Tuesday, May 19 2026

Hi Everyone! My name is Karen and I’m excited to be staying at Race Rocks this week as the Ecoguardian. I’m looking forward to getting to observe the wildlife, get to know the area better and familiarizing myself with some of the processes that keep this place running!

Ecological Notes

Another young elephant seal showed up on Sunday, bringing the total up to 6 here now.

I’m thinking this could be a new game, “Molting elephant seal or mossy rock”

Can you see the elephant seals?

Elephant seals or mossy rocks?

Each of the above photos has 2 elephant seals

I found some other birds that I didn’t see when doing my census :

Killdeer

Dunlin

Harlequin ducks

I also saw a Raven, and juvenile Bald Eagle

Facility Work

• Cleaning solar panels
• Testing and repairing the fence
• Cleaning windows
• Check batteries
• Check generator fuel

Weather Events

Tuesday, May 19

Wind (kts): 0.1- 22.5
Mix of sun and cloud
Air temp (°C): min 10.3 , max 11.6
Sea state: Calm during the day, building to choppy in the evening.

Monday, May 18

Wind (kts): 1.2- 25.6
Mix of sun and cloud
Air temp (°C): min 9.9 , max 13.2
Sea state: Choppy with some white caps

Sunday, May 17

Wind (kts): 0- 24.1
Mostly sunny
Air temp (°C): min 8.8 , max 13.7
Sea state: Calm during the day, building to choppy in the evening.

Vessel Traffic

Pretty quiet most days as it has been mostly near gale winds. A few ecotourist boats Sunday and Tuesday, and a couple personal vessels on Sunday.

Visitors

Some students from Pearson College came out Tuesday to do their field final exams.

*Any close up shots of animals were taken with a telephoto lens

Tuesday May 12th

Ecological Notes

I really wanted to see the sunrise, but it is also very hard for me to get up early! I made it out of the house a little bit too late for the best picture conditions, but it was still a great way to start the day!

6 am sunrise!

The bigger female Northern Elephant seal is almost done molting! Great work, she’s glowing! She just has a little patch on her lower back that seems pretty hard to reach.

Scratch scratch, is this done already?

There’s been a little bit of tension over the grassy area.

some grouchiness there.

and the sunset!

Facility Work

• Fence check in
• Student house windows washed
• Desalinator run
• Generator check
• Started on a new system for firework storage

Weather Events

⋄ Wind (kts): calm in the morning, increasing in the evening, max 32.5
⋄ Sunny, shifting
⋄ Air temp (°C): min 9.6, max 17.3
⋄ Sea state: shifting

Wednesday May 13th

Ecological Notes

Today was windy. It wasn’t really safe to go to the jetty for salinity testing, and it was just not a great day for outside work. I found myself a little bit couped inside, which was fine, there is work to be done inside the house too!

The most notable event of the day happened while I was cooking dinner: the gas ran out! Of course it had to happen at night and on the windiest day. And of course, someone had to go investigate and switch to the other gas tank. Given that there is only me here, I went.

all good!

Facility Work

• House inventory: food, cleaning supplies, house appliances, bathroom supplies
• Reorganized the tea drawer (it is so nice now)
• Reorganized baking cabinet

Weather Events

⋄ Wind (kts): forecast 30-40, max 36.5
⋄ Shifting, sunny, cloudy, short shower
⋄ Air temp (°C): min 10.8, max 13.3
⋄ Sea state: agitated, 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.

Monday May 11th

Ecological Notes

Happy Monday everyone! Today I was a little adventurous and decided to go visit the North-West rock face of the island. This is where the sea lions usually nap, so I avoid the area, but they all happened to be in the water at that time! I stumbled upon some beautiful bull kelp.

Bull Kelp

I walked around and made sure to check on my geese friends. They know me well by now and will usually stand up when I get a little close. There were no new eggs in the nests today so I let them be!

Bird watching goes both ways

Very little wind today, so the flag could go back up!

The sunset was perhaps my favorite part of the day. Sometimes under the right conditions the water around Race Rocks can reflect the sunset and end up looking almost white! I almost overcooked my dinner, because just as I was going to return inside, a squadron of pelican flew toward Race, and it looked pretty cool!

“Avengers Assemble”

Facility Work

• Salinity testing
• Flag up
• Fence check
• Geese nest check
• Pressure washer
• Pantry and spice cabinet cleanup

Weather Events

⋄ Wind (kts): max 18.4
⋄ Sunny, clear skies
⋄ Air temp (°C): min 10, max 15.1
⋄ Sea state: flat, glass

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.

Friday May 8th

Ecological Notes

Today it was low tide when I went for my daily walk to check on the electric fence, and I thought it would be the perfect day to go explore some tide pools! (Crawling around on steep rocks is one of my life’s passion.)

Unfortunately, as soon as I started exploring, I stumbled upon plastic, and sea glass, and even a fishing lure!! Not cool. These foreign materials are harmful to marine wildlife and can lead to entanglement or be confused for food. Marine debris are commonly found in coastal habitats, even in remote places such as Race Rocks. They need to be removed, so I grabbed a garbage bag with me.

I was nervous about getting pooped on, but the gulls spared me today

Plastic bottles, foam, fishing lure, plastic rope, sea glass, pieces of an old cap…

I was very carefully walking around to be cautious of potential Oystercatcher’s nests, AND THEN I FOUND ONE. Very exciting, I had never seen one, I did a little dance.

Now, Oystercatchers make a pretty inconspicuous nest, some might call it “unimpressive”, which is fair, but I think it can be a good strategy to hide your nest in plain sight!

Do you see it?

The egg in itself is cryptic (and very beautiful) to help it blend with its surroundings. I also think the parents did a good job at selecting little pebbles and shells to garnish the nest, very cute attention to details here.

Good luck little egg, do your best!

At last, here are some of the species I found in the intertidal zone!

Barnacles

Gooseneck barnacles – these ones are only found in areas of high wave action

Mussels

Sea Sacs

Kelp

Pacific rockweed

All of these species compete with one another for space in the intertidal zone!

Surfgrass

Pink coralline algae

Anthopleura anemone

And the star of the show (hehe)

Rainbow seastar

Facility Work

• Fence check
• Geese nests check (they still hate me but have not laid any more eggs)
• Beach cleanup
• Kitchen drawers + content deep clean
• Salinity check

Weather Events

⋄ Wind (kts): 8
⋄ Shifty
⋄ Air temp (°C): 10.3
⋄ Sea state: beaufort 3 : large wavelets, scattered whitecaps

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.

Thursday May 7th

Ecological Notes

Today was all about napping. Not for me, but for all the pinnipeds that hauled themselves out of the water to doze off. They deserve their rest! It is a perfect time to photograph them and look at the different species we can find on Race Rocks.

Elephant seal napping like a cartoon character!

California sea lion

California sea lions

Right now on Race Rocks, we find Northern Elephant seals, Harbor seals, Steller sea lions, and California sea lions. All of them are Pinniped, which means “fin-footed”, but they belong to different families!

True seals (Phocidae): Elephant seals and Harbor seals

These Pinnipeds have ear holes instead of external ears. This features makes their head look pretty smooth and uniform.

Northern Elephant seal (no ear flaps)

Their front flippers are on the shorter side and are more adapted to movement in the water than on land.

Harbor seals (rock sausages)

Eared seals (Otariidae): Steller and California sea lions

These Pinnipeds have external ear flaps (I call them Shrek ears!).

Steller sea lion

Sea lions have long front flippers that are bent at a right angle, definitely a big tell! This features contributes to their surprising agility on land.

California sea lion – bent front flippers

California sea lion, using his agility to go take a nap

The day ended with a lovely sunset!

Facility work

• Fence check
• Keeper’s house windows washed
• Desalinator run
• Solar panels wash
• Salinity testing
• Firewood: kindling
• Generator check

DND Event

5 blasts were heard today

Weather Events

⋄ Wind (kts): max 19.8
⋄ Overcast in the morning, sunny afternoon with shifts
⋄ Air temp (°C): min 9.5, max 13.5
⋄ Sea state: moderate

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.