Hi everyone! My name is Laura, I am taking on the duties of Eco-guardian for the first time, and I am feeling privileged to get to call Race Rocks my home for a few weeks!
Saturday May 2nd
Ecological Notes
Spent the afternoon getting familiar with my new duties and cooing over the 5 elephant seals that are staying on the island at the moment!
I just can’t stop talking to them using a baby voice
As for the gulls, they have been constantly mating or fighting, but they also scream.
Initially, I thought that the animals slept at night like I do and would stop yelling when it gets dark, silly me! ;)
Facility work
- House move-in
- Salinity testing
- Generator check
- Electric fence check
Visitors
Pearson college students and 2 chaperones stayed on the island from Saturday to Sunday. It was nice to spend a few moments around everybody. I am sure that everyone was very pleased with the weather! 🌞
Weather Events
⋄ Wind (kts): 14.4
⋄ Clear skies, sunny
⋄ Air temp (°C): min 8.8, max 12.2
⋄ Sea state: calm
Sunday May 3rd
Ecological Notes
I said goodbye to the Pearson students, and Greg dropped off a life saving appliance before leaving: an electric coffee grinder!
I spent a lot of time on my animal census and went to the top of the lighthouse about 3 times that day, morning, evening, and nighttime to see the stars!
Only one pelican on the island that day, but it was a good one!
Fantastic sunset, and a beautiful moon for the second night in a row!
Facility work
- High solar power day: learned to ran the desalinator while monitoring solar voltage
- Salinity testing
- Animal census
- Electric fence check, spotted 2 Canada geese nests
Weather Events
⋄ Wind (kts): 8.8
⋄ Clear skies, sunny
⋄ Air temp (°C): min 10.1, max 20.8
⋄ Sea state: flat, glass at sunset
Monday May the 4th
Ecological Notes
Woke up to a bald eagle!
I identified a couple of Canada geese nests on my walks. One of the hen was incubating a single egg, but the second hen had no less than 6 eggs and a very protective male to help her defend the nest! It was my first time addling so I made a plan of action and decided I was probably scary enough to handle it. The operation went better than I thought, and I returned the addled eggs to their respective nests.
The geese are definitely not the biggest fan of me
Facility work
- Set up Race Rocks password for the blog
- Washed solar panels
- Flag down (Gale warning for the evening)
- Ran desalinator
- Salinity testing
- Addling of the 2 Canada geese nests, addled eggs marked with an “X” and returned to their respective nests. Total addled eggs: 7
- Split wood
DND Event
2 blasts, scared me just as much as it scared the birds.
Weather Events
⋄ Wind (kts): Gale warning, 4 kts in the morning, slowly increasing to 32 kts in the evening
⋄ Sunny, clear skies
⋄ Air temp (°C): min 10.6, max 16.3
⋄ Sea state: choppy, white caps
NB: All pictures were taken with a telephoto lens, which makes distant objects appear closer. All animals were photographed at a respectful and reglementary distance.