Tag Archives: Canada goose

August 2 and 3

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Tomorrow is a shift changeover and my last day on the Island. Ann Nightingale is coming to be the Ecoguardian. I have enjoyed my stay here for the past five weeks. The near constant west wind provided excellent air conditioning. I learned to live harmoniously with the nesting gulls and chicks. The marine mammals (elephant seals, sea otter, humpback whales, orcas, and Steller sea lions) provided me with plenty of entertainment. I fixed more things on the island than broke. Another successful Ecoguardian shift.

Ecological Notes:

  • The large male elephant seal spent the whole day today on the land, most of the time nestled against the north side of the Guest House.
  • The population of Steller sea lions has doubled in past week. The stench of sea lion poop is also growing down wind of Middle Rocks. There are even a few California sea lions showing up on the main island.
  • In the morning yesterday, myself and the two visitors took the station boat out for a trip to the closest land to the north. I enjoyed seeing a closer view of Bentinck Island, Rocky Point, Church Rock and Swordfish Island. There were many harbour seals hauled out on the rocks and little jumping fish along the way.
  • See the photo gallery below for the ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weekly Census observed on Wednesday, August 3:

  • Elephant seals: 3 (1 adult male, two juvenile females)
  • Steller sea lions: 95
  • California sea lions: 3
  • Harbour seals: 146
  • Bald eagles: 2 adults
  • Brown pelican: 1
  • Canada geese: 2
  • Cormorants: 5
  • Glaucous-winged gulls: 232
  • Glaucous-winged gull chicks: approximately 200 (They are hard to count due to their hiding in plants and rocks. Some chicks have died and new chicks have been born recently.)
  • Gulls (uncertain of species): 331 (around outer islands and congregating on the south end of Great Race Rocks)
  • Black oystercatchers: 8 adults (no chicks seen today)
  • Harlequin duck: 1 female
  • Pigeon guillemots: 132
  • Surfbirds: 12
  • Black turnstones: 148

Weather:

  • Yesterday (August 2):
    • Sky: Partly cloudy
    • Wind: W 11-28 kts
    • Sea: up to 1′ chop
    • Temperature Low 12 oC, High 15 oC
  • Today (August 3):
    • Sky: Overcast until mid morning, then partly cloudy
    • Wind: W 15-34 kts
    • Sea: up to 3′ moderate
    • Temperature Low 12 oC, High 15 oC

Visitors:

  • Abi and Jeremias, the two volunteers
  • 9 visitors from Pearson College in the afternoon of August 2

Facility Work:

  • Scrubbed and squeegeed solar panels, poured cement to fix a broken section of sidewalk, routine tidying and checking infrastructure around the island. 

DND Blasting:

  • Just before 13:00, there was one large blast from the DND lands at Rocky Point.

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.

July 27 and 28 – Weekly Census

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Ecological Notes:

  • I counted 40 Steller sea lions hauled out on Middle Rocks, the highest number so far this month.
  • About 200 black turnstones, ruddy turnstones, and surfbirds have been hunkering down in the east bay in the strong west winds for the past two afternoons and evenings.
  • See the photo gallery below for the ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weather:

  • Yesterday (July 27):
    • Sky: Fog at 07:40 until late morning, partly cloudy until fog at 17:00 onwards
    • Wind: W 9-29 kts
    • Sea: Rippled in morning, then up to 2′ chop
    • Temperature Low 13 oC, High 21 oC
  • Today (July 28):
    • Sky: Fog overnight until late morning, partly cloudy until fog rolled in at 16:00
    • Wind: W 18-32 kts
    • Sea: Rippled in morning, up to 3′ moderate in afternoon
    • Temperature Low 12 oC, High 14 oC

Weekly Census (observed on July 27):

  • Elephant Seal: 3
  • Steller/Northern sea lions: 40 on Middle Rock
  • Harbour seals: 132
  • Bald eagles: 2 (1 juvenile and 1 adult)
  • Canada geese: 6
  • Black oystercatchers: 21 (18 adults, 3 chicks)
  • Cormorants: 6
  • Glaucous-winged gulls nesting on the main island: 189
  • Glaucous-winged gull chicks: approximately 200 (It is hard to get an exact number due to their camouflage)
  • Gulls not nesting (some glaucous-winged and some other species) on the south end of the main island and outer islands: 156
  • Pigeon guillemots: 182
  • Surfbirds: 16
  • Black turnstones: 192
  • Ruddy turnstones: 6

Visitors:

  • No visitors

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.

July 23 and 24

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Ecological Notes:

  • I am catching occasional glimpses of a humpback blows to the southeast and southwest of the island, although a bit too far away to see much detail.
  • I am still trying to live harmoniously with the gulls by avoiding the chicks as much as possible, while still keeping things running on the island. I have not been pooped on in at least a week, so either the adult gull’s aim is off or they do not see me as threat.
  • See the photo gallery below for more ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weather:

  • Yesterday (July 23):
    • Sky: Cloudy, then clearing mid-morning
    • Wind: W 11-31 kts
    • Sea: rippled, then up to 1′ chop in afternoon
    • Temperature Low 12 oC, High 14 oC
  • Today (July 24):
    • Sky: Fog overnight until late morning, then partly cloudy for remainder of day
    • Wind: W 3-23 kts
    • Sea: rippled
    • Temperature Low 11 oC, High 15 oC

Visitors:

  • No visitors

Facility Work:

  • Scrubbed and squeegeed solar panels, routine tidying and checking infrastructure around the island.
  • I ran the generator yesterday for its monthly equalization charge, which charges the batteries at a higher voltage to keep them healthy in the long run by balancing the voltage in each battery. The 24 batteries, each the size of four cinder blocks stacked up, are essential to maintaining constant power for the human life support systems on the island even when the solar array and generator are not supplying power.

 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.

July 17 and 18

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Ecological Notes:

  • A large pod of humpbacks has been around Race Rocks for at least the past few days, with many visible to the south. Today, I saw a few blows and dorsal fins near north of Turbine Rocks (north of the main island), then near West Rocks. Unfortunately, I did not get any photos.
  • I keep seeing a fast moving barn swallow and fox sparrow fluttering low around the island. I only see one at a time, so it is possible there are more of each species. Similar to the humpbacks, the little birds don’t stop in one place long enough for a photo opportunity.
  • See the photo gallery below for more ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weather:

  • Yesterday (July 17):
    • Sky: Cloudy, heavy rain showers after sunset and overnight
    • Wind: W 14-25 kts
    • Sea: rippled, then up to 2′ chop in evening
    • Temperature Low 12oC, High 16oC
  • Today (July 18):
    • Sky: Partly Cloudy
    • Wind: W 12-30 kts
    • Sea: rippled, then 1′ chop in afternoon
    • Temperature Low 13oC, High 15oC

Visitors:

  • No visitors

Facility Work:

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

 DND Events:

  • Between 10:20 and 13:20 today, there were three detonations on the nearby DND (Department of National Defence) training area on Bentinck Island, about 2km or 1NM from Great Race Rocks. The sudden explosions sent many birds into the air, as well as seals and sea lions into the water.

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.

July 13 and 14 – Weekly Census

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Ecological Notes:

  • The sea lion population is growing. For the past few days there have been 18 Steller sea lions hauled out on Middle Rocks. That is up from four sea lions one week ago. One of the sea lions has a brand. It appears to say 620R, although the researcher I contacted in Oregon mentioned it is what they call a bad brand and he was unable to determine the brand from the photos I sent. I will keep a look out for the sea lion and see if I can get a better view. The researcher will check his records to see if he can identify the sea lion and be able to record the resighting.
  • The super moon on Wednesday night rose in the southeast at 10:00pm. It was a big bright orange orb that looked more like the rising sun, than the moon.
  • Today’s extremely low tide of -0.2m or -0.7′ was at 10:13am. The overnight high tide at 00:55am was 3.0m or 9.8′. It is apparently the lowest tide in a decade. I was fascinated to see the extended edge of the water all around the many islands. I looked at the exposed intertidal zone from a distance and up on the jetty, so as not to disturb the many delicate species.
  • See the photo gallery below for more ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weekly Census Results from July 13:

  • Steller/Northern sea lions: 18
  • Sea otter: 1
  • Harbour seals: 133
  • Bald eagles: 2 (1 juvenile and 1 adult)
  • Canada geese: 9 (5 adults, 4 goslings)
  • Black oystercatchers: 11 (8 adults, 3 chicks)
  • Cormorant: 4
  • Glaucous-winged gulls nesting on the main island: 247
  • Glaucous-winged gull chicks: approximately 200 (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: 142
  • Black turnstones: 2
  • Western sandpiper: 2

Weather:

  • Yesterday (July 13):
    • Sky: Part Cloudy
    • Wind: W 12-32 kts
    • Sea: rippled, then up to 3′ waves in afternoon and evening
    • Temperature Low 12oC, High 16oC
  • Today (July 14):
    • Sky: Part Cloudy
    • Wind: W 15-27 kts
    • Sea: rippled, then up to 2′ chop in afternoon
    • Temperature Low 11oC, High 13oC

Visitors:

  • No visitors

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.

July 9 and 10

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Ecological Notes:

  • On Saturday afternoon, a southern resident orca pod went through Race Passage, just north of the ecological reserve. Someone was warning boats over the VHF radio to reduce their speed, as they were “in the path of endangered southern resident killer whales.” All boats appeared to oblige. For a while, the very large pod was spread out from the Bentinck Island, at the west side of the mouth of Pedder Bay to well past William Head to the east, at least 4km or 2NM. I watched the pod for a while through binoculars and saw an orca fully breach out of the water. I did not get a photo of the breach, but it was spectacular. Then the pod travelled south to the east of Race Rocks, based on the group of ecotour boats I could see watching the pod from a safe distance.
  • The gull chicks are still popping out, with many nests having one to three chicks. There are still some gulls tending to eggs.
  • See the photo gallery below for more ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weather:

  • Yesterday (July 9):
    • Sky: Overcast, then cloudy throughout rest of day
    • Wind: W 15-30 kts
    • Sea: rippled, 1′ chop in evening
    • Temperature Low 13oC, High 16oC
  • Today (July 10):
    • Sky: Part cloudy
    • Wind: W 3-24 kts
    • Sea: rippled, 1′ chop in afternoon
    • Temperature Low 14oC, High 17oC

Visitors:

  • No visitors.

Facility Work:

  • Scrubbed and squeegeed solar panels, topped up water in battery bank, 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.

Gull Chicks Everywhere

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It is great to be back as the Ecoguardian at Race Rocks. I have been lucky enough to spend a total of almost seven months here between 2014 and my last shift which ended on September 1, 2020. I have been spending the past three and a bit days reacquainting myself with the island and infastructure. I have not stayed here before in July, so it is taking some adjustment to live in harmony and not disturb hundreds of nesting gulls. It drastically limits where I can go on the island.

Ecological Notes:

  • The glaucous-winged gull population is increasing everyday with lots of chicks hatching. I do my best to avoid getting close to the nests. I move quickly by the ones near doors and pathways on which I need to travel to get to the energy building, jetty and lighthouse.
  • A pod of orcas swam westward through the ecological reserve on Saturday, July 2, then went eastward in Race Channel. The orcas continued to head eastward, with at one point 14 ecotour boats viewing them from a safe distance.
  • A juvenile male elephant seal, tagged D018/D019, has been hanging around here for a while this spring and early summer. I noticed the tags this weekend, so I could confirm it was the same seal that Ecoguardian Joan spotted on the seal’s arrival on the island on May 19. Here is a link to the tagged resight histories, when I spotted this seal in April 2020 and reported the details to the Director of the Año Nuevo Reserve, in California. The brief version is he was tagged in February 2017 as a pup in Año Nuevo. He was first observed at Race Rocks in April 2018. He was again spotted here in April 2019, December 2019, and April 2020. His proboscis (nose) and body has grown a lot in the past couple years. I wonder what adventures he has gone on in that time.
  • I know of two black oystercatcher chicks that I have seen through the binoculars and  long lens of the camera. One is hanging out near the jetty with its parents. The other is hanging out near east bay with its parents. The dark grey fluff ball chicks are hard to spot, as they blend in well with rocks.
  • See the photos below for these and more ecological sights.

Weather:

  • The wind has been consistently coming from the west over the past four days that I have been here.
  • Friday and Saturday were part cloudly with lots of sun to fully charge the solar panels by 17:00 both days.
  • Sunday and Monday were overcast with periods of rain and fog.
  • The temperature in the past four days has ranged between 11 to 14 oC.

Visitors:

  • Greg drove the boat on the afternoon of Friday, July 1 to do the shift changeover between Jillian and I. Thanks, Jillian, for leaving the place in such great shape.

Vessel Traffic:

  • Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby throughout this long weekend.

Here are photo highlights from the past few days. Click on the photos for a larger view.

Seawatch Part 2

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Since the fog was staying away, Daniel Donnecke and I decided to have another go at a seawatch today, Daniel at Beechey Head and me at Race Rocks.  From my perspective, this one worked out much better, but we still were not seeing many of the same birds.  The exception, though, was a large group of (mostly) California Gulls that lifted off shortly after our start time of 6:30.  Like  yesterday, there were hundreds of gulls feeding just off Race Rocks. Although there was still krill in the area, there were also small fish that you could occasionally see glinting in their bills.  I was also watching a large barge of logs being towed towards Puget Sound.

It wasn’t clear what put them up, or whether there was just a signal that it was time to go.  Some headed to a bait ball to the east while several hundred headed east towards Beechy Head where Daniel saw them coming in.

Ecological Notes:

1 Elephant Seal

80 Harbour Seal

California Sea Lion

Steller’s Sea Lion

Several bird firsts for me for the week.

11 Canada Goose

7 Black Oystercatcher (including one juvenile)

Baby Black Oystercatcher

Still under its parent’s watchful eye

1 Killdeer

45 Black Turnstone

55 Common Murre

80 Pigeon Guillemot – many carrying gunnels

2 Marbled Murrelet

1 Cassin’s Auklet

14 Rhinoceros Auklet

500 California Gull (probably a gross underestimation)

400 Glaucous-winged Gull (not an increase, but a more accurate count today)

1 Herring Gull

4 Heerman’s Gull

1000 more unidentified gull feeding on krill and small fish.

1 Bald Eagle – perched on middle islands. First raptor of the week for me

1 Song Sparrow

1 Brown-headed Cowbird – First passerine I saw during my stay.

Facility Work: cleaned windows and solar panels.

Vessel Traffic: lots of traffic in the shipping lanes including large barge of logs

Barge of logs

Steady stream of ecotourism vehicles starting mid-morning, but fewer than yesterday. 10+

Weather – Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Caspian Terns

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Ecological Notes:

  • 4 Elephant Seals still in the grass area, including 2 adult females, 1 juvenile male, and the last male pup from this season.
  • 6 Caspian Terns did a few flyovers today making their distinct screeches, upsetting the gulls to no end! Try as I might, I could not get a good photo though.
  • The oldest of the Canada Goose goslings are very large now, larger than the gulls, so they just meander through without worrying

Facility Work:

  • Stripped down and cleaned chainsaw.
  • Sweeping and cleaning out buildings to prepare for good scrub down when water supply permits.

DND events:

  • At least 6 extra loud blasts today. Noted Sea Lion disturbance, most moved off the rocks by the pier and to the outside rocks to the south. Most Steller Sea Lions headed to the water and haven’t hauled out again yet today.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 3 private vessels, sightseeing
  • 1 dingy size sailboat with an outboard, entered the channel and tried to exit against the current, a couple close calls when the current caught them, but they eventually turned and exited with the current.

Weather Events:

  • Shifting winds most of the day, variable from west to north to east then back to westerly in the evening. 5 knots, rising to 15 knots late afternoon. Warm, clear skies and calm seas with a really nice sunset.

 

** 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?

Tank Prep

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Ecological Notes:

  • 8 Elephant seals, not much action today
  • Many sealions have moved to the southern most rocks (due to blasting?)
  • Another Canada Goose nest has eggs hatching, 2 goslings so far

Sat a long time, at distance with a zoom lens, to wait for this shot! (and cropped even more)

  • Nature in action! Gulls steal eggs from nests (in this case, the egg was not viable)

Gulls gotta eat too

Visitors:

  • 2, Greg (Waterfront Coordinator), delivering new tools, repair parts, drinking water, and groceries
  •  Allan Forster, contractor with V.I. Tank Services, to survey water tank and prep for cleaning

Facility Work:

  • Prepping electric fence for set up on the pier
  • Water tank survey, to prep for clean after desalinator servicing

DND events:

  • 4 large Detonations today, (6 yesterday), sealions and birds very reactive

Weather Events:

  • Mid day sun, moderate winds, storm blew in later in the afternoon, bringing some rain and westerly winds of 40-45 knots, gusting up to 50 knots by 1700hrs
  • Brought the flag down early though!

 

** 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?