Eco-guardians Allen & Ilka Olsen
SATURDAY 13 April
Weather: Warm; sunny; slight breeze
Birds: 100 guillemot,
52 cormorant (1 injured,)
4 harlequin,
4 oystercatcher,
6 Canada goose
6 turnstone,
6 surfbird,
1 Golden-crown kinglet
Mammals:
4 Elephant seal,
17 sealion
Maintenance: Internet down from 30 pm until noon Sunday; many trips to gen
building/eventually told to wait for IT help on Sunday morning.
Cleaned hand railing &molding in stairwell/some cabinet doors
I am writing this on Thursday although the census was done yesterday.
I was happy to welcome 3 new elephant seals to the island. Yesterday the count was at 5 and from what I can discern there are 2 large female, one subadult female, 1 small female and 1 small male. The small male is tagged. Update next post when I can get the number on its green tag.
Census
A sunny day in the intertidal
Mammals
Elephant seals 5
4 confirmed female and perhaps 1 male
Stellar sea lions 19
California Sea lions 33
Harbour seals 57 (mostly on surrounding rocks at low tide)
Sea otters 3 (seen off Turbine rocks 2 days ago)
Birds
Gulls 292 mostly glaucous wing and western and hybrids (please see the amazing survey done last week by RPBO for species breakdown)
Bald Eagles 1 mature 2 immature about 1/2 and 1 year old
Turnstones 10
Cormorants 112 (roosting in the evening) the recent survey suggested the majority are Brandts, about 15% Pelagic and some Double Crested)
Dunlins 7
Surfbirds 56 (see photos below)
Rock Sandpiper? there may be some mixed in with the surfbirds see photo below
Fox sparrow 1
North western crow 1
Weather:
Clear and warm with mild variable winds mostly from the west
Visitors
Greg brought 3 boat loads of Pearson College biology students out with LAura to explore the low tides
Facility Work
Cleaned solar panels in the morning
wood to house
began cleaning fuel shed
Vessel traffic
A very noticeable change in the last several years in the marked increase in shipping traffic. I understand what a shipping lane is now. There is a CONSTANT stream of large container ships travelling by. There are about 6 on the horizon whenever I look out.
Constant shipping traffic
2? year old Bald Eagle
3 elephant seals , the 2 moulting are new
Surf Birds and others camouflaged
Today, it was time for the weekly animal census on Race Rocks – a longstanding tradition (see the full archive, here) that allows us to keep track of an ever-fluctuating population of birds and marine mammals. The morning weather wasn’t particularly promising, with wind, rain, and dark overcast skies.
Combined with high tides and a rough sea state, perhaps it wasn’t entirely surprising that the numbers seemed a bit lower than usual – with the harbour seals in particular mostly hiding out in the waves surrounding the South Rocks, and thus rather tricky to count. Alas – who was about?
Census equipment – species list, binoculars, and a clicker to keep track of everyone
March 27th Animal Census
Birds:
Oyster catcher: 22
Harlequin duck: 15
Gulls: 195
Cormorant: 73
Pigeon guillemot: 101
Juvenile eagle: 1
Adult eagle: 1
Canadian geese: 9
Shore / Surf birds: 15
Turnstones: 10
Marine Mammals:
Steller sea lions: 14
Harbour seal: 21
Male Elephant seal: 1 (back on land after a lengthy morning expedition)
Female elephant seal : 0
California sea lion: 24
The weather did eventually start to calm down a bit – still hopeful to catch my first RR sunset of the trip later tonight!
Facility Work:
Noted Vessel Traffic:
Weather – Current:
http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather – Past:
The great weather had to come to an end eventually! Despite being a dark and cloudy day we lucked out with no rain and no wind.
I had 9 extra helpers for the animal census today, the Pearson students are extra observant so this may be the most accurate count yet!
No sea otters were seen today but the two new ones have been around the past few days. Still no additional elephant seals on the main island, just our solo male! A couple of females have been hauled out on the various surrounding rocks but none of come ashore here.
March 20th Animal Census:
Birds:
Oyster catcher: 15
Harlequin duck: 12
Gulls: 261
Cormorant: 62
Pigeon guillemot: 149
Juvenile eagle: 3
Adult eagle: 4
Canadian geese: 9
Shore birds: 10
Turnstones: 28
Savannah sparrow: 1
Marine Mammals:
Steller sea lions: 17
Harbour seal: 64
Male Elephant seal: 1
Female elephant seal : 2 (north rocks)
California sea lion: 20
Injuries:
Harbour seal with facial injury
DND Activity:
Noted Vessel Traffic:
Weather Events:
** All wildlife 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?
Growing sea lion numbers…
Time is flying by here! Nothing too wild to report today, the weather is definitely getting warmer and the solar panels are working hard. See below for more details!
March 13th Census:
Birds
Mammals
Ecological Notes:
– Two sea otters observed near the South Island on the morning of March 11th. One was larger with a dark face, the second appeared to be young with blonde cheeks and lacking the nose scar that Ollie is known for. Watched them both for 3-4 hours, they were eating urchins, crab, grooming, and exhibiting other common sea otter behaviours.
– Still just one male elephant seal on the rocks. Female was reported on Middle Rock by an ecotourism vessel.
Visitors:
Facility Work:
Noted Vessel Traffic:
** All wildlife 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:
Census done by Students of WestCoast Adventure College during their stay here for classes
Birds
Mammals
Single group close to shore of Great Race Rock.
Two pairs flying around on arrival.
Ones, twos and threes scattered around. A few initially on grassy areas when we arrived before moving towards the shoreline.
At least five singles scattered around.
Scurrying around grassy area when we arrived then moved towards rocky shoreline. One definitive, two formative.
Two together on south side which I had good views of through my scope for a couple of minutes as they moved in and out of view between rocks. I moved closer for a better look but they vanished either walked around the back of the little island or flew off.
Later I had superb views of a definitive bird (see definitive wing coverts) on the north shore but only for a couple of minutes before the bird quickly moved west along the shore and around a corner.
Most moulting into alternate plumage.
One in alternate plumage.
All loafing on West Race Rock.
Two definitive, two first cycles.
At least a couple of definitive birds, a couple of second cycles and three first cycles (juv).
Definitive and two first cycles (juv).
130 in main flock on Great Race Rock. 10 on West Race Rock. 40 others scattered around. Approximately 95% of adults with primaries darker than mantle to varying degrees so likely this number includes some individuals that may better fall under ‘Olympic Gull’.
Estimate for the number of especially distinctive hybrids.
At least a handful of ‘Cook Inlet Gulls’. Likely were more which I may have overlooked or incorrectly called ‘Olympic’.
240 in main flock on west side. 27 on West Race Rock. 25 on north side. Approximately 90% were definitive birds.
Estimate of the number of indetermined hybrids.
Distant on water and another in flight.
Majority loafing on north side of Great Race Rock near gull flock.
Majority loafing on north side of Great Race Rock near gull flock.
Majority loafing on north side of Great Race Rock near gull flock.
Spread out loafing on high points of islands.
Three appeared just as we were leaving hawking low around jetty for insects.
Lurking along edge of rocks. Fairly dark chocolatey and rufous bird. Slim bill. Prominent yellow at base of supercilium.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S160741512
Birds
Mammals
** Not on count day …. but there were transient orca in the reserve 3 days in a row last week
This last month, the daily numbers vary dramatically, possibly due to rapid changes in weather and ultra high tides (?) Still no Elephant Seals hauling out.
Birds
Mammals
Mammals
Several Humpback Whales visible from the reserve
Details
Several groups, largest was eight birds. Many smart drakes. Some males moulting into formative plumage too.