Since the fog was staying away, Daniel Donnecke and I decided to have another go at a seawatch today, Daniel at Beechey Head and me at Race Rocks. From my perspective, this one worked out much better, but we still were not seeing many of the same birds. The exception, though, was a large group of (mostly) California Gulls that lifted off shortly after our start time of 6:30. Like yesterday, there were hundreds of gulls feeding just off Race Rocks. Although there was still krill in the area, there were also small fish that you could occasionally see glinting in their bills. I was also watching a large barge of logs being towed towards Puget Sound.
It wasn’t clear what put them up, or whether there was just a signal that it was time to go. Some headed to a bait ball to the east while several hundred headed east towards Beechy Head where Daniel saw them coming in.
Ecological Notes:
1 Elephant Seal
80 Harbour Seal
California Sea Lion
Steller’s Sea Lion
Several bird firsts for me for the week.
11 Canada Goose
7 Black Oystercatcher (including one juvenile)
1 Killdeer
45 Black Turnstone
55 Common Murre
80 Pigeon Guillemot – many carrying gunnels
2 Marbled Murrelet
1 Cassin’s Auklet
14 Rhinoceros Auklet
500 California Gull (probably a gross underestimation)
400 Glaucous-winged Gull (not an increase, but a more accurate count today)
1 Herring Gull
4 Heerman’s Gull
1000 more unidentified gull feeding on krill and small fish.
1 Bald Eagle – perched on middle islands. First raptor of the week for me
1 Song Sparrow
1 Brown-headed Cowbird – First passerine I saw during my stay.
Facility Work: cleaned windows and solar panels.
Vessel Traffic: lots of traffic in the shipping lanes including large barge of logs
Steady stream of ecotourism vehicles starting mid-morning, but fewer than yesterday. 10+
Weather – Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather – Past: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?