Wind: light breezes throughout the day, 4-11 knots
Sky: overcast this morning then cleared up a bit by late afternoon
Water: mostly calm, a bit choppy at times
Boats/Visitors
The usual commercial freighter and barge traffic
Garry and a friend came out for the annual christmas bird count
Ecological
Two of the younger male elephant seals got into a fight/chase with the larger of the two dominating until Bernard (the biggest of the 5 males currently on the island) stepped in and sent them both on the run. With the females heading this way soon it may prove to be a bloody new year with the males fighting for dominance.
Large group of oyster catchers, 18-20 strong, hanging around the south west end of the island.
Didn’t see any canada geese today for the first time in a while.
Garry’s friend pointed out some harlequin ducks in the water I hadn’t noticed.
One of the elephant seal pups looks like an older male may have attacked it. It’s head and back are covered with lacerations and gouges.
Visibility: very clear throughout the day, 15 Miles
Wind: heavy winds all day reaching upwards of 33 knots
Sky: sunny with no clouds
Water: rough, 3 foot swells
Boats/Visitors
Boat traffic was pretty minimum today with the rough water
No visitors today
Ecological
Not much has changed in terms of wildlife on the island in the last few days. Consistent number of gulls, sea lions, eagles, black turnstones, canada geese and cormorants with one or two large male elephant seals.
Wind: Light breezes throughout the day with strong gusts up to 40 knots overnight
Sky: Cloudy with sunny break
Water: a bit choppy, one foot swells in the morning
Boats/Visitors
Boat traffic was pretty minimum today, whale watching boat cruised by
No visitors today
Ecological
Not much has changed in terms of wildlife on the island in the last few days. Consistent number of gulls, sea lions, eagles, black turnstones, canada geese and cormorants with one or large two male elephant seals.
Haven’t seen any whales of any kind yet unfortunately.
Other
DND blasting has taken a break for the past week which has been nice.
Visibility: 15 miles for most of the day with the Washington coast as clear as I’ve seen it so far, until early evening when fog came in from the east covering downtown Victoria from view.
Wind: Little to no breeze during the day with it picking up to 14-18 knots by 7pm.
Sky: Mostly cloudy with some sun
Water: calm throughout the day, a bit choppy at times
Boats/Visitors
Boat traffic was fairly minimum today with the usual commercial vessels in the distance and one or two whale watching boats.
No visitors today
Ecological
There seems to be more stellar sea lion pups on the island, especially on the south rocks in the last few days, though I may just have not noticed them among the “piles” of bodies as they tend to lay all over each other.
Still lots of Black Turnstones, Cormorants, Eagles, Canada Geese and Gulls around
Only saw one of the male elephant seals around today
Other
Chopped some bigger logs into kindling for the woodstove this afternoon and cleaned up a lot of rocks of varying sizes that have been falling from the paths and bank walls between the lighthouse and science house.
Pretty chilly today, had frost on the ground and frozen puddles for the first time.
11 elephant seals today, 5 of them are male, and they have been fighting with each other all day the other 6 females have been pretty aggressive toward each other today as well
The gulls have started nesting and will get protective if you get too close
The geese are just at the end of nesting and are still pretty aggressive
I came across 2 oystercatcher nests while cleaning the solar panels today, thankfully they just get loud and try to distract you away from their nests rather than attacking
Also I have not seen the youngest female elephant seal around
