Category Archives: weather notes

April 4th – Full Moon and Blood Moon

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The weather was much more subdued today with light winds and a morning switch in direction to the east, northeast and then back to westerlies at sunset. The sky was partially overcast but more sunny than cloudy with only the slightest of showers. The barometer continued its very slow and not very steady, decline that began on Thursday. The forecast is for more of the same. Today’s full moon was in total eclipse early this morning and although I was up at 5:00 AM, I did not see it, maybe that is because it was totally eclipsed ; – )?

Only two tour boats were noted within the Ecological Reserve today and they both kept their speed down and seemed to be very respectful of the wildlife. There was no fishing activity noted inside the Conservation Area.  A couple of Kayakers were paddling in the Ecological Reserve today and they were very close to the sea lions. They managed to make it past them without any disturbance, but the sea lions woke up after the kayakers passed. They were only concerned enough to do some neck craning and alert behaviour before falling back asleep.

Paddler passes close by sleeping sea lions.

Paddler passes close by sleeping sea lions.

The two kayaks regroup after getting by the sea lions on South Islands.

The two kayaks regroup after getting by the sea lions on South Islands.

Sea lions wake up and smell the kayakers. Looking alert but not too disturbed.

Sea lions wake up and smell the kayakers. Looking alert but not too disturbed.

Ecologically things were very much like the previous two days, the gulls are slowly becoming a little more territorial and parental looking. I saw two holding nesting material in their bills today and several pairs were doing a synchronous bill down dance that might demonstrate to the other how beautifully they will be able to regurgitate into any chicks they might produce together. I also witnessed some nasty bill holding that drew blood and descended into an outright wrestling match. I was not sure if these gulls were territorial competitors or mates but they were determined to not let go of each other. Gulls are supposed to mate for life so it makes me wonder, when I see the same gulls sitting poignantly all alone, on their spots, day after day. Is their mate missing in action or just late?

The Canada Geese are very broody and in some places are running the gulls off. Some geese are already incubating four to eight eggs per clutch.  I guess the crows know this and there is often a small murder of crows strutting around the nesting areas and also being chased off by the geese.

The Bald Eagles are here all day everyday right now and I watched one adult chase off another so there must be something good to eat. Is it gulls? The chase was quite spectacular with climbs and dives and at one point, upside-down flying in self defence. The defeated intruder headed over to Bentick Island.

It wasn’t sunny enough today to just go with solar power and I had to run the generator for a couple of hours in spite of having no extra draw on energy. I know the day is coming when there will be enough sunshine to go through a whole day, entirely on solar power.

Thirteen visitors came to the island today. Chris brought out a group of eight students and his son accompanied him with a school friend. Alex was deckhand again and brought his father who was visiting, along for the brief version of the Race Rocks tour. Alex’s Dad likes using the Race Rocks video cameras, so one more reason that I need to figure out how to get cameras #2 and #5, back up and running. The students will go back mid-day on Monday and are already earning their keep.

Chores were a mix of entropy fighting of  today. It was really nice to know that there is lots of water in the midst of churning compost and the usual tasks. I am still tidying up wood and very grateful to Alex and Virginie for all the firewood and lovely kindling. I also want to thank Nick for leaving the house so spick and span, very nice.

Thursday is Census Day at Race Rocks

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The weather was fine today with sunshine from dawn until about four o’clock. Winds were very light and the direction shifted around west, from northwest to southwest. As the barometers drops, rain is forecasted, southeast winds and then improving with only scattered showers by tomorrow afternoon.

The fine weather brought two small sports fishing boats into the Ecological Reserve today, both fishing and speeding inside the Ecological Reserve boundary.  My guess is that neither of them were aware of the Eco-Reserve and its protection from speeding and jigging.

There were three, whale watching boats in Reserve today and several others that passed outside of the boundaries. One of the attractions for the whale watchers were Biggs’ Killer Whales, also known as transients. The ‘T”s as they are known to the tour operators were travelling from west to east when I saw them and they passed very close to the seal haul-out on North Rocks before I lost them to view. It looked like four individuals. I saw a single, adult male Killer Whale two days ago, it was just a one-off sighting and I didn’t spot it again in spite of watching for quite a while. That one was also probably also a Biggs, just from the behaviour.

Today was Mega-fauna census day and here are the results.

Bigg’s (Transient) Killer Whales 4

Northern Elephant Seals 12

Harbour Seals 117

California Sea lions 69

Northern Sea lions 21

Canada Geese 24

Harlequin Ducks 9

Pelagic Cormorants 18

Double Crested Cormorants 15

Brandt’s Cormorants 12 (Flying through.)

Great Blue Heron 1

Bald Eagle 2 adults, 3 sub-adults

Killdeer 2 (at least two, difficult to count in the dark)

Black Oystercatchers 10

Black Turnstones 22

Surfbirds 37

Rock Sandpipers 7

Dunlin 11

Pigeon Guillemots 241 (Not a complete count. Had planned to quickly move over and do a north count but unable to count other side due to disruption with speeding boat and subsequent mass pandemonium and movement of birds everywhere.)

Glaucous-winged Gulls 365

Herring Gulls (present earlier in week)

California Gulls (present earlier in week)

Ring-Billed Gulls (present earlier in week)

Peregrine Falcon 1

Northwestern Crow 2

Common Raven 1

The Back Turnstone was one of the many species of shorebirds shown in yesterday's mystery photo. Easy to distinguish from Surfbird when they are side by side.

The Back Turnstone was one of the many species of shorebirds shown in yesterday’s mystery photo. Easy to distinguish from Surfbird when they are side by side.

Male Harlequin Duck sitting on rockweed in the inter-tidal.

Male Harlequin Duck sitting on rockweed in the inter-tidal.

What a difference between drake and hen. These 'white water' birds nest in the mountains by rushing streams and rivers.

What a difference between drake and hen. These ‘white water’ birds nest in the mountains by rushing streams and rivers.

It was a busy day with lots accomplished. I managed to get the weather station back up and connected to the Internet, thanks to good instructions. I have been on a bit of a wild goose chase, mapping out the nest locations of the Canada Geese. I troubleshot water loss problem (to no avail) and ran both the desalinator and generator. Sweeping the walkways and tidying up wood is ongoing. The census took quite a while and was totally enjoyable. This is such a special place, a real biodiversity hotspot especially underwater. What we see on the surface is like the tip of the biodiversity iceberg or the biomass (food) pyramid. All that biological activity can traced right back to plankton and sunshine that drives it. Sunshine made most of the fresh water today, thanks to the solar panels and desalinator.

March 14 – West Wind and Waves

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Overcast and rain in the morning, sunny in afternoon
Wind: 1-11 knots from the W and N in the morning, 22-46 knots from the W from the late morning onwards
Air Temperature: Low 9.3°C, High 11.3°C
Ocean Temperature: 9.2°C

A gale warning in the afternoon, with winds gusts up to 46 knots, remained in effect for the rest of the day. The gulls had a hard time sitting and claiming their nesting sites when the wind gusts reached 46 knots. Due to the winds, the afternoon was filled with indoor tasks like cleaning, organizing the basement and drinking tea. The winds diminished in the evening.

Hanne Christensen, one of the visiting Pearson students, took some photos around the island yesterday and today. They are included in the gallery below.

March 12 – Sunny Census Thursday

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Sunny
Wind: 0-13 knots SW in the morning, NE from mid morning to afternoon and SW in the evening
Air Temperature: Low 9.9°C, High 13.2°C
Ocean Temperature: 9.0°C

Three Pearson students came to Race Rocks this morning. Karen, Sunny and Hanne joined Martin, who has been here since Monday.

The students did some work this afternoon: sweeping all 99 steps of the lighthouse and continuing the process of stowing the chopped wood in all the nooks and crannies of the buildings, to be used next winter to heat the main house.

There was DND blasting happening in the morning and early afternoon on Bentinck Island, less than 1km away from the ecological reserve.

Today’s high temperature of 13.2°C, as measured at the ground weather station, was the highest recorded since 2006, when the weather station was installed. A high of 14°C was recorded by the instruments at the top of the lighthouse.

Three eco tour boats visited the reserve. One boat came very close to a group of sea lions swimming and others hauled out on the South Islands.

The low tide of 1.1m at 13:52, exposed lots of species from the low tide zone into the air. The shore and tidal pools were full of life: mussels, barnacles, limpets and lots of other flora and fauna of the sea. The oystercatchers and shore birds were having a feast.

There were no small birds perching birds seen today. There are usually a few fox, sparrows, savannah sparrows and occasionally juncos and robins zipping around the island.

Here are the results from today’s Megafauna Census:
Elephant Seal: 1
Steller Sea Lion: 54
California Sea Lion: 43
Harbour Seal: 52
Bald Eagle: 9
Great Blue Heron: 1
Crow: 1
Oystercatcher: 4
Double Crested Cormorant: 12
Brandt’s Cormorant: 21
Gull: 247
Canada Goose: 14
Pigeon Guillemot: 9
Harlequin Duck: 13
Surfbird: 3
Black Turnstone: 10
Rock Sandpiper: 2

March 8 – Visitors Galore

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Sunny, with patches of fog in the afternoon
Wind: Light northeasterly in the morning and afternoon, calm in evening and switching to 8 knots W at night
Air Temperature: Low 6°C, High 10°C
Ocean Temperature: 8.9°C

There were a lot of visitors today from a leadership program being put on by the Roy Group for twenty-four students visiting from Texas Christian University. The two groups of twelve students made their way around the island to discover the four archetypes of mythical leadership: magician, sovereign, lover and warrior.

Fog in the mid afternoon made it tricky to navigate the boat to and from Pedder Bay in the afternoon. I benefited from the waypoints that Courtney programmed into the plotter on the boat.

Chunk is still camped out on the grass by the helicopter pad.

There was a dive boat with five divers to the west of South Islands this morning.

Feb 24-25

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Feb 24: Sunny in morning, cloud in afternoon, Wind west 15-20 knots increasing to 30 knots in the afternoon. Blasting again today.  2 whale watching boats in the reserve.  Went off island afternoon to return guest and pick up a plumbing part.  Installed new compass on the whaler, measured wire rope for derrick and made a few calls to find a source for new wire rope.

Chunk came on the island during the night and was pursuing the female elephant seal in the morning.  Eventually she returned to the be next to the pup’s body.

Feb 25: Wind variable, light increasing to 10 knots.  DND blasting again today.  Courtney came out in the afternoon with Tristan, Jake, Chris W, Garry and a guest.  They brought out scaffolding for the derrick and new wire rope to replace the broken one.  Chris W worked on cam 5 utility box connections.  The monitor for the computer weather station is not working.  Tristan, Jake and Courtney started setting up scaffolding under the derrick winch.  I was able to detach the old wire rope and attach the new one into the drum.

Feb 23, marine science class visit

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Sunny, wind East 5 knots.

Courtney brought Laura and 3 marine sciences classes to Race Rocks on Second Nature (3 trips), 36 students in total.  The classes did a lab studying waves, they took measurement and made observations on different sides of the island.

I saw a sea otter again today over by the south islands.  The mother elephant seal continues to stay close to the pup’s body.

DND blasting throughout day.  2 pleasure craft and 1 chartered fishing boat in the reserve. The chartered boat appeared to be getting quite close to harbour seals near North rock.  I called Pedder Bay Marina about one rental boat speeding. I went off island in the afternoon to pick up a guest.

 

Feb 22

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Sunny, 5-10 knot East wind.

2 Personal Watercraft and 2 whale watchers in the reserve.  There were several sports fishing boats around the reserve, counted over 25 in the area.  I called and left a message with one whale watching company regarding one of their boats in the reserve and its proximity to marine mammals

Chris came out in the afternoon with Laura and Simon, Alison and 3 guests.

I worked on a few projects including: pvc cementing vent pipe on guest house toilet, re-caulking chute on the toilet with silicone, changed pre-filters on diesal, replaced a leaky ball valve on diesal, untangled snapped derrick cable, and cut and chopped firewood.

The female elephant seal has stayed by the pup’s body most of the day.

Feb 19-20

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Feb 19: Cloudy, periods of rain, wind West 10-15 knots. Went off island at first light to attend a conference. Came back before dark. Worked on cam 5: extended and sealed conduit pipe to fit new utility box, sealed utility box to pedestal, re-wired and mounted power connection in box.

MoonMarsVenus

Moon, Mars, Venus, Feb 20.

Feb 20: Partly sunny, wind W 10-20 knots.  Went off island in afternoon to pick up and bring back two guests to stay overnight. Brought in recycling and discarded old cam 5 utility box.

After dark I could hear a female elephant seal nearby on great race, I found her she up past the boat house next to, and partly on top of, the goose exclusion inclosure. She was making vocalizations and seemed uncomfortable, moving around quite a bit.  She was very big and round, I wondered if she might be pregnant even though it is later than pups have typically been born here in recent years.  The moon was visible close to Mars and Venus, it was too windy to get a sharp long exposure with the telephoto.

Feb 15, orcas and traffic

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4_orcas_feb15

family of four orcas off the south side of Race Rocks

Sunny, wind NE 10-20 becoming 5-10 E.  4 orcas passed by in the morning heading east.

orca and geaorge feb 15

Orcas beyond south island with halibut sports fishing boats and the Captain George, a 229mx 32m bulk carrier heading to Itaquai Brazil, in the background

There were several boats in the reserve again today, at least 10 whale watching boats and one dive boat, and at least 5 halibut fishing boats around the perimeter of the reserve in the morning. I raised a new Canadian flag on the flag pole for the anniversary of the flag. Worked on firewood cutting and organizing firewood storage.  The composting toilet in the assistant’s house still has liquid in the bottom though it is decreasing.  I can notice a relative draw on the battery bank while running the unit with it’s electric heating element and vent fan.