Tag Archives: Canada geese

Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 10-20 NW
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Choppy under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Not a lot of visitors lately, the ecotours are still going by but not as frequently

Maintenance

  • Still working on pressure washing the buildings and walkways, takes a lot of water to get the buildings white again so I’m waiting on the desalinator fixes

Ecological

  • Slightly less sea lions than last week
  • one small female elephant seal and I think there is a big guy on one of the outer rocks

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 582
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 501
  • Harbour Seal – 56
  • Elephant Seal – 1 female and 1 male
  • Cormorants – 364
  • Gulls – 313
  • Fox Sparrows – 14
  • Canada Geese – 19
  • Black Turnstones – 22
  • Eagle – 2
  • Oyster Catchers – 8
  • Raven – 1

Got to the top of the tower before I realized no sd card in the camera, so I just counted them up there, so no photos this post

Also there is a chance DFO is coming by soon to help untangle the neck banded sea lions

21 Geese

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 10-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Choppy under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Had a couple visitors come by throughout the week, to check out the crane and desalinator

Maintenance

  • Now that the fresh water tank is almost full, will start pressure washing some of the lichen off the buildings

Ecological

  • Slightly less sea lions than last week
  • still no elephant seals on the main island but I think I spotted one on one of the outer rocks
  • a lot of Canada geese lately

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 674
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 702
  • Harbour Seal – 81
  • Elephant Seal – maybe 1 male
  • Cormorants – 388
  • Gulls – 293
  • Fox Sparrows – 16
  • Canada Geese – 21
  • Black Turnstones – 28
  • Eagle – 2
  • Oyster Catchers – 8

Protective Father Elephant Seal

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots NW
  • Sky: sunny with cloudy periods
  • Water: mostly calm, a bit choppy

Boats/Visitors

  • Saw two ecotour boats go by
  • No visitors

Ecological

  • Bernard was keeping an eye out for the pups today, looking up from his sleep every time one of them would cry out, which is less frequent and high pitched now too as they continue to grow. Having a father elephant seal protect it’s pups like this after the mother has left is not ordinary behaviour so this has been very interesting to watch.
  • Lots of Canada Geese landed on the island today, around 6-10 pairs that are very territorial with each other. I assume they’re getting ready for nesting season as that generally starts around March.
  • Still a decent number of cormorants, black oyster catchers and black turnstones around too.

Notes

  • DND blasting has started up again with several loud explosions going off each day for the past few days.

Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: clear, 15 miles throughout the day
  • Wind: ranging from 9-22 knots throughout the day
  • Sky: overcast for most of the day
  • Water: calm, a bit choppy at times

Boats/Visitors

  • Didn’t notice much boat traffic today aside from the usual busy commercial freighters
  • No visitors today

Ecological

  • More failed mating attempts by the young male elephant seals with the one female on the island.

Census

  • Cormorants – 90
  • Gulls – 275
  • Elephant Seals – 6  (3 adolescent males, 1 adult male, 1 adult female and 1 pup)
  • California Sea Lions – 120
  • Stellar Seal Lions – 93
  • Black Turnstones – 10
  • Canada Geese – 4
  • Bald Eagles – 7

    Three males surround the single female currently on the island