Weather

• Visibility: 5-10 miles
• Wind: 10-20 knts W
• Sky: Hazy
• Water: Calm
• After the strong winds cleared the haze day-before yesterday, the smoke has set in again since the winds died down

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

• An average number of whale watching boats in the area
• Quite a few private boats over the last couple of days trying to get a glimpse of the hauled-out sea lions

Bird notes

• Spotted a lone pigeon on the island
• The flock of geese are back on the island in search of food – about 9 of them
• The juvenile seagulls have started to take flight – the highest I’ve seen one go is about 12 feet in the air, hanging in there for about a minute.

Marine mammals

• The J-pod of orcas swam past late in the afternoon, going through Race Passage and slowly making their way towards victoria. See here for more details on the j-pod: https://orcaspirit.com/2012/05/the-resident-orcas-of-j-pod/
• Sea lion numbers have started to stabilize over the last few days, but still growing slowly. Will get an accurate count in tomorrow’s census.