Category Archives: weather notes

Boris Is Back!

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Weather:

Visitors:

  • Greg visited today with supplies- thanks Greg!
  • The last of the first year students visited yesterday in small groups. We have been enjoying showing them around the island and hope to see more students soon.

Ecological Observations:

  • The sea lion population seems to be steadily increasing. Interestingly, the stellar sea lions tend to stay on the further outcroppings while the california sea lions are happy to haul out all around the main rock. The two species intermingle, but typically only in the area of our jetty.
  • We were joined again by a young elephant seal yesterday! Unfortunately we still haven’t been able to get a clear look at the green tag visible.
  • A small group of black turnstones came through today, accompanied by a single surfbird.
  • Boris the sea lion has returned! We have been anticipating his return as the sea lion population climbs. Boris was first spotted last year, when he arrived with what appeared to be a propeller injury to his skull. We were uncertain if he would survive, as according to Marty (vet, MMR), sometimes these injuries can cause brain infections if the skull fragments. He is easily identified by the scar that remains, and his unusual behavior- he doesn’t seem to be bothered by our presence much at all. To view previous posts about Boris, click the “boris” tag under this post!

Students, Whales, Census, Seal!

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Weather:

  • Sky clear and blue. Much less smoke than yesterday (currently 13 wildfires burning in washington state).
  • Visibility 10 NM (visibility reduced due to smoke)
  • Wind 5-10 knots SE
  • Sea state: calm

Visitors:

  • As the students return to the Pearson College campus we are being joined by small groups of first year students to introduce them to race rocks. We have been enjoying showing them around and sharing about the ecology- they ask great questions!
  • Greg has been accompanying these trips as well as MJ
  • Few boats in the reserve now that the long weekend is over. Quite a few whale watching boats following the humpback whales that we have been seeing in the strait.

Ecological Observations: 

  • The sea lion numbers are climbing daily still. There are many more california sea lions than stellars right now.
  • We have been seeing the occasional small group of black turnstones (less than ten) but the large migrating groups have moved on.
  • Yesterday we spotted a short billed dowitcher!
  • Today we were joined by one young elephant seal on the jetty ramp. Unfortunately the sea lions are not the most friendly company and it seems that they have scared it away.
  • We have been seeing groups of cormorants in the reserve, mainly on the south islands and seal rocks.
  • We have been spotting at least 1 humpback per day in the juan de fuca strait

Census: 

  • 1 Elephant seal
  • 1 Sea otter
  • 155 Harbour seals
  • 213 California sea lions
  • 71 Stellar sea lions
  • 395 Gulls (California)
  • 1 Savannah Sparrow
  • 1 humpback whale (!)
  • 4 Canada geese
  • 6 Black turnstones
  • 6 Song sparrows

Successful Sea Lion Rescue!

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Weather:

  • Sky Clear and blue
  • Visibility 15+ NM
  • Wind 20-25 knots NE
  • Sea state: swells up to one meter
  • Temperature outside: 19.8 C
  • Pressure: 1021 hPa (decreasing)
  • We have been seeing consistent fog in the late evening, lasting for an average of 2 hrs. The fog banks seem to move over us from Port Angeles.

Visitors: 

  • Marine Mammal Rescue and DFO visited yesterday (more on this below).
  • Steady flow of pleasure crafts and whale watching vessels over the long weekend.

Sea Lion Disentanglement: 

  • Yesterday Marine Mammal Rescue along with the support of DFO vessels and staff came to help a sea lion with a plastic packing band stuck around his neck. They were able to successfully dart the sea lion with a tranquilizer injection, remove the band, give him tracking tags on his front flippers, and take a blood sample. When this was done they injected a reversal drug to wake him up and with a little scratch he was back on his way!

Ecological Notes:

  • The seagull chicks have officially flown the coop! Only a few remain and we are able to move around the island again without bothering the nesting birds.
  • This year we have noticed significantly less trash left behind by seagulls than last year. Our best guess is that they had more food available to them this summer, which would also align with observing them regurgitating much more fish that the previous season.
  • The sea lions have been increasing in numbers every day. The new fencing material that Nick and Greg used seems to be working much better than the wire that we tried last year, preventing them from damaging the island infrastructure. We have been letting them rest on the jetty this week but we will soon need to install more fencing in preparation for student visits.
  • Yesterday we found two turnstones which appeared to have been killed by the gulls while we were investigating the area near the codar antenna (SW Great Race Rock).

Wildlife Changing with the Seasons

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Weather: 

  • Sky: clear and blue
  • Visibility 10-15 NM
  • Wind 20-25 knots W
  • Sea state: .5 m chop

Visitors: 

  • No island visitors
  • A small number of eco-tourism vessels (only one today).
  • We were saddened to hear this week that a fishing boat we have often seen pass by, Arctic Fox II, sank in rough seas on Tuesday, claiming 2 lives. An article Here.

Ecological Observations: 

  • The seagull chicks continue to practice using their wings, hopping and flapping in the wind. It can be quite comical to hear them “peeping” as they did when they were just hatched- they are nearly the size of their parents now!
  • The harbour seal pups get cuter by the day. We were lucky to catch one nursing this week from the lighthouse (photo below).
  • The sea lions population continues to grow, with a notable increase this week on Main Race Rock. We will need to put the electric fence back soon to prevent them damaging infrastructure.
  • We have been enjoying bird watching this week as migrations continue and the pigeon guillemots are raising their young. There have continued to be very large numbers of black turnstones on the E shore.
  • This week we have also been visited by a handful of ruddy turnstones, and one whimbrel (thank you Daniel for the ID help!)
  • The one male elephant seal is still here. He doesn’t seem to be actively moulting anymore, aside from a tiny bit of remaining skin around his neck. He spent the entire day yesterday drifting and napping in the peaceful and sheltered jetty waters. We have not seen V173 in quite some time.
  • We find a lot of joy in watching the elephant seals move from higher ground down the jetty ramp and into the water. If you are not familiar with their undulating movements, this video is an excellent example. It’s a lot of blubber to get off the ground!
  • We spotted one sea lion with a fishing flasher hooked onto his face a few days ago. We haven’t seen him since but we are hoping that we will, so a rescue attempt can be made to remove it.
  • We also saw a sea lion with what we thought could be an infected brand. We sent a photo to a wildlife officer in Oregon who tracks these branded sea lions and he shared with us that it is likely a shark bite!

 

Foggy Days and Sea Lions

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Weather:

  • Sky overcast, heavy to medium fog
  • Visibility 1 NM (less than 1 during heavy fog)
  • Wind 5-15 knots W
  • Sea state: rippled to small waves less than 0.2m

Marine Traffic/Visitors:

  • A small handful of eco-tourism boats came thought the fog today.
  • Over the weekend, Sunday especially, there were many small pleasure crafts and a few eco-tourism vessels

Ecological Observations: 

  • A pod of four orcas was in the reserve on August 6th! They stayed in the area for about 10-15 minutes before heading towards Pedder Bay!
  • The sea lions are returning. Over the last few days there has been at least a dozen hauled out on the north side of the island near the crane, with more on the outcropping rocks.
  • The seagull chicks seem to be growing faster every day – we’ve spotted a few that are beginning to fly short distances.
  • When we do our water sample from the jetty we see pigeon guillemots perching up on the nearby rock, always in pairs, and sometimes with fish. They are very tricky about waiting until nothing is watching to take food back to the nest!
  • The fog and the nesting birds keep us inside most days without a good view of animals. More pictures and a census to come as soon as we can see!

Census:

  • 40 California sea lions
  • 51 Stellar sea lions
  • 111 Harbour seals
  • 1 Elephant seal (male moulting)
  • 552 Glaucous-winged gulls (nesting, some chicks that are big enough to see included)
  • 388 California gulls
  • 12 Oystercatchers
  • 112 Black turnstones
  • 2 Ruddy turnstones
  • 1 Surfbird
  • Pigeon guillemots were not visible at the time of this census (very windy), but the numbers have been consistent from last week as they continue to care for their young.

Census and a Beautiful Day

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Weather: 

  • Visibility 0-10 NM (some intermittent morning/evening fog)
  • Sky clear
  • wind 25-30 knots W
  • Sea state: rippled, whitecaps
  • A steep decline in humidity today helped dry out the island after a bit of rainfall

Neat Fact: The body temperature of seals is very similar to our own! Endothermic like us, they maintain an internal temperature of 36.5-37.5 degrees Celsius.

Marine Traffic/Visitors: 

  • Greg visited today to top up island supplies before the college vessel goes for regular maintenance
  • Not many boats today- around 5 eco-tourism vessels.

Ecological Observations:

  • Elephant seal V173 was not here today. We wonder if she was just stopping for a rest or if she will be back soon.
  • There have been very large groups gulls and also black turnstones migrating through, intermingled with a few surfbirds. There were so many today that we took a photo from the lighthouse in order to count them!
  • The pigeon guillemots seem to be nesting in full force. We have spotted many carrying fish into crevices on the west side of the island near camera five and also the rock walls on the east side.
  • The seagull takeover has seemingly started to ease and moving around the island is becoming easier day by day. The chicks are beginning to be able to escape the attacks of the rival adult gulls by flapping their wings and flying/hopping away.
  • On a slightly…mushier note (stop reading if you get queasy!): Yesterday we removed the gull that was eviscerated on our back porch. We let it sit for a few days to see if an otter would come back for it or if the gulls might take a nibble (neither occurred). We were surprised by the amount of maggots that had grown in only a couple of days, presumably due to the warm and humid weather recently.
  • The sea lion population is increasing every day and they are started to climb onto the main rock. It’s almost time to put up the electric fence or we will have unwelcome house guests!
  • The geese have suddenly left this week (all but 4). Interestingly, earlier in the week we saw a flock of 17.

Census: 

  • 4 Canada geese
  • 985 Seagulls (does not include chicks)
  • 84 Harbour seals
  • 1 Male elephant seal
  • 25 Stellar sea lions
  • 19 California sea lions
  • 88 Pigeon guillemots
  • 2 Bald eagles
  • 1 Humpback whale (in the straight)
  • 1 Brandt’s cormorant
  • 12 Black oystercatchers
  • 143 Black Turnstones
  • 1 Sandpiper ((?) will update with confirmed id!)

 

 

 

A New Arrival

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Today’s Weather Conditions: 

  • Sky overcast
  • Visibility 15+ NM
  • Wind 15-20 knots W
  • Sea state: calm, fast moving currents today (almost 5 knots)
  • Daily fog in the mornings and often late afternoon as well

Marine Traffic/Island Visitors:

  • No island visitors aside from Greg on Thursday with supplies
  • Quite a few whale watching boats today and yesterday (20+)
  • Not many pleasure crafts passing through the reserve, but many outside of pedder bay (especially yesterday)
  • We saw 3 whale watching boats just outside the reserve circle a small group of orcas and follow them under power into the strong currents earlier this afternoon.

Ecological Observations: 

  • Today we were joined again by elephant seal V173. She was also here in December and again in the late spring when we first arrived. Her left eye is a bit oozy and red, but it seems like it is still functioning properly and she is otherwise looking great! She must have eaten a lot of fish out there- she’s much bigger than the last time we saw her only a few months ago.
  • The seagull chicks have been wandering farther away from the safety of their nesting areas, and we have been seeing quite a few more deceased chicks on the ground all around the island. They are being killed by rival gulls protecting their territory and young. There are a few chicks with injuries from these attacks, such as broken legs or wings.
  • We found an eviscerated gull chick on our back step on Friday afternoon. It looks quite a bit like a chicken does when a mink kills them (head missing), so we wonder if this is the work of a river otter.
  • As mentioned above we observed a few orcas just outside of the reserve earlier today. We have also been seeing humpbacks passing quite far away in the straight.
  • The pigeon guillemot nest that we have been observing closely (near our back porch) has at least one chick! We carefully peeked into the crevice and caught a glimpse of a tiny puff of black downy feathers. We are excited to be able to watch their activity so closely from our window as they are very secretive with their movements typically.
  • The remaining male elephant seal has been venturing to other parts of the island as his moult is finishing up. He has been finding some creative places to wiggle over rocks into shallow pools heated by water spilling over sun warmed rocks as the tides rise.
  • We heard a surfbird’s call today while out near the jetty- it’s a very shrill sound, just like the second recording here.

Otter Observations, Seagull Takeover!

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Today’s Weather:

  • Sky Clear, blue (very foggy in morning and evening)
  • Visibility 10+ NM (less than 1 during fog)
  • Wind 10-20 knots W
  • Sea state: calm, slightly rippled

Marine Traffic/Visitors:

  • Yesterday Greg visited to drop off some supplies, as well as on Thursday
  • Less than 10 whale watching boats per day recently
  • Minimal pleasure craft activity and the regular stream of fishing vessels, and larger ships

Ecological Observations: 

Due to amount of nesting birds and chicks, we’ve been going outside only when necessary as our presence seems to bother them quite a bit. Some of the windows facing the action have been getting, ahm… ‘fogged’ despite our efforts to collect rain water and scrub them when we can!

  • One of the two elephant seals molting has left the island, and the last pieces of skin are falling off in big dry pieces for the one remaining.
  • Seagull season is getting a bit violent: there are many deceased and dismembered seagull chicks around the island. We don’t usually see it happen, but we think that they are being killed by other adult seagulls protecting their territory and chicks.
  • While walking over the rocky area near the jetty to recover a significant amount of plastic that floated in, we noticed some pigeon guillemot eggs hidden in a rocky crevice! This is the first time that we have spotted a confirmed nest, although we had suspicions as we have been seeing them with fish and waiting for us to leave (before they carry it into their nest).
  • We found a pigeon guillemot near the jetty under camera five- it appeared to have been eaten by a bird of prey or perhaps an otter. It had been partially plucked of its feathers and eviscerated.
  • We’ve been noticing more harbour seal pups! We’re not sure if this is due to there being a increase in the total pups around, or we are seeing them closer than usual due to the low tides this week. We spot the pups with their mothers taking shelter from heavy currents in the more sheltered area between us and rosedale rock.
  • Yesterday we noticed that there were quite a few dead seagull chicks dragged underneath a diesel tank waiting for removal near the jetty/crane shed. We looked under the walkway where we often see the river otter duck through the rocks, and there were quite a few there as well. This explains the cacophony we sometimes hear at night!
  • We were contacted by an eco-tourism company who shared with us that they had spotted “ollie” the sea otter holding the body of a river otter. It sounds like he has been noted as particularly territorial before, so this is not a surprise, although this is the first time we have heard this during our time on Race Rocks.

We’ve been saving the fresh water that drains from the firehoses after pumping from Second Nature’s tank, and using it to fill the pressure washer tank. We can use this to mist the panels and scrub them by hand to remove the seagull waste that builds up so quickly this time of year. Every little bit of sun counts!

The Animals Have Been Busy

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Weather:

  • Sky clear, blue
  • Visibility 15+ NM
  • Wind 20-25 knots W
  • Sea state: rippled, whitecaps, small waves breaking at .5 m

A fun link! Our weather station data can be publicly viewed Here.

Marine Traffic/Visitors:

  • On Friday Greg and a plumber visited
  • It has been quite windy but we have continued to see 5-10 whale watching boats per day on average
  • Quite a few fishing pleasure crafts outside of the reserve closer to Pedder bay, but no issues with fishing in the reserve this week so far.

Ecological Observations: 

  • This week we noticed a pigeon guillemot carry fish into a crevice in the rock wall outside our back door. We are excited to keep an eye on it and see if it is nesting! We have continued to notice breeding pairs copulating and flying into/out of crevices around the island.
  • This week there are large amounts of shorebirds visiting.We have seen ruddy and black turnstones daily as well as the occasional sandpiper. The turnstones are particularly elusive and fly away before we notice them quite often.
  • An appreciated bird ID correction from Daniel: The bird which we photographed on June 20 was in fact a whimbrel and not a short billed dowitcher.
  • This week we have seen quite a few harbor seals with their pups swimming or resting on rocks. We haven’t seen any nursing, but they are still quite small (and cute!).
  • The goslings and two parents haven’t returned since we saw them leave by water last Thursday. There seem to be two more adult geese gone today. We wonder if the goose family left for the main island, as the seagulls have become very territorial and aggressive, or perhaps the geese are naturally beginning to leave as they do seasonally.
  • A steady increase of sea lions in the reserve this week. There are now both california and stellar sea lions, and a few younger ones mixed in with the huge stellars that appeared last week.

 

 

Neat Intertidal Finds

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Weather:

  • Visibility 6 NM
  • Sky overcast
  • Wind 5-10 knots W
  • Sea state: Calm

Marine Traffic/Island Visitors:

  • Greg visited with supplies on Friday
  • There have been a steady trickle of eco-tourism boats, 5-10 per day.
  • On Thursday DFO and Marine Mammal rescue visited the reserve (more on this below).

Ecological Observations: 

  • There has been a young sea lion in the reserve that appeared to be very underweight and weak. It was first spotted in the reserve on July 1st, and a few more times following. Marine mammal rescue notified us of the sightings earlier this week, and we were able to find the animal where it had originally been reported by a local eco-tourism company. With the assistance of DFO, they were able to make the journey from Vancouver to RR on Thursday July 9th, but unfortunately they weren’t able to spot the sea lion, and we have not seen it in the reserve since July 8th.
  • The seagull hatching is in full swing! There are now many chicks in various stages of development.
  • The goslings and their parents left for their first swim on the ocean yesterday at slack tide, but we haven’t seen them return. We wonder if they got caught in the stronger currents or perhaps made the journey to shore.
  • There are a few more sea lions in the reserve this week, roughly ten stellar sea lions on middle rocks.
  • We have had some low tides this week in the middle of the day, making for a great opportunity to explore the intertidal- photos below!