Wildlife notes

The house is shuddering, the seas tossed and the grass wind whipped. The gulls are mostly on their bellies, head to the wind.  Their beaks are the best wind vanes around revealing the small wind shifts caused by the terrain and structures. The pigeon guillemots and cormorants were out feeding, the sea lions lounging on the rocks and the elephant seals asleep in the grass, unbothered by the winds.

Facility work

The high winds kept me off the roof today but the batteries were so well charged yesterday that the dirty solar panels were able to bring the charge back up to 97% by sundown today.

• battery fluid top up
• daily water sample
• house cleaning
• no solar panel cleaning

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 0
• Private: 0

Weather

Clear skies. Winds W to WNW 28 to 39 knots, gusting to 46. Daytime temperatures 10 to 11 degrees.

Old Lister left the island today in pieces.  She was dismantled and carted away as part of a larger push to remove old equipment, batteries, fuel drums and other toxic materials from the island.  It all went well thanks to a safe and well executed plan, a hardy team of helpers and some very cooperative elephant seals.

Old Lister, the retired Lister 25 KW Diesel Generator Set

Mike operating the belay system to control the decent of the cart down to the boat ramp.

The cart held anchored in place while the crew handlines the boat toward the ramp. The two year-old (center) and the large adult female elephant seal (right) eager to go for a swim were surprisingly tolerant of the activities.

Loading the first and heaviest component.

The two year-old decided she had enough after the first two carts were loaded and headed back uphill.

The team celebrating the successful mission! All the heavy pieces made it aboard.  The rest of Old Lister can leave the island with a much smaller work crew.

Facility work

• removal of Old Lister
• solar panel cleaning

Vessels

• ecotourism: 3
• private: 1

Visitors

The work crew composed of 3 Pearson staff, 1 alumni and 4 additional helpers

Weather

Skies clear. Westerlies 6 to 22 knots until 3pm, then reaching 40 knots with gusts of 46 by 6pm. Daytime temperatures 11 to 15 degrees.

Wildlife notes

When I left Race Rocks on Feb 5th 2026, Sylvia and Ms. B. Lackie, her 17 day-old pup, were the only two elephant seals on the island.  Sylvia left shortly after her pup was weaned and Ms. B. Lackie stayed a lot longer.  Month later now, the grass is knee high and there are 5 different female elephant seals here on Race Rocks. The most famous of these is L334.  She was tagged as a weanling in March 3, 2023 in Ano Nuevo State Park in California. Each year thousands of elephant seals return to the park to breed and to molt (here is a link to their live camera to see just how many and how tightly packed they are).

In May 2024, the one-year-old L334 came to Race Rocks to molt. In her first year she traveled about 750nm to get here and quite possibly did the journey alone.  She came again to molt in April 2025, and is here again this May as a three year-old.

L334 – The 3 year-old elephant seal born in Ano Nuevo State Park, California, coming back from her daily swim. Behind her is a mature female.

L334 and her tag

Using L334 as a size reference, I figure we currently have one, two, three and four year-old juvenile females and one mature female. Note, the one year-old cannot be Ms B Lackie as elephant seals don’t molt until the year after they are born.

The 1 year old is mid-molt, the two to four year-olds are in the late stages of molt and will be leaving soon.  The large adult is just preparing to start her molt.

From  left to right: The two year-old at the end stages of her molt and the “scruffy” one year-old mid way through her molt.

From left to right: The mature female preparing to molt, a four year-old in the late stage molt, and  the three year old L334, also in late stage molt.

Facility work

• topped up battery fluid
• cleaned house
• ran the desalinator
• cleaned solar panels

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 17
• Private: 3

Weather

Sunny. Winds W 5 to 20. Daytime temperature 9 to 13 degrees.

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.