Antenna Re-mount

Ecological Notes:

  • 5 female Elephant Seals, 1 juvenile male (about female size)
  • Elephant Seal pups: 2, 1 is a young male
  • Many big old California Sealions tried to take over the pier today
  • Can see several paired up Black Oyster Catchers, but no “nests” visible from the angles I could view from a distance. Also didn’t note any defensive behavior.

Facility Work:

  • Moving beach wood, cut some to stock up firewood
  • Remounted VHF antenna, ONLY because the deck builders ran out of time. First I tried the hard ways, then just dismantled it on the bench and cut the wood away from the mount.

 

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 1 Sailboat, doing it the right way! Motor on, sail in centered position and loose, straight down the center of the channel slowly, without disturbing the wildlife.

 

Feature Event:

  • Learning to use the chainsaw, but having to pause when an elephant seal wanted to pass.

 

Weather Events:

  • Medium Winds from the west, rising in the evening. Clear skies all day, good for Solar Power generation. Light cloud moving in the evening after sunset.

 

** All photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Elephant Seal ID adjustment

Ecological Notes:

  • 6 Elephant Seals – turns out to be at least 1 juvenile male! So,currently 5 females and 1 male (no new animals, just new id’s)
  • Elephant Seal pups: 2, but also, 1 of the pups appears to be a male as well!

Enjoying the sun

 

  • No real changes in Sea Lion or Harbour seal numbers
  • Have been seeing the Sea Otter at lower tides in the uncovered kelp forests

Facility Work:

  • Piling firewood, more sorting old materials

Feature Event:

 

Weather Events:

  • Sunny, with medium to high westerly winds all day
  • Last night was very high winds! Kept the flag down last night and today.

** All photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Seawater Salinity and Temperature, March, 2021

DAILY SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE AND SALINITY OBSERVATIONS
Institute of Ocean Sciences, North Saanich, B.C., V8L 4B2
Station RACE ROCKS
Observer Rod King / Derek Sterling March
YSI ID: 24 Year: 2021
YSI YSI
Temp Sal
Day Time ºC ppt
1 20:00 8.0 32.0
2 20:15 8.0 31.8
3 20:30 8.0 31.7
4 9:30 8.1 31.5
5 10:30 8.2 31.6
6 10:00 8.2 31.6
7 9:45 8.2 31.6
8 14:58 7.8 32.2
9 15:00 7.9 32.2
10 16:00 7.8 32.0
11 17:35 8.3 31.7
12 17:50 8.2 31.2
13 18:00 8.0 31.5
14 18:20 8.1 31.5
15 20:00 8.7 31.5
16 20:40 8.5 31.4
17 21:00 8.4 31.4
18 22:00 8.2 32.0
19 9:00 8.2 31.5
20 9:30 8.4 31.2
21 10:15 8.2 31.4
22 10:00 8.7 31.4
23 9:30 8.9 31.4
DS ↓↓ 24 15:00 9.1 31.8
25 16:00 8.9 31.4
26 14:00 8.9 31.7
27 14:38 8.6 32.2
28 15:30 8.4 32.4
29 16:20 8.7 32.3
30 17:05 8.6 32.3

Traffic Jamb

Ecological Notes:

  • 6 female Elephant Seals, 2 “pups”
  • Lots of time in the water, then spread out over all the pathways to warm up in the sun.

Grumpy traffic jamb on the walkway …

**** VERY ZOOMED IN video! ****

 

Facility Work:

  • Sorting waste wood from old deck
  • Last night’s rain gave 2 tank loads of water for the pressure washer

Weather Events:

  • Light cloud and light easterly winds in the morning gave way to a sunny afternoon with moderate winds, rising as the wind changed to westerlies.
  • Evening wind rose to 30 – 35 (gusting to 40) knots westerly.

** All photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Pressure Cleaning

Ecological Notes:

  • 6 female Elephant Seals, 2 “pups”
  • Lots of time in the water, staying close to the ramp
  • 2 Canada Goose nests lost all their eggs to other birds, they are extra aggressive now!

Just Chillin’

Visitors:

  •  Shorefront Manager, food and de-ionized water delivery

Facility Work:

  • Fine Tuning Deck work
  • Pressure washing until rain water storage was dry

Never ending

Fresher look

Then, you run out of rain water for the pressure washer!

DND events:

  • 4 Detonations YESTERDAY (Wednesday April 28) …… noted animal anxious startled, especially those in the water

Weather Events:

  • Mostly sunny, some light overcast. Light westerly winds

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Student Morning

Ecological Notes:

  • 6 female Elephant Seals, molting well underway, some are completed
  • Elephant Seal pups: 2 pups on land, moving around lots
  • Even more Gulls preparing nests

Visitors:

  •  Pearson College: 11 students in the morning doing marine biology class

Facility Work:

  • Power maintenance, more building cleaning

DND events:

  • 6 Detonations today, very little animal disturbance noted

Feature Event:

  • Although a very regular event, today was a great day to clean the Solar Panels, and do the battery maintenance. Overcast, so the panels don’t dry too fast as you’re cleaning, and not too much wind, making it safer to be on the roof!

    Soft Brush and Squeegee

    Gulls “left-behinds”

    Nice and Clean!

    Safety first for battery maintenance.

 

Weather Events:

  • Overcast and medium winds, mostly from the south until this afternoon when it switched to west. Calm seas.

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Sunny Day

Ecological Notes:

  • 6 female Elephant Seals, 2 “pups” (looking about 150 – 200 Kilos now) …. half moved closer to the ramp to enjoy some cool dips in the water. They were observed rubbing their noses and heads on the underwater rocks to aid in moulting
  • Another big influx of Pigeon Guillemots, and most Gull nest building

Cooling by the ramp

Visitors:

  • 1 – Seafront Coordinator… Reviewing tomorrow’s student landing area with the new Eco Guardian

 

Facility Work:

  • Door and trim painting, general tidying. Reset some of the fencing.

 

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 1 Eco Tourism boat
  • Reasonably close pass by a float plane, looked like sightseeing. No noticeable animal disturbance.

 Feature Event:

  • Wildlife Census (see additional post)

Spotting

 

Weather Events:

  • Mostly sunny, with a mix of sun and clouds. Westerly winds, averaging 15 knots (28km) all day

** All photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Census

Birds

  • Harlequin duck 10
  • Bald eagle adult 5
  • Bald eagle juvenile 8
  • Turnstones 19
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western 152
  • Cormorants 28
  • Pigeon guillemots 74
  • Oyster catcher 8
  • Canadian geese 18
  • Surf Birds 6

 

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion 53
  • Harbour seal 115
  • California sea lion 28
  • Elephant seal female 6
  • Elephant seal pup 2
  • Sea otter 1
  • Animal Tracking and Injuries: 0

Bird Courting Time

Ecological Notes:

  • 6 female Elephant Seals, 3 molting very heavily
  • 2 Elephant Seal pups, one spent much of the day soaking in the water at the end of the boat ramp
  • Although not right in the reserve, observed one Humpback whale, about 1 mile south, and Transient Orca between the reserve and Bentinck Island. Identified as the T101’s and T100B’s
  • Lots of courting behavior observed with the Pigeon Guillemots, and also the Harlequin ducks

Pigeon Guillemots

Harlequin Ducks

Facility Work:

  • Pressure washing main building

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 5 EcoTourism boats, spread throughout  the afternoon
  • 3 separate sport boat went through the reserve at high speed, luckily no obvious disturbance of the animals other than noticeable wake

Weather Events:

  • Cloudy with sunny breaks, Calm seas

** All photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Surface Temperature and Salinity

Ecological Notes:

  • 6 female Elephant Seals
  • Elephant Seal pups: Only 2 pups on land

Packing tight to preserve heat!

  • lots of nest building by the Gulls and Oyster Catchers

Checking out a good spot

Bringing the goods!

 

Black Oyster Catcher

Facility Work:

  • Continuing the fine work done by the previous Eco Guardians, more scrubbing and pressure washing

Feature event:

  • Daily Water Sampling – Taken each day and reported monthly to The Institute of Ocean Sciences

Waiting for the pier to clear ….

The peanut gallery …

All photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail!

 

Weather Events:

  • Cloud coverage, light drizzle, and Calm Seas

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?