the first time I’ve seen them here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I came across a giant pacific octopus at low tide (deceased unfortunately) but it made a great meal for a young gull and an even better learning opportunity for the students that are currently on the island!

 

 

 

 

Finished the night off by watching the sunset with the blonder of the two new otters as it floated off the rocks behind the student house. (No photos, just enjoyed the moment).

Facility Work:

  • Filled the cistern 

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • One ecotourism vessel
  • Two private vessels

Weather Events:

  • Monday, March 18:
    • Sky: Foggy morning, clear blue sky until sunset
    • Wind: High of ESE 11 knots, Low of SE 1 knot
    • Sea: Glassy all day long
    • Temperature: Low 7oC, High  13oC

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Sea Otters at Sunrise

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An early morning alarm clock to watch the sunrise paid off when one of our new sea otters popped up just off the rocks beside me. No colourful urchins to munch on today, just some sleepy floating and grooming. The weather was warm in the morning and cooled off later in the day with the wind. Despite cooling down, the sun was strong and I was able to run the desalinator off pure solar all afternoon!

 

A moment of appreciation for our lone boy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Facility Work:

  • Topped up battery electrolytes
  • Topped up generator’s diesel
  • Cleaned inside keeper’s house and prepped rooms for next Ecoguardian

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Ecotourism vessels

Weather Events:

  • Sunday, March 17:
    • Sky: Clear, not a cloud in the sky
    • Wind: High of W 24 knots, Low of NE 2 knots
    • Sea: Glassy morning, whitecaps in the afternoon
    • Temperature: Low 8oC, High 11oC

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Sunny Saturday!

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Warmest day yet! Rather uneventful as far as animals go today (or so I thought), managed to get some facility work done – lots of cleaning. Just as I was watching the sunset a pod of transient killer whales passed by just outside the reserve. A beautiful and exciting day way to end a Saturday!

 

 

Facility Work:

  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Cleaned windows of both houses inside and out
  • Chopped wood

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Ecotourism vessels
  • One recreational vessel came to check out the sea lions, kept a good distance away.

Weather Events:

  • Saturday, March 16:
    • Sky: Clear, not a cloud in the sky
    • Wind: High of E 19 knots, Low of  SSW 3 knots
    • Sea: Flat calm
    • Temperature: Low 8oC, High 13oC

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Not a Fun Day to be a Sea Lion!

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Another epic day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning I spotted the darker of our two new otters feeding off South Island again. These two might need names if they keep sticking around. Bright red urchins were on the breakfast menu for today, personally I prefer a few less spikes with my coffee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The afternoon brought transient killer whales past the reserve who spent 2.5 hours in the area hunting sea lion. While they didn’t come super close, they did put on a pretty unbelievable show!

 

 

Visitors:

  •  Greg and furnace repairman

Facility Work:

  • Keeper’s house furnace now working!
  • Prepped student house for visitors

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Ecotourism vessels

Weather Events:

  • Friday, March 15:
    • Sky: Blue sky
    • Wind: High of 14 knots, Low of 6 knots
    • Sea: Whitecaps
    • Temperature: Low 6oC, High 10oC

Animal Census and Blog

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Time is flying by here! Nothing too wild to report today, the weather is definitely getting warmer and the solar panels are working hard. See below for more details!

March 13th Census:

Birds

  • Harlequin duck: 13
  • Bald eagle adult: 5
  • Bald eagle juvenile: 1
  • Turnstones: 16
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western: 130
  • Cormorants: 27
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 86
  • Oyster catcher: 21
  • Canadian goose: 11
  • Surf Birds: 8

 

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion: 23
  • Harbour seal: 40
  • California sea lion: 27
  • Elephant seal male: 1
  • Sea otter: 1 (+ additional sighted March 11th)
  • Animal Tracking and Injuries: 
    • Injuries: Steller sea lion with head wound (see photo) 
    • Tracking: California sea lion with small red flipper tag, no numbers or markings on tag

 

Ecological Notes:

–          Two sea otters observed near the South Island on the morning of March 11th. One was larger with a dark face, the second appeared to be young with blonde cheeks and lacking the nose scar that Ollie is known for. Watched them both for 3-4 hours, they were eating urchins, crab, grooming, and exhibiting other common sea otter behaviours.

–          Still just one male elephant seal on the rocks. Female was reported on Middle Rock by an ecotourism vessel.

Visitors:

  • Greg to drop off supplies

Facility Work:

  • Gardening/weeding
  • Repaired some gaps in the electric fence
  • Full clean inside keeper’s house (on bad weather day)

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Ecotourism vessels, the same 2-3 seem to pass by each day
  • Wednesday, March 13:
    • Sky: Blue sky with some clouds 
    • Wind: Low of WNW 4 knots with high of WSW 18 knots
    • Sea: Relatively calm today 
    • Temperature: Low 6oC, High 9oC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Elephant Seal!

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I’ve officially been on the rocks for 10 whole days and every single one of them have been incredible. I can’t walk by a single window in this house without staring out of it in awe.

I have learned so much in such a brief period and although I’ve always been a rather solitary person, this is a whole new level of living alone. While slightly overwhelming at first, I think I’ve found my groove and there is always something to do.

Elephant seal

He’s always watching!

Each morning I awake to the sound of my new alarm clock – the singular male elephant seal on the island who is bellowing for what I assume is a female (or maybe he does it solely to wake me up). The gulls enjoy chiming in which usually sets the geese off too, by then the 3 California sea lions by the jetty are annoyed and they begin to holler along with the whole choir. Honestly, I wouldn’t want to be woken up any other way!

Looking back through previous logs and animal census it is obvious that this is a slow time of year for animals, the census I did this week is far outshined by most of the others. I look forward to more animals arriving.

The weather the last few days has been warmer than when I first arrived and despite some strong winds last night, the wind seems to have calmed down as well. The evenings are still chilly, but the fire warms the house perfectly.

I haven’t spotted any cetaceans in the last few days but I’m hoping I will soon. The same 2-3 ecotourism vessels pass by each day and the passengers always give me an excited wave. I feel as though I’m the star attraction when they do that – or maybe it’s more like I’m one of the animals to spot? There haven’t been a whole lot of pinnipeds around either, but from what I’ve experienced so far, all the operators are very respectful when showing their guests the reserve.

It’s daylight savings today which means we get a whole extra hour of daylight and a whole extra hour of solar power, woohoo!

 

Here are some additional notes from the past few days:

Ecological Notes:

–          Still just the one male elephant seal. There was a brief appearance by a female on March 7th but she was quick to return to the water when the sole male came barrelling towards her (a full speed galumph if I’ve ever seen one!!)

Visitors:

–          Greg, Cedric, and furnace repairman

Facility Work:

  • Gardening
  • Station refuel
  • Furnace maintenance
  • Wood bucking and splitting (extra thanks to Cedric!)
  • Washed house windows inside and out
  • Topped up batteries with water

Noted Vessel Traffic:

–          Ecotourism vessels
–          Group of 6 kayakers

 Weather Events:

  • Thursday, March 07:
    • Sky: Overcast with the sun coming out later in the day
    • Wind: High of NNE 15knots, low of NNE 5knots
    • Sea: Calm
    • Temperature: Low 1oC, High 6oC
  • Friday, March 08:
    • Sky: Overcast, on and off drizzle
    • Wind: High of N 21 knots, low of ENE 9 knots
    • Sea:  Calm, strong current coming through in the evening
    • Temperature: Low 6oC, High 10oC
  • Saturday, March 09:
    • Sky: Dark skies, brief period of sun with a big rainbow!
    • Wind: High of ESE 31knots, low of WSW 4 knots
    • Sea: Relatively calm with swell picking up
    • Temperature: Low 7oC, High 9oC
  • Sunday, March 10:
    • Sky: Mix of overcast and sun throughout the afternoon
    • Wind: High of E33 knots, low of N5 knots
    • Sea: Strong current in the reserve today but calm outside
    • Temperature: Low 7oC, High 10oC

 

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Kendra – New Ecoguardian!

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Hello blog readers! My name is Kendra, and I am the new Ecoguardian here on Race Rocks, so I thought I’d introduce myself.

I grew up in Tsawwassen, BC and have been in love with the ocean and all its creatures for as long as I can remember.

My background is in veterinary medicine, and I’ve been a Registered Veterinary Technician for 8 years now. Much of the work I’ve done in the veterinary field has been marine related. It all started back in 2017 when I worked in sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation in Australia and got my advanced diving license. Shortly after that I returned home to Vancouver where I worked in marine mammal rescue with the Vancouver Aquarium for 4 years, and absolutely fell in love with harbour seals – who remain my favourite animal!

For the past 1.5 years I’ve worked for Fisheries and Oceans Canada supporting Southern Resident killer whale recovery before moving into a marine mammal rescue and response role which brought me all over the BC coast.

Marine mammals are my passion and I’m so lucky to be living here on Race Rocks, fully surrounded by them. I must admit that I am not as familiar with birds, but I am quickly learning as each day goes by here and I’m enjoying watching all of the different behaviours and mating rituals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 6th Animal Census:

Birds

  • Bald eagle adult: 3
  • Bald eagle juvenile: 7
  • Turnstones: 2
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western: 74
  • Cormorants: 46
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 53
  • Oyster catcher: 20
  • Canadian goose: 4
  • Surf Birds: 3

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion: 20
  • Harbour seal: 44
  • California sea lion: 26
  • Elephant seal male: 1
  • Sea otter: 0
  • Animal Tracking and Injuries: none

Ecological Notes:

  • 1 lone male elephant seal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visitors:

  • 1 alumni for a visit
  • 2 guests for tour

Facility Work:

  • Gardening
  • Pressure washed the final bit of the jetty
  • Split lots of wood for fires

DND events:

  • 2 blasts March 4th at 14:30, no noted impact to animals but quite loud
  • 5 blasts March 5th at various times throughout the day, startled nearby birds but they quickly returned

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Ecotourism vessels, the same 2-3 seem to pass by each day

 Feature Event:

  • Transient orca passed by along the outside of the reserve but didn’t come through to hunt!

Weather Events:

  • Monday, March 04:
    • Sky: Sunny morning clear, 15:00 dark cloud and hailstorm!
    • Wind: High WNW 21 knots, low of 0 knots in afternoon
    • Sea: swells in the morning, chop picked up later in the day
    • Temperature: Low 0oC, High 5oC
  • Tuesday, March 05:
    • Sky: Bright blue sky morning and full sun all day
    • Wind: High of W 21 knots, low of SE 2 knots
    • Sea: Flat calm all day long
    • Temperature: Low 3oC, High 4oC
  • Wednesday, March 06:
    • Sky: Overcast, brief snow/hail at 10:30am
    • Wind: High of N 23 knots, low of E 2 knots
    • Sea: Calm, slight ripple
    • Temperature: Low 2oC, High 5oC

 

 

 

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Early Spring = Cleaning

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Ecological Notes:

  • The birds are starting to pair off …. Geese, Gulls, and Oyster Catchers most notably. Lots of Adult Bald Eagle courtship in the air.

  • Young adult Elephant Seal male arrived a few days ago. After resting a couple days, he has spent most of every night bellowing and calling from a high point on the island.

One of his favourite calling spots is right below the window!

Realizing the female is calling from the other side of the rise

  • One adult Female Elephant Seal has since come to the island. She moves towards the males calls, but retreats when he tries to approach her. I can only speculate that she instinctively wants to haul out for her moult with other seals, but feels he not big enough to breed with(?)

She calls out a lot as well

  • I’m hoping his calls may attract others to the island
  • Normally I just get reports of “Ollie” the Sea Otter, but while I was up by the north camera, I could see him just beyond  helicopter rock.

very far away

  • 4 Transient (Biggs) Orca travel through the northern edge of the reserve without cutting in to hunt. I watched from the north camera rock, to see if they might double back, but they continued east.

T019B “Galliano” … 28 year old male

Visitors:

  • 2 techs from the Coastguard returned to complete repairs to the fog horn.
  • The upcoming Eco-Guardian also visited for an overview of the Ecological Reserve and day to day operations.

Facility Work:

  • Added water to the cistern to allow more desalination to fill the main water tank.
  • Gathered all the  hose on the island to pressure wash the pier.
  • Tackled the rather daunting job of moving and bucking the very large logs collected when I had help to pull them out of the ocean.  Even with a good understanding of leverage and pivot points, these logs were a brute! Most were well over 12-16 inches in diameter, and the bucked sections were 400-500 lbs! Task was cut short by rain (and exhaustion!), but moved the next sections into place for  the first buck. Next will be moving them to the final bucking and splitting area up top.

DND events:

  • some blasting, some fires

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Still occasional Eco-Tourism vessels

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Foghorn and tower updates

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Ecological Notes:

  • Large female Elephant Seal came up to the centre haul out area on the Island. She appeared to be one of the females from last year. She spent regular periods ca.ling out, before leaving after 3 days ……. a pattern I have seen each time any single Elephant Seal has come to the reserve this season

  • Juvenile Golden Eagle still visiting occasionally
  • One morning there was an extra high number of eagles here….. 40+. I looked for new carrion or any other reason for there to be so many, but couldn’t find any.
  • California Sea Lion that had a band removed a while ago is around, and his neck appears to be healing well

Visitors:

  • 2 techs from the college
  • 3 techs from coastguard

Facility Work:

  • Pearson College IT installed new Starlink system at the top of the tower. Still awaiting implementation

  • Coastguard attempted to repair foghorn system but are awaiting parts now, and serviced the battery system for thew lighthouse
  • Cleaned the filter on the main house furnace, but detected a probably leak in the main fuel line
  • Received new files to re-work the chainsaw chain
  • Cleaned the rest of the outside walls of the student building, save for one area where I couldn’t position  the ladder safely by myself.(once the green is gone, the residue comes off after a couple rains)
  • Cleaned a small section of the roof, but found it pretty sketchy for a “larger” old guy to extend his reach that far above the ladder!

  • Daily attempts to keep the boat ramp clear of driftwood

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Eco-Tourism vessels

Weather Events:

  • Thursday, February 15:
    • Sky: Overcast, with brief showers
    • Wind: N 30kts, dropping to 15kts late afternoon
    • Sea:  .5M chop
    • Temperature Low 3oC, High 8oC
  • Wednesday, February 13:
    • Sky: High overcast with sunny breaks, rain showers
    • Wind: NE 20-25 kts, rising to 30kts in the evening
    • Sea:  waves to 1M, high standing waves in the channels
    • Temperature Low 7oC, High 9oC
  • Tuesday, February 12:
    • Sky: Overcast with a few sunny breaks
    • Wind: N 20kts, switching to E 5-10kts during the day
    • Sea:  light chop
    • Temperature Low 7oC, High 9oC

 

 

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?