Category Archives: weather notes

Couple Killdeer

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: Morning 5-10 NE stayed below 10 most of the day but picked up later
  • Sky: Some clouds with bits of sunshine throughout the day
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • quite a few ecotours came around today

Ecological

  • Counted 9 elephant seals today, I imagine the other two were in the water during the sunny periods today
  • Also spotted two killdeer hanging around the elephant seals in front of the house

 

Visitors and sunshine

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: Morning 5-10 NE looks like it will pick up throughout the day
  • Sky: Some clouds but very sunny and warm in the morning, clouds came rolling in, in the afternoon
  • Water: calm, some rolling waves no more than 1 metre

Boats/Visitors

  • A couple eco tours came around
  • The first year Pearson College Marine Science students had their final exam here today thankfully it was nice and sunny throughout their whole exam

Ecological

  • Looks to be the same 11 elephant seals, they did decide it was too sunny to stay on land today and a few of them went for a swim, see elephant seal train to the ocean in photographs below

 

 

Cenusus Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles
  • Wind: Morning 0-5 NW picked up in the afternoon, varied between 10-20 knots NW
  • Sky: Overcast, bit of rain throughout the day
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  1. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 45
  2. Harbour Seals: 30
  3. California Sea Lions: 37
  4. Elephant Seals: 11
  5. Seagulls unspecified: 278
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 125
  7. Cormorants unspecified: 16
  8. Canada Geese: 19
  9. Savannah Sparrows: 12
  10. Harlequin Ducks: 0
  11. Black Oystercatchers: 8
  12. Bald Eagles: 2 (2 adults, 1 immature)

Boats

  • had a few eco tours come through morning and late afternoon

Maintenance

  • Scrubbed some of the solar panels

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Couple Days on Race Rocks

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This Log will cover May 9 and 10 the Photographs are from both days

May 9

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots West during the day, 20-25 W in the evening.
  • Sky: mostly cloudy
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • 10 elephant seals

Boats

  • A few eco-tours came by today.

May 10

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 15-20 NW throughout the day
  • Sky: mostly cloudy
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • 11 elephant seals

Boats

  • More ecotours came around today

Windy Friday

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-40 knots West all day.
  • Sky: mostly overcast, sunny in the late afternoon.
  • Water: 1′, later 2′ chop

Ecological

  • The same eleven elephant seals on Great Race.

Maintenance

  • Ran the desalinator.
  • Was going to clean some algae, but it was too windy to be up a ladder.

Boats

  • Two brave eco-tours came by.

A Windy Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-30 knots West all day
  • Sky: mostly clear.
  • Water: 1′ chop

Ecological

  • Census day!
  • Saw a Steller sea lion branded 365Y.
  • Saw a California sea lion branded U949
  • I’m pretty sure the high winds were responsible for some of the lower bird counts.
  1. Harbour Seals: 114
  2. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 65
  3. California Sea Lions: 63
  4. Elephant Seals: 11 (8 on Great Race, 3 on Middle Rock)
  5. Seagulls unspecified: 251
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 68
  7. Cormorants unspecified: 22
  8. Canada Geese: 17
  9. Black Turnstones: 16
  10. Surfbirds: 5
  11. Harlequin Ducks: 5 (2 males and 3 females)
  12. Black Oystercatchers: 4
  13. Savannah Sparrows: 4
  14. Bald Eagles: 2 (2 adults, 0 immature)
  15. Crows: 2

Other

  • I spent a good portion of the day ill in bed.

Windy Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-40 knots West
  • Sky: mostly overcast, some rain in the evening.
  • Water: 1′ chop

Ecological

  • Seven elephant seals on Great Race today.
  • The same set from yesterday, minus the weaner.
  • Some of them are definitely starting to moult.

Boats

  • One brave eco-tour rode the waves today.

Very Windy

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: at 7:45, 10-15 knots East, then at 13:20 up to 35-40 knots West
  • A peak of 43 knots West at 14:15. Settled at 25-30 knots West after dark.
  • Sky: overcast, in the afternoon periods of sunshine, rain after dark.
  • Water: 1′ chop, later some monster waves from the west

Ecological

  • Just the weaner on Great Race.
  • Killdeer active as ever.

Boats

  • One eco-tour came by.

Film Crew Island Visit

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots West in the morning
  • Around 15:30 the wind picked up to 25+ knots West. 18:00 peak at 42 knots.
  • Sky: overcast, then some blue sky, then some rain
  • Water: no visible wave crests, but lots of surge

Ecological

  • One of the larger male e-seals returned in the morning.
  • The weaner is still around.
  • Lots of bald eagles in the reserve.

Maintenance

  • Kyle and I took a look at the diesel hand pump and the desalinator.

Boats

  • Kyle came out in Second Nature with the 2 person film crew to take some footage.
  • Several eco-tours came by later on.
  • A few boats out fishing halibut just beyond the reserve.

Visitors

  • Kyle and the film crew were on the island for about 2 hours.

Other

  • Lots of DND blasting today.
  • There were blasts at the following times:
  • 10:00~, 12:50, 12:52, 13:12, 13:20, 13:23.

 

A Gale of a Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 25-30 knots West at 7:45
  • 40 knots West at 9:20
  • 43 knots West at 10:20
  • Down to 10-15 knots West by the evening
  • Sky: mostly clear, sunny from 12:45 on
  • Water: 1′ chop, later 3′ chop

Ecological

  • The two older elephant seals were gone by noon.
  • Only the weaner remains.

Boats

  • One eco-tour came by in the morning.
  • The amount of wake it was leaving made it look like it was going too fast?