Tag Archives: census

Animal Census

Posted on by

Birds

  • Harlequin duck                                  4
  • Bald eagle adult                                2
  • Bald eagle juvenile                           1
  • Turnstones                                        6
  • Killdeer                                               2
  • Glaucous winged Gulls                  597     
  • Cormorants                                        74
  • Pigeon Guillemots                             195
  • Oyster catcher                                    11
  • Canadian goose                                 11
  • Surf Birds                                             3
  • Savannah Sparrow                             1
  • Fox Sparrow                                         11
  • Canada Goose                                     11

 

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion                             6        – Seem to have disappeared today
  • Harbour seal                                 68
  • California sea lion                        47
  • Elephant seal sub adult male      2
  • Elephant seal adult female          3
  • Elephant seal pups(2F 1M)          3

Visitors:

  • 14 Pearson College student  and Laura visit the western tide pools

Facility Work:

  • Fire wood chopping 
  • Cleaning and organizing house and tools 

** All wildlife 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?

Special Guest Animal Census

Posted on by

Thank you to Andrew Jacobs and his associate for this onsite survey conducted on March 8 …..

It shows the difficulty in Gull ID’s, and why I normally report ### – “Gulls”

 

Total – Species – Stationary (on water or rocks staying in area) Flying (Flying around or past the area)

8 Canada Goose : 8 stationary

25 Harlequin Duck : 25 stationary

17 Black Oystercatcher : 17 stationary

64 Black Turnstone : 9 flying 53 stationary

17 Surfbird : 17 stationary

8 Dunlin : 4 Stationary 4 flying

14 Rock Sandpiper : 14 stationary

7 Common Murre : 7 flying

35 Pigeon Guillemot : 9 stationary 24 flying

1 Marbled Murrelet : 1 stationary

19 Short-billed Gull : 5 immature flying 14 adult flying

4 Western Gull : 2 adult stationary 2 immature stationary

2 California Gull : 1 adult stationary 1 adult flying

2 Herring Gull (American) : 1 immature flying 1 immature stationary

9 Iceland Gull (Thayer’s) : 4 adults stationary 1 adult flying 4 immature stationary

18 Glaucous-winged Gull : 3 adults stationary 3 adults flying 8 immature stationary 4 immature flying

78 Western x Glaucous-winged Gull : 10 adult flying 57 adult stationary 6 immature stationary 5 immature flying

1 Herring x Glaucous-winged Gull : 1 immature stationary

1 Red-throated Loon : 1 flying

121 Brandt’s Cormorant : 20 flying 101 stationary

53 Pelagic Cormorant : 6 flying 47 stationary

9 Double-crested Cormorant : 8 stationary 1 flying

13 Bald Eagle : 1 adult stationary 5 immature stationary 7 immature flying

2 Common Raven : 2 stationary

Harbour seal 23

California sealion 18

Steller’s sealion 19

Elephant Seal Pups 3

Sea Otter 1 (reported by Eco-Tourism Vessel)

August 10 and 11

Posted on by

Ecological Notes:

  • First sighting of Ollie the sea otter since I arrived. His new favourite location is in the kelp east of Great Race. I had seen him there on a boat trip on Aug 1.
  • First on-land passerines of my stay seen on Thursday, Aug 11: two juvenile Brown-headed Cowbirds. It is possible the bird I saw in the fog last week could have been one of these.
  • Sea lion numbers continue to climb.
  • Whale action must be in the Gulf Islands/San Juans, as fewer whale watching boats are coming this way.
  • Most of the young gulls are busy testing their wings, especially when the wind comes up.
  • Very low tides have revealed the eel grass beds and normally hidden intertidal zone.
  • See photos below for more ecological sightings.

Weekly Census observed on Wednesday, August 10:

Mammals

  • Elephant seals: 3 (1 adult male, two juvenile females)
  • Steller sea lions: 124
  • California sea lions: 40
  • Harbour seals: 186
  • Sea otter 1

Birds

  • Canada geese: 4
  • Harlequin ducks: 8
  • Black oystercatchers: 9 (8 adults 1 chick )
  • Killdeer 2 (only on island between dusk and dawn)
  • Black Turnstones: 194
  • Surfbirds: 17
  • Common Murres: 79
  • Pigeon Guillemots:183
  • Rhinoceros Auklets: 2
  • Heermann’s Gulls: 2
  • California Gulls: 353
  • Glaucous-winged Gulls: 341 adults 169 chicks (probably undercounted as wind caused a lot of chicks to seek cover)
  • Caspian Terns: 2
  • Pelagic Cormorants: 5
  • Brandt’s Cormorants: 12
  • Brown Pelican: 1

Weather:

  • Yesterday (Wednesday, August 10):
    • Sky: Overcast, with a few sunny periods
    • Wind: W 11-31 kts
    • Sea: up to 3′ chop
    • Temperature Low 12 oC, High 19 oC
  • Today (Thursday, August 11):
    • Sky: Overcast until mid morning, then partly cloudy
    • Wind: W 4-21 kts
    • Sea: calm to rippled
    • Temperature Low 14 oC, High 18 oC

Facility Work:

  • Solar panels cleaned daily. Some windows washed.  Postponed on Wednesday due to brief electrical storm. North side of researcher building skipped on Thursday due to presence of large elephant seal.
  • Compost renewal project continues.

Vessel Traffic:

  • Many Canadian ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve. Cruise ship traffic is increasing

Here are photo highlights from the past two days. Click on the photos for larger views and captions.

Eel grass

Race Rocks mussel beds appear unaffected by last year’s heat dome

Eel grass and mussel beds

Leatherback chitons

Bull Kelp

Many varieties of seaweeds exposed by the low tides

Feather duster tube worms in the intertidal zone

Alumni tours from Pearson College continued.

Cooperative Brown Pelican for census

Brown Pelican south of Great Race

Lots of food available Aug 10

Bait balls nearby were a boon for gull chicks

Young California Gull

Heermann’s Gull

Harlequin Ducks (females)

Young elephant seals on the ramp

Young elephant seal

Caspian Tern

Juvenile Brown-headed Cowbirds

Brown Pelicans west of Great Race Aug 11

Brown Pelican

Brown Pelicans west of Great Race

Smoke is coming. Moonrise on Aug 11

California sea lions

Black Oystercatcher

Ollie the sea otter sighting

Pigeon Guillemots

California sea lion

July 19 and 20 – Weekly Census

Posted on by

Ecological Notes:

  • An elephant seal swam up to the boat ramp at some point yesterday late afternoon or evening. When I went to do the seawater sample at 19:30, I spotted her sleeping at the water’s edge. As far as I can tell, she has been there ever since.
  • See the photo gallery below for more ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weekly Census recorded on Wednesday, July 20:

It was not an ideal day to record the census, as it was quite foggy. Although, I had a window of less fog at around noon, when I could see all the islets that comprise Race Rocks and the water in between, so I was able to count the species from the lantern room of the lighthouse. I counted other species throughout the day as I walked around.

  • Elephant Seal: 1
  • Steller/Northern sea lions: 15
  • Harbour seals: 125
  • Bald eagles: 2 (1 juvenile and 1 adult)
  • Canada geese: 9 (5 adults, 4 goslings)
  • Black oystercatchers: 11 (8 adults, 3 chicks)
  • Cormorants: 5
  • Glaucous-winged gulls nesting on the main island: 229
  • Glaucous-winged gull chicks: approximately 250 (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: 163
  • Black turnstones: 2
  • Western sandpiper: 3
  • Fox sparrow: 1

Weather:

  • Yesterday (July 19):
    • Sky: Partly cloudy, fog in evening
    • Wind: W 3-29 kts
    • Sea: rippled, then up to 1′ chop in afternoon and evening
    • Temperature Low 11oC, High 15oC
  • Today (July 20):
    • Sky: Fog overnight, a mixture of partly cloudy and fog throughout the day and into the evening
    • Wind: W 12-30 kts
    • Sea: rippled, then up 2′ chop in afternoon and evening
    • Temperature Low 11oC, High 14oC

Visitors:

  • 2 visitors from Pearson College to deliver supplies. 

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 13 and 14 – Weekly Census

Posted on by

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.

Census, elephant seal D018 returns

Posted on by

Weather: wind mostly westerly averaging 30 to 40 k/hr sunny most of the day

Visitors: no boats braved Race Rocks today, after the storm yesterday the swell was still big, the wind strong all day and the tidal variation caused fast currents

Addendum: at around 8 pm a ecotourism boat came through for a beautiful sunset run. Cold and windy but clear.

Census,

 

Although not the ideal day for the census as the winds were still very strong and I think the lack of small birds may be due to that, no sparrows, no turnstones and no shorebirds, but Greg is taking over from me and he will have his hands full doing island maintenance so I thought I would help out in this way.

Elephant seals 6

A large male (compared to the 3 young ones on the island) showed up today. His tag reads D018 and he has been here several times. The last record I can find of him is 2020. But he did come in 2019 and 2018. I have contacted Patrick Robinson and look forward to hearing more of his history. A small female also arrived. Her skin is in bad shape. I believe it is more than moulting but we can see how she fares the next few days if she stays around.

D018

Newly arrived small female with skin condition

Gulls  421

Seals 66

California sealions 17

Stellar 10

Canada Geese 14, currently 3 active nests

Pigeon guillemots 136

Cormorants 34

Harlequin ducks 6

Oyster catchers 6

River otter 1 on the grass by the crane

It was a mid day low tide of .4 metres. The westerly was strong and there was some swell. The tidepools and spring seaweed growth were phenomenal. Here are a few pictures.

Codium and isopod

Henricia

Census and censured

Posted on by

Weather; beautifully calm most of the day. Sunny with the occasional cloud. Wind mostly southwest

Visitors to reserve: 1 kayaker at slack tide. Went around seal rocks. Caused a landslide of Stellar sea lions.

No eco-tourism boats. Maybe the whales were in a different area?

Work: finished cleaning the lamp room and started sweeping the lighthouse stairs. chopped wood. what kept me VERY busy was the energy system which was drawing 2 kW instead of 1.2 kW (our usual load). I spent several hours trying to find something using that much draw. I had to start the generator at about 6 a.m. as the battery voltage was very low (large draw continued all night). Then I thought running the desalinator might solve the problem but neither seemingly did. It continued drawing between 1.6 and 2.1 until 3 pm and then it went down to 1.2. Greg believes charging up the battery from the generator may have reset things?

Observations:

Census

Elephant seals 7 (the male juvenile was away for several days this week but is back on Great Race)

Stellar sea lions 51 on south islands, none on Great Race today but over the last week there have been one or two here

California sea lions 8 on Great Race

Seals 60 on middle rocks

Gulls (western, glaucous-winged ) 236 counted from the lamp room on the island this morning

Pigeon guillemot   210, a large raft of them off seal rocks

Eagles 2 adult 2 immature

Cormorants 16

cormorants, double crested and pelagic

Oyster Catchers estimate 20

Harlequin ducks saw 5

Turnstones 32 very rough estimate, there are 8 on the grassy area around the house

Savannah sparrows I only ever see 4 at once but I see them constantly, that’s why I guess 20

Surf birds so well camouflaged but I would guess 20?

The following were seen this past week but not today,

Marbled godwit

Brown headed cowbird

brown headed cowbird

Sea otter

sea otter!

Orcas, transient or Biggs

one female and young, one  or two males, one to three other adults

Birds I did not get a picture off but were here this week:

Northern Crow (today and yesterday, aggressively chased away!!)

Semipalmated plover x 1

purple martin x 1

 

CENSURED

it appears to me that the 6 moulting females may NOT be female. the 3 large adults appear female but the at least 2 of the 3 small may be male. Am I right?

Doesn’t this “female” appear male???

Here’s a female.

laughing?

Census

Posted on by

Weather: wind was westerly until this afternoon and now is southeast

sunny and the water was calm

Visitors: several ecotourism boats going slowly by the jetty

10 kayaks by north rocks

fishers, 2 right near the RR fishing boundary

Census

7 adult female elephant seals

1 male pup born this year (already close to the size of the smallest female)

12 California sea lions, mostly male

27 stellar sea lions on south islands

60 seals on seal rocks and surrounding water

Cormorants 21

Gulls, Glaucous wing and Western 288 on Great Race,

most gulls are mature and in pairs, no nests yet, on the edges of Race Rock there are some immature gulls

Dunlin 3 ,one in summer plumage

Eagle 3, 2 mature one probably less than 1 year

Canada geese 14 to 20, 3 active nests

pigeon guillemot  counted 104 this morning in one area

oyster catchers  ?20

turnstones ?30

savannah sparrows 8

harlequin ducks 10

brandt’s cormorant 1

 

of note, no river otters, sea otters or whales today and yet it was the perfect day for sightings

brandt’s cormorant

Immature glaucous-wing gull?

Census

Posted on by

March 15, 2022

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion                         14
  • Harbour seal                             38
  • California sea lion                   33
  • Northern Elephant Seal            4

    • 1 Large male
    • 2 Adult female
    • 1 weened Pup male
  • Sea Otter                                 1

 

Birds

  • Bald eagle adult                           4
  • Bald eagle juvenile                      8
  • Turnstones                                  18
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western    72
  • Cormorants                                 41
  • Canadian goose                          14
  • Harlequin Ducks                         4
  • Oyster catcher                             10
  • Pigeon Guillimots                       8

Census

Posted on by

February 28/2022

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion                         28
  • Harbour seal                            73
  • California sea lion                   43
  • Northern Elephant Seal            3
    • 1 Large male
    • 1 non-nursing female
    • 1 weened pup
  • Sea Otter                                 1

 

Birds

  • Bald eagle adult                          9
  • Bald eagle juvenile                      15
  • Turnstones                                  28
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western     47
  • Cormorants                                 52
  • Canadian goose                           14
  • Harlequin Ducks                          6
  • Oyster catcher                             7
  • Pigeon Guillimots                        32