Well I was wrong. I should have spent more time looking for the injured elephant seal pup my bad. We still have 4 elephant seal pups on the Island. The one female elephant seal did leave boat ramp. Some of the southern resident L pod where west bound passing by Saturday in the morning. Heard that J and K pod were coming my way. So I stay up on top of the light till dusk looking no luck spotting them.
Wind is from the west this morning steady 22knots and raining.
Feb 20 2021 winds west 25.5 knots.
The oldest elephant seal pups mom came back to the boat ramp yesterday. Her pup had bad bite marks on his rump. All day yesterday the gulls would pick at the teeth mark spots on his rump.. I had hoped that he would go to the ocean. After seeing what he was going through it was the safest spot for him. Some time in the night mom and pup swam out to sea. We now have 3 pups 1 female 2 males.
Snowy Race Rocks from the lighthouse.
Weather:
Well we got the same dump of snow on February 13th that hit Victoria, arriving with some 40-50 knot outflow winds blowing the crunchy snow all over the place. Estimated about 10cm of snow, but due to the high winds it was moving around lots.
Visitors/Traffic:
No visitors in the last week besides the future Eco-Guardians coming out to do some training. The weather has been consistently >30 knots from Febryary 10th onwards.
Ecological Notes:
With the heavy winds and snowfall the California Sea Lion numbers have been reduced, we thought just for a night or two but the numbers haven’t returned as the snow melts and winds die down. We had 1 California on the jetty looking very sick and emaciated; and one on the South side of the lighthouse with a neckband bleeding pretty heavily.
California Sea Lion with a nasty looking neck-band.
The Stellers have come back once the snowfall stopped, but weren’t around during the peak snowfall days.
On February 13th we spotted 4 Southern Resident Orca’s cruising their way around the South side of the lighthouse. Talking with local experts it sounds like it was members of J-pod due to local hydrophone recordings.
Elephant Seal update:
On February 11th another pup was weaned and his mom left. This is our 4th pup to be weaned this season, with one still nursing.
Snuggles got buried into his own little snow bank.
Our last female on the island, Jolene provided a wall to protect her pup from the blasting snowflakes.
Our oldest pup Cheermeister got bit on the head the night of February 7th, and retreated to the front door of the Eco-Guardian house. We thought his bite marks didn’t look that bad despite the amount of blood, but the wound never seemed to clot and may have been much deeper than it initially looked. Cheermeister died the morning of February 11th, and further inspection showed he had 2 deep bites from one of the adult male elephant seals; we assume Jafar the non-Beachmaster hanging out on the island.
Cheermeister post head wound.
The head wound turned out to be fatal. Pretty crazy to see how much damage they can handle, but the wrong bite in the wrong spot can be enough to kill them.
The photos of the seals make them look all cute and cuddly, but they’re actually all over 150kg (330lbs). If it weren’t for the slippery snow he would have been much harder to move.
It’s an interesting thing getting to live in such close proximity to wild animals. You don’t want to interfere in their lives, and sometimes that means watching things that make your stomach churn. Other times things happen and you don’t really know why, and are just left wondering. We are very grateful for our time on Race Rocks, getting to watch these pups be born, grow, and explore the island. Each birth is a celebration of the resiliency of these animals, making their comeback from near extinction.
I love seeing these fat pups slipping around in the snow!
Jellybean and Sebastian have officially ‘podded up’ and are exploring the island together. Too much cuteness.
To offset the sadness of Cheery’s death, here’s a Elephant Seal pup’s tail. They’re possibly the most adorable part of the seal.
February Sunsets lighting up the sky!
Census:
Gulls: 70
Cormorants: 215
Eagles: 0
California Sea Lions: 62
Steller Sea Lions: 97
Elephant Seals: 6
Harbour Seals: 0
Turnstones: 11
Geese: 4
We got some Killer Whales cruising by the lighthouse today. Some light tail slapping S of the lighthouse, overall a quick visit with no escape responses from the Sea Lions in the water. We counted 4 Orca, they looked more like Residents than Biggs’, but we haven’t ID’d which pod they are. 15 around Race Rocks before heading W out the Juan de Fuca.
Also available from DFO here, along with data from other sites on the West Coast.
| Daily Sea Surface Temperature and Salinity Observations | |||
| Station: | Race Rocks | ||
| Observer: | Tristan Blaine | ||
| Month: | Jan-21 | ||
| Day | Time | Temp °C | Sal ppt |
| 1 | 17:00 | 8.2 | 31.5 |
| 2 | 14:30 | 8.2 | 31.4 |
| 3 | 15:30 | 8.2 | 31.5 |
| 4 | 20:30 | 8.1 | 31.5 |
| 5 | 12:30 | 8.1 | 31.4 |
| 6 | 11:00 | 8.2 | 31.3 |
| 7 | 12:00 | 8.2 | 31.3 |
| 8 | 10:30 | 8.4 | 30.8 |
| 9 | 13:30 | 8.1 | 31.2 |
| 10 | 13:30 | 8.2 | 31.3 |
| 11 | 13:30 | 8.2 | 31.3 |
| 12 | 15:30 | 8.2 | 31.3 |
| 13 | 15:30 | 8.3 | 31.3 |
| 14 | 15:00 | 8.2 | 31.2 |
| 15 | 11:30 | 8.2 | 31.3 |
| 16 | 15:30 | 8.2 | 31.2 |
| 17 | 14:00 | 8.3 | 31.1 |
| 18 | 11:00 | 8.2 | 31.2 |
| 19 | 8:30 | 8.1 | 31.3 |
| 20 | 8:30 | 8.1 | 31.2 |
| 21 | 8:30 | 8 | 31 |
| 22 | 8:30 | 7.7 | 30.9 |
| 23 | 9:30 | 7.6 | 30.7 |
| 24 | 11:00 | 7.9 | 30.5 |
| 25 | 14:30 | 8.1 | 30.6 |
| 26 | 13:00 | 7.1 | 30.8 |
| 27 | 14:30 | 8 | 30.9 |
| 28 | 14:30 | 7.9 | 31.1 |
| 29 | 15:30 | 8 | 31.3 |
| 30 | 15:30 | 8 | 31.3 |
| 31 | 11:30 | 8.1 | 31.3 |
Laura Verhegge celebrating her 50th birthday at Race Rocks, sharing her love of nature with students near and far.
Weather: Stormy weekend! Steady 30knots with bursts of 50knots.
Visitors/Traffic: We were visited by the Marine Biology class and Biodiversity classes last week, so cool!
Courtney Edwards regailing the Marine Biology students with tales of Lighthouse keepers past.
Ecological Notes:
Sebastion hasn’t moved since his mom left, his little flippers can’t reach the ground with that big fat belly.
We had another mom wean her pup and leave Race Rocks on February 4th 2021 (Rhi-Rhi). We’ve been hoping for the 3 pups to ‘pod-up’ but no luck yet, the newest weaned pup is still too fat to move. The students have been studying the Steller Sea Lion carcass on the NE side of Race Rocks, with 25-30 eagles feeding on the carcass early in the mornings. Some of the students spotted a new dead California Sea Lion just S of the Lighthouse, it’s a branded seal with a tag on it, no obvious sign of death.
After Jafar’s last beating he’s been giving the Beachmaster a wide berth, but still relying on the boat ramp sneaker move.
Eagles feasting on the Steller carcass.
Jafar got his nose shredded fighting the Beachmaster, but it hasn’t scared him off the island.
Census:
Gulls: 79
Cormorants: 300
Eagles: 4
California Sea Lions: 149
Steller Sea Lions: 89
Elephant Seals: 9
Harbour Seals: 6
Turnstones: 0
Killdeer: 18
The dead California Sea Lion.
Tag matches the brand on this dead California Sea Lion.
Looking South to the Elwa as the sun sets.
Weather: Storms brought in a ton of wood over the last few days to the jetty, but thankfully the Elephant Seals have been clearing it out.
Visitors/Traffic: A few whale watching boats on weekends. We started getting students coming out January 29th, and it’s been really great to see what they are interested in and what kind of questions they have about Race Rocks!
Ecological Notes:
We just had the 5th pup born on January 28th. We were wondering if it would survive, but seems to be healthy and growing. Our second female weaned her pup (Jellybean) and after mating with the Beachmaster tried to get back in the ocean. Unfortunately for her there was another new male hanging out on the boat ramp waiting for his opportunity to mate. What unfolded was a Machiavellian game of blubbery chess, video below.
We now have 2 weaned pups cruising around Race Rocks, with the next pup looking like he’s only a few days away from being weaned as well.
The Steller rock at the South end of Race Rocks.
Census:
Gulls: 156
Cormorants: 533
Eagles: 6
California Sea Lions: 85
Steller Sea Lions: 177
Elephant Seals: 10
Harbour Seals: 22
Turnstones: 22
Oystercatchers: 13
A Bald Eagle decided he wanted a fresh meal and nailed this gull right out of the air. Turns out there isn’t much meat on those gulls.
Cheermeister starting to moult.
Elephant Seal poop.
Lighthouse views of the Elephant Seals.
Pam Birley of England made the first observation today for this year using the remote control camera 5, of the return of the pigeon guillemots to their nesting grounds here on Race Rocks . She commented: “I haven’t seen them mentioned by the guardian yet but I took this screenshot on 3rd Feb”.