Category Archives: Species

Visitors of All Kinds

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Weather: 

  • Wind 5-15 knots SW
  • Sky: Mostly grey, cloudy. Some rain and fog. Periods of partial clearing.
  • Water: Rippled, fairly calm.
  • Visibility: 10-13 miles

Boats/Visitors: 

  • Guy came to pick up our weekend visitors who headed home this afternoon. It was nice to have some company out here on the rock!
  • There were only a handful of whale watching boats in the reserve today since it was quite cloudy and rainy. We were surprised to discover a vessel hovering within 50 meters of a whale within the reserve this evening.

Ecological: 

  • While taking a water temperature reading we accidentally spotted a humpback whale hovering in the main channel! It stayed for about 30 minutes, surfacing approximately every 5 minutes in the same spot, facing towards the current.
  • The seagull chicks have continued to hatch and there are too many to count. They blend in with the yellowing grasses extremely well and have grown to be twice their original size in only a week. We noticed that one chick near the fuel shed hatched but did not survive, while its two nest mates appear to be healthy.
  • There has been one male stellar sea lion on middle rock for the past few days, and appears to not be moving much at all.
  • The goslings are nearly full grown now, and have been swimming

Census

  • 230 Harbour seals
  • 350 adult seagulls and many, many chicks
  • 4 moulting male elephant seals
  • 1 male stellar sea lion
  • A handful of pigeon guillemots
  • 8 adult oyster catchers, at least 7 chicks spotted
  • 1 humpback whale
  • 2 families of geese, and one additional adult pair
  • 1 nest of barn swallows

Big Creatures and Big Winds

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Weather: 

  • Visibility 14 miles
  • Partly cloudy, sunny
  • Wind 25-35 knots (gale warning in effect)
  • White caps and spray. Waves up to 4 m.

Visitors/Boats: 

  • The college boats are still in for maintenance, so we have not had any visitors. We are hoping to go to the main island soon but winds were much too strong and unpredictable today.
  • The past couple of days we have seen a handful of eco-tourism vessels and pleasure craft. Some vessels have approached within 20 m of our jetty and surrounding Great Race Rock. The elephant seals have been scooting up the jetty to get away and the few sea lions remaining appear disturbed.

Ecological: 

  • We were sad to find the missing gosling deceased. It seems that due to its injured foot it was easy prey for the bald eagles that have been swooping by lately.
  • We are now in the company of 4 very large male elephant seals who have stopped here to moult. They are enjoying taking regular baths in the shallow and protected jetty waters.
  • The occasional sea lion has stopped by and hauled out for a rest, but otherwise they have all moved on.
  • The seagulls are becoming more and more aggressive. We are anticipating the need to wear protective equipment sometime in the coming week!

Maintenance/Other:

  • We are still waiting for the delayed desalinator, so we are conserving water as much as we can in the meantime, as it is not possible for more to be delivered without the use of the college vessels.
  • We have been collecting shingles as the high winds are tearing them off of the sheds (new metal roofing is expected sometime soon), and often find fishing lures, bits of rope, and other litter wedged into the rocky intertidal.
  • The beautiful sunny days lately have meant that we have been able to operate entirely on solar power most days. We’ve been having some troubles with the battery charge readings but otherwise the system is working without a hitch!

Extreme Tides & Extraordinary Critters

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Weather: 

  • Visibility: 10-14 miles
  • Wind: 10-20 knots
  • Sky: Slightly cloudy clearing to sunny and clear
  • Water: rippled

Boats/Visitors: 

  • Yesterday there were 20+ whale watching vessels in the reserve.
  • Today we had a group of 9 from Pearson College visit and tour the island.

Ecological:

  • Lately we have been having very low tides, and today we spotted two gumboot chitons on the jetty track in an area that would not normally be exposed.
  • The younger goslings are learning to swim!
  • The two large male elephant seals appear to be beginning to moult. Today we noticed that one of them has some cracking skin in his chin area.
  • Over the past few days we have noticed more bald eagles, and notably a few young ones.

 

 

Polygonum aviculare: prostrate knotweed – The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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knotweed

Polygonum aviculare

I noticed a particularly thriving population of the invasive prostrate knotweed this spring . It is typically successful in heavily compacted areas and adjacent to the sidewalks. Also it is probably not  favoured by Canada geese, as with most of the successful invasive species on the island.

Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Polygonaceae
Genus: Polygonum
Species:
P. aviculare
Binomial name
Polygonum aviculare
taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.

 

Matricaria discoidea : pineapple weed, The Race Rocks taxonomy

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The observation below was made in 2013/06/05 …

Several large areas where the grass was matted and smothered by the sealions hauling out last fall, now have a prolific growth of this newly arrived plant, Matricaria discoidea, or pineappleweed. These are the tallest growing samples of that plant I have seen. Another plant in the same areas is the fiddleneck, Amsinckia menziesii

This year the same situation appears in the areas trampled by the sealions last fall. This post  shows how comfortable it is for the elephant seals.

Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Matricaria
Species: M. discoidea

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.

 

Nautichthys oculofasciatus (Sailfin Sculpin): The Race Rocks taxonomy

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Sailfin Sculpin , Nauticthys oculofasciatus
(Aprox 20cm in length) Ryan took these pictures on a night dive in April, 2010.

 

Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Sub-PhylumVertebrata
Class Scorpaeniformes
Order hemitripteridae
Family Cottidae
Genus Nauticthys
Species oculofasciatus Girard 1858
Common Name:Sailfin Sculin

 

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams. March 15 2010 – Ryan Murphy

Sooke Christmas Bird Count

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Weather:  Continued west wind up to 30 knots in the morning and some lingering swell, sunshine for a change.

Ecological:

Guy brought Kim and Jim out in the morning for the annual “Sooke Christmas Bird Count”.  They surveyed the island and surrounding waters from the top of the tower and walked around the island. Guy took them around the reserve in the boat on the way back to get a better view of the pelagic zone.  Apparently the Snow Bunting they saw here was one of the highlights of the Sooke count this year.

12 Canada Goose
10 Harlequin Duck
4 Surf Scoter
3 White-winged Scoter
2 Red-breasted Merganser
24 Black Oystercatcher
38 Black Turnstone
3500 Common Murre
90 Ancient Murrelet
4 Rhinoceros Auklet
800 Mew Gull
150 Iceland Gull (Thayer’s)
250 Glaucous-winged Gull
1 Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid) — 95% Western
1 Red-throated Loon
40 Pacific Loon
1 Common Loon
50 Brandt’s Cormorant
75 Pelagic Cormorant
20 Double-crested Cormorant
10 Bald Eagle
2 Common Raven
1 Snow Bunting — Photos taken
1 Song Sparrow

Number of Taxa: 24

See this index of past years Bird Counts. https://www.racerocks.ca/race-rocks-animals-plants/bird-observations-at-race-rocks-3/christmas-bird-counts-starting-in-1997/

-4 tankers passed by today: The STI Battery, and oil/chemical tanker on its way to Quintero, Chile; The Florida, an oil/chemical tanker heading to Anacortes from Nikiski (USA); The Unique Developer, and oil products tanker coming from Topolobampo (Mex) en route to Port Angeles; and the Valrossa, from Cherry Point to Manzanillo (Mex)

Vessels:

-Second Nature

-one private/sports fishing

-3 tour boats

-1 little red zodiac going over the requested speed limit.

Maintenance:

-fixed firewood cutting jig

-sharpened chainsaw

-cut firewood

-Tidying in tank room

Corolla spectabilis: Pteropod–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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Pteropods are occasionally found in the plankton that passes by Race Rocks and are found distributed throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans..They have a transparent body with no external shell. An internal gelatinous pseudoconch provides protection and skeletal support. A continuous plate is formed by the oval wings which are marked by indentations.A long proboscis partially fused with the wing plate.The pteropod has a wingspan of up to 8cm. It lacks radula and jaws and it has a distinctive dark gut nucleus.Because it is planktonic, its biotic associations include predation by anything that eats jellyfish.

REFERENCE: ”Pacific Coast Pelagic Invertebrates” by David Wrobel and Claudia Mills—Note: This source had an error which was pointed out to us by Moira Galbraith of DFO:—-“I think that your video in the Race Rocks portion of the website is actually of Corolla spectabilis. The 12 mucous glands on the anterior lateral borders of the wing plate are a species characteristic; C.calceola will have 18. Also according to Carol Lalli, only Corolla spectabilis occurs in the eastern Pacific.
See http://faculty.washington.edu/cemills/ActaErrata.html for an update.
Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Subclass: Opisthobranchia
Order: Thecosomata
(Suborder)(Pseudothecosomata)
Family: Cymbuliidae
Genus: Corolla
Species: spectabilis
Common Name: Pteropod
Other Members of the Phylum Mollusca at Race Rocks.

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.

 

Census & Independent Pups

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 1-10 knots N/SW
  • Sky: sunny and clear
  • Water: mostly calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Didn’t notice any ecotours go by today
  • No visitors

Ecological

  • Bernard left the two pups today, not sure if he’ll return or not.
  • The pups are almost the same size now. Both are nice and plump and seem healthy.
  • Lots of Black Oyster Catchers and Cormorants around lately

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 85
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 60
  • Elephant Seals – 5 (two pups, three adult males)
  • Harbour Seals – 5
  • Cormorants – 200
  • Seagulls – 150
  • Bald Eagles – 5
  • Black Oyster Catchers – 15
  • Black Turnstones – 10