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! **
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:
Vessels:
Weather:
** All wildlife photos are taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
Census Results:
Mammals:
Birds:
Facility work:
Vessels:
Weather:
** All wildlife photos are taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
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! **
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:
Weather:
** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
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:
Weather:
** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
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…
Weather for July 11:
Wind: W 11 to 27 knots
Visibility: 15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 2′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 12-14 C
Weather for July 12:
Wind: W 18 to 35 knots
Visibility: 10 to 15 NM
Sky: Cloudy in morning, partly cloudy in afternoon
Sea: 1’ chop in morning, up to 4′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 11-15 C
Weather for July 13:
Wind: W 16 to 33 knots
Visibility: 15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 2′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 11-15 C
DND Blasting:
There was one DND blast at 14:05 on July 12 at nearby Rocky Point.
Visitors:
Greg and Bruce visited this afternoon to deliver 1,400 L of freshwater and a new first aid kit.
Maintenance:
I did the routine tasks of cleaning the solar panels and house windows, topping up the water in the 24 deep cycle batteries, fixing the electric fence, tidying, and maintaining the freshwater system.
Ecological notes:
There have been a lot of humpback whale activity over the past few days to the west, south, and east of Race Rocks. The whale watching boats have been active in the area. From what I hear on the VHF radio, they have been very pleased with the humpback viewing. I have not seen any whales swim through the ecological reserve.
I heard back about the tagged elephant seal, from the researcher at Año Nuevo Natural Reserve, in California. The juvenile seal, tagged H999 and K646, is a male who was born in January 2022. He was previously observed here and reported to the researchers on April 1, 2023. He has been moulting here for at least the past several weeks. He appears to be almost complete the moulting process, so he might be moving on soon to feed in the deep waters.
Weekly Census observed on July 13:
elephant seal: 1 juvenile (tagged H999, K646)
Steller sea lion: 3
harbour seal: 79
bald eagle: 2 adults, 1 juvenile
raven: 1
cormorant: 7
black oystercatcher: 6 adults, 1 chick (that I could spot today)
pigeon guillemot: 148
glaucous-winged gull: 387 adults, 120 chicks
surfbird: 12
killdeer: 4
western sandpiper: 3
barn swallow: 3
Photo highlights from the past three days:
The first foggy day in a couple weeks today!
With 6 new solar panels installed along with replacements to wiring that had corroded with the salty air this week, it seems the fog is barely affected our power supply which is amazing!
A couple DND blasts at Noon through the fog made even fewer animals around the reserve today.
Birds
Mammals
Visitors:
Facility Work:
** 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:
Birds
Mammals
Visitors:
Facility Work:
** 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: