Tag Archives: Cackling goose

Hatching Goslings + Exciting New Arrival

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Today’s Weather Conditions:

  • Sky clear, a few fluffy white clouds on the horizon
  • Visibility 10 NM
  • Wind 20-25 knots W
  • Sea state: fast moving ripples, occasional white caps

Special Feature! Daniel who visited last Thursday has allowed us to share the information that he collected while he was here: Click Here to view his photos and recordings. There are some great shots of the oystercatcher chicks!

Visitors/ Marine Traffic:

  • On Monday Greg delivered water and fuel
  • Yesterday afternoon a large coastguard ship and smaller rib passed through. They looked like they were having a blast taking photos in front of Race Rocks.
  • A handful of whale watching boats in the reserve over the weekend. Interesting to note that they have altered their path and seem to be more interested in the farther outcroppings this season.
  • On Monday a large coastguard helicopter flew overhead

Ecological Observations: 

  • The last remaining goose nest under camera five hatched over the weekend and there are now 4 goslings. While we are hopeful that they will be able to survive, reflecting on the fate of the previous 5 we are doubtful that they will be able to compete and/or evade predators this late into the season.
  • There are now two large elephant seals! Another huge male appeared overnight yesterday. He is enjoying relaxing in the shade next to the guest house.
  • The seagulls have become much more aggressive towards us. Although we are careful to stay on the footpaths and not disturb the nesting birds, they take swooping passes at our heads and drop excrement from above.
  • The seagull behavior towards each other has also become much more territorial. They fight over nesting materials, food, and to maintain their nesting locations. The female seagulls stay near the nesting site, while the male seagulls fish or scavenge for food. The male seagulls regurgitate food for the female seagulls, much like the adults regurgitate food for their chicks.

Other Notes: There has been ammunition detonation on the department of defense land across the water today and yesterday. The location they are using is very close, and with every blast the geese and other birds startle and scramble for a few seconds before settling down again.

The Cackling Goose!

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Weather

  • The 7:00 weather report (plus developments).
  • Visibility: 10 miles (later 15)
  • Wind: 0-5 knots South (15-25 knots West noon onwards)
  • Sky: overcast and raining (sun in the afternoon)
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • All the elephant seals except for the smallest guy were off island today.
  • I did see 6 of them playing in the water near the jetty.
  • Improved my seagull identification skills today.
  • This was the first day I noticed many Heermann’s Gulls.
  • Fun to watch the lone cackling goose wander with the larger Canadians.
  • Saw one branded California Sea Lion: U975
  • Saw one California Sea Lion with a plastic neck ring.
  • Conducted an all day animal census.
  1. California Sea Lions: 434
  2. Northern (Steller) Sea Lions: 219
  3. Harbour Seals: 59
  4. Elephant Seals: 7
  5. Seagulls: 1077 (Tentative 85% Thayer’s, 15% Glaucous-Winged)
  6. Cormorants: 375 (Tentative: 30 Pelagic, 25 Double Crested, 14 Brandt’s.)
  7. Heermann’s Gulls: 50
  8. Black Turnstone: 24
  9. Canada Geese: 11
  10. Black Oystercatchers: 10
  11. Harlequin Ducks: 3 (1 male, 2 female)
  12. Cackling Goose: 1
  13. Savannah Sparrow: 1
  14. Bald Eagle: 1 adult on South Rock

Maintenance

  • Extended my new fence set up.
  • Removed the fence in front of the students’ house.
  • It was never very effective, and is less needed now.
  • Ran the desalinator in the afternoon.

Boats

  • Several eco-tours came by today.
  • One small boat was observed speeding in the reserve.

Cackling goose and Snow goose

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Light Wind in the morning, String Westerly in the evening. Cloudy with scattered showers. Rain in the evening. Tour boats:8 1030 flyover by a small float plane The Cackling Goose and Snow Goose (note — a new record for Race Rocks ) are still foraging on the grass on Great Race. The Canada Geese often chase these two smaller geese. The Sea lions all moved to the East side of West Rocks this morning. Up until today, they had been on South Rocks since I got here in the middle of March. Eagles are regularly flying over Great Race and making all the Gulls take flight, but I have yet to see an Eagle grab a Gull.

-Ran the fire pump -Cleaned all the fire hose fittings -Fixed tank shed storage door latch -Worked on SOPs

wind

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Strong winds all day, switching between NE and W. Scattered showers.

 

-prepped student house for visitors
-Erik delivered propane
-made keeper’s house floor plans

great day for a sail

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Strong NNE winds this morning. Eased in the afternoon. Clear skies.
Low East wind wave and a low West swell.

The Cackling goose and White fronted goose are still here. 18 Canada Geese spent the day on Greater Race Rock.

Two sailboats from the college headed out this morning towards Victoria, and I know it was an awesome day for a sail.

Today’s amazing ocean conservation link:
3-dimensional, panning images of coral reefs [link] with fish and sharks and corals!
The project is being done by the Catlin Seaview Survey, whose mission is “to scientifically record the world’s coral reefs and reveal them to all in high-resolution, 360-degree panoramic vision.” The results are amazing!

Maciek was out here today and did some training on the Race Rocks systems and helped out with some projects.
-Swept lighthouse staircase
-Set out new CO detectors
-Cleared Marigolds on path to tower
-Worked on plumbing issues in keeper’s house
-Inventoried solar panel tilt hardware
-Made a soundings table for the water tank

fog

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Cloudy, with periods of fog. Evening fog. No rain.

Our reference on Fog as an abiotic factor can be found at: http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/abiotic/fog/fog.htm

3 elephant seals decided to come up off the boat ramp today. It started with Cranky-Pants (the seal with the scabby molt) and she was followed by two of the larger females. They spent the afternoon lying in the grass next to the desalinator bunker.

Still seeing the White fronted goose and the Cackling goose. The larger Canada geese bully the two smaller geese, but they still tend to move around the island in a group.

Off station from 1230 to 1430 to get food

birds

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Morning fog. Moderate East wind. Sunny the rest of the day.
Tour boats: 4

It seems that, as the sea lions are leaving, more gulls and birds are moving onto Greater Race Rock. There have also been a lot of dense groups of gulls and diving birds on the water in and around the reserve.

The juvenile elephant seal with scabby molt (aka ‘Cranky Pants’) has returned to the boat ramp. Her skin has healed up a bit since she was last here a few weeks ago.

Kayakers next to South Rock

Kayakers next to South Rock-This kind of approach regularly scares birds and the seals and sea lions form the rocks.

-took the boston whaler in, traded it for a zodiac
-loaded the boat dolly onto Second Nature with Erik
-ran desalinator
-cleaned and scraped the zodiac
-tidied basement

Cackling Goose

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Light NE wind, sunny, calm

A single Cackling Goose arrived today. It has been hanging out with the Canada geese.

 

Tour boats: 7

-washed solar panels
-ran desalinator
-worked on the electric fence
-started improving the boat
-started tidying the boat house