Tag Archives: Canada goose

FOER Trip

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Light to Moderate Easterly winds. Periods of heavy rain. Force 2-3.
Barometer is on the rise. The forecast is for West wind tomorrow.

Tour boas: 5
Other boats: 3 recreational fisherman transited the reserve

I saw two Canada goose goslings today, the first hatchlings of the season. I still don’t know what nest they came from, but I think it must be from a super sneaky nest that I hadn’t been able to find. Another group of Canada geese arrived along with a single White Fronted goose. The Elephant seals are still camped out in front of the Keeper’s House. Several seals spent much of the day in the shallows next to the jetty. Maybe it was because of the rainy weather, but by the end of the day all the seals were all piled up together. I think they separate from each other when it gets hot. The Eagles are out in force and actively pursuing Gulls. We watched an Eagle chase a Gull (with black under wings?) for a couple minutes, the Gull got away. That same Eagle took a dive for the Canada goose goslings. There were lots of Guillemots in the reserve today, but no sign of the Cormorants.

Chris dropped off Garry Fletcher along with the ‘Friends of Ecological Reserves’ trip for several hours today.

West Wind

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Strong West wind all day. Mixed weather, everything from clear skies to sideways rain.

4 tour boats
DND blasting: Several super loud blasts late morning.

The generator started up just fine this afternoon. Yeah!

There are now 10 Elephant seals on Great Race. There are 6 below the tower by the hose box, two in the garden West of the Keeper’s house, and two lying just up from the tank shed. Needless to say, there are a lot of detours off the paths for me to get between the buildings since they seem to like sleeping on the very edge of the paths. I found another Canada goose nest today on the very edge of the island just East of the big yellow diesel tank. There are 7 nests on the island: on the East beach behind a rough stack rock wall, one next to the compost pile on the South side of the Keeper’s house, one just East of the base of the tower, one under the tower stairs, the nest I found today just East of the diesel tank, a nest West of the Science house underneath a log, and one on the East side of the camera on the bluff. There is still one pair of geese that I am pretty sure have a nest right in the middle of the island by the Science house, but I haven’t been able to find it yet. It looks like the Snow Goose is gone, but the lone Cackling Goose is still around. The Sea lions are still camped out on West Rocks. There were 4 Bald Eagles on South Rocks this morning. The Eagles, both juveniles and adults, are regularly flying over the island and stirring up the Gulls, but I have yet to see a Gull get taken by an Eagle. The Barn swallows are still cruising around, no sign yet of any nests. The Guillemots are still spending a lot of time on the jetty. And I’ve been watching the Oyster catchers, but I haven’t seen any nesting behaviour.

-Cleaned up the generator room
-Keeper’s house chores: laundry, cleaned the stand up freezer, tidied up the basement workshop, replaced some light bulbs, cleaned the really dirty windows, turned the North entryway into the best tea/reading/guitar spot in the house.

Calm Saturday

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Light variable winds most of the day. Four brief periods of rain, clear skies in between. Very low West swell. Rainbows.

6 tour boats
2 dive boats

I spent some time today trying to learn to use the Nikon DSLR that lives out here at Race Rocks. The zoom on the big lens is awesome, but I still have a few technical issues to work out. My mission was to get a photo of a Pigeon Guillemot flying away from me with its red feet sticking out, but I wasn’t happy with any of my attempts. While wandering around looking for things to photograph I saw 10-15 Turnstones. They are spending most of their time in the middle of Great Race. There was 4 Western Sandpipers, 1 Sanderling, and 2 Dunlins all feeding in the muck-puddles on Great Race.The Elephant seal that has been next to the tank shed left this morning, but there are still two out on Middle Rocks. There are a few monster Steller Sea lions among the group out on South Rocks. There are now three Canada Goose nests, all with eggs in them.

Canada Geese

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Clear skies. Light winds.

The most Canada geese that I have counted to date is 33. The Canada goose (Branta canadensis. Not “Canadian goose”, they do not have citizenship) is a regular visitor/resident out here at Race Rocks. The species has 11 sub-species, many of which experienced a dramatic decline at the beginning of the 20th century because of hunting pressure and habitat loss. However, in the last 25 years the species has experienced a strong recovery. There are many groups that have also ceased to do their seasonal migration. They have recovered to a point where they are now considered a pest in many places. The main reasons for their change in status and migrations has to do with the bird’s adaptability. It has thrived under decreased hunting pressure and changes in weather/climate. This has combined with an increase in protected grassy areas (eg lawns, golf courses, and parks) and agricultural practices that leave waste grain in the fields over the winter. The species is considered to be invasive in New Zealand, where it was intentionally introduced as a game species. The species was also introduced, and has also migrated, to the UK and several Scandinavian countries. The species’ adaptability means that the Canada Goose is now the most numerous waterfowl in North America.

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Spring Equinox

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Clear skies. Variable North-East to South-East winds.
Waning gibbous moon, only one low day-time tide (~1m), and 4 to 5 kt currents.

I’m a day late, but Spring has officially arrived as determined by the sun crossing over the celestial equator.
There was a lot of Harbour seals out on Middle and Turbine rocks today. The Elephant seals are on the West Rocks. The Sea lions are still out on South Rocks. There was a large group of Harlequin ducks (14) in the water off the East beach. Cormorants were arriving in the reserve all day so assume my count dramatically under-estimates their numbers. The Canada geese with the nest next to the Keeper’s house have two eggs now. None of the other pairs of Geese seem to have settled enough to have eggs. The gulls are starting to pair up and settle into nesting spots. Amazingly, there were 7 Bald Eagles in the Reserve this morning. Most of them were sitting in pairs on the tops of various rocks. They were a fairly even mix of juveniles and adults. I saw a few sandpiper-like birds, but they were too fast for me to photograph or properly identify. Judging by the smell coming from the tank shed walkway, there is still a River otter living out here. And I saw some Scoters in the mouth of Pedder Bay on my way into the college this morning.

2 Tour boats

First Day of Spring Animal Census

Steller Sea lion: 31
California Sea lion: 6
Elephant seal: 3
Harbour seal: 144
Cormorant: 54
Gull: 133
Canada Goose: 15
Harlequin duck: 17
Black turnstone: 5
Unidentified sandpiper: 3
Oyster catcher: 6
Bald eagle: 7
Savannah sparrow:4
Pigeon Guillemots: 25
River otter: 1

Off station today from 0830 to 1030 to get keys and dive gear.
-fixed sagging corner on crane deck/walkway
-checked/cleaned Science House propane cleanout

Gale

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Strong Westerly gale all day. Intermittent rain and sun. Rainbows.

So far the new chimney for the wood stove is coping with the wind. It’s only been blowing up to 40-ish knots, but it’s still going strong.

There are a few Steller Sea lions still hanging out on the South rocks, although they spent the day in the water because of the foul weather.
This morning there were Pigeon Guillemots all over the end of the jetty.
The eagles are still around, feeding on the Sea lion carcass on the East beach.

Earlier today, while up in the lantern room, all of the Gulls lifted off the island because an Eagle flew over Great Race. So while it was blowing 30+kts, every bird on the island lifted up to the height of the tower and did their best to avoid the eagle. The eagle settled on the East beach and eventually the Gulls sat back on the ground. For those few minutes it was pretty amazing seeing all of the gulls and a great big Eagle doing their aerial acrobatics up at 100ft.

 

-working on drainage issues around buildings
-trying to quiet down all the squeaks and rattles that happen in the keeper’s house when it’s windy

storm warning in effect!

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Light SE wind in the morning. 3ft East swell.
Midday it switched to 25 kts West.
Late afternoon it was blowing 45 kts West. With a 5ft+ West swell.

Bird Count
26 Canada Geese spent the day sheltering from the storm on Greater Race Rock
670 Adult Gulls + 96 Juvenile Gulls = 766 Gulls total
20 Oyster Catchers
136 Cormorants
I don’t know where the Turnstones and Sparrows hide during bad weather

Screenshot 2013-11-03 09.43.35

How I counted Birds: The nice thing about bad weather is that it forces all the birds to come to Greater Race Rock because of the waves surging over the outer islands. They also tend to sit in organized groups when it’s really windy. So I took photos of all the groups of birds and using a ‘cell counter’ macro in a great free program called ImageJ I counted all the birds and tallied the results.

 

[Daily Marine Conservation Link]
Sea stars up and down both coasts of North America are experience a mass die-off event now called Sea Star Wasting Syndrome. In recent years the populations of sea stars has been extremely high in the Salish Sea, and in September 2013 reports of mortality events started coming in from divers. A collaborative research effort is now underway and the Vancouver Aquarium is hoping that divers start to participate in some Citizen Science.
The Howe Sound Research and Conservation team is tracking this event by mapping observations of healthy and sick sea stars  but they need data! So if you see any sea stars while diving report it to this website

 

 

 

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

month end

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Calm this morning, with mixed weather all day. Started out SE, backed to Westerly. Periods of torrential rain. DND blasting: 1200, 1205. Both big, loud single bangs.

Tour boats: 9

22 Canada Geese
Keeping my eye out for Sooty Shearwaters, no sign yet

Mammal Count from tower at 1130
9 elephant seals behind boat shed and on jetty 47 harbour seals (mostly Middle Rocks)
129 Stellar sea lions (mostly along the North shore of the main island)
200 California sea lions (mostly along the South shore in front of the student house)
Seems like this bad weather compelled a lot of the sea lions to leave. Maybe they’re just out in the water waiting for the swell and surge to ease up.

I spotted the Stellar sea lion with the line around his neck again today and got a few pictures.

-entered and sent water sampling data to IOS
-compiled month end report
-photographed branded sea lions
-fixed electric fence after storm damage
-tidied keepers house