I am Back and the Census

Posted on Thursday,September 21, 2017 by Laas Parnell

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 Day

Posted on Friday,September 8, 2017 by Laas Parnell

Weather

Visibility: 10 Miles sometimes less throughout the day
Wind: 10-15 SW sometimes a bit lighter sometimes a bit stronger
Sky: Cloudy this morning for a bit and then foggy for awhile, cleared up in the afternoon now you can see some blue sky and sunshine
Water: mostly flat a little choppy

Boats/Visitors

Had a special visit at 6:30 this morning, the Parliament Secretary to the Prime Minister of Canada and Minister of Youth dropped by for a quick visit

Ecological

Have to update my census, I saw an elephant seal this morning, a young female
the unspecified birds in the photo from yesterday are a type of gull that I still have not identified
There appears to be more sea lions everyday

Census Day

Posted on Thursday,September 7, 2017 by Laas Parnell

Weather

Visibility: Started off at 10 miles but closed in to the point the fog horn was going off for a good part of the morning and then a sunny break this afternoon and back to pretty cloudy now
Wind: 10-15 W this morning picked up to above 30, same direction
Sky: pretty cloudy with a little break in the afternoon
Water: pretty flat but the current is very visible and moving

Boats/Visitors

A few ecotours today

Ecological

plenty of sea lions, not really seeing elephant seals, also there was about 26 of these birds I will post a picture of but I wasn’t what bird it was, will look into it.

Census

Stellar Sea Lions: 176
California Sea Lions: 153
Elephant Seals: 0
Harbour Seals: 24
Unspecified Gulls: 212
Pigeon Guillemots: 0
Cormorants: 18
Canada Geese: 8
Oystercatchers: 8
Harlequinn Ducks: 0
Crows: 0
Unspecified bird: 26

Notes

Have not spotted the river otters again
Sea lions refused to budge when I went to get the water sample, I gave up and found a way around the one that would not move
They somehow dragged a ladder down the jetty so I had a tough time retrieving that because the ladder was attached to a rope that got wrapped around a rock, I managed to bring it up behind the boat shed, also the boat shed door looks to be in pretty rough shape the sea lions are always piled up against it

Sept 3, 4, 5 and 6th

Posted on Wednesday,September 6, 2017 by Laas Parnell

I am back on Race Rocks and am very happy to be here, I had some log in trouble so this post will be for the past few days.

Weather,

On the third it was nice and sunny with little breeze, it was so nice I could run the desalinator without the generator. Started getting cloudy the next couple days and this morning the fog horn went off for a few minutes.

Ecological

I will be doing the census tomorrow but so far the number of sea lions seem to be growing, I have not seen any elephant seals, the harbour seal are right in there with the sea lions and I saw a river otter or two running around last night.

Other

Plenty of whale watchers coming around everyday, a couple sailboats and other than that the DnD seem to be blasting consistently which the sea lions aren’t too happy about.

That sums up my first few days back, I will be doing the census tomorrow and here are a few pictures from the last couple days.

Corvus caurinus:NorthWestern Crow, Race Rocks Taxonomy

Posted on Wednesday,June 7, 2017 by Garry Fletcher

The Norhwestern Crow closely resembles the American crow being black noisy and having forward facing bristles above its nostrils. The nw crow is smaller in size and has a shorter lower caw. It also has a smaller bill, smaller wings and has a greater wing beat rate.They usually inhabit coastal areas such as Race Rocks and are not thought to be birds which migrate. The crow usually forages for food near coast lines and its diet may include dead fish, crab, mussels or clams. In most regions its nest may be located at high elevations or in the branches of Conifer trees. Here at Race Rocks, the closest suitable nesting sites are on Bentinck Island.

Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Vertebrata
Class Aves
Order Passeriformes
Family Corvidae
Genus Corvus
Species caurinus
Common Name: NorthWestern Crow
Other Members of the Class Aves at Race Rocks.

Return to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File

The 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.

Original text by Lawson Connor, PC student Dec. 2002

Census Day, Thursday, May 25th

Posted on Thursday,May 25, 2017 by Laas Parnell

Weather

Visibility: 15 Miles
Wind: 0-5 NW
Sky: clear and sunny
Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

Many different boats around today

Ecological

14 elephant seals scattered around today, mostly around the jetty to cool off in the water

Other

DND blasting continues

Census

Stellar Sea Lions: 42
California Sea Lions: 44
Elephant Seals: 14
Harbour Seals: 36
Unspecified Gulls: 321
Pigeon Guillemots: 120
Cormorants: 23
Canada Geese: 16
Oystercatchers: 8
Harlequinn Ducks: 5 males (that I could see)

Notes

I have not seen any eagles today but I saw them yesterday and they have been hanging around so I am guessing they are around here somewhere
There is another Elephant seal
An increase in sea lions as well as gulls

: Beautiful day today

Census day

Posted on Thursday,May 18, 2017 by Laas Parnell

Weather

Visibility: 10 Miles, a bit foggy this morning but burned off by noon to partly cloudy
Wind: 10-15 NW got continuously more calm through the day
Sky: partly cloudy throughout the day
Water: stayed consistently calm

Boats/Visitors

A lot of ecotours came through today
Had a couple visitors, come by with Kyle this morning and then had Kyle and Guy come back this afternoon to help me out with a couple things

Ecological

Census day!
1. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 35
2. Harbour Seals: 44
3. California Sea Lions: 23
4. Elephant Seals: 13
5. Seagulls unspecified: 291
6. Pigeon Guillemots: 152
7. Cormorants unspecified: 29
8. Canada Geese: 14
9. Savannah Sparrows: 0
10. Harlequin Ducks: 8 (2 female, 6 male)
11. Black Oystercatchers: 8
12. Bald Eagles: 2 (2 adults, 1 immature)
There are 2 more elephant seals than usual! so thats exciting, they stayed scattered today on the path from the lighthouse to the jetty
As you can see there have been a decrease in sea lions, they are no longer on the southern rocks and have moved to the main island one group on the north side and another group on the southside
There have been an increase in gulls, pigeon guillemots and cormorants, also the harlequins are back, I did not see them last week
There has also been an increase in harbour seals, when I counted them they were mostly all on the Middle Rocks but have since scattered about the South Islands as well