Tag Archives: census

Weekly Census

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Wind: yesterday 0-19 knots from W then E, today 2-19 knots from N then W
Sea State: yesterday calm, today calm in am and rippled in pm
Visibility: yesterday 10-15 NM, today 15 NM
Sky: both days clear with cloudy patches throughout day
Temperature: yesterday 5-8 °C, today 4-6 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.23 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Six visitors briefly came to the island yesterday morning. Lawrence installed the new deck hatch he made for the station boat. Everyone helped transport and load eight of the old batteries onto the college boat to be taken back to the shore for recycling.

I ran the water pump for five hours to fill up the cistern with cleaner seawater.

Three tour boats were in the ecological reserve yesterday. Today, a dive boat had several divers in the water just north of North Rocks at slack tide in the mid morning.

There was a lot biodiversity in the ecological reserve today. Here are the results from the weekly census:
6 elephant seals (1 adult female, 2 adult males, 2 female pups, 1 male pup)
57 steller sea lions (all on Middle Rock)
50 california sea lions (19 on Great Race, 31 on Middle Rock)
52 harbour seals
1 sea otter
6 bald eagles (4 juveniles, 2 adults)
8 Canada geese
18 brandt’s cormorants
16 double-crested cormorants
35 pelagic cormorants
2 ravens
141 gulls (mostly thayer’s gulls)
14 black oystercatchers
1 whimbrel
86 pigeon guillemots
16 harlequin ducks
10 surfbirds
28 black turnstones
1 snow bunting
1 song sparrow
1 fox sparrow

Sunday Census

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Wind: yesterday 3-34 knots from N to W, today 19-33 knots from W
Sea State: yesterday rippled, today chop up to 1 m
Visibility: both days 10-15 NM
Sky: yesterday partly cloudy with rain in evening, today overcast then heavy rain late morning clearing in afternoon
Temperature: yesterday 6-9 °C, today 6-7 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 413.05 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Census results from Sunday, February 16:
7 elephant seals (4 adult males, 2 female pups, 1 male pup)
68 california sea lions
21 steller sea lions
40 harbour seals
9 bald eagles (8 adults, 1 juvenile)
2 Canada geese
19 brandt’s cormorants
16 double-crested cormorants
30 pelagic cormorants
547 gulls (mostly thayer’s gulls)
2 black oystercatchers
8 harlequin ducks
10 black turnstones
1 song sparrow
1 snow bunting

Yesterday, I used the leaf blower in the boat house to clean out the thousands of dead flies left over from last summer. I laid out 76 m (250′) of fire hose to pump water from the jetty to the cistern. The fire pump ran for a couple hours to top up the seawater cistern used for the desalinator.

For the first time this winter, I saw about 20 pigeon guillemots in the water just north of the jetty yesterday morning. I haven’t seen any since.

There were 3 tour boats in the ecological reserve yesterday and no visitors on the island this weekend.

Photos from the past two days:

Groundhog Day

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Wind: yesterday 0-52 knots from S to W, today 0-18 knots from W to NE
Sea State: yesterday rippled with waves up to 1 m in afternoon and evening, today rippled
Visibility: yesterday 5-10 NM, today 15 NM
Sky: yesterday rain then patches of sun, today clear
Temperature: yesterday 5-12 °C, today 3-5 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.49 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

This morning at sunrise, the elephant seals saw their shadows. As the lore goes for their fellow mammal the groundhog, that means six more weeks of winter. Hard to believe with the crocuses blooming and daffodils buds almost ready to burst. Although, there is snow in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow as the temperature drops to 0 °C.

There were no visitors to the island. Two eco tour boats were seen in the reserve this afternoon.

Here are the results for the weekly census, conducted in the afternoon of Sunday, February 2:
10 elephant seals (3 female adults, 4 male adults, 1 female pup, 1 male pup and 1 unknown gendered pup)
147 steller sea lions
288 california sea lions
104 harbour seals
10 bald eagles (5 adults, 5 juveniles)
1 raven
109 brandt’s cormorants
182 pelagic cormorants
49 double-crested cormorants
24 canada geese
931 gulls (most are thayer’s gulls)
18 black oystercatchers
1 whimbrel
1 surf scoter
8 harlequin ducks
16 black turnstones
1 snow bunting
1 fox sparrow

Weekly Census

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Wind: yesterday 15-46 knots W, today 3-14 knots W shifting clockwise around to S
Sea State: yesterday up to 2 m waves, today rippled water
Visibility: 10 NM
Sky: yesterday overcast, today mainly sunny
Temperature: yesterday 6-7 °C, today 3-5 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 413.56 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The last two days were spent doing some tasks around the island like running the desalinator, topping up the batteries with the generator and cleaning. Today, the sun in the morning and early afternoon was taken advantage of to get a great view of all the species for the weekly census and do a solar powered load of laundry.

The only visitor was Greg, who came out from the college this afternoon for an hour to show me how to use some equipment and remove a load garbage from the island. No other boats were seen in the ecological reserve.

I am glad to hear the Race Rocks live video cameras are being used by the grade 10 students in the Trek Outdoor Education Program, in Vancouver.

Weekly megafauna and bird census results:
7 elephant seals (1 pup, 3 adult females, 3 adult males)
262 steller sea lions
413 california sea lions
45 harbour seals
9 bald eagles (7 adults, 2 juveniles)
1 raven
59 pelagic cormorants
17 brandt’s cormorants
8 double-crested cormorants
663 thayer’s gulls
5 surf scoters
41 black oystercatchers
8 harlequin ducks
1 whimbrel
12 surfbirds
30 black turnstones
1 snow bunting

 

Boxing Day Megafauna Census

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Wind: 0-25 knots NE
Sea State: up to 1 m chop
Visibility: 15 NM
Sky: overcast with sunny patches throughout the days
Temperature: between 6 to 7 C
Atmospheric CO2: 412.28 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

This morning, I heard a ruckus outside the west side of the house, where the a few of the elephant seals have been hanging out. The largest male appeared to be fighting the small juvenile male, while the female watched. The adult was slamming its head down onto the juvenile and biting it. This lasted for a few minutes before the juvenile and female fled to the north side of the path.

While I was doing the census in the middle of the day, there were three people snorkelling off the southwest of Great Race Rock Island. They took turns snorkelling in pairs, while one person stayed in the boat. Six other pleasure craft and eco tour boats were seen in the reserve over the past two days.

Weekly Megafauna Census for December 26:
5 elephant seals (1 juvenile male, 1 female, 3 adult males)
18 harbour seals
175 california sea lions
207 steller/northern sea lions
Birds:
8 harlequin ducks
9 surf scoters
4 canada geese
12 black turnstones
21 black oystercatchers
1 fox sparrow
15 bald eagles
107 cormorants (pelagic and double-crested)
224 gulls (a variety of species)

 

Humpbacks still around

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Weather: 

  • Sky: Overcast
  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 5-15 knots NE
  • Water: Choppy under a metre

Boats/Visitors: 

  • Saw a couple tour boats going by today, and a dive boat

Ecological

  • The sea lion numbers dropped a little again and the elephant seal numbers have gone up a tiny bit
  • Census
    • Sea Lions – 438 (96 Steller and 342 California)
    • Harbour Seals – 32
    • Gulls – still around 200
    • Cormorants – 75
    • Canada Geese – 14
    • Black Turnstones – 30
    • Eagles – 6
    • Elephant Seals, 2 males, one of them is the alpha the previous two years, Bernard and the other is slightly smaller male and then 1 small female tagged V173 who I found out was born in Point Reyes last February 2019
    • Humpbacks – 3 are going by just now, photo below is very blurry due to low light

Sea lions coming and going

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Weather: 

  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 15-30 knots SW
  • Water: Choppy

Boats/Visitors: 

  • Didn’t see any boats today
  • I am expecting some visitors tomorrow, we are working on decluttering and getting the desal going

Ecological

  • The sea lion numbers were dropping but it seems there is a lot more today than there have been in the past week, possibly due to the sudden change in weather the wind came up today
  • Census
    • Sea Lions – 500 (145 Steller and 315 California)
    • Harbour Seals – 0
    • Gulls – 240
    • Cormorants – 56
    • Canada Geese – 23
    • Black Turnstones – 30
    • Eagles – 10, there have been quite a few eagles hanging around lately
    • At least 2 male elephant seals around as well

Less Sea Lions

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Weather: 

  • Sky: Overcast
  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 5-15 knots NE
  • Water: flat

Boats/Visitors: 

  • Not as many boats out lately
  • some visitors to work on projects around the island having to do with energy, infrastructure, desalination

Ecological

  • Over a period of a few days the sea lions left in big numbers
  • Census
    • Sea Lions – 370 (200 Steller and 170 California)
    • Harbour Seals – 24
    • Gulls – 360
    • Cormorants – 150
    • Fox Sparrows – 10ish, harder to count these guys
    • Canada Geese – 22
    • Black Turnstones – 30
    • Eagles – 6
    • Haven’t seen any humpbacks in a little while, I would expect most of them to be well on their way south by now
    • At least 2 male elephant seals around as well
    • some of the stellers look pretty young

Bird List and Census by D.Donnecke

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Daniel Donnecke has contributed his images and counts from a visit to race Rocks on October 30 to ebird.org

https://ebird.org/checklist/S61055064

 

Census update

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Weather: 

  • Sky: partly cloudy
  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 0-10 knots NE
  • Water: flat

Boats/Visitors: 

    • still a few tour boats cruising around along with some fishing and sailing boats
    • had visitors recently, the marine mammal rescue team came and I will post more on that later

Ecological

  • So many sea lions, here is an updated census
  • Census
    • Sea Lions – 1085 (365 Steller and 720 California)
    • Harbour Seals – 37
    • Gulls – 400
    • Cormorants – 210
    • Fox Sparrows – 10ish, harder to count these guys
    • Canada Geese – 22
    • Black Turnstones – 30
    • Eagles – 6
    • Raven – 1
    • possibly 1 sea otter, bit hard to see from this distance
    • still seeing a humpback here and there but less frequent than last week