Northern Lights at Race Rocks

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Last night’s northern lights were as incredible as I could’ve hoped for! This is the second time now that I have been lucky enough to witness them from Race Rocks.

This morning the sky was still colourful – this time with a beautiful sunrise accompanied by a logging humpback just off the south side of the island. It slept there as I completed my morning fence repairs, surfacing for a big breath every few minutes.

The sea lions had a hay day with the fence over night, and I’m sure there will be just as many repairs needed tomorrow. Good thing I love them anyway!

Both female elephant seals are still here which always makes my day, they aren’t big fans of the sea lions but manage to tolerate them.

Greg brought 3 loads of water over today – topping the fresh water tank up  4000L which means its now full!

I filled the generator up with diesel and we brought the small tank up as well so I won’t have to try and move it on my own any time soon. I spent the afternoon topping up battery electrolytes and rolling fire hoses before moving inside to get some work done.

Another beautiful day out here, sure doesn’t seem like October!

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

Elephant Seal L334

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Nothing too wild to report today!

The two female elephant seals that have been hanging around the south side of the island have now been on the boat launch all day. The one with the green tag is L334 who I spotted here in the spring. She was tagged in Ano Nuevo, California and Race Rocks is the first place she was spotted after being tagged a year prior – such a far journey! I updated the Ano Nuevo team and will be interested to see if she’s been seen anywhere else lately.

Greg brought over some fresh water today as the sea water by the jetty is still too full of sea lions and their feces to pump into the cistern.

Tons of humpbacks around all day today, and I hear the northern lights might make an appearance tonight so I’ll keep you posted!

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 8
  • Private: 1

Weather:

  • Sky: Blue sky and sunny
  • Wind: Low of 1 knot, high of 8 knots
  • Sea: Calm
  • Temperature: Low 6•C, High 15•C

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

1, 2, 3 Baby Stellers!

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When I first saw the Steller pup a couple of days ago I was SO excited. As previously mentioned, Race Rocks is not a rookery so pups are not born here. The nearest rookery would be near Ucluelet and the other well established rookeries are much further north.

I reached out to a few people and I’m told that this pup could have been from the rookery near Ucluelet – which is still very far, or perhaps the mom didn’t give birth at a rookery and rather a different haulout site, which isn’t totally out of the question.

Fast forward to today and I’m photographing the pup when I hear what sounds like a baby goat screaming behind me. I turned around to find yet another Steller pup and its mom! And yes – baby Stellers sound like goats/sheep and often yell out a loud “BAAAAAH”.

Pup 1

Pup 2

I spent about an hour watching these two babies interact with their moms and other sea lions around them, taking so many photos that I’m surprised my camera didn’t catch fire. I finally headed back to the house and stopped dead in my tracks as I noticed a third pup and its mom on the rocks next to the jetty!

Pup 3!!!!

I ran back to the south side of the island to make sure no one took a swim and the other pups were still there. So we now have three whole Steller sea lion pups!

I mentioned in my blog post a couple days ago that we’ve seen nursing moms and pups before but those were much older pups so this is new. These are 2024 pups which means they were born sometime around June-July and are only a few months old!

I can’t wait to watch them over the next 3 weeks and see who else shows up!

I think his mom might be ready to find a babysitter!

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

Entangled Steller (still)

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Over the week I’ve been here I’ve seen the same entangled Steller every day, usually on the same side of the island. Since he had been sighted so regularly we made a plan with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society (VAMMR) to make the trip from the mainland to disentangle him.

The head veterinarian at VAMMR is the only person here in BC that is trained and capable of darting a sea lion with a sedative in order to remove whatever it is entangled in.

There are so many factors that go into planning and executing these response efforts.

  • First: the animal has to be seen consistently over a few days in the same spot. Sea lions are mobile and keeping track of them isn’t always easy. There is nothing worse than showing up to help an animal only to find out it is no longer there.
  • Second: the VAMMR and DFO teams both have to be available with adequate vessels. Disentanglements can require teams to lean over the side of a boat to access the animal so rhibs are preferred and often necessary.
  • Third: the weather and tide have to be rather ideal conditions. If a sedated animal is in the water you can’t risk a fast moving tide or swell – that’s not safe for anyone. Wind and rain are not only factors that can make it difficult to dart the target animal but they also make it near impossible to fly a drone – an essential tool in these rescues.

Basically, all of these factors need to line up on the same day in order for a response to be planned. That day was today! Both teams available, no wind, good tides, animal seen all week…well until Sunday.

I did not see the sea lion Sunday or Monday despite my best efforts and requests for vessels in the area to keep an eye out. The animal being in the area is of course the most important aspect and without him there is no disentanglement to be done. The response was called off last night, teams standing down until he was re-sighted – a very reasonable decision.

HOWEVER…Guess who was perched on the rock next to the jetty this morning when I did my morning walk around? Yep, you guessed it, our big ol’ Steller with a packing strap tightly wrapped around his neck, and I’m not at all surprised. This is a frequent and very frustrating occurrence in the marine mammal field and had the team come out today I’m sure we wouldn’t have been able to find him. That’s just how it works sometimes. 

What now?

From here, we continue monitoring and planning. We all know we want to help him, so as the Ecoguardian I will continue to let both teams know each day that I see him. We will all work together to find another day where we can tick all the factor boxes and get out here to successfully remove the entanglement. It’ll happen!

For now – here is a video of a recent disentanglement done by VAMMR and DFO so you have a bit of an idea what goes into it.

Disentanglement Video

Other things from today:

Facility Work:

  • Oil and fuel filter change on the generator
  • Fuel transfer and filled generator with diesel
  • Chopped wood
  • Repaired electric fence
  • Topped up battery electrolytes

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 7
  • Private: 1

Weather:

  • Sky: Cloudy, intermittent rain
  • Wind: Low of 1 knot, high of 11 knots
  • Sea: Calm, ripple in the afternoon
  • Temperature: Low 8•C, High 17•C

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

Steller Pup!

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As frustrating as it can be, I think I actually enjoy repairing the fence every morning. It’s become my morning routine – wake up, start a pot of coffee, take a lap outside and repair the damage, return inside to drink the aforementioned coffee.

The sea lions are entertaining. The Calis are alert at first but immediately lie back down even if I’m two feet away from them fixing the fence. However, the much larger Stellers bolt into the water the second they see me even if they are 100m and 300 Calis away from me. You’d think the larger, more intimidating species wouldn’t frighten so easily.

My lazy site supervisor

Speaking of Stellers – I came across a pup and its mom this afternoon next to the jetty. I witnessed nursing mother/pups when I was here in the spring but those pups were much larger. This pup appears to be from this year meaning he would have been born around June/July. Race Rocks is not a rookery so I’m interested to know where he was born! I’ve reached out to some contacts and will report back. Until then…enjoy his cute little face!

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 9
  • Private: 3

Weather:

  • Sky: Sun and clouds
  • Wind: None
  • Sea: Calm
  • Temperature: Low 8•C, High 17•C

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

Census Day! Humpbacks ..30!

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It’s census day! 

This is my first time doing the census since June when we only had about 20 sea lions so this count required some focus.

Mammals:
California sea lions: 731
Steller sea lions: 422
Harbour seals: 72
Elephant seals: 2
Cetaceans: more humpback whales than I could keep track of! At least 30+

Birds:
Gulls: 579
Cormorants: 195
Canadian geese: 16
Turnstones: 12
Whimbrel: 1
Savannah sparrow: 1

Today was beautiful out, a perfect sunny Sunday!

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 10
  • Private: 13 + 2 jet skis

Weather:

  • Sky: Blue sky and sun
  • Wind: NONE
  • Sea: Glassy
  • Temperature: Low 9•C, High 18•C

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

Wild Weather

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Today felt like fall. I woke up to pouring rain and otherwise quiet morning. It seems as though the sea lions would rather be in the ocean than lay in the rain because about half of them were gone this morning.

The most vibrant rainbow I’ve ever seen!

The fence required minimal repairs which meant I could spend longer inside with my coffee. I did find one intruder – a California sea lion on the wrong side of the fence who thankfully meandered back over with a little encouragement. The contractors arrived by 8:30 to continue work on the student building, lucky for them most of their work was inside today.

The rain stopped briefly so I was able to tackle my to do list before it started up again. By mid afternoon the sun was out but the wind picked up rather fiercely.

The weather didn’t stop the humpbacks from breaching just outside the reserve, as usual there seemed to be one in every direction. I spent my evening watching them from the kitchen window as I did some baking and started a fire – truly the perfect evening!

The whales in question

The baking in question

Facility Work:

  • Took specific gravity readings and topped up batteries
  • Fence repair
  • Topped up generator
  • Solar panels (the rain really helped with this one)

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 9

Weather:

  • Sky: Cloudy/Rainy, turned to blue sky in the afternoon
  • Wind: Low of 8 knots, High of 15 knots
  • Sea: Calm morning, whitecaps in afternoon
  • Temperature: Low 9•C, High 15•C

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

 

Whale Palooza!

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I don’t think I could’ve looked in any direction today and NOT seen a whale, and thats saying a lot considering I have a 360 degree view of the ocean on this island.

As soon as the sun came up there were humpbacks on the horizon, some just passing by, others lunge feeding.

Around mid day multiple families of transient killer whales passed by the reserve, stopping just outside to hunt a sea lion. These families included 2 whales I have always wanted to see – T019B Galiano and T019C Spouter! They were breaching and tail slapping, putting on a great show for myself and the visiting Pearson students.

The day continued with more and more whales and no matter how many I see, it will never get old.

Facility Work:

  • Repair electric fence
  • Topped up diesel in the generator
  • Ran EQ charge on batteries 

Visitors:

  • 14 Pearson students + 1 teacher 
  • 4 contractors

Vessels:

  • Private: 2
  • Ecotourism: 14

Golden Hour

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Today was jam packed!

My morning started the same way it will start every day for the next month – fixing the fence. I also moved the sea lions off the boat launch so its clear yet I swear the SECOND I turn my back they just pile right back up. 

Not a bad view to start the day!

The windows on the student building are being replaced so the contractors were out bright and early to get started. Throughout the day we had 2 groups of Pearson students come out which is always fun because I love to show off this little island. They also never seem to mind when I talk about marine mammals which is more than I can for most people in my life who have to listen to my yap about them!

There were humpbacks in every direction, big blows in the distance, pectoral fins in the air, and splashy breaches on the outskirts of the reserve. I felt even luckier when a massive killer whale passed by!

Humpback at sunset

A second female elephant showed up today, she had some trouble getting past the sea lions but finally made it to the grass outside the house. The Calis don’t seem to mind her but the Stellers don’t like her at all.

I don’t think she likes the Stellers either

I finished the day off outside watching the sun set as the sea lions basked in the final rays.

Facility Work:

  • Topped up battery electrolytes for those that were low
  • Repaired electric fence (about 50 times over)

DND:

3 blasts today all with varying reactions, only the initial blast caused some sea lions to flush into the water.

Home Sweet Home!

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Well, it’s been a few months…but I’m back!

I arrived early this afternoon, ready to tuck into another month of living it up on the rocks. The autumn shift from 25ish sea lions to over 1000 is overwhelming, as is the smell. That being said, I love it and I honestly wish there was 1000 more (ask me if I feel the same way at the end of the month).

Sea lions galore!

Another animal that has increased in number since I left is the humpbacks. I cannot look out to the horizon and not at least 10 of them, it is breathtaking.

As I reacclimatized and walked around the island I watched as large California sea lion barrelled his way through the electric fence, stripping the wood right off the post. He then became stuck on the inside of the fence looking very confused about his situation before he tumbled back over. Thus began my first task of this trip and what I anticipate to be a task I re do multiple times a day – repairing the fence.

In other animals news, I came across 2 entangled sea lions. They are both already known to DFO and the Marine Mammal Rescue teams. I believe the Cali is actually scarring from an old entanglement whereas the Steller is still very much active. I’ll be updating the teams to let them know he is still hanging around the area.

Steller sea lion with an active entanglement

California sea lion with entanglement scarring

I also came across a gull looking a little worse for wear with a fishing lure stuck in his beak. It was still very active so not an easy one to try and help. Poor guy!

Ouch!

Well, thats about it for me today, plenty more tomorrow I’m sure!