Its census day! See below for today’s numbers, sea lions are down significantly but the weather hasn’t been great and I do tend to notice that they take off into the water when the rain picks up!
Mammals:
Steller sea lions: 282
California sea lions: 425
Harbour seals: 36
Killer whales: 7
Humpbacks: too many to count/track!
Birds:
Gulls: 312
Cormorants: 874
Canadian geese: 18
Bald eagles: 6
Turnstones: 36
Whimbrel: 1
Harlequin ducks: 5
*WARNING* Today’s blog post contains photos of a severely entangled sea lion with deep wounds.
Well, if my warning wasn’t an indicator – today has not been the most fun day of animal spotting.
I came across a California sea lion this morning with by far the worst entanglement I’ve ever seen. What appears to be monofilament fishing net has wrapped itself so tight that its caused deep wounds on the back of his neck, as well as the rest of the way around. On top of that, the netting is so tightly wrapped around his muzzle that he doesn’t appear to be able to open his mouth.
Given that my full time job is in marine mammal rescue, seeing entangled animals is not new to me, I see them so often that I sometimes feel immune to how awful it is.
Today I am not immune, I am horrified.
All of the right organizations and people have been contacted and I know that every single one of those people will do everything they can to help him. I just hope he stays put until then.
There is a second entangled sea lion here as well, a Steller with a packing strap around its neck which is bad but thankfully not as severe as the Cali.
Moving on to today’s census….with the weather being so bad this weekend, I’m not surprised the numbers are down from last week!
Mammals:
Steller sea lions: 392
California sea lions: 652
Harbour seals: 41
Tons of humpbacks this week and a few transient orca stopped by the jetty yesterday in the midst of the storm!
Birds:
Gulls: 215
Cormorants: 170
Turnstones: 25
Canadian geese: 23
Oyster catchers: 2
Golden-crowned kinglet: 3
If you’ve made it this far, here is a picture of a cute little bird: See the taxonomy page at https://racerocks.ca/regulus-satrapa-golden-crowned-kinglet/
Golden-crowned kinglet. Regulus satrapa
Vessels:
Weather:
** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
Mammals
Steller sea lions: 312
California sea lions: 1052
Harbour seals:145
Elephant seals: 1
Birds
Bald Eagles: 2
Gulls: 773
Canadian Geese: 18
Turnstones: 10
Whimbrels: 3
Cormorants: 602
Sparrows: 2
Harlequin ducks: 7
Vessels:
Eco: 11
Private: 4
Weather:
** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
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:
Weather:
** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
Sunday September 8th
Today we spent a lot of time on the fence again. We painstakingly went through each section to ensure that charge was being held the whole way through. This was a very tedious process and we still don’t have the voltage up to where we want it to be…. but there have been no pinniped breaches yet, so fingers crossed!
Today, Scott and I climbed the lighthouse tower to complete our first wildlife census. As a marine ecologist, I have a lot of experience counting fish underwater. However, counting over 600 Sea lions that all look like overlapping brown logs or trying to count birds that keep on flying away or are hidden between all the sea lions was way harder. With that said, being a top the tower made everything much easier to see and to conceptualize on a greater scale.
While we were up there we also got to enjoy a couple of humpback whales engaging in tail slapping or “lobtailing” behaviour for well over 30 minutes. It is thought that the sound and force generated by the slaps frighten the bait fish into tighter schools making them easier to hunt. Based off gull activity, there were definitely a lot of bait balls around, so hopefully we will get to see more of this behaviour in the coming days!
Whale Watching Vessels: 25
Private Vessels: 7
Census Results:
Birds:
Mammals:
Weather: Slightly Hazy/Overcast. Wind NW Building all day to ~ 15knts
Mammals
sea otter: 1
elephant seal: 1 female
harbour seal: 34 (6 South Islands, 1 South Seal Rocks, 19 Middle, 1 Turbine, 7 North Is.)
Stellar sea lion: 185 (48 Great Race Rocks, 136* Middle, 1 Turbine)
California sea lion: 108 (107 Great Race Rocks, 1 Turbine)
Birds
cormorant: 45 (21 South Islands, 24 Great Race Rocks)
gulls**: 761 (33 South Islands, 4Turbine, 7 North, 717 Great Race Rock)
oyster catcher: 20
pigeon guillemot: 123
surfbird: 46
black turnstone: 149
ruddy turnstone: 3
harlequin duck: 1
barn swallow: 1
Canada goose: 7
song bird: 3
* Note: all sea lions on Middle Rock were counted as Stellar sealions, there may be a couple of California sea lions mixed in.
** Note: Gull counts do not include this season’s chicks
Wildlife notes:
The entangled Stellar sea lion was not spotted today on Great Race Rocks. A Stellar sea lion with a dark coloured stain around its neck (possibly a packing band), reported previously by naturalists on the ecotourism boats, was sighted on Middle Rock during the census.
The Stellar sea lion on Middle Rocks with a possible new entanglement is located in the bottom centre of the photo and has a dark coloured ring around its neck.
I wish I could sleep like a sea lion, on any surface, cold, hard, flat or bumpy and with only a log for a pillow.
Visitors:
Greg and Gabe came out to work on the electric fence
Facility work:
Vessels:
Weather:
Clear skies. Moderate to fresh westerly breeze. Daytime temperatures: low 13, high 15.
E-Bird Gull Survey https://ebird.org/checklist/S184107190
Subject: June Racerocks Gull Survey
Mammals
California sea lions: 4
Elephant seals: 1 (male)
Harbour seals: 92 (19 South Islands, 72 Middle Islands, 1 Great Race Rock)
Birds
Bald eagle: 1
Cormorants: 32
Gulls: 389
Oyster catchers: 8 adults, 2 chicks
Pigeon guillemots: 133
Oyster catcher with one of two chicks
Facility work:
Vessels:
Weather:
Notes for Day 2 at Race Rocks
Census day
After the morning cleaning of the panels I decided to wander beyond the electric fence. Surely it wasn’t meant to keep me in and how else could I complete the census. It was liberating wandering about and I even peered into a spectacular tide pool. I am used to different methods walking in certain terrain: through the sprawling yellow cedar or “shin tangle” of coastal BC bogs or the Tuckamore of Newfoundland, you bob and weave, through Devil’s club it is more like Thai Chi. Today I learned how best to walk with the birds. I started with the head down, quick and deliberate, travelling from one small gull free patch to another. The better approach is to travel very slowly, only a few steps at a time then have a long and still pause. I observed many nests during my slow walkabout and was surprised by number of the poorly formed or empty ones. There are often bursts of commotion when all the gulls take flight but I haven’t yet seen an eagle at that time or any other obvious cause for the scare. Even though I feel more comfortable walking past or through hovering gulls, I still wear my helmet and often carry a broom over my shoulder.
My day ended watching the cormorants leave in the fading light.
Happy census day! See below for this week’s creatures.
Mammals:
California sea lions: 30
Elephant seals: 1 (male)
Harbour seals: 143
Sea otter: 1 (Ollie)
Steller sea lions: 8
Birds:
Bald eagle (adult): 2
Bald eagle (juvenile): 4
Barn swallows: 1
Canadian geese: 4
Cormorants: 62
Gulls: 358
Oyster catchers: 8
Pigeon guillemots: 103
Facility work:
Vessels:
Weather:
** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
Today is animal census day! I swear all of the sea lions hide when it comes time to count them, but our big male elephant seal is still here. Upon a closer inspection (him lying directly out my front door) I actually think this is a different animal than the one that was here in March. At first I thought he had just gained weight back post moult but I think it’s just an older/larger male. It’s great to have him here either way!
May 30th Animal Census:
Mammals:
California sea lions: 20
Elephant seals: 3 (1 male, 2 females)
Harbour seals: 108
Sea otter: 1 (Ollie)
Steller sea lions: 6
Birds:
Bald eagle (adult): 3
Bald eagle (juvenile): 2
Barn swallows: 2
Canadian geese: 10
Cormorants: 23
Gulls: 336
Harlequin ducks: 10
Oyster catchers: 9
Pigeon guillemots: 75
Ravens: 1
Looks like the gull count will be going up soon!
** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **