Weather:

• Sky clear and blue. Much less smoke than yesterday (currently 13 wildfires burning in washington state).
• Visibility 10 NM (visibility reduced due to smoke)
• Wind 5-10 knots SE
• Sea state: calm

Visitors:

• As the students return to the Pearson College campus we are being joined by small groups of first year students to introduce them to race rocks. We have been enjoying showing them around and sharing about the ecology- they ask great questions!
• Greg has been accompanying these trips as well as MJ
• Few boats in the reserve now that the long weekend is over. Quite a few whale watching boats following the humpback whales that we have been seeing in the strait.

Ecological Observations: 

• The sea lion numbers are climbing daily still. There are many more california sea lions than stellars right now.
• We have been seeing the occasional small group of black turnstones (less than ten) but the large migrating groups have moved on.
• Yesterday we spotted a short billed dowitcher!
• Today we were joined by one young elephant seal on the jetty ramp. Unfortunately the sea lions are not the most friendly company and it seems that they have scared it away.
• We have been seeing groups of cormorants in the reserve, mainly on the south islands and seal rocks.
• We have been spotting at least 1 humpback per day in the juan de fuca strait

Census: 

• 1 Elephant seal
• 1 Sea otter
• 155 Harbour seals
• 213 California sea lions
• 71 Stellar sea lions
• 395 Gulls (California)
• 1 Savannah Sparrow
• 1 humpback whale (!)
• 4 Canada geese
• 6 Black turnstones
• 6 Song sparrows