Category Archives: weather notes

Orcas

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Northwest winds increasing from midday to 35 knots this evening. Barometric pressure in a downward trend since Wednesday at noon. Some fog this morning. 20-25 knot winds forecasted for tomorrow with some fog.

37 whale watching boats

11 recreational fishing boats

3 recreational boats (including a dive boat)

A pod of orcas passed through the reserve on the north side of Middle and Turbine Rocks. There were at least 7-8 of them in front heading east through the channel with a few more trailing a few hundred metres behind. Four elephant seals on cite at the moment. No eagle visits today but a number of California sea lions have started arriving.

Topped up the batteries and did the monthly report.

Juvenile Bald Eagle visit

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Northwest winds dipping to 10 knots around midday. Barometric pressure decreasing since mid-morning. Intermittent fog until noon. Forecast calls for fog until noon tomorrow and gale wind warning in effect.

6 whale watching boats

7 recreational fishing boats passed through

Business as usual on the reserve today. A juvenile eagle visited the island this afternoon. Yesterday I was off the island from 0900h to 1700h to pick up two visitors and get groceries in town and the crew was out again to finish with replacing windows. Cleaned off the cable that we pulled out from the water that goes to video cam 2.

4 DND blasts

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Fog on and off today. West winds picking up this afternoon to 35 knots. Clear skies most of the day. Barometric pressure peaking at midday for the last three days. Winds supposed to reach 30 knots tomorrow.

9 whale watching boats (although maybe more I couldn’t see through the fog)

4 blasts from DND in the first half of the day.

There are 5 elephant seals here now. They like to spend lots of time on the ramp and sleep on top of each other. The seal with the bloody mouth seems to be doing much better. The blood looked like it was coming from the gum.

We had a crew come out today and replace a number of windows in the keeper’s residence and the science centre. Chris and I went diving to retrieve the underwater video camera for its annual maintenance.

Animal Census

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Fog on and off since yesterday. West winds rising since the morning from 10 knots to over forty. More fog forecasted for tomorrow and 20-25 knot winds.

4 whale watching boats this morning

Animal Census:

710 Gulls*
15 Pigeon guillemots
4 Elephant seals
142 Steller sea lions
421 Harbour seals
8 Black oystercatchers
6 Canada geese
There are a large number of gulls because of the California gulls which make a large majority (~550). There seems to be a much lower number of Glaucous-winged gulls this year from last. I notice there are a lot more dead chicks, be it the evening visits from the otters or the bald eagles that visit several times daily. There has been no sight of Chunk since Sunday night. Currently there are two young males, a female, a stubborn seal that refuses to lie on its back. This stubborn seal was bleeding from its mouth pretty badly leaving a small pool of blood on the ramp yesterday evening. This morning there was still blood on its face though it seemed to be a bit better. Because the bleeding was perpetual I assume it is more than a simple abrasion but I cannot see the wound well enough to be sure.
Several blasts have gone off on DND land this morning and yesterday.
Some sea lions have started using the jetty as a resting spot so I started putting up the electric fence.

 

California gull

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Northwest winds dropping from over 30 knots this morning to 3 knots and them picking back up to 20 knots by early evening. Barometric pressure dropping since mid-morning. Strong wind warning in effect and fog expected for tomorrow.

7 whale watching boats

6 recreational boats

1 personal watercraft (aka Jet ski, Sea-Doo)

Another elephant made its way onto the island yesterday, bringing the total number to 6. In the past week, I have noticed a number of California Gulls (Larus californicus) on the south side of the main island. They are distinguishable from the Glaucous-winged gulls by their black plumage and yellow feet. (Click here to view a photo from the Race Rocks taxonomy page:

https://racerocks.ca/racerock/taxalab2/2010/laruscal/laruscal.htm.) A bald eagle visited today and yesterday. It plucked out a gull chick yesterday but I did not see it make a catch today.

 

High number of whale watchers

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West winds below 20 knots all day. Clear skies. Barometric pressure dropping since yesterday. Fifteen to 20 knot winds expected for tomorrow afternoon.

34 whale watching boats in the reserve… no whales, sadly.

1 recreational boat

About 5 blasts went off this morning from DND. Normally during blasting periods there are red flags but there haven’t been any today or yesterday.

Was off the island in the evening and dropped off a visitor.

Humpbacks

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Overcast this morning with some rain, clearing up in the afternoon. Strong winds from 0800h onwards. Barometric pressure on the rise since Wednesday morning. Fifteen to 25 knot winds are predicted for tomorrow.

19 whale watching boats

There were two humpbacks on the southern border of the reserve this afternoon heading west. Several whale watchers surrounded them. Eagle Winged Tours was particularly persistent in chasing them. We now have 5 elephant seals on the reserve. Chunk, the big male, and the other four about half of his size or smaller. Chunk is looking very slim.

Two bombs sounded this morning off of Bentinck Island around 1015h.

Went into campus today from 1330h to 1530h to pick up a visitor for the night. Took a load of garbage/junk with me off the island.

Sea lion on the jetty

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Westerlies between 20-30 knots all day. Sky cloudy for most of the day with some sun. Barometric pressure starting to climb since yesterday. Winds are forecasted to reach a high of 25 knots tomorrow evening.

10 whale watching boats in the reserve today.

First sea lion on the main island found a spot on the end of the jetty. Although there have been several Stellers on West Rocks for more than a week, this was one of the first Californias I have seen this shift. Saw both pair of Black Oystercatcher chicks today and their beaks and plumage are getting much lighter.

Started cleaning out the boathouse this afternoon.

Animal Census and more…

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Winds have been on a downward trend since Monday but since noon today have picked up to 35-40 knots. Barometric power dipped to a low of 1010 hPa Wednesday evening. We’ve had heavy fog until yesterday and today.

Few boats in the reserve this week (I suspect due to fog).

Two whale watchers today and 2 recreational fishing boats passed through the reserve today.

Animal Census (for Wednesday, 16 July):

256 Gulls
9 Pigeon guillemots*
2 Elephant seals
13 Steller sea lions
1 Double-breasted cormorant
9 Black oystercatchers
6 Canada geese
38 Black turnstones (Arenaria melanocephala)
2 Ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres)

*I only saw nine guillemots on Wednesday, 5 of which were flying away from the island. I don’t know the reason for the low number but Thursday I counted over 80 again.

I have not seen Cheeky since Tuesday, however, a new (very plump) female elephant seal arrived Wednesday afternoon. After female was on the jetty at ~1800h but seems to have swam away again. Chunk is still here. The river otters made another appearance tonight. Running in the same direction the adult led the two young otters with a gull chick in its mouth. Before going under the diesel holding tank the two juveniles started away at the chick. the Canada geese arrived Monday afternoon. Until today, there was a group of 5 that moved around together and an additional single goose that was seemed on its own. Today I counted seven and they were all together.

Monday morning I lost ethernet connection in the main residence. Jonathan came out Tuesday to have a look and he returned with two electricians on Thursday to fix the issue. Filled the batteries yesterday while they were here and got a tutorial on the Nikon camera.

Animal Census

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Low winds all morning that rose quickly to 30 knots after noon but is now descending again. Barometric pressure still decreasing since Sunday. Winds forecasted to stay between 10-20 knots for tomorrow.

10 whale watchers

Animal Census
380 Gulls (Glaucous-winged + Heermann’s)

59 Pigeon guillemots
1 Elephant seal
2 Stellar sea lions
2 Bald eagles
140 Harbour seals
18 Black oystercatchers + 2 chicks
1 Spotted sandpipers (Actitis macularius) 
I conducted the census when the tide was rather high which may account for the fewer number of harbour seals, which appear in larger numbers at low tides when they rest on the outer rocks.
One float plane passed over the reserve this afternoon.
No sight of Cheeky today, our second largest male elephant seal.