The following is a draft copy of a graph I am working on to illustrate the growth of the elephant seal population at Race Rocks over the past few years. The information has been retrieved from logs of current and past Ecoguardians and photos and notes taken over the years.
To be continued: G. Fletcher
Clear skies. Light wind. Glassy seas. 9’C
DND blast: 1055, 1 medium blast
DFO has decided to extend our contract for the recreation fishing count. It starts again on December 1st, and continues until March.
The Canada Geese returned today, hopefully they don’t stay long, and I would prefer it if they stayed off my paths. I was told that the Sea lions leave this time of year, but there’s no sign of it happening yet, with over 1000 Sea lions still in the reserve. Maybe it’s because we have had such a mild Winter, with very few storms. They are mostly out on the Cobble beach on the South side of Greater Race and South Rocks. There are only a few by the jetty. The male elephant seal is still lounging on Middle Rock in easy view of Camera 5 on the West Bluff.
Animal Census
Stellar Sea lion: 479
California Sea lion: 555
Harbour seal: 47
Elephant seal: 1
Gulls: 159
Cormorants: 99
Oster Catcher: 4
Black Turnstone: 6
Eagle: 1
Raven: 1
-Started ‘Spring cleaning’ Keeper’s house for the shift change
-Prepped Science House for tomorrow’s group of students
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
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
This gallery contains 2 photos.
In most years since 1997 we have been able to contribute to the Christmas Bird Count for the Sooke/Victoria area. This website contains all the past records: This year, Garry Fletcher was picked up with the station boat by the … Continue reading
The first gentle sou’east weather pattern with clouds and rain occurred in the last few days. The rain is most welcome to wash away a summers worth of gull and pinniped excrement. This island can be smelled from a kilometer away!
At the edge of the world…
Surrounded by ankle-biters!
About 2/3s of the sea lions have left since the weather change. We are down to around 140 animals, perhaps 75 are Stellers down from the 175 of 10 days ago. Californians make up the remainder down from 225. Quite a few juveniles have showed up in the last week.
More birds are showing up. In the last few days several Harlequin ducks and a few dozen cormorants returned to dot the shoreline with the oystercatchers. Flocks of Bonaparte gulls feed on minnows in the eddies, forced to the surface from the deeper water by murres and rhinoceros auklets. Killdeers are spending the nights here. I hear them when I shut down the generator at night. Close to 30 sparrows are flitting about, and yesterday a few eagles and ravens were hunting and scavenging. Late developing gull chicks are on the menu. The flock of turnstones forages in the sea lion haulout ignored by the sea lions.
Tour boats are becoming less frequent and sport fishermen are waning too… yesterday for example a pod of orca passed with only 2 boats watching them rather than 8-10.
| Species | Current Population (Est) |
| Stellar/Northern Sea Lion | 175 |
| Elephant Seal | 8 |
| Harbour Seal | 200 |
| California Sea Lion | 200 |
| Glaucous-winged Gull | 150 |
| Herring Gull | 30 |
| California Gull | 6 |
| Surfbirds | 1 |
| Black Turnstones | 40 |
| Western Grebe | 2 |
| Brandt’s Cormorant | 30 |
| Sparrows | 12 |
| Horned Lark | 5 |
| Harlequin Ducks | 1 |
| Canada Goose | 8 |
| Bald Eagle | 1 |
| Black Oyster-catcher | 10 |
| River Otter | 1 |
| Pearson Students/Staff | 16 |
| Race Rocks Eco-Guardian | 1 |
| Rhinoceros Auklet | 100 |
| Common Murre | 100 |
Since the gale on Saturday night, about 75 Steller and 150 Californian sea lions have been hanging out under my window in the shelter of the house. It is hard to describe just how loud and smelly it is. I wish you could witness it for yourself! Well you can at: http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/video1frame.htm
Here are a few pictures. The Steller bulls (Eumetopias jubatus) are particularly impressive. Some of them weigh in at 1000 kgs.
Huge Steller Bull
Steller in the Middle
Sea Lions are extremely social and appear boisterous and argumentative. Smaller individuals will always move for the bigger ones, though they roar, growl and hiss in protest. Clashes are very frequent but damage is rare. Most of the contact actually involves just the whiskers (vibrissae), though nips to the skin do happen. Usually a smaller one will snap back in defence then lurch away across the backs of the sleeping neighbours who lazily complain til the commotion stops and they drift back to sleep. 30 seconds later it happens again… all day long and most of the night too!
Sub-adult males playfighting
Sealions on the South rocks: Panorama by Ryan Murphy
Orca’: 6, ‘A pod of around 6-8 orcas passed W to E through Rosedale Reef this morning..
California Sea Lion’, 1
Orca: 8, ‘At 2025hrs PDT a pod of orcas was spotted heading E to W through Race Passage against the flood current. Seven eco-tour boats were in pursuit.’, ‘Adam’, ’20:28:24 ,
230 glaucous-winged gulls were counted on the island today, which puts us at around 115 nests, down from 150 last year at this time.’, ‘adam’, ’12:09:54 ,