Sept. 26, 2025 – Animal Census & Incoming Students

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It seems my luck continues and it happened to be another clear morning for my animal census day. But even better, the clouds formed and gave the perfect cover so I didn’t have to stare out into the glare and shadows of the sun. The tides were not as low today sitting at about 2m this morning which I suspect had an effect on how many birds and pinnipeds I saw today. This afternoon students from Pearson College arrived with Bella to spend the night enjoying all the island has to offer.

Animal Census Report:

I started my count around 7:30am at nearly a 2m tide. There were a lot more cormorants than my previous count, perhaps due to the time of day as I counted them later in the day the last census. A few less sea lions, I suspect more were out foraging this morning.

Mammals:

  • Steller sea lion: 331
  • California sea lion: 749
  • Harbour seal: 70
  • Humpback Whales: 8 (one tail slapping in the evening)

Birds:

  • Glaucus-winged Gull: 391
  • California Gull: 1
  • Western Gull: 4
  • Cormorant Spp: 1605
  • Black Turnstones: 14
  • Surfbird: 2
  • Savannah’s Sparrow: 6
  • Harlequin Duck: 1

Facility work

  • Electric fence maintenance
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Water sampled
  • Animal census

Weather

  • Sky: Overcast all day
  • Wind: ESE 3kts
  • Sea state: Calm
  • Air temp: 12C

Vessels

Up to 5 eco-tourism vessels watching whales to the south of the island at any given time.

Tail Slapping

* Humpback whale photo taken with telephoto lens and cropped

 

Sept. 25, 2025 – Sea lion Shenanigans & Silly Gooses

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With the breeze picking up a bit today, the sea lions were packed in tight to each other keeping cozy while the gulls soared effortlessly in the wind. Always entertaining watching the happenings of the sea lions – how annoyed they get when one in the pile moves and disturbs the peace, some barking and huffing and then they slightly settle down until the next one moves. And repeat.

Wildlife Notes

  • Juvenile humpback lunge feeding near North rocks in early AM
  • Geese are rudely making themselves at home
  • Still many humpbacks mostly on South side of the island

Facility work

  • Electric fence fixing
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Water sampled
  • Catching up on blog posts & drafting data templates

Weather

  • Sky: Early morning fog, cleared to partly cloudy with slight haze
  • Wind: WSW 10-15kts, gusting to 39kts
  • Sea state: choppy seas, ~0.5m swell
  • Air temp: 12C

Vessels

At least 10 Eco-tourism vessels visiting the park today. Also one private sailboat passed through. A large carnival cruise ship passed by a few miles away.

A Bunch of Silly Gooses

Sept. 24, 2025 – New Day, New Door

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Another stunning sunny day with intermittent fog, making the island look like part of a storybook. I had a visit from Richard, Mike and Laura in the morning. Mike and Richard installed the new door on the energy building and dropped off some cleaning and first aid supplies for the main house. Laura and I had the chance to catch up and learn about each other’s path to becoming marine biologists, not surprising we had many commonalities and connections! We got chatting ideas for managing and showcasing the decades of data collected at Race Rocks.

Wildlife Notes

  • Tail slapping humpback on the SW side of the island
  • Canada geese have arrived – although a beautiful bird, they’re an unwelcome visitor as they destroy the tall grass used for other nesting birds on the island.

Facility work

  • New door installed on energy building
  • Electric fence repairs – another hook broke off a post
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Water sampled
  • Batteries filled – easy access with the new door!
  • Donor sign installed in the Science Building

Weather

  • Sky: Early morning fog, cleared to partly cloudy with slight haze. Prescribed burnings to the NW caused some distant smoke. Thick fog after sunset and into the evening.
  • Wind: SSW 5-7kts
  • Sea state: Calm, small ripples
  • Air temp: 13C

Vessels

Many eco tourism vessels watching whales near the reserve throughout the day, mostly on the SE side where there’s consistently been 3-4 humpback whales

Nap time

Sept. 23, 2025 – All Smiles From Sunrise to Sunset

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Another day in paradise! I feel like I’m more of less settling into life on the rocks. Wake up, have coffee watching the sunrise in the tower, do a perimeter check on the fence, have breakfast, clean solar panels…and onwards. I of course have countless distractions to my tasks every day, for I can’t help but running to get my camera every time a whale splashes, or the sea lions get silly (which is often). The evenings end much like the mornings begin, but instead with a cup of tea at the top of the tower facing the other direction for the sunset show.

Wildlife Notes

Lots of feeding action today all around the islands. I watched as one humpback came surprisingly close to the jetty, with my eagle eye view from the tower I saw its entire body as it swiftly moved along in the shallows.

  • 2 Humpbacks past West rocks
  • At least 6 more Humpbacks spent good time on the N/ NE end feeding

Facility work

I took advantage of the beautiful day to do a major window cleaning session, which led me down the rabbit hole of attempting to scrub some algae off the siding of the house…to which I realized was a much bigger job in itself and would have to wait for another day. I postponed filling batteries as the new door to the energy building would be replaced tomorrow.

  • Electric fence maintenance
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Water sampled
  • Washed all the windows of the Main house and Science house

Weather:

  • Sky: Mostly sunny to partly cloudy later in the day
  • Wind: SW 3-5kts
  • Sea state: Very calm
  • Air temp: 18C

Vessels

The usual Eco-tourism vessels, however I was pleased to hear one call out to a CCG vessel to slow down for whales in the area in which coast guard promptly did.

Sunset Gulls

Sept.22, 2025 – Returning to the Island

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I was giddy to get back to Race Rocks after the weekend away. Greg had warned that the sea lions would be wreaking havoc on the jetty, and that they were along with a fnece breach by the energy building. After some shooing and tightening up of the fence, Greg, Richard, and I got the place in good order once again.

Wildlife Notes

Still many humpbacks on every side of the island (appx 6 close by). Active lunge feeding happening around the North Rocks.

Facility work

No major facility work needed to be done, but we did note that the Fog horn has been acting out of sorts lately. It has been going off even during sunny days with no fog, perhaps the sensor is too sensitive. I will be keeping track and Greg will be in touch with the Coast Guard regarding this.

  • Fence repairs and tightening
  • Solar panels
  • Water Sampled

Weather:

  • Sky: Mostly clear
  • Wind: 10kts SSW
  • Sea state: calm
  • Air temp: 15C

 

Sept. 19, 2025 – Animal Census Day

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Luckily for me it was a clear morning for the day of my first animal census. With coffee and binos in hand I headed up to the top of the lighthouse tower and began the count of every seal, sea lion, whale, and bird in sight… needless to say it took me much longer than expected! The sun was quickly heating up the tower and by the time I was finished counting the hundreds of sea lions, beads of sweat were dripping down my brow. Despite the heat, it was plenty worth the effort as I spotted some interesting animals – most notably, a Northern Fur seal! This little fellow was hiding in amongst the Cali’s and Stellers on the East corner of the island, not making many friends as it was crawling overtop the sea lion’s bodies and getting consistently yelled and snapped at.

Animal Census Report:

* Note the animal census was time limited to the morning only. Due to bright sun & shadows, cormorants were not distinguished by species.

Mammals:

  • Steller sea lion: 371
  • California sea lion: 906
  • Harbour seal: 89
  • Northern Fur seal: 1
  • Humpback Whales: 6

Birds:

  • Glaucus-winged Gull: 201
  • California Gull: 1
  • Western Gull: 6
  • Cormorant Spp: 701
  • Black Turnstones: 8
  • Surfbird: 14
  • Savanah’s Sparrow: 1
  • Western Sandpiper: 1

Facility work:

It was a busy day trying to fit in all my tasks on top of the animal census, as I was leaving the island for the weekend. Thankfully Richard was patient with me trying to get packed to go last minute.

  • Electric fence repairs – corner post on jetty snapped and got replaced.
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Water sampled – just in time!
  • Batteries filled (early as I would be away on Saturday)
  • Animal census
  • Compost and tidying of house

Weather:

  • Sky: Mainly clear and sunny
  • Wind: 5-10kts
  • Sea state: calm
  • Air temp: 23C

I was sad to be leaving for any time at all, given the excitement of the animal census. Thankfully, Bella and the students were incoming to keep an eye on the place in my absence. I’ll be back to it Monday morning!

 

Sept. 18, 2025 – Water refills, Sea lion sillies, and Shorebirds

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A bit of a foggy morning, but nevertheless magical morning on Race Rocks. During my morning perimeter walk I found a few posts of the fence knocked over and the sea lions brazenly taking over the jetty. I need to work on my scare tactics it seems. Greg and Richard arrived again this morning with hopes to fix the water maker. Unfortunately, the desalinator still needs new parts so we pulled out the hoses to fill the storage reservoir from the skiff. The guys went and grabbed another tank full to fill so I’ll have plenty to use while the water maker issues get fixed.

Wildlife Notes

  • 3 actively feeding humpback in Race Passage, sea lions also mobbing around the whales picking up the leftovers
  • Observed the sea lion with flasher in mouth in the same spot again
  • A California sea lion had previous entanglement, with partial rope still embedding in the neck
  • A couple little shorebirds swooped in, and with the help from Merlin I identified them as a Western Sandpiper and a Sanderling

Facility Work

  • Electric fence repairs
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Took daily water sample
  • Assisted with re-fills of water tank via fire hose with Richard and Greg
  • Swept and mopped basement floor of main house

Weather:

  • Sky: Foggy in the morning, gone around 11am. Sunshine with distant haze from fog to the south and some smoke from prescribed burnings to the NW. Fog came in again heavy and quick at 4:30PM, virtually no visibility until it cleared at 6pm.
  • Wind: W 8-10kts in AM, down to SSW 3-6kts by afternoon
  • Sea state: Calm, small ripples <0.5m swell
  • Air temp: High 12C; Low 10C

Sept. 17, 2025 – Sea lions, Whales, and Vultures- Oh My!

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What a great first day alone at the station in terms of wildlife! Since sunrise there were constant whale blows in all directions, probably half a dozen humpbacks at any given time. Later in the afternoon I was treated to a spectacular show by a young humpback whale who began breaching on the East side of the island and then didn’t stop as it breached its way North for nearly an hour. One of the whale watch guides counted 24 breaches in a row… go little guy go! I found the sea lion with the flasher in its mouth again and decided to make a report to DFO and the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre. Typically they need at least 2 entangled animals with consistant sightings to warrant a rescue attempt, so I’ll be keeping my eye out. I also spotted the Cali with the transmitter tag (likely the one Ian saw previously) along with some branded and flipper tagged sea lions. With all the mammals stealing the light, I nearly forgot about the birds. Interestingly, I encountered a Turkey Vulture scavenging among the sea lions and managed to take its photo in flight (below).

Wildlife Highlights:

  • Humpback whales 6-10; juvenile breaching
  • Turkey vulture
  • Branded and tagged sea lions

Facility work:

  • Minimal fence repairs, just a few lines touching the ground that I tightened up
  • Took my first water sample measurement at peak flood
  • Plans to continue work on the water maker and continue my site briefings were foiled as the wind picked up. Greg & Richard decided to come out tomorrow instead.
  • Took the day to familiarize myself with the SOPs and where things are at the station.

Weather:

  • Sky: Mostly clear skies
  • Wind: W 8-10kts in AM, down to SSW 3-6kts by afternoon
  • Sea state: Calm, small ripples <0.5m swell
  • Air temp: High 12C; Low 10C

Vessels:

Lots of vessel activity in and around Race Rocks. Peak whale watching around 12 and 3pm or so where there were up to 10 vessels nearby.

Sept. 16, 2025 – First Day Onsite was a Delight

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I arrived onsite around 1pm with Greg & Richard for my first shift as a new Eco Guardian. Bella greeted us at the jetty along with many hauled out sea lions. It was a quick orientation through the sites and tasks, then getting settled in while testing was being done on the water maker. Once finished up for the day and left alone on the island I decided to take my dinner up the lighthouse tower to enjoy my first sunset at Race Rocks. What a delight to finally be here!

Wildlife

The sea lions are in full force, and so are the whales. Blows all around the island, but a few humpbacks tucked in close to the North-east end and towards North Rocks.

Facility work

  • Facilities and site orientation
  • Testing and work on the water maker by Greg and Richard – still not in working order
  • Re-filled water in batteries
  • Took water sample at jetty
  • Switched out empty propane on main house for full tank
  • Moved into the Main House

Weather Sunny and calm in the afternoon

Vessels Call from Seascape on radio for a quick hello. Some whale watching vessels in the afternoon.