Category Archives: weather notes

Strong winds and gusts of up to 114km/hour

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Ecological Happenings

  • Winds were at high speed since 6am this morning. Storms have been rolling through the reserve and conditions are rough. Gusts at 62kts and on average wind speed has been around 45kts. At 20:30 the reserve is still experiencing winds of >40kts.
  • Dunlins back in the reserve today
  • Canada Geese flew back to land
  • Sea lions spent most of the day taking shelter in the sea!

The island lost wi fi and telephone connection for the afternoon. Not much on other fronts today given the conditions.

Gust, Swell and Rain

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Ecological Happenings

  • Another wild weather day as RR. Gusts throughout the morning and afternoon, with showers and just moments of sunshine. Wind/gust warnings are still in effect until midnight.
  • Humpback whale spotted feeding towards Port Angeles.
  • Fresh propeller cuts spotted on a Sea Lion.
  • Animals continue to shift around the island and surrounding rocks, adjusting to the weather and moving away from the swell.
  • Number of geese on the island increased significantly from 13 to at least 48 today.
  • A necklaced Sea Lion spotted today near the dock.

Marine Vessels

  • Three tour boats
  • Two pleasure vessels

Maintenance

  • Camera 1 & 5 remote controls via RR website are not functioning – this is currently being troubleshooted.
  • High pressure hose requires a new pump. Attempts at rebuilding it have not been successful.
  • Electric fence repair attempts continue…..

Other

  • No visitors today.

 

 

Gusty Halloween

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Ecological Happenings

  • Four whales (likely Humpback) sighted in the RR reserve today!
  • Very rough conditions, with rains and gusts of up to 36kts. Wind and gale warnings have been in effect.
  • Sea Lions have been shuffling around the island (and moving further up the island), avoiding the white wash.
  • Second dead gull found in the week
  • Birds bathing in the water puddles from the rain

Marine Vessels

Only one tour boat seen today.

Other

  • End of month reporting in progress
  • No visitors

Rough Conditions

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Ecological Happenings

  • Rough conditions with winds of up to 39 kts
  • Sea Lions have left the rocks to the East of the dock, and moved to the west
  • Elephant Seals have moved far up the island close to houses and main access paths
  • Two Elephant Seals are seen battling/courting continuously

Boat Activity

Given the conditions – not many vessels were seen today, aside from 2 tour boats.

Other

  • End of month reporting is being completed
  • No visitors today
  • Thorough house clean
  • Good responses received from tour companies re the friendly reminder on the speed limit within the reserve

Strong Winds

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Ecological Happenings

  • One whale (possibly humpback) spotted today, close to the reserve
  • Active salmon feeding (birds and Sea Lions)

Marine Vessels

  • Four tour boats today. We encourage boats to maintain a speed of 7kts max when within the reserve. Take the time to travel slowly out of the reserve when heading back to Victoria, and watch for wildlife!
  • Three pleasure vessels

Other

  • Four students made a brief visit to the reserve today
  • Strong winds of up to 36 kts today

Fencing Success!

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Weather

Fog early this morning, turning into a fine day. Varying winds of up to 11kts between North and East directions. The barometer got up to 102.6, dropping back to 102.4. A strong wind warning is in effect for tonight and tomorrow (Wednesday), as well as forecast showers.

Boating activity

  • Helicopter over the reserve early morning
  • 5 tour boats today (2 of which were travelling quite fast within the reserve)
  • Only one pleasure craft spotted

Ecological happenings

  • One whale spotted between RR and Port Angeles

Maintenance

  • Several attempts were made at rewiring the electric fence around the dock ( 2nd time lucky!). We now have zero – as opposed to eight – Sea Lions on the dock)
  • Paths on RR were swept
  • We have commenced a critical equipment check for the island

No visitors today.

Fog horn drum

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Weather

Light fog early morning, building to thicker fog throughout the day with poor visibility (the fog horn sounded for a few hours). Winds were generally <5kts. The barometer was at 101.6 for most of the day dropping to 101.5. The marine forecast shows winds picking up to 10-15kts and rain for Monday.

Boat activity

  • Not so many fishing vessels on the water this Sunday with all the fog (total count of 4)
  • 7 tour boats, mostly in the afternoon as the fog faded

Ecological happenings

  • Two Californians spotted with relatively fresh gashes
  • Californian seal lion brand 8329 and 9776 spotted (need to verify whether this record has been collected)
  • Commenced looking for tangled sea lions in preparation for detanglment on Oct 28th
  • 3 Dunlins spotted

Maintenance

  • Cheeky sea lions continue to dismantle the electric fence and drop equipment into the water, so we’ve been on top of mending it.
(possible) Sandpiper and Black Turnstone

Dunlin and Black Turnstone

Sleepy sea lion

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Weather

Light cloud cover this morning and mostly sunny in the afternoon. Wind was variable – light in the early morning picking up towards the afternoon to as high as 16kts @ 17:00. Barometer was up a little to ~1012hPA. Forecast is for winds steadying between 10-15kts, and a chance of showers this evening and Sunday.

Boats in the reserve

15 Pleasure vessels, one of which was fishing in the reserve. After failed attempts to make contact on VHF16, DFO will be notified. There were also 3 tour boats and trawler activity around the reserve.

Ecological happenings

  • New Californian Sea Lion tag sighted (C733) – no photo yet
  • Two gulls spotted with broken wings
  • Harbour seal hanging out close to RR docks

No visitors today.

CBC Visits Race Rocks

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It was an absolutely stunning day at Race Rocks, with light winds (<5kts) from the southeast and a clear sky until dusk (it has now clouded over). The barometer fell further today, to ~1010hPA. The forecast is for increasing westerly winds (10 to 20 knots near midnight) then light by Saturday morning, with a chance of rain.

It was a busy day in the reserve, with nine whale watching boats stopping by. One of the operators was even flying a drone around the island. No doubt, collecting promotional footage. Seven pleasure craft passed through going slowly, mostly. It is important to remember the speed limit in the reserve is <7kts.

We continued our training today. Learning more about the systems that keep this place running as sustainably as practicable. Don dropped Anne and Alex off at Pearson College in the afternoon, while Nina showed a CBC film crew the lighthouse. Students came out to the island at lunch for a field trip, and another group went diving off the jetty later in the day.

New Eco-guardians.

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Sea lions visit Pearson College Divers Photo by Jasper Rea.

Sea lions visit Pearson College Divers Photo by Jasper Rea.

It was a beautiful day at Race Rocks, with light southeast winds and a mostly clear sky. The barometer fell a little today to ~1013hPA and the forecast for tomorrow is for sunny skies. There is a strong wind warning in effect for overnight with diminishing southeast winds Friday. Rain is forecast for Saturday.

Only four whale-watching vessels were noted in the protected area today and three pleasure craft passed through going slowly. The people on one of those vessels, the Kaos were observed feeding rockfish to sea lions in the Ecological Reserve. It is illegal to feed wildlife and if it happens they will be reported.

Today was animal census day and here are the results.

Animal Census

Steller Sea Lion 321

California Sea Lion 637

Harbour Seal 77

Northern Elephant Seal 9

Sea Otter 0

Humpback Whale (1 observed within one mile of ER southeast of

Great Race)

Canada Goose 23

Harlequin Duck 5

Surf Scoters 11 (flying through to east)

Common Murre 5

Rhinoceros Auklet 4

Double-crested Cormorant 73

Brandt’s Cormorants 25

Pelagic Cormorant 9

Unidentified Cormorants 20

Bald Eagle 1 adult

Black Oystercatcher 11

Black Turnstone 7

Kildeer 2

Glaucous-winged Gull 248

California Gull 3

Thayer’s Gulls 707

Herring Gull 0

Ring-billed Gull 1

Western Gull 2

Heerman’s Gull 14

Mew Gull 0

Unidentified gulls 53

Total gull count 1028

Common Raven 2

Red-winged Blackbird 7 (during count week)

Savannah Sparrow 12

Song Sparrow 2

American Goldfinch 1

American Pipet 1

Don and Nina, the new eco-guardians in-training arrived today. They worked hard all day, after getting up very early to catch the morning slack and are progressing really well in learning some of the idiosyncrasies of Race Rocks operations.