Wildlife Census

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We’ve been hearing Elephant Seal vocalizations at night, but haven’t seen anyone lurking around on the boat ramp. After taking the Race Rocks boat ‘Neighbor’ for a rip we spotted this cutie hiding at the summit of Middle Rock. Courtney used the ‘socketed’ pectoral flipper to differentiate the elephant seal from the surrounding sea lions. After that she started making visits to the boat ramp first thing in the morning. Not pregnant, didn’t give birth, just hanging around.

Female Elephant Seal wallowing at the jetty.

Female Elephant Seal complaining about the noise at Middle Rocks to the NW.

We also got a California Sea Lion hanging out next to the crane with a red flipper tag on his right flipper. We haven’t been able to figure out what this tag identifies yet.

California Sea Lion with a red tag in his ‘flipper-pit’.

 

No number or identification, just a red clip.

 

The coveted ‘end of the jetty’ position is all about leverage, and not letting anyone new join the party.

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea lions: 126
  • California Sea lion: 153
  • Harbour Seal: 48
  • Northern Elephant Seal: 1

Birds

  • Gulls: 45
  • Cormorants: 38
  • Eagle: 1 Adult, 2 Juvenile
  • Turnstones: 14
  • Canada Geese: 5 – 2 breeding pairs
  • Oystercatcher: 22
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 26

Boats

  • Recreation Salmon Fishing: 18
  • Tourism: 4
  • Sailboats: 4

Weather must be improving as we’re seeing more sailboats cruising around the Juan de Fuca.

The Stellers diminished this week and started using the fringes after the sea lion pileup from last week.

I try to remember to include the Bald Eagles, they’ve been pretty lazy these days.

Kayaking the rapids at Race Rocks looks pretty fun.

A log kept bumping into her butt and making her angry. Hard life of an Elephant Seal.

 

Wildlife Census

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BOOM! With the nice weather improving, a huge cohort of Steller Sea Lions showed up, and took over South Islands. This is a change from the typical South Seal Rocks haul-out next to the generator shed. I’ve attached a Reserve Map for those interested.

South Islands got COVERED in Steller Sea Lions this week.

Race Rocks Reserve Map

 

Bull Stellers had to figure out the pecking order for the summit.

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea lions: 250
  • California Sea lion: 150
  • Harbour Seal: 22
  • Sea Otter: 1 (Ollie?)

Birds

  • Gulls: 50
  • Cormorants: 55
  • Eagle: 4 Adult, 6 Juvenile
  • Turnstones: 30
  • Canada Geese: 7 – 3 breeding pairs
  • Oystercatcher: 44
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 73
  • Harlequin Ducks: 4

Pigeon Guillemots taking over the NW bluffs of Race Rocks.

Harlequin Ducks on South Seal Rocks

Double-crested Cormorant

Harbour Seals love that low-low tide.

I was recently reminded that Trans-Mountain is now operational, and we’re seeing an increase in tanker traffic in the Juan-de Fuca Straight.

PIGU!!! On a good day the Pigeon Guillemots can almost drown out the sea lion barking.

Black Oystercatchers are used as an indicator of good coastal ecosystem health.

Probably Ollie, lurking on the edge of South Islands for a few days.

I was trying to decide if Ollie was carrying around an old River Otter again. Your guess is as good as mine here.

Black Turnstone love foraging around the edges of the footpath and outcropping rocks.

 

Census + Spring has sprung!

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Pearson Students coming out to see the wildlife!

This week Second Nature made a trip out with some students to see the Sea Lions! It’s always great to see just how excited students are to see Race Rocks!

California Sea Lion loving that cozy sunshine.

Canada Geese can eat up to up to 2kg of grass a day. It noticable.

Weather has been fantastic, with new Pigeon Guillemots and Oystercatchers showing up.

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea lions: 64
  • California Sea lion: 87
  • Harbour Seal: 14

Birds

  • Gulls: 55
  • Cormorants: 25
  • Eagle: 2 Adult, 2 Juvenile
  • Turnstones: 14
  • Canada Geese: 5 – 2 breeding pairs
  • Oystercatcher: 15
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 52

Ocean swell coming up the Juan de Fuca onto the jetty.

Animal Census

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I guess that counts as winter storms…

Looking south from the Lighthouse.

We got some spicy winds and the temperature dropped out from January 30 – February 5th. With the storms came the California Sea Lions en masse: going from 58 the previous count to 168. The Jetty must be much nicer than wherever their feeding grounds are.

 

Temperature trends for the week.

Wind data in Km/hour. A little spicy.

I am pretty impressed with the tourism operators that visit Race Rocks: I would have assumed anything over 35 knots would make for a bad day to visit, but we maxed out with 6 tourism vessels visiting the Sea Lions and Birds of Race Rocks, even during the worse day of winds we got this week. We also got a visit by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, doing a patrol of the Ecological Preserve and ensuring the tourism vessels didn’t disturb the Sea Lions.

Wind and current working against each other can make for some lumpy wildlife viewing.

First time I’ve ever seen Sombrio Point visit Race Rocks.

Time to hide from the wind and waves.

As for Race Rocks proper things have been pretty chill. There isn’t much of a stockpile of firewood, so we’ve been scavenging any bits of wood on the island to keep warm when the winds blowing. Hopefully warm weather is coming, or we’d take some evil North wind to deliver us some new fire wood.

Scrounging for any wood to keep things from freezing.

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea lions: 70
  • California Sea lion: 168
  • Harbour Seal: 22
  • Sea Otter: 1 (Ollie?)

Birds

  • Gulls: 55
  • Cormorants: 30
  • Eagle: 4 Adult, 5 Juvenile
  • Turnstones: 14
  • Canada Geese: 8 – 4 breeding pairs trying to hunker down
  • Oystercatcher: 25
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 45

Boats

  • Tourism: 6
  • Private: 0
  • Government: 1

Animal Census

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Cheeky California Sea Lion showing me he doesn’t care the generator is running.

The calm before winter storms hit.

While everyone on South Vancouver Island talks about impending snow, we’re basking in the beautiful weather and enjoying a rare moment of quiet. It looks like the California Sea Lions haul-out here for the bad weather, but when it gets really nice for an extended period of time the California Sea Lions seem to go for a wander.

We’ve had a couple Humpback Whales feeding just off of Race Rocks, and lots of Whale Watching Boats coming by. Counting the Harbour Seals can be tricky, but when the tide drops the Rock Sausages find a comfy place to have a nap until the water comes back up.

Orca Spirit Adventures getting some up-close portraits of the Steller Sea Lions.

Harbour Seals hanging out for a quick nap at low tide.

We’ve had a female Elephant Seal coming ashore off-and on throughout the week. She seems to come ashore at night, and travel around the island calling for other seals, then retreating back into the ocean in the late morning. At first I was really excited thinking she might be pregnant, but it seems she is not here to stay, just looking for the other seals.

With all the grass nice and green, this handsome female Elephant Seal is ready for a comfy nap.

Grass not comfy enough for a nap? How about a quick launch from the jetty.

 

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea lions: 80
  • California Sea lion: 58
  • Harbour Seal: 20
  • Elephant Seal: 1
  • Humpback Whale: 2

Birds

  • Gulls: 60
  • Cormorants: 50
  • Eagle: 2 Adult, 4 Juvenile
  • Turnstones: 20
  • Canada Geese: 3
  • Oystercatcher: 20

I love watching these beefy Steller Sea Lions wiggle their way up the rocks.

Any time there’s a bit a weather, the whole gang is gonna post up on the jetty.

Meanwhile on South Rocks the Steller Pile has aggregated into one large handout.

 

Frost!

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Woke up to frost on the ground this morning. Weather is still clear skies and light north wind.

Roughly 50 ancient murrelets fishing off the jetty this morning.

Tourism boats: 2

Frost!

This warm weather means that there are still lots of plants blooming out here

Classic confused Crocus’

 

All systems still nominal

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This spell of calm, clear weather continues.

Usual chores today: check energy system, clean pathways, generally tidy up outside knowing that this weather can’t last forever.

Tourism vessels: 2

Private vessel: 1

A sailing ship called VEnturosa passed through the reserve today. AIS says she’s 33m and was bound for Victoria.

 

All systems nominal

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Clear skies. Light wind. Great sunset.

Tourism vessels: 2

My future-firewood pile is growing. If a good log comes through I sometimes tie it to the shore and try to work it up higher with the tides over the course of a couple days. Otherwise, I can buck it up into human-scaled lengths and move it to the pile.

Pile of future-firewood

This one is a keeper for sure.

GPS Tagged California Sea Lion

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I make maps for a living, so you better believe I was excited to find a sea lion with two telemetry tags pinned in its flipper-pits. I reached out to Kendra and our contacts at Oregon State and got an answer the next day!

California sea lion: branded X103

X103 is an animal they tagged (ODFW, WDFW, UCLA, and others) in Astoria, Oregon on August 29, 2024, as part of a research project looking at disease ecology and movements of California sea lions.  More information about the project can be found here: at this link  (X103 isn’t listed here yet but the 2023 cohort is)

For information on the whole research project: The Eastern Pacific Marine One Health Coalition https://marineonehealth.or

Maintenance:

Since talking with the Oregan taggers, I’ve been reaching out to our other animal reporting partners and getting updated emails and protocols. I’ll use this information to update in the SOP.