Tag Archives: Canada geese

Wildlife Census

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Woa, last week on Race Rocks. 3 months has FLOWN by, marked with very few intense winter storms and no resident Elephant Seals over the breeding season. We had a big female come ashore and do a bunch of feeding over the last month, and then a new (smaller) seal showed up on March 31st. She looks like a survivor of ‘scabby moult’ and she’s tagged! It’s a green tag (L334) meaning she was tagged in Año Nuevo, and probably 3-4 years old. We were so excited to have more than 1 Elephant Seal around we were very suprised to wake up this monring to another small Elephant Seal female! Could this be the begining of the moutling season for Race Rocks? Stay tuned to find out!

We figured if it’s the end of our time here, better try and leave the place better off than we found it. We installed Greg’s new electric fence concept on the jetty, and re-habed the N fence perimeter. Cleaned up a bunch of the scrap materials from previous infrastructure projects, and put the ladders away. We’re very fancy like that.

The Canada Geese have begun the laying season, which means a marked increase in their aggression as they start to defend their nests. It’s a battle between the Geese and the gulls (who are also getting ready to start laying), and we often wake up to a freshly cracked egg on the main walkway.

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea lions: 12
  • California Sea lion: 14
  • Harbour Seal: 30
  • Northern Elephant Seal: 3

Birds

  • Gulls: 122
  • Cormorants: 68
  • Eagle: 8 Adult, 6 Juvenile
  • Turnstones: 20
  • Canada Geese: 7 – 3 breeding pairs
  • Oystercatcher: 18

It has been a LOVELY time on Race Rocks, and we’re always so grateful to get to spend time here. It’s such a beautiful spot with so much history, and it has Elephant Seals some of the time! We look forward to seeing a new Beachmaster take charge of the island, and for the opportunity to return.

 

Tristan & Courtney

Elephant Seals LOVE the smell of sawdust.

 

 

Mixed Weather

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Ecological Notes:

  • Female Elephant Seal has left the ramp area…… back to sea for now it appears.
  • Sunday night high winds brought down the pier fencing, and the Sea lions sure took advantage of that fast!

  • Very young, tagged,  Elephant Seal visited the ramp area briefly. I saw him coming up fast, so I left the area. When I returned a couple hours later, there were sea lions on the ramp and the Elephant Seal was gone. This was at the same  time the adult female left.
  • A known California Sea Lion, that was freed of an entanglement last year is around the north side. Although the wound still looks rough, the last Ecoguardian (Kendra) assured me this is a good improvement.
  • In addition to the expected numbers, there have been a couple very large flocks of both Black Oyster Catchers, and Black Turnstones. Groups were seen briefly, before flying off.
  • Nearly double the normal number of Canada Geese here still. 

  • There are still many Humpback Whales viewable from the park, and Transient Orca have passed by nearly every other day.

Visitors:

  • Work crew still working on the windows on the Student and Science centre, as well as finishing the inside of the last window on the main house.
  • A small group of donors, and a couple college staff visited for a tour of the facility.

Facility Work:

  • Ongoing repairs and upgrades to the electrical fencing. Awaiting new connectors to replace a couple sections and add a new section.
  • Fuel transfers and an extra check on battery electrolyte levels.
  • Although not overly high, wind direction has blown some doors off, including the boat shed …. minor items, but they add up!

  • Taking advantage of the rain periods to clean the sidewalks (mostly goose poop), as well as cleaning the salt off the windows.

  • Cleaned the windows on the tower, inside and out.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Still a few Ecotourism vessels
  • 2 Jet skis have visited the reserve a couple days in a row.

 Noted Infractions:

  • The first time the jet skis were scene, they were doing doughnuts and high speed passes in the main channel, disturbing birds and sea lions. My camera was charging, but i signalled to them with the blowhorn siren and waved them off.

  • The next day, they stayed out of the reserve, playing in one of the standing current waves a little further out. They did a wide sweep around the area on their way back (hopefully realizing they were being watched).

Weather Events:

  • Monday, November 11:
    • Sky: overcast with frequent sunny breaks
    • Wind: Morning Westerly winds to 25kts, veering to west at 5-10 kts in the afternoon
    • Sea: 1 meter swell, calming to slight chop by afternoon
    • Temperature Low 12oC, High 18oC
  • Tuesday, November 12:
    • Sky: Overcast, with sunny breaks
    • Wind: mixed N-NE 5-10 kts
    • Sea:  slight chop, but a swell wrapping around into the pier area by afternoon
    • Temperature Low 10oC, High 112oC
  • Wednesday, November 13:
    • Sky: Overcast with light rain later in the day
    • Wind: Variable direction Northerly winds, 5-10 kts, shifting to WSW later in the afternoon
    • Sea:  light chop, some tidal swell in the reserve
    • Temperature Low 9oC, High 13oC

 

 

** 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?

BCIT Media Students Visit

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Ecological Notes:

  • Canada Geese putting together nests now

  • Gulls are still parading around, showing off their nest material collecting abilities, but now nests on the ground yet
  • Elephant Seal pups: 3

Visitors:

  • 2 BCIT Media students visited for 3 days to gather source material for a story on the life of an Ecoguardian

  • A Marine Biologist, BCIT Marine Studies student, and friend of mine, visited to enjoy some time between schooling and heading out for her 5 months sea time with a major cruise ship company.

Facility Work:

  • Weekly Battery Maintenance
  • Sweep and tidy all buildings
  • Replace weatherstripping on main house back door

DND events:

  • Ongoing Detonations

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Eco-Tourism Vessels
  • As weather improves, more sport fishers in the area, some entering the reserve to view wildlife, no new noted fishing violations though

Weather Events:

    • Full array of spring weather

 

 

** 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?

July 19 and 20 – Weekly Census

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Ecological Notes:

  • An elephant seal swam up to the boat ramp at some point yesterday late afternoon or evening. When I went to do the seawater sample at 19:30, I spotted her sleeping at the water’s edge. As far as I can tell, she has been there ever since.
  • See the photo gallery below for more ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weekly Census recorded on Wednesday, July 20:

It was not an ideal day to record the census, as it was quite foggy. Although, I had a window of less fog at around noon, when I could see all the islets that comprise Race Rocks and the water in between, so I was able to count the species from the lantern room of the lighthouse. I counted other species throughout the day as I walked around.

  • Elephant Seal: 1
  • Steller/Northern sea lions: 15
  • Harbour seals: 125
  • Bald eagles: 2 (1 juvenile and 1 adult)
  • Canada geese: 9 (5 adults, 4 goslings)
  • Black oystercatchers: 11 (8 adults, 3 chicks)
  • Cormorants: 5
  • Glaucous-winged gulls nesting on the main island: 229
  • Glaucous-winged gull chicks: approximately 250 (It is hard to get an exact number due to their camouflage in the grass and hiding under their parents) 
  • Gulls not nesting (some glaucous-winged and some other species) on the south end of the main island and outer islands: 96
  • Pigeon guillemots: 163
  • Black turnstones: 2
  • Western sandpiper: 3
  • Fox sparrow: 1

Weather:

  • Yesterday (July 19):
    • Sky: Partly cloudy, fog in evening
    • Wind: W 3-29 kts
    • Sea: rippled, then up to 1′ chop in afternoon and evening
    • Temperature Low 11oC, High 15oC
  • Today (July 20):
    • Sky: Fog overnight, a mixture of partly cloudy and fog throughout the day and into the evening
    • Wind: W 12-30 kts
    • Sea: rippled, then up 2′ chop in afternoon and evening
    • Temperature Low 11oC, High 14oC

Visitors:

  • 2 visitors from Pearson College to deliver supplies. 

Facility Work:

  • Scrubbed and squeegeed solar panels, routine tidying and checking infrastructure around the island.

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.

Time moves on

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Ecological Notes:

  • 4  Elephant Seals still in the grass area today, 2 adult females, 1 Juvenile Male, and 1 Male “pup” from this season. 1 more Adult female has left.
  • The Juvenile Male has gotten very aggressive, and especially protective of any Female he is near.

  • A couple of Great Blue Herons, and a couple Juvenile Eagles, have made several passes today, really upsetting the nesting gulls.

Great Blue Heron

Juvenile Bald Eagle

  • Even though the goslings are different sizes, the 3 “families” of Canada Geese were grouped up today, perhaps for better protection.

Facility Work:

  • Took advantage of the rain showers to clean windows and the solar panels
  • Shut down the composting toilet system in the student building for the season.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 1 Ecotourism Vessel

Weather Events:

  • Morning WSW winds, 10-15 knots shifting to WNW in the afternoon. Winds rose to 25-30 knots early evening. Cloudy with showers during the day, a few sunny breaks late afternoon.

 

** All 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?

Biodiversity Aplenty + Sunday Census

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Weather:

  • Sky overcast
  • Visibility 15+ NM
  • Wind 20-25 knots W
  • Sea state: chop, whitecaps breaking at .5 m

Visitors/Marine Traffic:

  • On Thursday an electrician came to work and Greg brought us some supplies- Thanks Greg!
  • Also on Thursday, Daniel came to do a bird count and take recordings of bird calls. He was able to spot and identify many more species than we are able to, and it was fantastic to learn more about what is here! He also found owl pellets near where we heard an owl in April, and we are excited to see what information can be concluded from them.
  • On Friday Greg delivered water
  • Also on Friday, there were many RCMP boats just outside of the reserve.
  • There have been a few pleasure crafts, some fishing within the reserve boundaries.
  • One whale watching vessel today, which approached the animals and the jetty very closely

Ecological: 

  • Daniel also spotted two new observations: a fern growing out of a crack on the lighthouse, and some beautiful harvest brodiaea.
  • There is now only one elephant seal, the large male.
  • There is one goose still sitting on a nest underneath camera 5. She’s been there for a long time and we are wondering if the eggs will still hatch since it is so late in the season. There are no goslings currently, but still a constant 16 adult geese total.
  • In the past two weeks we have been observing many jellyfish in the water, including sea nettles, fried egg jellyfish, and the occasional water jelly still.
  • On Thursday morning we watched as two eagles chased one seagull into the water and continuously took turns diving at it. They dove at it until it was completely wet and unable to fly away. At this point, one of the eagles swooped down and carried the seagull away by its neck.

Census: 

  • 280 Seagulls
  • 12 Adult oystercatchers
  • 2 Oystercatcher chicks
  • 157 Harbor seals
  • 1 Adult male elephant seal
  • 16 Adult Canada geese
  • 11 California sealions
  • 3 Stellar sealions
  • 9 Pigeon Guillemots
  • 2 Adult bald eagles
  • 1 Barn swallow

First Days Back

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We are happy to be back on Race Rocks surrounded by the animals again. A big thanks to Nick for leaving things in excellent shape!

Weather:

  • Visibility: 10+ NM (Victoria Clear)
  • Wind: 10-15 knots NW
  • Water calm
  • Sky overcast

Visitors/Boats:

  • No visitors to the island since we arrived on Wednesday
  • One whale watching vessel yesterday with three people on board
  • Three jet skis passed through on Thursday evening

Ecological:

  • There are 10 elephant seals resting outside of the house this morning
  • One is the last remaining pup, as pointed out by Nick
  • The map of Goose nests that Nick left for us remains accurate, but there are many new eggs.
  • The seagulls are beginning to arrive and fight over nesting spots. We have observed them beginning to pull up tufts of grass and lay them down for nesting.
  • Yesterday evening we noticed an entangled sea lion from the jetty. It appears to have a plastic packing strap wrapped around its neck, similar to the one that we saw last year.
  • There are two mature eagles that have been periodically swooping over the reserve, causing quite a stir.
  • There are at least two pairs of oyster catchers preparing to nest. Yesterday we saw the pair which nested near the guest house last year defending the same rocky area.

Weekly Census

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Wind: yesterday 3-32 knots from NE to S to W, today 3-45 knots from W to S
Sea State: yesterday rippled with chop up to 1 m in evening, today chop up to 1 m, then rippled in afternoon
Visibility: yesterday 5-10 NM, today 10-15NM
Sky: yesterday overcast and rain, today clear
Temperature: yesterday 5-9 °C, today 7-9 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.11 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Results of weekly megafauna and bird census from Saturday, February 8:
9 elephant seals (2 female adults, 4 male adults, 2 female pups, 1 male pup)
169 steller sea lions
202 california sea lions
29 harbour seals
41 bald eagles (37 adults, 4 juveniles)
1 raven
19 brandt’s cormorants
138 pelagic cormorants
65 double-crested cormorants
4 canada geese
412 gulls (most are thayer’s gulls)
20 black oystercatchers
2 surf scoters
20 harlequin ducks
35 surfbirds
26 black turnstones
1 snow bunting
1 fox sparrow

Yesterday in the morning, three members of the Coast Guard came in a helicopter to do a routine check on some equipment on the island. The pilot phoned ahead to confirm the best place to land to try to avoid disturbing the animals. They landed on the helicopter pad. Sometimes they land on the grass at the base of the lighthouse. The Coast Guard guys were excited to see the elephant seals, which they hadn’t seen before. Usually when they fly into the lightstations up the coast, they see a lot of sea lions.

In the afternoon yesterday, three visitors from Pearson College came to the island to have a tour.

The only other boats that were seen in the ecological reserve were two tour boats this afternoon.

See the photos below for some views from the last two days.

Groundhog Day

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Wind: yesterday 0-52 knots from S to W, today 0-18 knots from W to NE
Sea State: yesterday rippled with waves up to 1 m in afternoon and evening, today rippled
Visibility: yesterday 5-10 NM, today 15 NM
Sky: yesterday rain then patches of sun, today clear
Temperature: yesterday 5-12 °C, today 3-5 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.49 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

This morning at sunrise, the elephant seals saw their shadows. As the lore goes for their fellow mammal the groundhog, that means six more weeks of winter. Hard to believe with the crocuses blooming and daffodils buds almost ready to burst. Although, there is snow in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow as the temperature drops to 0 °C.

There were no visitors to the island. Two eco tour boats were seen in the reserve this afternoon.

Here are the results for the weekly census, conducted in the afternoon of Sunday, February 2:
10 elephant seals (3 female adults, 4 male adults, 1 female pup, 1 male pup and 1 unknown gendered pup)
147 steller sea lions
288 california sea lions
104 harbour seals
10 bald eagles (5 adults, 5 juveniles)
1 raven
109 brandt’s cormorants
182 pelagic cormorants
49 double-crested cormorants
24 canada geese
931 gulls (most are thayer’s gulls)
18 black oystercatchers
1 whimbrel
1 surf scoter
8 harlequin ducks
16 black turnstones
1 snow bunting
1 fox sparrow

Boxing Day Megafauna Census

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Wind: 0-25 knots NE
Sea State: up to 1 m chop
Visibility: 15 NM
Sky: overcast with sunny patches throughout the days
Temperature: between 6 to 7 C
Atmospheric CO2: 412.28 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

This morning, I heard a ruckus outside the west side of the house, where the a few of the elephant seals have been hanging out. The largest male appeared to be fighting the small juvenile male, while the female watched. The adult was slamming its head down onto the juvenile and biting it. This lasted for a few minutes before the juvenile and female fled to the north side of the path.

While I was doing the census in the middle of the day, there were three people snorkelling off the southwest of Great Race Rock Island. They took turns snorkelling in pairs, while one person stayed in the boat. Six other pleasure craft and eco tour boats were seen in the reserve over the past two days.

Weekly Megafauna Census for December 26:
5 elephant seals (1 juvenile male, 1 female, 3 adult males)
18 harbour seals
175 california sea lions
207 steller/northern sea lions
Birds:
8 harlequin ducks
9 surf scoters
4 canada geese
12 black turnstones
21 black oystercatchers
1 fox sparrow
15 bald eagles
107 cormorants (pelagic and double-crested)
224 gulls (a variety of species)