A Break From the Blasts

Weather

  • Visibility: Clear throughout the day
  • Wind: Light breezes throughout the day with strong gusts up to 40 knots overnight
  • Sky: Cloudy with sunny break
  • Water: a bit choppy, one foot swells in the morning

Boats/Visitors

  • Boat traffic was pretty minimum today, whale watching boat cruised by
  • No visitors today

Ecological

  • Not much has changed in terms of wildlife on the island in the last few days. Consistent number of gulls, sea lions, eagles, black turnstones, canada geese and cormorants with one or large two male elephant seals.
  • Haven’t seen any whales of any kind yet unfortunately.

Other

  • DND blasting has taken a break for the past week which has been nice.

Stellar Pups

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles for most of the day with the Washington coast as clear as I’ve seen it so far, until early evening when fog came in from the east covering downtown Victoria from view.
  • Wind: Little to no breeze during the day with it picking up to 14-18 knots by 7pm.
  • Sky: Mostly cloudy with some sun
  • Water: calm throughout the day, a bit choppy at times

Boats/Visitors

  • Boat traffic was fairly minimum today with the usual commercial vessels in the distance and one or two whale watching boats.
  • No visitors today

Ecological

  • There seems to be more stellar sea lion pups on the island, especially on the south rocks in the last few days, though I may just have not noticed them among the “piles” of bodies as they tend to lay all over each other.
  • Still lots of Black Turnstones, Cormorants, Eagles, Canada Geese and Gulls around
  • Only saw one of the male elephant seals around today

Other

  • Chopped some bigger logs into kindling for the woodstove this afternoon and cleaned up a lot of rocks of varying sizes that have been falling from the paths and bank walls between the lighthouse and science house.
  • Pretty chilly today, had frost on the ground and frozen puddles for the first time.

Snow in the Distance

Weather

  • Visibility: 5 miles in the morning but cleared up throughout the day
  • Wind: Quite windy throughout the day with gusts reaching upwards of 32 knots, calmed down by evening.
  • Sky: Mostly cloudy with some sun
  • Water: rough throughout the day, large swells

Boats/Visitors

  • Boat traffic was pretty minimum today with the rough waters
  • No visitors today

Ecological

  • Saw a group of about 16 Cormorants and 8 Oyster Catchers amongst around 100 seagulls on the SW corner of the island
  • Canada geese are still around in small groups
  • Lots of Black Turnstones out on the grass the past few days

Other

  • Didn’t get any snow on the island but could see lots of it on shore. Also had power and internet all day without interruptions.

Mystery Raptor

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 6-10 NE throughout day
  • Sky: sunny with cloudy periods
  • Water: mostly calm

Boats/Visitors

  • had one whale watching boat cruise by
  • no visitors today

Ecological

  • saw a large brown raptor of some kind. I think it was a Red-tailed Hawk
  • lots of killdeer around
  • large elephant seal male is still on the island

Other

  • a lot of DND blasts today, very startling for the sea lions.

DND Blast and a Surprise Audience

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 12-16 NE throughout the day
  • Sky: sunny, very few clouds
  • Water: mostly calm, a bit choppy

Boats/Visitors

  • Had one large eco tour boat full of passengers sneak up on me and yell “Hello” as a group. That was fun (:
  • lots of large shipping vessels passing by including two huge logging barges

Ecological

  • still a decent amount of sea lions around
  • there is another, smaller harbour seal pup hanging out now too
  • Bernard (the elephant seal) is back!
  • haven’t seen any canadian geese in a few days

Other

  • had more large DND blasts go off from Rocky Point that shook the house and startled birds today.

Eagle vs Crow

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 12-15 NE
  • Sky: mostly sunny
  • Water: mostly calm, a bit choppy

Boats/Visitors

  • noticed one larger tour boat cruise by

Ecological

  • elephant seal pup is back
  • seemed to be more stellar sea lions around today than usual on the east rocks
  • saw an eagle snatch a crow chick and fight off it’s parents in flight. RIP lil crow.

Notes

  • the weather has been fantastic this week with lots of sun!

First Week as Ecoguardian

Weather

  • Visibility: Very foggy early morning but cleared right up by 8:30am
  • Wind: 11-16 NE throughout the day
  • Sky: sunny with cloudy periods
  • Water: mostly calm, a bit choppy

Boats/Visitors

  • Had about 7 boats cruise by in the last week
  • had a small tour come ashore last saturday morning of pearson college students

Ecological

  • had a young harbour seal that was on the island for a few days but is gone now
  • there are a pair of eagles hanging around for the last week
  • large male elephant seal was here for 6 days and left last night
  • caught a quick glimpse of what looked like a small sea otter running by the jetty yesterday morning

Other

  • had a very large blast go off from Rocky Point that shook the house and startled birds.

Notes

  • enjoyed my first week here at Race Rocks!

Census

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-10 NE
  • Sky: cloudy and rainy
  • Water: a bit choppy this morning, calm now
  • Boats/Visitors

    • Had a couple boats cruise by and a helicopter flew by a couple times

    Census

    • California sea lions – 215
    • Stellar sea lions – 159
    • Harbour seals – 22
    • Elephant seals – 1 large male
    • Gulls – 307
    • Cormorants – 68
    • Geese – 14
    • Eagles – 4

    Notes

    • well I am off tomorrow and Mikey will be the new ecoguardian until my return in 5 weeks