Race Rocks Ecological Reserve-

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Race Rocks Ecological Reserve-

Tag Archives: census

Census March 28

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Birds

  • Harlequin duck 14
  • Snowy plover 0
  • Bald eagle adult 2
  • Bald eagle juvenile 4
  • Turnstones 23
  • Killdeer 2
  • Gulls 243
  • Cormorants 76
  • Pigeon guillemots 37
  • Oyster catcher 8
  • Canadian geese 8

Mammals

 

  • Steller sea lion 36
  • Harbour seal 87
  • California sea lion 34
  • Elephant seal male 0
  • Elephant seal female 2
  • Elephant seal pup 4
  • Sea otter 1

Vessel traffic: Tug in tow East bound Race pass.

 

 

Weather Events: Wind went from 5 knots west to 40 knots in 20 minutes.

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

 

Census report

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Ecological Notes: More Gulls less Cormorants this count.

Birds

  • Harlequin duck 14
  • Snowy plover 0
  • Bald eagle adult 4
  • Bald eagle juvenile 6
  • Turnstones 14
  • Killdeer 0
  • Gulls 344
  • Cormorants 83
  • Pigeon guillemots 27
  • Oyster catcher 8
  • Canadian geese 16

Mammals

  • Harbour seal 126
  • California 23
  • Steller sea lion 40
  • Elephant seal male 0
  • Elephant seal female 2
  • Elephant seal pup 4
  • River otter 1

Vessel traffic: 2  SAR vessels

 

Weather Events: SE to West winds 20-30 knots lots of squalls .
Weather– Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather–Past: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?id=72

 

 

Census: March 14 2021

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Ecological Notes:

  • Birds
  • Harlequin Duck 16
  • Snowy Plover 1
  • Bald eagle adult 6
  • Bald eagle juvenile 8
  • Turnstones 14
  • Killdeer 1
  • Gulls 92
  • Cormorants 473
  • Pigeon guillemots 47
  • Oyster catcher 13
  • Canadian geese 16

Mammals

    • Stelller sea lion 35
    • Harbour seal 41
    • California 21
    • Elephant seal male 1
    • Elephant seal female 1
    • Elephant seal pup 4
    • Sea otter 1

Vessel traffic: 1 Eco tour boat

 

Weather Events: Wind went from 5 knots west to 40 knots in 1 hour.
Weather– Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather–Past: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?id=72

Census February 28, 2021

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The island is busy with activity.  Spring is seeing a rise in the bird population. California sea lions are back after the snow has melted. Here is the census:

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion 79
  • Harbour seal 75
  • California 62
  • Elephant seal male 2
  • Elephant seal female 1
  • Elephant seal pup 4
  • Sea otter 1

Birds

  • Bald eagle adult 2
  • Bald eagle juvenile 6
  • Turnstones 18
  • Killdeer 0
  • Gulls 84
  • Cormorants 665
  • Pigeon guillemots 54
  • Oyster catcher 6
  • Canadian geese 6
  • Harlequin 9

January 24th 2021 Census

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Weather: Lighter winds with some sun. 50knots winds on January 26th. Frosty mornings on the 22-26th.

Visitors/Traffic: Some tanker traffic and 2 whale watching boats.

Ecological Notes:

Bernard drumming to defend his harem. The newest male is on the right trying to sneak around the Race Rocks Crossroads unsuccessfully.

 

 

 

Baby Elephant Seals get fat. REEEEEAL fat. So fat that they can’t really navigate some obstacles. https://youtu.be/tm0SC5lDBQw

We had a new female Elephant Seal show up on January 21st, bringing our total moms to 5 for 2021. We have four pups with only one weaned so far, but the other two fattest pups are expected to be weaned next week. The new female looks pregnant and is exhibiting the same behavior the other moms did before giving birth: lots of ‘chirping’ and wandering around trying out all the comfy spots. The new female also shuffled the other mothers: before the two oldest mothers would aggregate and keep the third mother away. Now the newest female has assumed the ‘shunned’ position while the three mothers are aggregating with their pups and little conflict.

We finally clued in that there have been 3 males hanging out around the island: the dominant male (Bernard), a male who became submissive after battle, and a third male who’s quite a bit smaller and clearly submissive. This third male has a bit of damage around his left eye, kinda like a classic Disney villian with a scar on it’s eye. He’s been coming up the ramp trying to sneak around Bernard, but would retreat after an impressive bout of drumming.

Our newest male (Jafar) trying to find a place to hide on the Island without the Beachmaster noticing.

Bernard not having any of these males advances on his harem. He really has a second level he can take his drumming to show his dominance. If you heard his super low drumming, better skedaddle, as he’s had enough of you.

Census:

Gulls: 118

Cormorants: 281

Eagles: 9

California Sea Lions: 160

Steller Sea Lions: 119

Elephant Seals: 9

Harbour Seals: 14

Turnstones: 7

The newest pup: Snuggles. Born January 16th 2021.

The whole gang hanging out together in the front yard.

Our newest arrival: Joelene! She’s quickly assimiliated into the Race Rocks pod. She arrived on January 21st, so we would expect her pup sometime around the 28th.

That amazing phase where the pups start to rival their mothers bulk. 14 days in and looking healthy little guy!

January 10th Census

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Weather: Overcast, but mostly sunny over the last few days. winds 15-20knots.

This feels like we got more sun in January 2021 all of 2020.

Visitors/Traffic: Pretty quiet week, a few fishing boats driving by.

Ecological Notes: Newest Elephant Seal pup was born today. This makes 3 pups total, with the oldest nearing the end of his nursing period. His mom is looking VERY depleted, with 3 more days estimated until the end of her nursing period. His mom has also had a large behavioural change: previously she would ‘fight’ with the Beachmaster when we attempted mating, but over the last 24 hours she’s now much more receptive to his advances. 13-14 times a day receptive.

Cheermeister at 19 days. Looking fat and healthy as his mom gets more and more depleted. In 2020 we saw the pups nurse for 23 days, so he’s getting close to the end of ‘free food’.

Census:

Gulls: 259

Cormorants: 719

Eagles: 6

Turnstones: 22

Elephant Seals: 8 [2 bulls, 3 females, 3 pups]

Steller Sea Lions: 160

California Sea Lions: 121

Harbour Seals: 10

Proof that I take photos of other animals than Elephant Seals. SE Steller Rookery going strong.

Mothers seem to have lots of aggression shortly after a pup is born. Every pup we’ve seen get born here coincides with a bought of mom-on-mom aggression. Although Courtney has pointed out that this is my interpretation of their behaviour, and this could just be a ‘welcome to the fraternity of motherhood’ moment.

Mating looks rough. In larger rookeries this often results in pups getting squished. Here, Cheermeister just needs to avoid getting pinned and he should be good. He’s repetitively gotten in the middle of that mating between his mom and the Beachmaster and hasn’t died…. yet.

Peace descends. As with all things Elephant Seal: the chaos doesn’t last long. After 30 min of excitement everyone rolls over and falls asleep until tomorrows moment of activity,

 

December 23 Wildlife Census with a new baby Elephant Seal

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Weather: A bit of light sleet/snow, light winds ~15knots.

Visitors/Traffic: 2 Whale watching boats, and a supply run by Gregg.

Ecological Notes: Baby Elephant Seal born last night! Around 22:00 at night our resident female (pink tag #2, also referred to as ‘Beverly’). The Beachmaster was present for the birth, and initially I thought he might be looking to kill the pup to force the female into estrus. Nope, just an observer, sniffing and mouthing the newborn pup, but no damage caused.

Newborn Elephant Seal Pup, which we’ve taken to calling ‘Cheermeister’.

Lots of eagles present in today’s Census,  which may be related to the reduced number of birds counted.

Census:

Gulls: 164

Cormorants (mostly Brant’s): 430

Eagles: 13

Elephant Seals: 5

Steller Sea Lions: 329

California Sea Lions: 464

Turnstones: 22

Green Wing Teal: 4

Long Tailed Duck: 5

Canada Geese: 2

Steller Sea Lion haulout to the SE of the lighthouse.

It’s a Cormorant party.

Eagles on the island mean that a lot of the birds are choosing to be elsewhere.

Any space without Sea Lions and eagles mean the birds can really stretch their wings.

Elephant Seals pick the weirdest spots to sleep. Sometimes it’s inconvenient for maintenance, and sometimes it just looks gross. Soaking your wounded nose in a poopy puddle? Gross.

 

Clear Skies + Elephant Seals! (census)

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Weather:

  • Visibility 15+ NM
  • Sky mostly clear, overcast in late afternoon
  • Wind 0-10 knots N
  • Sea state: calm, glassy!

Visitors: A small number of pleasure crafts trickling through. Only a handful of tourism vessels over the weekend and a few through the late week.

Ecological Notes: 

  • This week has brought some of our favorite visitors to Race Rocks: elephant seals! We’ve been joined by two huge male elephants seals as well as two younger pups that look to be only a year or so old. Unfortunately we haven’t seen any tagged elephant seals yet so that’s all we know for now.
  • We’ve still been spotted seagulls displaying odd behavior. We’ve noticed a total of 7 over the past month.
  • Whale sightings have slowed down now, seemingly as the weather gets colder and salmon runs slow. We have still been seeing around one per day but the sightings are less consistent.
  • Today we noticed a tiny sea lion pup nursing! We mostly only see male sea lions on race rocks, but recently we’ve been noticing very small sea lions arriving. It’s hard to tell the sex of sea lions from a distance so this was the first female we’ve identified in the crowd.
  • The bald eagles have continued to visit to fish and hunt gulls in the early to late morning. They particularly like to sit under the tower containing camera 5, sometimes up to 10 at once! The color variation throughout their different life stages is particularly striking.

Census:

  • 54 Harbour seals
  • 177 Stellar sea lions
  • 233 California sea lions
  • 4 Elephant seals
  • 275 Brandt’s + pelagic cormorants (too far away to distinguish)
  • 6 Double-crested cormorants
  • 5 Surfbirds
  • 3 Dunlins
  • 25 Black turnstones
  • 12 Harlequin ducks
  • 7 Bald eagles
  • 290 Thayer’s gulls

A Big Storm + Lots of Birds! (census)

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Weather Today: 

  • Visibility 14 NM
  • Sky partially overcast
  • 30-55 Knots SW
  • Sea state: swells up to 2m, otherwise 3-4+ ft chop

Visitors/Traffic: Nothing other than a few fishing and shipping vessels in the strait.

Ecological Notes: 

  • We found another apparently healthy gull dead today; this is the fourth one since the beginning of the month. We now have two preserved for necropsy, which we hope to transport to land soon to be investigated. They have all displayed the same odd symptoms: weakness in the wings progressing to unable to move, wings dropping to the sides, and unable to make any sound.
  • This week there have been an incredible number of cormorants in the reserve! An underrated bird, they are very fun to watch as they waddle, preen, and fish.
  • We’ve been noticing some fungi popping up around the island now that we are into the rainy season! Photos below. These are in addition to the shaggy mane mushrooms we found last spring fruiting beside the composters.
  • Last week we spotted another “neck wrap”: a california sea lion with some kind of pollution material embedded into his neck. Unfortunately it seems that he is no longer present in the reserve, making a rescue improbable.

Census:

  • 4 black oystercatchers
  • 1 dunlin
  • 1 ruddy turnstone
  • 9 black turnstones
  • 3 surfbirds
  • 500 Thayer’s gulls
  • 17 Canada geese
  • 1550 Cormorants (wow!)
  • 2 bald eagles
  • 100 stellar sea lions
  • 502 California sea lions
  • 2 harbour seals