Tag Archives: bald eagle

Otters, Whales, and a Fur Seal…Oh My!

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It’s the last day of 2024 and we are finishing it with a bang!

This morning I spotted an imposter among the sea lions near the jetty…a northern fur seal!

You may be wondering why thats significant, and its because this is the first northern fur seal documented on Race Rocks in 44 years! Northern fur seals are a pelagic species, meaning they live offshore and are not seen near the coast.

Occasionally they have been sighted in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the young or sick ones have stranded along the coast in previous years. However, a healthy adult male hauled out in front of the house here? Very rare! So rare that it hasn’t been seen since 1980 which I still haven’t quite wrapped my head around.

He’s been in and out of the water throughout the day, lots of grooming (they have a fur coat similar to that of a sea otter), and even nipped at a few California sea lions. I’m looking forward to seeing if he sticks around!

Speaking of sea otters, Ollie is also back! After spending the past few months  near William Head, I saw him on the South side of the island early this morning. I’m hoping to see more of him before I leave.

It appears not all of the humpbacks have gotten the memo that they should be somewhere warm, cozy, and tropical by now. I saw about 7 in total today which was a very nice surprise.

As for the rest of the animals around here its been status quo. Still no elephant seals but I’m not giving up hope yet. Doing my best to manifest one (or ten) arriving before I leave.

Happy New Year!!

Bald Eagles on Patrol

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Ecological Notes:

  • Transient Orca, T036As, passed through the edge of the reserve mid day
  • Observed at least 2 Humpback whales west of the reserve in the distance
  • Up to 20  Bald Eagles here each morning, many seen hunting gulls

Visitors:

  • Waterfront team (3), delivering supplies and groceries and worked on some projects

Facility Work:

  • Removed filters from the desalinator, storing the main reverse osmosis one in water

  • Cleaned and mopped out desalinator bunker

  • Small window on the main house basement door was replaced

  • Cleaned the main house windows of salt

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • With calmer water, 2 different ecotourism vessels

Weather Events:

  • Thursday, December 19:
    • Sky: High overcast, with occasional sunny gaps, some light rain showers
    • Wind: N 20-25kts, dropping in the evening
    • Sea: slight chop
    • Temperature Low 4oC, High 8oC
  • Friday, December 20:
    • Sky: Overcast, low clouds to the far south of the strait
    • Wind: W/WSW 16-37 kts
    • Sea:  very light chop
    • Temperature Low 6oC, High 9oC
  • Saturday, December 21:
    • Sky: Overcast, occasional rain showers, clear star filled sky late evening
    • Wind: W/WSW dropping to 5 kts by noon, rising to W 25kts late afternoon, before gradually dropping over the evening
    • Sea:  light chop
    • Temperature Low 6oC, High 10oC

 

 

** 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?

Last Day!

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I don’t think my time here has ever flown quite this fast! 

Between visitors, rescue work, whales, and beautiful weather, the past month has gone by in the blink of an eye. It has been incredible and I am forever grateful for the opportunity to be able to work out here. 

I know I’ll be back, but until then – here are a few of my favourite moments from October. 

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

August 2

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I will contact NOAA and DFO to report the resighting of the California sea lion with the tag 13-2. The orange tags mean the sea lion was rehabilitated. The tag on the left flipper means the sea lion is a male. I will update the log when I hear back about his history. The rest of the California and Steller sea lions are currently hauled out on Middle Rocks. Perhaps this guy needs a break from the frat party.

Facility work:

  • Clean solar panels
  • Check guest house for supplies and cleanliness

Vessels:

  •  Ecotourism: 12
  •  Private: 3

Weather:

  • Sea: rippled in morning, up to 3′ chop in afternoon/evening
  • Sky: Partly cloudy
  • Wind: variable light winds overnight; from 07:00-12:00 westerlies 8-20 knots; afternoon/evening westerlies 20-31 knots
  • Air temperature: low 12°C, high 21°C
  • Seawater temperature at max flood: 11.0°C

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

August 1 Census

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Census Results:

Mammals:

  • Elephant seal: 2 (female and male)
  • Steller sea lion: 34
  • California sea lion: 11
  • Sea otter: 1
  • Harbour seal: 78

Birds:

  • Bald eagle: 1
  • Canada goose: 3
  • Cormorant: 33
  • Gull: 584
  • Black oystercatcher: 20
  • Pigeon guillemot: 131
  • Whimbrel: 1
  • Surfbird: 28
  • Black turnstone: 137
  • Song sparrow: 2
  • Least sandpiper: 1

Facility work:

  • Reacquaint myself with the standard operating procedures and various systems on the island
  • Check boat electronics, safety equipment, and winch
  • Clean solar panels
  • Sample seawater

Vessels:

  •  Ecotourism: 23
  •  Private: 5

Weather:

  • Sea: Rippled
  • Sky: Clear in morning, then partly cloudy
  • Wind: Variable light winds overnight until sunrise ~06:00, when wind switched to easterlies varying from 3-14 knots throughout the rest of the day
  • Daytime air temperature: low 13 C, high 24 C
  • Seawater temperature at max flood: 10.6 C

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

Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink

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Water delivery:

A desalinator is used to produce fresh water at the Rocks. It hasn’t been working for several weeks, and while waiting for parts, we needed to boat in fresh water. Today Greg and Cedrick ran two fresh water delivery trips to the island. The water is pumped from a tank on the boat to the fresh water tank near the house using fire hoses.  Over the past week since I arrived, the water reservoir went from 1600 L to 1500 L. This an average use of 15L a day for the mandatory solar panel and window cleaning and for house use but with careful conservation (e.g. no daily dish washing, few and quick showers). An interesting water note: with the 10m run from the hot water on demand system to the shower, about 8 L of water will run from the faucet before hot water reaches the shower. In our city homes we let this amount of water run down the drain all the time – here I catch it in a bucket.  With today’s delivery of 1400L water today, our supply is up to 2900 L.  After tomorrows delivery, the tank should be full and I can consider doing a load of laundry at a cost of 150L of water!

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • water delivery
  • thistles
  • “weed whacking” – cutting grass from the walkway

Wildlife notes:

Eagles visiting again, the four Canada geese remain, and the elephant seal flattened at least one more nest. The gulls who had the interaction with the seal in yesterdays post, lost their last egg today – cause unknown.

Last to leave South Seal Rocks on the flooding tide

Eagle leaving the SW shore with what appears to be a sea creature not a gull.

Vessels:

> 5 Ecotourism boats

Weather:

Sunny day winds westerlies 10 – 20 knots

Farewell! (For Now)

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Well, just like that it’s been 6 weeks and it’s time for me to return to the mainland. The wind is gusting 65km/hour right now, giving me one final storm before my departure. The animals are all hidden away, protecting themselves from the weather. All except the male elephant seal who is still harassing the gulls.

I thought I’d wrap up my final blog post with my favourite photos and moments from this trip. I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

Pinnipeds:

Cetaceans:

Ollie the Sea Otter: 

Birds:

Northern Lights:

Sunsets:

That’s all from me for now, but I’ll be back! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

June 5th Census

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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:

  • Chopped wood
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Cleaned windows of both houses
  • Finished weed whacking pathways

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 10 vessels
  • Private: 1 vessel

Weather:

  • Sky: Blue sky and sun
  • Wind: Low of 2 knots, High of 10 knots
  • Sea: Calm
  • Temperature: Low 7•C, High 16•C

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

A Very Soggy Sunday

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Today was a very soggy, rainy day. The birds all appeared drenched and disheveled, the elephant seals spent the day in the water, and Ollie was nowhere to be found.

One lone humpback passed by just on the outskirts of the reserve, sending a big spray into the air each time it surfaced. The ocean was calm all day which is the very best for spotting whales. On a much smaller scale I ended up with some small jellyfish in my water bucket when I was taking today’s salinity/temperature sample. There must have been hundreds in the water around the jetty!

The sun finally peaked out around 6pm, just in time for me to watch a gull harass a juvenile bald eagle. It blows my mind how savage and fearless these gulls can be.

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 8 vessels

Weather:

  • Sky: Cloudy/Rainy
  • Wind: Low of 1 knot, High of 11 knots
  • Sea: Calm
  • Temperature: Low 11•C, High 13•C

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

Gull Eggs and Eagle Snacks

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Good news! The foghorn is officially working! Bad news for me was that I made this very startling discovery at 3am.

Nothing major to report today, I found more gull nests and eggs today but thankfully still no aggressive behaviour (yet). I did get to watch a bald eagle devour a pigeon guillemot on a near by rock which was very cool to witness so close. I’ve also seen online and through colleagues that the Southern Resident Killer Whales are around so fingers crossed I can cross K and L pods off my sighting bucket list soon!

Visitors:

– Cedric and 2 future eco guardians

Vessels:

  • Greg and the Pearson boat circumnavigated the reserve with 3 different groups
  • Ecotourism: 15 vessels

Weather:

  • Sky: Cloudy
  • Wind: Low of 1 knot, High of 8 knots
  • Sea: Calm
  • Temperature: Low 7•C, High 16•C

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