Category Archives: weather notes

Groceries and Orcas

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One thing about being in the wild that I find exciting is how your “planned out” day can turn around in an instant. Yesterday I had one of those moments.

Greg had scheduled to stop by the island to get some work done and drop off groceries, although the work part of his mission out to the rock fell through he still came out to drop off some food…  And I’m glad he did!

Ecological Notes: As he was approaching the dock he gets word on the radio that a group of orcas are nearby.  After I bolt inside to drop off the groceries and grab the camera, we head out to fight the current and take a look.

Fair enough the orcas, T018’s (from what I have been told, thanks Sean!) were floating about, they were quite calm and stayed put for the time we were out on the water but managed to snap a few shots to share with you :)

Meteorology:

The last few days have been overcast, but the cloud cover cleared up this afternoon.

There is a semi-stationary ridge (fancy word for high pressure system that isn’t moving very much) off the west coast of Vancouver Island.  This explains the constant and somewhat strong westerlies we’ve been having.

High pressure also usually means little to no clouds.  Now that the clouds have cleared I am hopeful that this might be the beginning of a clear sky break!!  I do my best to try and limit my power consumption on the island.  Days I can rely solely on solar power are quite rewarding, we’ll have to wait and see.

 

Tasks:

Washed solar panels (Daily)

Washed windows

Continuation of Moving old building materials

Continuation of cleaning the outside of secondary residence

First Entry

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Hello!

My name is Cedric,

I have been settling into this seagull run oasis known as Race Rocks over the last couple of days. I am enjoying figuring out the inner workings of the infrastructure and discovering the ever present ecosystem that makes this place important

I have had the opportunity to witness the beauty of the Salish sea marine life from a variety of floating mechanisms (kayaks, sailboats, powerboats, etc.) but never quite like this 😊. That being said, I have been away from the West coast of Canada for a while now and am greatly looking forward to diving back into the Salish’s magic!

I will be doing my best to share with you, every few days, my meteorological and ecological findings, some upkeep tasks, day-to-day life and whatever else I can come up with!

Ecology:

Today after talking a quick walk around the island I spotted a few common birds. Although they are not particularly uncommon to spot, I enjoy seeing these animals living their day to day routine in numbers and tranquility.

A walk to the jetty presented me with a few old friends, Pigeon Guillemots neatly lined up for a picture, one of which being quite vocal.

 

Meteorology:

This morning, as did yesterday, started with a dense fog that did not lift until very late into the morning.  Today the fog made a comeback and appeared for a second time around noon/early afternoon.  I found that quite interesting and wish I had been more attentive as to what caused it but was busy making myself lunch amongst other things.

This afternoon around 1600 I noticed a Cirrus and Strato-Cirrus cloud, these two were not alarming (as they were not particularly “whisky”) but could mean some overcast and minor chances of showers for me tomorrow. Possibly the end of the sunny clear skies I have had since I arrived.

(Pictures are not quite as clear as I would’ve liked because of the unfortunate sun positioning)

Although I do have a feeling that it will take me a little while longer to get a better pulse on what information the clouds are giving me in this microclimate.  We will have to wait and see how my predictions hold.

**Update**

The next day (and the day after) did have overcast but showers were limited to 30 seconds of sprinkling in the early afternoon.  Mostly right but not quite there

 

 

Westerlies have been blowing since I have arrived, today it has bounced around 12-20kn whereas the last two evenings it reached 30kn, will have to see if the trend continues.

 

Maintenance activities since I have arrived:

Solar panels (daily)

Washed windows (almost daily)

Topped up battery water

Cleaned interior (started exterior) of secondary residence

Moved old building material to better location

 

 

Nature Continues On

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Ecological Notes:

  • 1 Male Elephant Seal, and 1 young Female elephant Seal on the island.
  • When they meet on the boat ramp, one of two things normally happen. If the female is above, she holds her ground and makes the male go around. But if the male comes from above, the female will rush down to the water to get out of the way. She barely goes above the 2 lowest buildings (the tank room and the boathouse), even though she was more comfortable up in the grass area when she was here before.

Picture angle is deceiving, the female is much smaller than the male. I would guess 350 Kilos compared to maybe 1600 kilos.

  • After the heatwave that did unfortunately cost some chicks lives, it’s nice to be reminded that life goes on. Fresh eggs hatching, and “families” out going about their business.

Newly hatching

Family stretching their legs

 

Visitors:

  • Waterfront Coordinator delivered groceries, fresh water for the tank, and a new fire pump yesterday.

Facility Work:

  • Fire pump allowed filling the salt water cistern so we could start up the desalinator. It appear to run well and produce nice clean water, but one of the gauges was running very high. We decided to wait and have it checked by the contractor Monday, as we couldn’t solve it over the phone.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Many Eco Tourism boats and private boat touring the reserve. No fishing in the reserve like was prevalent last weekend.

Weather Events:

  • Fog off and on most of the day, leaving light haze in the evening. Westerly winds all day near to 15 knots, calm seas.

 

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Census

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*Note, extreme heat, followed by very high winds most likely has affected this survey

 

  • Bald eagle juvenile 2
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western,  Adult 78
  • Gulls, chicks …. many, but unable to count without being disruptive
  • Pigeon Guillemots 18
  • Oyster catcher 13
  • Canadian goose 11 – including “goslings” as they look about the same from the tower

Mammals

  • Northern Elephant Seal Male 1
  • Northern Elephant Seal 6 month old pup 1
  • Harbour seal 162
  • Harbour Seal pup 4
  • Steller Sealion 1
  • Sea Otter 1

New and Old

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Ecological Notes:

  • 1 Juvenile Male and 1 female Elephant Seal still on the island
  • Fewer Sealions over the last couple stormy days

Visitors:

  • Yesterday, the waterfront coordinator brought over some packages, drinking water, and a tank of water for the large tank. Hopefully this will be the last large tank, as we’re finishing the maintenance on the desalinator and cistern this month!

Facility Work:

  • Learned how to sharpen and service the chainsaw blade properly today (thank you YouTube). Probably not perfect, but it cuts way better now.

New files really helped

  • Although done on a regular basis it was a nice day to clean the solar panels, albeit windy. This picture shows a nice juxtaposition of the new and the old, realizing that the builders of the lighthouse never envisioned what the future would hold …… yet the installation of the panels wouldn’t be needed in the absence of the lighthouse and facilities.

Daylight, converted to power, for the Night Light

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 4 Private vessels

Weather Events:

  • Last night’s wind and rain storm, with gusts up to 45 knots gave way to more westerly winds, rising from 15 knots in the morning to 35 knots by late afternoon. Wind with tide most of the day led to 2 meter swells. Cloudy with sunny patches throughout the day.

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Census

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Although the Census is normally posted without additional comments, there is an extreme variation in this one. Even after a 1 day delay, there are dramatically less animals in the reserve today. An anecdotal possibility is that Sunday night had a 50+ knot storm, lining up with a high tide and lots of big ocean swells, making the reserve a very nasty place to be! Tuesday morning also had many large DND detonations that also scattered wildlife as it was returning.

Birds

  • Bald eagle adult 1
  • Bald eagle juvenile 2
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western 58
  • Cormorants 3
  • Pigeon Guillemots 22
  • Oyster catcher 10
  • Canadian goose 8
  • Canadian goose, goslings 2

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion 3
  • Harbour seal 53
  • California sea lion 13
  • Elephant seal juvenile male 1
  • Elephant seal female 5
  • Elephant seal pup 2 – 1 male, 1 female
  • Sea otter 1
  • Animal Tracking and Injuries: 0

Oyster Catcher nest

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Ecological Notes:

  • 7 Elephant seal on the grass, including 2 pups. 4 have moved the furthest away from the ramp as I have seen them (towards the southern side of the island, but still up in the grass)

By the solar building

  • Knowing the extra importance of staying off the rocky/gravel areas this time of year, I did my normal perimeter check from the grass, and solid rock areas. I noticed a Black Oyster Catcher doing more of a distraction behavior rather then their normal “go away” squeals.
  • I immediately left the area and searched from a distance with the spotting scope. It took a while, but sure enough I found the nest!!!! (my first ever sighting)
  • Although always true, I CAN’T STRESS THIS ENOUGH – photos shot from as far away as possible, with a 600mm equivalent, then cropped to show better detail! (please read the captions)

Facility Work:

  • More waste wood stacking ……. Due to the obvious fire ban in the reserve, and to the unknown paint content, all waste wood has to be removed from the island and processed properly. Making it easier and safer for the recovery team just makes sense.

DND events:

  • 6 detonations during the day

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • none (DND vessels kept area clear)

Weather Events:

  • Westerly winds during the day at 10 – 15 knots, increasing to 25 knots early evening.
  • Fog in the morning, followed by mainly clear skies, then fog returning in the evening. Low fog throughout the day to the west and south.

All day distant fog

Evening fog, can’t see the mid channel rocks

** All photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Elephant Seal ID adjustment

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Ecological Notes:

  • 6 Elephant Seals – turns out to be at least 1 juvenile male! So,currently 5 females and 1 male (no new animals, just new id’s)
  • Elephant Seal pups: 2, but also, 1 of the pups appears to be a male as well!

Enjoying the sun

 

  • No real changes in Sea Lion or Harbour seal numbers
  • Have been seeing the Sea Otter at lower tides in the uncovered kelp forests

Facility Work:

  • Piling firewood, more sorting old materials

Feature Event:

 

Weather Events:

  • Sunny, with medium to high westerly winds all day
  • Last night was very high winds! Kept the flag down last night and today.

** All photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Traffic Jamb

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Ecological Notes:

  • 6 female Elephant Seals, 2 “pups”
  • Lots of time in the water, then spread out over all the pathways to warm up in the sun.

Grumpy traffic jamb on the walkway …

**** VERY ZOOMED IN video! ****

 

Facility Work:

  • Sorting waste wood from old deck
  • Last night’s rain gave 2 tank loads of water for the pressure washer

Weather Events:

  • Light cloud and light easterly winds in the morning gave way to a sunny afternoon with moderate winds, rising as the wind changed to westerlies.
  • Evening wind rose to 30 – 35 (gusting to 40) knots westerly.

** All photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Census: March 14 2021

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Ecological Notes:

  • Birds
  • Harlequin Duck 16
  • Snowy Plover 1
  • Bald eagle adult 6
  • Bald eagle juvenile 8
  • Turnstones 14
  • Killdeer 1
  • Gulls 92
  • Cormorants 473
  • Pigeon guillemots 47
  • Oyster catcher 13
  • Canadian geese 16

Mammals

    • Stelller sea lion 35
    • Harbour seal 41
    • California 21
    • Elephant seal male 1
    • Elephant seal female 1
    • Elephant seal pup 4
    • Sea otter 1

Vessel traffic: 1 Eco tour boat

 

Weather Events: Wind went from 5 knots west to 40 knots in 1 hour.
Weather– Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather–Past: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?id=72