Fog Horn not repaired..

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Friday September 13

So… the fog horn went all night… when it was not foggy….

We let Coast Guard know and they told us  how to disable it. So they will be back here in the next couple weeks to try again to get it fixed.

Today, did some organisation/cleaning of the main house.

We also saw the injured sea lion James and Christine noted in August, when we were doing our water sample. He isn’t putting weight on it at all.. but the wound itself looks a little better. Reported to DFO.

  • Ran Generator
  • Ran Desalinator
  • Chopped Wood
  • Water Sample

Whale Watching Vessels: 10

Private Vessels: 2

Weather: Clear Day (Visibility about 12 NM), Winds SW ~5Knts all day, Overcast, Rain in the afternoon

 

 

 

Fog Horn Repair?

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Thursday September 12

Today Coast Guard came back to fix the Fog Horn. It is very loud.

Scott chopped a lot of wood that will be stacked up in the basement for use in the winter. We also received materials from Greg to build the electric fence around the North side of the island. That will be the weekend project.

The sunset today was beautiful, and there were so many humpback whales feeding in the distance!

  • Ran Generator
  • Ran Desalinator
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Chopped Wood
  • Water Sample

Whale Watching Vessels: 17

Private Vessels: 3

Weather: Foggy Morning, dissipated in the afternoon. Winds W Built to 23 knts, 12 C

Carduus acanthoides : Plumeless thistle- The Race Rocks taxonomy

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from https://racerocks.ca/upkeep-day/

Neha Acharya-Patel  the ecoguardian at Race Rocks identified this new species for Race  Rocks in the log today.

From Wikipedia,  the classification as follows

Scientific classificationEdit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Carduus
Species:
C. acanthoides
Binomial name
Carduus acanthoides

 
Other Angiosperms at Race Rocks.

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.

 

Upkeep Day

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Wednesday September 11

Similar day to yesterday! Did some weeding, weed whacking of the student house, made water and ran the generator.

  • Ran Generator
  • Ran Desalinator
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Patched electric fence

Whale Watching Vessels: 10

Private Vessels: 1

Weather:  Mix of sun/cloud. Wind 8-12kts.

Invasive Plant Removal

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Tues, Sept 10, 2024

Today we removed a lot of the invasive Plumeless thistle in the grassy area at the foot of the lighthouse.

There also is work being done on the student house this week to replace the windows.

  • Ran Generator
  • Ran Desalinator
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Patched electric fence

Whale Watching Vessels: 10

Private Vessels: 1

Weather:  Mix of sun/cloud. W/SW winds building to 20knts

Foggy in the morning, dissipated throughout the day. Fog Horn Still out.

 

 

Firing up the DeSal

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Mon, Sept 9, 2024

Today we spent some time with Greg going over the finer points of running the desalinator machine. It pulls ocean water from a 10,000L cistern and converts it to fresh water for use on the island. We also patched up some of the weaker points of the electric fence along the SE border. The sealions will be with us in large numbers until the beginning of December and the fence is important to protect the infrastructure and other habitats on the island. The weather has begun to turn as the wind kicked up and the temperature dropped compared to our first few days here.

Unfortunately, we also spotted this guy with an injury on his back. Reported to the DFO Marine Mammals Unit.

  • Ran generator
  • Ran desalinator
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Patched electric fence
  • Water sample

Whale Watching Vessels: 17

Private Vessels: 3

Weather:  Mix of sun/cloud. Wind 8-12kts

 

Census Day!

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Sunday September 8th

Today we spent a lot of time on the fence again. We painstakingly went through each section to ensure that charge was being held the whole way through. This was a very tedious process and we still don’t have the voltage up to where we want it to be…. but there have been no pinniped breaches yet, so fingers crossed!

Today, Scott and I climbed the lighthouse tower to complete our first wildlife census. As a marine ecologist, I have a lot of experience counting fish underwater. However, counting over 600 Sea lions that all look like overlapping brown logs or trying to count birds that keep on flying away or are hidden between all the sea lions was way harder. With that said, being a top the tower made everything much easier to see and to conceptualize on a greater scale.

While we were up there we also got to enjoy a couple of humpback whales engaging in tail slapping or “lobtailing” behaviour for well over 30 minutes. It is thought that the sound and force generated by the slaps frighten the bait fish into tighter schools making them easier to hunt. Based off gull activity, there were definitely a lot of bait balls around, so hopefully we will get to see more of this behaviour in the coming days!

  • Water Sample
  • Ran Generator
  • Washed Solar Panels
  • Patched and checked new electric fence
  • Island animal census

Whale Watching Vessels: 25

Private Vessels: 7

Census Results:

Birds:

  • Turnstones: 15
  • Killdeer: 1
  • Gulls: 528
  • Cormorants: 70
  • Oystercatchers: 2
  • Canada Goose: 6

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea Lions: 115
  • California Sea Lions: 497
  • Sea Lions (Too Far for confident ID): 205
  • Harbour Seals: 63

Weather: Slightly Hazy/Overcast. Wind NW Building all day to ~ 15knts

Fortifying Fence

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Saturday September 7 – Day 3

Our first day alone on station. We spent the morning refurbishing the fence that runs along the SW west portion of the island in front of the lighthouse down to the main residence.

It was super satisfying to have a unified barrier… until about four hours later… when some sections were promptly breached by our pinniped neighbours for the flat, comfy nesting spots they are protecting. The battle continues… Later in the evening we had to rescue our water sample bucket as an unnamed thrower let go of the rope.

  • Water Sample
  • Ran Generator
  • Washed Solar Panels
  • Repaired electric fence with anchored stanchions

Whale Watching Vessels: 20

Private Vessels: 6

Weather: Calm and Glassy, <5knts, Slightly Hazy/Overcast Wind picked up in the evening

Busy day

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Friday September 6 – Day 2

Today was another day of Visitors. Early in the morning, Greg dropped off a couple contractors to work on the windows in the Student Housing. We did our first clean of the solar panels. SO MUCH SEAGULL POOP.

Greg came back with all the materials to fortify the fencing that is supposed to keep the Sea Lions away from the Lighthouse infrastructure. I can confidently tell you that this fortification is needed.

At least 6 Humpback Whales feeding all day off the South and South West sides of the island. Greg swears he saw a full breach.. though we didn’t, and there are no photos soooooo……

  • Water Sample
  • Washed Solar Panels
  • Intro to rock drilling

Whale Watching Vessels: 15

Private Vessels: 3

Weather: Hot and Sunny, Calm and Glassy, <5knts

** So sunny we didn’t have to run the Generator all day

September Eco-Guardians are Here

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Neha And Scott

Thursday, September 5 – Day 1

Hey! We are Scott and Neha, the next Eco-Guardians for the month of September.

Bit of a whirlwind first day, we got paid a visit by the Canadian Coast Guard who were here to check out the foghorn that has been having some issues. They also sent an engineer to check out the lighthouse and dock crane. Had a nice cup of coffee with a couple of the guys, learning about different ways people work on our amazing coast!

We spent the rest of the day getting accustomed to the house and grounds and we are slowly introducing ourselves to the 800 + Sea Lions we are currently sharing the rock with. We ended the day watching the sunset on the top of the tower, joined by a couple of feeding humpback whales in the strait.

  • Water Sample
  • Ran Generator
  • Chopped Wood

Whale Watching Vessels: 11

Weather: Hot and Sunny, Calm and Glassy, <5knts