Sealion infusion

Wardens’s report by Garry Fletcher contd.

In early morning calm –and clear with no wind– by 1115 hrs it was pouring rain. Predictable from the look of the barometer . The weather fluctuated all day from rain to sun with a rainbow and back to rain. Sea lion numbers are still building and one more elephant seal joined the elephant seal group  by the boathouse last night . So this is what it looked and sounded like this morning :

Click for a video of sites and sounds of the sealions

Click for a video of sites and sounds of the sealions

Several branded sealions here today:

At this time of year there are some non-breeding plumage Heermann’s gulls that one can pick out among the large gull population .

And a gallery of some of the other bird-life on the island, some migrating through.

9 whalewatching boats through the reserve this morning.  Swells and the approaching storm held them off in the afternoon.

The panoramas below were taken in the last two days:

southislandpanosept2113a

Gulls on the south islands in the morning. Note a mix of California, Glaucous-winged   and Heermann’s Gulls.

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Glaucous-winged, California,   and a few  Heermann’s Gulls and sea lions on the south-west corner of the island

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The south side of Great Race Rock island

West side of the docks--note electric fence installed to keep the sealions off the docks.

West side of the docks–note electric fence installed to keep the sealions off the docks.

East side of jetty

East side of jetty

The east shore of Race Rocks with California and Northern Sea lions.

The east shore of Race Rocks with California and Northern Sea lions.

On Sunday morning, the Davis weather instrument wasn’t working. On checking, I found that the UPC powerbackup was malfunctioning–will return it to the college IT dept.  Weather is back on now.

Whale watchers abundant today

Wardens’s report by Garry Fletcher: Chris drove me out this morning to Race Rocks to relieve Courtney our Ecoguardian for the weekend –a foggy start but it cleared off by noon  with a shower in the afternoon. Up the tower at 11:30 for census and the daily  boat survey for DFO. Census from tower at 1150hrs. Harbour seals : 22 SE onshore, 39 SW :  total  61 Elephant Seals: 10 in a cluster behind boathouse: total 10. California Sea Lions 77 south side, 80 on East shore , 40 on NE , viewed from Docks and helipad to get ones not visible from tower: from docks w side 40, East 72, west shore tidepools: 53 :  total 362. Northern Sea lions: middle rock 170, E side docks 30, N rock 50 : total 250

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2-3  year old ??- male and female elephant seals by the boathouse

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Northern Sealions near the winch house, note  small juvenile to the right.

The distribution in the late afternoon changed, with more sealions of both species moving up onto the main  island covering the yard to the North west which is now completely devoid of vegetation.

  electfence In order to curb damage to the grounds, (and pipes and conduits,)  from the sealions this year, we are restricting the movement up onto the center of the island. A network of electrical tape has been installed and it appears to be effective so far.sept2113electfence

Several branded sealions were on the island today, this one 8586 was easist to determine.

Several branded sealions were on the island today, this one 8586 was easiest to identify.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For other branding records see: https://www.racerocks.ca/race-rocks-animals-plants/marine-mammal-tracking/

 

carcassept2113I was surprised by the number of dead juvenile seagull carcases  around the island. many were young that were probably attacked by other adults when out of nesting territories , the highest count was on the ledge  below Camera5 . Most deaths occurred during the late summer.  Approx count 20.

harbsealsept2113

Who me?

orca1sept2113Twice today a pod of Orca, ( about 6 ?) traveled through the reserve. whale watchers numbered up to 10 boats averaging 15-20  people per boat.  They were observant about remaining outside the reserve when the whales were inside reserve boundaries, but with a ring of whale-watching boats around the group when they were out in Race Passage, it did not look like the whales were getting much freedom. I believe the Orca pod was feeding on fish because there were many seals and sea lions in the water and none were attacked. At least 20 whale-watching boats were through the reserve today.

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Whale-watching boats waiting for the whales at the east side of the reserve.

 

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Below the cliff from camera 5 is a space behind some rocks with a failed nest of a pigeon guillemot

At the northeast corner of the helipad I noticed a large amount of chevrons from chiton shells, washed out from guano deposits from over the summer. It seemed to be a very dense concentration??

newweather1 Environment Canada has over the summer installed new weather sensors on top of the tower at Race Rocks. Now in addition to wind speed and direction, humidity, temperature, dew point and barometric pressure  are recorded. This provides an interesting comparison with the data from the  ground level recorded by our Davis weather instrument: They may be accessed here: Env Canada Weather

 

 

 

A bit of History:
One can often encounter human-made artifacts on the islands which don’t have an obvious explanation: On the east side of the tower for instance is this  “sidewalk to nowhere”.  Trev Anderson told me about the wooden blacksmith shop that was located in that spot until it was demolished in the late 1960’s.

 

Sensitive Oystercatchers

June is half over and I have about 10 days before Julie comes out to take over for the summer. I am trying to get some painting done in the dry and relatively windless spells, but one of the issues I am facing is trying not to disturb the oystercatchers nesting near the top of the ramp by the majority of railings. They immediately leave the nest when I get anywhere near, and won’t return til I am well clear. I worry about the eggs cooling too much, so I scrape the rails for 10 minutes then depart for an hour… Fortunately I have lots of time on my hands! Meanwhile only a couple juvenile e-seals remain and just as well because Misery’s curiosity is quite terrifying to them. Here one scrambles up the rocks to escape.

Best keep a safe distance...

Best keep a safe distance…

Sunset on Olympics

Sunset on Olympics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Pigeon Guillemots are nesting in the larger cracks in the rocks; another reason to keep a low profile and limit my wandering around the island. They are adorable little birds!

Pigeon Guillemot

Pigeon Guillemot

Pigeon Guillemots and Oystercatcher

Pigeon Guillemots and Oystercatcher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pigeon Guillemots

Pigeon Guillemots on the Jetty

 

 

 

 

 

 

Branded California Sea Lion 1032

Branded California Sea Lion 1032

 

 

 

 

 

 

Branded California Sea Lion 1032 en flagrante

Branded California Sea Lion 1032 en flagrante

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunset Flock of Glaucous-winged Gulls

Sunset Flock of Glaucous-winged Gulls

Marine Mammal Tracking at Race Rocks

Records of Sea Lion brands: Branded 402 R You can  see the Ecoguardian’s notes and images of the branded sea lions in the log for 2011-2013 etc. here.

Previous photos and observations of tracking devices prior to 2011 can be seen in this linked file:

For Marine mammal injuries : see  https://racerocks.ca/wp/tag/injury/

Also some of the branding images for  2010-2012 are included below:

 sept2  C868 Calif Sea lion  
 Sept2  U178
 Sept2  U262  
 Sept 10  C495  California Sea Lion  
 Sept 10  5477  California Sea Lion
 Sept 11  6  Steller Sea Lion
 Sept 11  C868  California Sea Lion
 Sept 12  1046 ?  California Sea Lion  
 Sept 13 yellow tag 105_ ? front flipper  Steller Sea Lion  
 Sept 14  O002  Steller Sea Lion  
 Sept 14  909  California Sea Lion
Sept14 2012  C880  California Sea Lion  

 

Getting Busy round here

More and more tour boats are visiting the reserve this week. It is easy to loose track of the numbers because they come out of nowhere it seems and from every direction. I estimate we are seeing about 20 visits a day this week. This may be because the orca are out of range, and Race Rocks can always be counted on to provide a picturesque opportunity to see marine mammals in the wild. By and large the tour boat operators are respectful but some operators seem ignorant of the reserve boundaries and come in or leave a little too rapidly. I will be emailing the companies to clarify this issue when I have some photographic evidence.

Whale-watching vessel

This enormous vessel is new. I will be curious to see how marine mammals react to it. I suspect it will have less impact than the zodiacs because it will stay a bit further away and more people will see the animals on one trip than 6 or 8 zodiac trips. We will see!

 

This large California Sea Lion arrived yesterday. He has a brand that appears to be 909 (or 606). More pictures of him coming soon….

Elephant Seals at Docks

 

 

 

There are 6-7 elephant seals finishing up their moulting now. On occasion we get a little traffic jam on the ramp. Here Bertha reminds the others who is boss…

 

 

The military conducted several over-flights whilst on manoeuvres, but at a reasonable altitude. Yesterday Erik and I shipped 500 gallons of water over, as finding parts for the desalination unit is challenging. I hope that volume will last a month or so…

Branded sea lions

>
>> I have three more brands to report today (I saw at least two more but couldn’t get a good visual on them unfortunately):
>>
>> #984, a California. At first glance, this one appears to be #934, but it’s definitely an 8 when you get a good look at it.
>>
>> #1052, a California.
>>
>> #1032, a California.
>>
>> All were spotted hauled up on the NE corner of Great Race. See attached photos. Again, any information you can provide about these individuals is greatly appreciated.
>> Thanks a lot!
>> Adam Harding
>>
>> —
>> Adam Harding
>> Relief Eco-Guardian & Resident Marine Scientist
>> Race Rocks Ecological Reserve
On 2010-08-16, at 13:04, Pat Gearin <Pat.Gearin@noaa.gov> wrote:

> Hello Adam and thank you for reporting these observations of California sea lions.  All three of these individuals were marked as part of my research program in Washington State at Shilshole Bay, Seattle, WA.  Below are further details of each.
>
> #984- marked on 5/16/06 weighed 355 pounds (6-7 years old).  This animal has 6 previous resights including 2 at Ano Nuevo Island, CA in 2007, one at San Miguel Island, CA in 2007, and 3 at Race Rocks in September 2009.
>
> #1032-marked on 5/8/07, weighed 350 pounds (6-7 years old).  Yours is the first and only resight of this animal since capture.
> #1052- marked on 9/13/07- weighed 575 pounds (8-10 years old).  This animal has 5 previous sightings including one from Seattle in 2007, one from San Miguel Island, CA in 2008, and 3 from Manchester, WA in 2009.  Thank you once again for these valuable observations.
>
> Pat Gearin.

 

Branded Northern Sealion #14Y

Adam Harding e-mailed Pat Gearin OF NOAA and Matthew Tennis

I spotted # I4Y, a branded northern sea lion, on the NE corner of Great Race this morning. See attached photo.

adamsimages2

14Y BRANDED SEALION

brandedsealion

Pat Gearin responded: ” Hello Adam and thank you for reporting this sighting and for sending the excellent photos.  This animal is Steller sea lion 14Y, an 8-year old male marked at St. George Reef, CA in July of 2002 as a pup.  This is a valuable sighting since he has only been sighted 4 times since he was marked including once at St. George Reef a month or so after his initial marking.  He was sighted again in May 2005 at Tatoosh Island, WA.  The most recent sightings were from August 2008 when he was sighted twice off SW Vancouver Island at Barrier Rocks and Pachena Point.  This animal is not yet of breeding age/size but may be in a few years. Thanks once again and we look forward to any other sea lion sightings you can provide. ”

 

Injured Sea lion

Ryan took these images today. “I noticed this thin sea lion this morning, then that it had a brand, then that it’s front right flipper has been nearly cut through.  I watched him long enough to see that he is having difficulty moving around and does not like to lie certain ways.  I didn’t get the full brand in any one shot, but the last two show that is is branded C868.

Pat Gearin of Noaa added: this animal was captured and marked at Astoria,  OR as an adult male so it’s not known how old it is or what it’s home rookery is.—

In regards to the injury on it’s flipper, again it’s difficult to say
what could have caused this without a closer exam.  My guess is that
it was caused either by a shark, killer whale or possibly a boat
strike.