Category Archives: Military Activity

April 9th was a beautiful day.

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Except for the chill early and late, April 9th was almost like a summer day. Solar radiation reached a high of ~825 watts/meter2 today, certainly enough to make bull kelp shoot up and solar panels top up batteries. Light airs from the south barely moved the flag most of the day and the westerlies The barometer was fairly steady today but is falling now and the forecast is for increasing cloudiness overnight and rain tomorrow.

A pod of four Killer Whales (probably Bigg's or transients) passes close by Race Rocks Ecological Reserve today heading west.

A pod of four Killer Whales (probably Bigg’s or transients) passes close by Race Rocks Ecological Reserve today heading west.

OrorApr9_15

There was active whale watching activity today and six tour boat visits observed inside the Ecological Reserve. A pod of four Killer Whales passing just to the south of the Ecological Reserve drew a crowd. There seemed to be a small one that was breaching, a larger sub-adult, a large adult male and a female. I did not see the whales enter the Ecological Reserve.

There was military blasting today on the surface at Bentick Island, from late morning through into the afternoon.

Male Harlequin Duck feeding in the shallows off Great Race.

Harlequin drake feeding in the shallows off Great Race.

Thursday is census day and here are the results.

Killer Whales 4 (just outside of ER)

Northern Elephant Seals 19

Harbour Seals 87

California Sea lions 31

Northern Sea lions 27

Canada Geese 22

Harlequin Ducks 8

Pelagic Cormorants 15

Double Crested Cormorants 12

Brandt’s Cormorants 4 (Flying through, did not stop.)

Bald Eagle 2 adults, 6 sub-adult

Turkey Vulture 1

Killdeer 2 (at least, difficult to count in the dark)

Black Oystercatcher 8

Black Turnstone 7

Surfbird 9

Pigeon Guillemots 344

Glaucous-winged Gull 298

Gull sp. 1 (see photo)

Northwestern Crow 10

Dark-eyed Junco 1

 

Harlequin drake and hen take off.

Harlequin drake and hen take off.

Lots of chores were completed today, including extras like fixing the solar panel squeegee, washing outside windows, fixing another bench, beach-combing and tidying. We rearranged the desk/office area to make it more efficient and ergonomic, stood radio watch for a field trip to Swordfish Island, fixed the phone/internet again with subsequent re-boots of weather system and underwater camera, etc. Internet/phone down again just as I go to post this. Now back up after one last tower visit for the night.

March 11 – Cleaning, Diving and Nearby Blasting

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Overcast with periods of sun and rain
Wind: 1 – 17 knots NE, switching to W in the evening
Air Temperature: Low 9.0°C, High 11.3°C
Ocean Temperature: 9.0°C

In the morning, the visiting students helped with a service project to clean the algae off the exterior walls of the tank room and boat house. Elbow grease, a non toxic de-algae formula, brushes and water were used to tackle the algae. Rain water was pumped from the collection tank at the Ecoguardian’s House, which saves the energy intensive desalinated water for the kitchens and washrooms.

For several hours beginning at 10:30, DND set off explosives on nearby Bentinck Island, which is less than 1km from the ecological reserve. Birds, marine mammals and an Ecoguardian were startled by the blasts.

This afternoon, the four students doing the rescue diving course practiced more scenarios off the jetty with Chris.

Chris brought a volunteer from Pearson to visit for a couple hours. Myriam Guilbert, who is the mother of second year student Chloé, toured around the island snapping photos of the flora, fauna and views. She had heard lots of stories about Race Rocks from her daughter.

There were two eco tour boats, one recreational boat and the Pearson’s Haiku in the reserve today.

March 4 – Eagle Gathering

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Sunny
Wind: 8 knots NNE in the morning, diminishing in the afternoon and switching to W in the evening
Air Temperature: High 9C, Low 4C
Ocean Temperature: 8.8C

Twelve bald eagles were hanging out on the South Islands this morning. Many of them stuck around for the rest of the day, flying to different perches around the reserve.

Chunk left the main island at some point last night. The female elephant seal is still camped out to the east of the main house.

Courtney and Max visited for a couple hours this morning to do some maintenance on the cameras and other technology. Camera 5 is almost online again. One more replacement part needs to be installed in the coming days. The Davis weather station is back up and running after a few days offline. Thanks to Max fixing the computer that uploads the weather data.

There was more munitions blasting today at nearby Rocky Point.

Three eco tour boats visited the reserve today.

March 3 – Elephant Seals and DND Blasting

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Sunny
Wind 18 knots from the North in the morning, switching direction to SE and diminishing throughout the day to calm in the evening
Air temperature: high 10C, low 5C
Ocean temperature 8.8C

There is never a dull moment at Race Rocks. At 8:30 in the morning, Chunk (the large male elephant seal) and the female elephant seal that has been on the island for a couple weeks were on the grass to the north of the Ecoguardian’s House. From the window by the front porch, I watched as the female roared and kicked up grass with her flippers as she and Chunk were either fighting or mating. It’s hard to tell the difference. He approached her and bit into her back, adding to the many wounds and scars. The female fled to the other side of the house and Chunk followed. They spent the rest of the day at least 10 metres apart from each other on the west side of the house.

At 10:30, I was sitting in the house reading the SOP manual when I heard and felt a huge blast. There was a large puff of smoke rising from the Canadian Forces Ammunition Base Rocky Point, 2km to the NW. There were red flags to warn passing boaters. After the initial blast, a group of people appeared from a bunker to inspect the area where the munitions were detonated. There were a few more blasts in the next two hours.

There are lots of flowers springing up around the island: daffodil, crocus, grape hyacinth, and calendula. Like several other plants that are not native to the island, they were planted by lighthouse keepers.

I spent the day reacquainting myself with the systems and species of the island.

The fog horn went off sporadically throughout the night, starting at 20:15. There didn’t appear to be any fog or clouds. The almost full moon lit up the night. It was so bright, I didn’t need to use a flashlight when I went to turn off the generator.

Feb 26, derrick, Yellow tag 5086

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Wind E 10 increasing to 20 N. Cloudy, rain in evening. DND blasting continued.

Courtney came out in the morning and brought Kim.  We worked most of the day on setting up the rest of the scaffolding, fixing the derrick cable, and taking down the scaffolding.  Had the new wire rope installed and working by afternoon.  Worked on fire wood and replaced (new) leaky pvc valve in desal with a brass one.

I was finally able to get a clear view of the female elephant seals yellow flipper tag, # 5086. Yellow tags indicate that this elephant seal comes from San Miguel Island or Santa Rosa Island.  We have had several previous sightings of an eseal with a 5086 tag, including this sighting by Julie https://www.racerocks.ca/2012/07/07/new-and-old-faces/ but they were always green tags and this one is clearly yellow.  At some point the pup’s body got flipped over and it is now possible to determine that it is male.

 

Feb 24-25

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Feb 24: Sunny in morning, cloud in afternoon, Wind west 15-20 knots increasing to 30 knots in the afternoon. Blasting again today.  2 whale watching boats in the reserve.  Went off island afternoon to return guest and pick up a plumbing part.  Installed new compass on the whaler, measured wire rope for derrick and made a few calls to find a source for new wire rope.

Chunk came on the island during the night and was pursuing the female elephant seal in the morning.  Eventually she returned to the be next to the pup’s body.

Feb 25: Wind variable, light increasing to 10 knots.  DND blasting again today.  Courtney came out in the afternoon with Tristan, Jake, Chris W, Garry and a guest.  They brought out scaffolding for the derrick and new wire rope to replace the broken one.  Chris W worked on cam 5 utility box connections.  The monitor for the computer weather station is not working.  Tristan, Jake and Courtney started setting up scaffolding under the derrick winch.  I was able to detach the old wire rope and attach the new one into the drum.

Feb 16-18

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Feb 16: sunny, wind 10-20 NE.  Blasting on Bentinck Island.  Today was the first day in several weeks that I there are not female elephant seals visible on West rock. While it coincides with the blasting, they haven’t previously appeared bothered by it. 2 whale watching boats in the reserve. Worked on removing old utility box on camera 5 for replacement and repairs.  Composting toilet chamber is evaporated so I have unplugged the unit to conserve energy.

heron feb 18

Great Blue Heron on NE side of main island, Feb 18

Feb 17: Sunny, wind NE 10-20 knots. Cut, chopped and stacked wood.  Finished removing old utility box and preparing for new install.

Feb 18: Sunny in the morning, wind under 10 knots.  2 whale watching boats and a group of around 20 kayakers in the reserve. The kayakers stayed together and didnt get too close to the sealions.  Continued work on cam 5 utility box. A heron was in the reserve in the morning, I think this is the first time I have seen one here.

 

Wetter, cooler weather arrives.

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There were definite autumn overtones to the weather today in spite of the westerly winds, which shifted over to the southwest a few times. First thing this morning a heavy fog came in and soaked everything. At dark there were ominous looking rainclouds to the west but the forecast actually looks like it is improving. After a week of sliding downhill, the barometric pressure actually rose today and that is a really good indicator of an improving trend.

There were only six whale watching boats noted in the reserve today and I couldn’t see any whales (for a change). The few recreational boaters left on the water stayed out of the reserve. The Oriole sailed past through Race Passage today, flying with the wind and tide.

A series of large military explosions rocked the island mid-day.

Oriole

Two Steller’s Sea Lions with Ring-necks were photographed today as was a Steller’s with a green flasher hanging out of its mouth. One of the ring-necked Steller’s is not yet badly wounded by the plastic strap, the other (see photos) has the strap cutting into the back of its neck but not yet the front. This animal likes to sleep about ten meters from my house and would be a good candidate for disentanglement.
ring-neck Steller's

ring-neck Steller's sep18

This plastic packing strap is digging into the back of this animals neck.

This plastic packing strap is digging into the back of this animals neck.

ring-neck Steller's sept 18 3

EuJu flasher

Today was animal census day and these are the counts.
Harbour Seal 179
Elephant Seal 8
Steller’s Sea Lion 184
California Sea Lion 287
Canada Goose 4
Brown Pelican 1
Double-crested Cormorant 22
Pelagic Cormorant 3
Cormorant sp. 2
Black Turnstone 7
Black Oystercatcher 4
Glaucous-winged Gull 76
Thayer’s Gull 75
Heerman’s Gull 21
California Gull 16
Mew Gull 21
Gull sp. 152
Common Murre 1
Common Raven 2
Savannah Sparrow 6

There were no visitors today. Maintenance chores, other than making fresh water and electricity included cleaning in the boat shed, mending both houses’ fences, and keeping the weed-eater going. The weed-eater makes really good compost mulch.

Sediment Filters Installed

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What a beautiful, warm, summer day. The early fog to the south and west disappeared and it stayed calm and got warm. The smoke and particulates made for another spectacular sunset, this time without a cloud. The barometer has been slowly rising since last night with a bit of a leveling this afternoon and evening. It looks like they are forecasting outflow winds for tomorrow and that might keep the fog at bay.

There were 17 tour boats today and most of them were very respectful of the seals and sea lions that they were watching in the reserve. The recreational fishing fleet seemed to be off to the west towards Beechy Head and the Bait Shack. Although a few boats passed through slowly, no one was jigging in the reserve today.  Second Nature and Hyaku made several trips out and around the reserve with groups of students rotating through their orientation activities.

There were military explosions during the late morning and early afternoon.

There were only 99 adults Glaucous-winged gulls at sunset and I could only spot three young ones, (still actively begging). The rest have moved on. There is still one demented gull that is trying to nest, bringing bunches of grass and acting agitated. I wonder what happened to its internal clock? I also spotted both Heermann’s Gulls and California Gulls today. The number of cormorants, both Double Crested and Pelagics continue to rise. Every night a mystery bird arrives after dark and calls a bit. I would love to figure out what it is. It almost sounds like a Greater Yellowlegs but it is the wrong kind of habitat. I wonder if it flies out here because it is a safe(ish) place to sleep?

A lot of maintenance work was accomplished today. I started by washing the basement floor where plumber was going to be working. Courtney brought the plumber out in Second Nature in the morning and while he plumbed Courtney and I dealt with propane tanks and electric fences. It was good to be able to chat with this veteran eco-guardian who now works on the waterfront at Pearson College. I learned a lot. Now both houses have big cartridge filters in-line in and it looks like really professional.

 

4 DND blasts

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Fog on and off today. West winds picking up this afternoon to 35 knots. Clear skies most of the day. Barometric pressure peaking at midday for the last three days. Winds supposed to reach 30 knots tomorrow.

9 whale watching boats (although maybe more I couldn’t see through the fog)

4 blasts from DND in the first half of the day.

There are 5 elephant seals here now. They like to spend lots of time on the ramp and sleep on top of each other. The seal with the bloody mouth seems to be doing much better. The blood looked like it was coming from the gum.

We had a crew come out today and replace a number of windows in the keeper’s residence and the science centre. Chris and I went diving to retrieve the underwater video camera for its annual maintenance.