Category Archives: weather notes

Lazy Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  10-15 SW
  • Sky: overcast some rain
  • Water: pretty flat throughout the day

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours came by today

Ecological

  • Definitely more sea lions everyday plus that one female elephant seal that is sticking around

Notes

  • Puttered around today, almost have a full water tank again, and enjoyed taking photos of the frequently napping sea lions
  • Now that there is more cloud cover the solar panels aren’t bringing in a lot of energy so I do need to run the generator to run the desalinator

Foggy Day

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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

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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

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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.

Foggy week and dead gull chicks

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Weather

These first days of August were pretty foggy:Everyday the fog was around Race Rocks from 3:00 AM to 9-10 AM and for the 2 last days it was all day long. One day was warm but the others not so much because of the wind. On the 6th the fog around the rock  was just like a thick wall…

Ecological

No more Elephant Seals and slowly the Sea lions are coming back .We saw the first one on the jetty and 2 big stellers on middle were pretty noisy like usual.The 3 last days many dead gull chicks around and gulls are really aggressive (they attack you)…I saw an amazing show:2 eagles and 4 vultures hunting the chicks together (the 2 eagles going to a dive and the vultures staying at the same level in the air). Many pigeons guillemots . 2 beautiful and big cormorants spend a full day on the same rock. and 2 times we had orcas in Race Passage around 11:00 AM followed by so many boats!The second time some were almost on them (10 to 30 meters) …disgusting!

Maintenance

The sea water pump has been repaired and is working well now. Cleaning days before the shift.

Other

Shift over done on the  6th in the afternoon. James got a full tour of the rock and has been introduced.

 

 

Very strong currents

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Weather

We have an alternating mode of days with no wind and some very windy days, raising to more than 40 knots (actually 44 knots on the 28th in the evening). Generally speaking the wind gets stronger almost every afternoon. We can also see some very strong currents around 12 knots  with the tides…very impressive even when you are used to… Some fog but not very often .

Ecological

The most interesting fact at the end  of July is the number of harbor seal babies . they are everywhere on the rocks and very nice to look at.Early one morning the number of Pigeons guillemots closed to the jetty, their camp base on the rock,was impressive.The elephants seals are not so numerous now, between 1 and 5 at the most.One huge sea lions(a Steeler) was fishing alone closed to the jetty and the rest of the colony is on Middle rock.

Other

Many, many whale watchers …it ‘s getting a problem when the huge ones with more than 100 people aboard, come very close to the jetty (I would say 30 meters ) and move the waters  to the point that is white everywhere because of the turbines…

4 helicopters came,  all at the same time on the 28th. They stayed for at least 3mn all around the tower. I guess for a control

Maintenance

The solar panels need attention everyday . I have to pump sea water with the high tide and sometimes in the night. The soft water pump broke …needs to be replace quickly.

Visitor

Mr Tyrone Pile came with the Vice – Admiral of the Victoria Naval Base for a short visit

Flying practice time for the first born chicks

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Weather

West light winds most of the time but we had some wind coming from North East  for the 1st time this Summer.last Friday I got a lot of fog with no visibility at all and again two nights ago for a few hours.We have some very low tides .

Ecological

I have been attacked by the gulls getting very nasty. I had a helmet!There are chicks everywhere and the eagles and vultures are hunting almost every morning and I found already 3 bodies and 2 of the small ones  had been recently killed. Territory fight! Many oyster catchers(not true last year). Only 4 elephant seals and 12 sea lions on Middle Rocks. Early a morning I found a very small harbor seal on the railway; 50cm not more with a lot of fur!

Maintenance

The solar panels ,the house windows are getting so dirty!The house entrance too… I pumped more sea water for the underground reserve …This week I had a training everyday at Pedder bay (Navigation and radio operator license Training) So I was gone a big part of the days with some challenge for launching the boat (Low tides). I had to do it around 4AM

Vessels

The number of whale watchers around the rocks is insane . On Saturday I counted that at least 1000 people were around ! It’s a number really!

Dangerous time for the chicks

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Weather

The Summer pattern is now well established : Pretty calm in the morning and increase of the wind in the afternoon to 30 to 40 knots depending on the day. West wind is predominant.The water temperature is around 12 degrees Celsius.The days are getting shorter and it is chilly in the morning.

Ecological

It is babies time for the seagulls and some of those small chicks got in pretty bad situation:I saw one getting killed by another gull( territory story) and a a huge vulture got another one just under my window.The eagles are very active after dawn. We had not one  Sea lion to Yesterday and like by magic they appeared :30 and more of them, mainly on South rocks. The whole island is getting white and smelly! Yes it ‘s definitively Summer on Race rocks

Maintenance

Usual tasks :solar panels, desalinator on…etc . I will be on training at the college almost the whole week … Also I realized  how it’s tricky to manage  this boat when there is 30 knots and strong current and swell! it is not impossible but be prepare to be totally damp when you arrive!

Vessel

Many ecotourism boats to the end of the afternoon

Visitors on the rocks for the long WE

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Weather

If the last days of June were quiet and without wind July began with a gale warning and the wind reached 34 knots and more from West on the 1st …Beautiful scenery with white crests and a sky clear…the 2nd and 3rd the wind was almost all the time around 25 knots

Ecological

Census

Cormorants :5

Sea lions :0

Harbor seals :105

Elephant seals :7

Oyster catchers :10

Pigeon Guillemots :25

Sea gulls :460

Eagle :3

Vessels

Like usual..except we could count on Saturday 1st, 7 cruise ships: 3 in Victoria harbor,1 at anchor,and 3 going out!!!

Maintenance

I got the sea water pump fixed and put in on ..we need more water in the reserve. I changed the filter and put some weight to be sure that it stays in the water. I noticed that the wooden ladder on the light house tower needs to be repaired or changed .

Visitors

Aziz Sonawalla came back for the long Week End . He is right now working for the Summer at the college and with him 2 volunteers Sheryl and Jules came overnight

 

 

Summer days

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Weather

During the last days of the month we had like everywhere on the coast some very beautiful days with  light winds between 13 knots to 25 at the most in the afternoon.Some fog too especially on the 30th early in the morning. The sea water is around 11 degrees Celsius and the atmospheric pressure :101 K Pa.

Ecological

5 to 8 elephant seals on the rock and the 1st born chicks are running around their parents..quiet place!

Vessels

Like usual many whale watchers depending the time of the day and some of them very big.

Maintenance

Heavy cleaning :inside the water sample analyses shed,inside and outside of the boat shed, outside windows of the main house,flag changed …desalinisator on and solar panels cleaning everyday ,no choice !! it ‘s getting white everywhere on the rock