Tag Archives: battery

July 23 and 24

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Ecological Notes:

  • I am catching occasional glimpses of a humpback blows to the southeast and southwest of the island, although a bit too far away to see much detail.
  • I am still trying to live harmoniously with the gulls by avoiding the chicks as much as possible, while still keeping things running on the island. I have not been pooped on in at least a week, so either the adult gull’s aim is off or they do not see me as threat.
  • See the photo gallery below for more ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weather:

  • Yesterday (July 23):
    • Sky: Cloudy, then clearing mid-morning
    • Wind: W 11-31 kts
    • Sea: rippled, then up to 1′ chop in afternoon
    • Temperature Low 12 oC, High 14 oC
  • Today (July 24):
    • Sky: Fog overnight until late morning, then partly cloudy for remainder of day
    • Wind: W 3-23 kts
    • Sea: rippled
    • Temperature Low 11 oC, High 15 oC

Visitors:

  • No visitors

Facility Work:

  • Scrubbed and squeegeed solar panels, routine tidying and checking infrastructure around the island.
  • I ran the generator yesterday for its monthly equalization charge, which charges the batteries at a higher voltage to keep them healthy in the long run by balancing the voltage in each battery. The 24 batteries, each the size of four cinder blocks stacked up, are essential to maintaining constant power for the human life support systems on the island even when the solar array and generator are not supplying power.

 Vessel Traffic:

  • Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve.

Here are photo highlights from the past two days. Click on the photos for larger views and captions.

Windy Weekend

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Weather:

  • Visibility 15+ NM
  • Sky clear, a few clouds on the horizon
  • Wind 15-20 knots W
  • Sea state: white caps, chop up to .5 m

Boats/Visitors:

  • 1 pleasure craft  passed through yesterday, and they were very careful not to bother the animals. It’s always heartwarming to see parents sharing an appreciation and respect for wildlife with their children :)

Ecological: 

  • It has been very windy so the animal activity has been minimal. There are two newly arrived adolescent male elephant seals beginning their molt.

Weekly Census

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Wind: yesterday 0-19 knots from W then E, today 2-19 knots from N then W
Sea State: yesterday calm, today calm in am and rippled in pm
Visibility: yesterday 10-15 NM, today 15 NM
Sky: both days clear with cloudy patches throughout day
Temperature: yesterday 5-8 °C, today 4-6 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.23 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Six visitors briefly came to the island yesterday morning. Lawrence installed the new deck hatch he made for the station boat. Everyone helped transport and load eight of the old batteries onto the college boat to be taken back to the shore for recycling.

I ran the water pump for five hours to fill up the cistern with cleaner seawater.

Three tour boats were in the ecological reserve yesterday. Today, a dive boat had several divers in the water just north of North Rocks at slack tide in the mid morning.

There was a lot biodiversity in the ecological reserve today. Here are the results from the weekly census:
6 elephant seals (1 adult female, 2 adult males, 2 female pups, 1 male pup)
57 steller sea lions (all on Middle Rock)
50 california sea lions (19 on Great Race, 31 on Middle Rock)
52 harbour seals
1 sea otter
6 bald eagles (4 juveniles, 2 adults)
8 Canada geese
18 brandt’s cormorants
16 double-crested cormorants
35 pelagic cormorants
2 ravens
141 gulls (mostly thayer’s gulls)
14 black oystercatchers
1 whimbrel
86 pigeon guillemots
16 harlequin ducks
10 surfbirds
28 black turnstones
1 snow bunting
1 song sparrow
1 fox sparrow

Weekly Census

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Wind: yesterday 2-16 knots from S to W, today 0-36 knots from W to S to W
Sea State: yesterday rippled, today calm until mid afternoon when seas turned rough
Visibility: yesterday 10-15 NM, today 5-15 NM
Sky: yesterday overcast, today overcast with patches of sun then rain in late afternoon
Temperature: yesterday 7-9 °C, today 6-8 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 413.47 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The numbers of sea lions continues to be low. For the first time this winter, there were more steller than california sea lions in the ecological reserve.

For the past day, the elephant seals have all been stationary. An elephant seal was seen on Middle Rocks today along with california sea lions. I believe it’s the smaller adult male that was on the main island until recently.

Having heard the killdeer on many evenings this winter, but not seen any, I finally saw one this morning on the lawn. They are named for their shrill repetitive call which sounds like “kill-deer!”

Here are the results from the weekly census observed on Friday, February 28:
7 elephant seals (4 adult males, 2 female pups, 1 male pup)
54 steller sea lions
53 california sea lions
86 harbour seals
5 bald eagles (2 adults, 3 juveniles)
26 Canada geese
9 brandt’s cormorants
10 double-crested cormorants
31 pelagic cormorants
72 gulls (mostly thayer’s)
8 black oystercatchers
66 pigeon guillemots
17 harlequin ducks
1 killdeer
15 black turnstones
6 surfbirds
1 fox sparrow

Yesterday, Greg, Alex, Warren and Cole were on the island to do maintenance on the desalinator and batteries. Two tour boats were seen in the ecological reserve each day. This afternoon, the RCM SAR boat from Sooke drove around the main island and the crew took photos.