Photos to follow
Number observed: 4
Records for 2017 to 2020–
THE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT AT RACE ROCKS
This data below may be highlighted, copied and pasted to an open EXCEL file. It will then be usable for statistical manipulations and graphing exercises.Some of the records reflect seabirds observed on the trip from Bentinck Island out while on the boat. Due to inclement weather ( that means a wind above 15 knots from the north East usually, ) In 2018 and 2019 observations were carried out from Great Race Rock Island only, and the surrounding area visible from there.
Linked below are the count returns by year. Included are some of the photographs taken of the members by those who were able to make it out for the counts, –Garry Fletcher
See this link for all past bird counts
2020_ Matthew and Courtney Cameron
2019- Nick Townley ( stormy- observed from land only)
2018- Alex Fletcher (stormy , observed from land only)
| SPECIES | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||||||||
| Double Crested Cormorant | 10 | 20 | 208 | 10 | – | |||||||||||
| Brandt’s Cormorant’s | 14 | 50 | ? | 750 | ||||||||||||
| Pelagic Cormorant |
18 | 75 | 59 | 20 | ||||||||||||
| Common Murre | 1* | 3500 | 0 | 25 | ||||||||||||
| Rhinocerous Auklet | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Black Oystercatcher | 42 | 24 | 4 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Black Turnstone | 59 | 38 | 42 | 50 | ||||||||||||
| Surfbird | 0 | 0 | 18 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Dunlin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | ||||||||||||
| Ruddy Turnstone | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Sanderling | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Pigeon Guillemot | 10 | 0 | 0 | 30 | ||||||||||||
| Marbled Murrelet | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Ancient Murrelet | 0 | 90 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Pacific Loon | 0 | 40 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Common Loon | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Red Throated Loon | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Canada Goose | 0 | 12 | 0 | 5 | ||||||||||||
| Harlequin Duck | 10 | 10 | 6 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Long-tailed duck | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Bufflehead | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Surf Scoter | 55 | 4 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Common Goldeneye | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| White winged Scoter | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Red-breasted merganser | 18* | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Common Merganser | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Hooded Merganser | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Red-necked grebe | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Horned Grebe | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Harlequin Duck | 10 | 10 | 6 | 5 | ||||||||||||
| Mew Gull | 14 | 800 | 48 | 3 | ||||||||||||
| Thayer’s (Iceland) Gull | 8 | 150 | 281 | 75 | ||||||||||||
| Herring Gull | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Ring-billed Gull | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Heermann’s Gull | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Iceland Gull | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| California Gull | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Western Gull | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| WesternXGlaucous-Winged Gull | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
|
Glaucous-Winged Gull
|
69
|
250
|
0
|
10
|
||||||||||||
| Harlequin Duck | 10 | 10 | 6 | 0 | ||||||||||||
|
Bonapartes Gull
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
||||||||||||
| Rhinocerous Auklet | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Merlin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Bald Eagle, Immature. | 0 | 0 | 5 | ? | ||||||||||||
| Bald Eagle, adult | 4 | 10 | 25 | 15 | ||||||||||||
| Killdeer | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Rock Sandpiper | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Western Sandpiper | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Black Bellied Plover. | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Red-necked Phalarope | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| American Pipit | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| European Starling | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Song Sparrow | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Fox Sparrow | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Savannah Sparrow | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Snow Bunting | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| North Western Crow | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Raven | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Brown Pelican | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Great Blue Heron | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| SPECIES | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |||||||
Today was the annual Christmas bird count. Martin Stewart provided the transportation on the boat Ecosphere for Matt and Courtney Cameron to go out to Race Rocks Ecological reserve from Pedder Bay with Garry Fletcher.
Observations were done from the marine a out through Pedder bay and then we docked at Race Rocks to be met by Courtney the Ecoguardian. We had only a brief window of time, probably an hour there before the wind started to pick up from the North East, but that was adequate to get a good count of the birds on shore.
Pam Birley from England took these photos on camera 5 :
Striking in their abundance were the and Pelagic and Brandts Cormorants. On leaving we circled around the South side of the islands and out past West Rock where there were also large numbers of cormorants. From West Race Rocks we went over to Emdyck Pass behind Bentinck Island and found another large gathering of Cormorants, and some alcids. The other bird that seemed much more frequent than previous years were the Black Turnstones
On the island, after stepping carefully past a male elephant seal on the jetty, we were able to view the new pup and mother elephant seal with the large male up on the lawn by the house.
Wind: Yesterday 5-10 knots W; Today 5-20 knots NE
Sea State: up to 1 m chop
Visibility: 10 NM
Sky: overcast with rain this afternoon
Temperature: 7 C
Atmospheric CO2: 412.60 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)
December 28 is the annual Christmas Bird Count, which happens in thousands of locations across North America. It has been happening for twenty-two years at Race Rocks. This morning with the northeast wind and dropping pressure, the planned visit by the local bird enthusiasts was called off. But fear not, citizen science provailed. For an hour and half this morning, I searched for birds of all feathers as I walked around the island and looked out from the top of the lighthouse. I used binoculars, a spotting scope and the zoom lens on the camera to check out the shoreline, water and the rocky islets of the ecological reserve. I was able to spot 12 species of birds, some of which were not present when I did the weekly census two days ago. Here are the results and photos of the bird count:
25 bald eagles (5 juvenile, 20 adults)
1 fox sparrow
4 canada geese
2 ravens
6 harlequin ducks
208 double-crested cormorants
59 pelagic cormorants
281 thayer’s gulls (on the rocks and in the water)
48 mew gulls (near Turbine Rock and North Rocks)
18 surfbirds
42 black turnstones
4 black oystercatchers
Photos of some of the birds seen today:
In the past two days, I have seen two entangled sea lions. Yesterday morning, I noticed a large steller sea lion with a small rope around its neck. The rope appeared to be cutting into the underside of the animal’s neck. A short while later, I noticed a california sea lion with a cut on its neck from what appears to be a plastic strap wrapped around it. The Marine Mammal Rescue Centre and Department of Fisheries and Oceans have been notified. If the sea lions remain at Race Rocks, it might be possible for a rescue to occur. Both animals were seen again today. See the entangled sea lion and marine mammal rescue tags for past occurrences that were written about in the Log. Two other california sea lions were seen that appear to have healing wounds from something that was previously wrapped around their necks. The animals don’t appear to have tags on their flippers to signify they have been rescued.
The Canadian flag was looking a bit tattered, so I replaced it today.
Just before sunset today, there were four eco tour boats in the reserve. The boats were all close to each other, which usually means something interesting is nearby. Sure enough, a pod of five or six orcas were passing westward. They travelled along the north side of the ecological reserve, just south of Bentinck Island and the Department of National Defence base.
Here are some photos from the past two days:
Weather: Continued west wind up to 30 knots in the morning and some lingering swell, sunshine for a change.
Ecological:
Guy brought Kim and Jim out in the morning for the annual “Sooke Christmas Bird Count”. They surveyed the island and surrounding waters from the top of the tower and walked around the island. Guy took them around the reserve in the boat on the way back to get a better view of the pelagic zone. Apparently the Snow Bunting they saw here was one of the highlights of the Sooke count this year.
12 Canada Goose
10 Harlequin Duck
4 Surf Scoter
3 White-winged Scoter
2 Red-breasted Merganser
24 Black Oystercatcher
38 Black Turnstone
3500 Common Murre
90 Ancient Murrelet
4 Rhinoceros Auklet
800 Mew Gull
150 Iceland Gull (Thayer’s)
250 Glaucous-winged Gull
1 Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid) — 95% Western
1 Red-throated Loon
40 Pacific Loon
1 Common Loon
50 Brandt’s Cormorant
75 Pelagic Cormorant
20 Double-crested Cormorant
10 Bald Eagle
2 Common Raven
1 Snow Bunting — Photos taken
1 Song Sparrow
Number of Taxa: 24
-4 tankers passed by today: The STI Battery, and oil/chemical tanker on its way to Quintero, Chile; The Florida, an oil/chemical tanker heading to Anacortes from Nikiski (USA); The Unique Developer, and oil products tanker coming from Topolobampo (Mex) en route to Port Angeles; and the Valrossa, from Cherry Point to Manzanillo (Mex)
Vessels:
-Second Nature
-one private/sports fishing
-3 tour boats
-1 little red zodiac going over the requested speed limit.
Maintenance:
-fixed firewood cutting jig
-sharpened chainsaw
-cut firewood
-Tidying in tank room
This year is our 20th year in assisting the local birders with the Rocky Point Bird Observatory in doing a count at Race Rocks. Given the time of year this has to occur, it is often thwarted by bad weather, but in the past counts, some very interesting species and population numbers have shown up. See this index of past years Bird Counts. https://www.racerocks.ca/race-rocks-animals-plants/bird-observations-at-race-rocks-3/christmas-bird-counts-starting-in-1997/
Kim Beardmore same along to record the birds for the 2017 Christmas bird count. Here Kim on the left and the Ecoguardian Mikey Muscat check on one of the 5 male elephant seals.
Although we went to count birds, I found that the most impressive thing was that there were 5 large male elephant seals on the island and two juvenile females. When compared with other years this was quite unusual, and it could be interesting when the females come back in January to have pups. I predict there will be a lot of male aggression going on in mid-January.
These four species other than several gull species and bald eagles were part of the count which we will add below .
Other observations around the island:
Romanzoffia tracyi
I took advantage of the few hours there to check on other aspects of the island from the ecological reserve warden point of view. Especially noticeable this year were the massive fields of mud over most parts of the island where the california sea lions hauled out over the past few months. I was concerned about the erosion and rock disturbance that this has caused. Most of the plants in many parts of the island have been obliterated. I did however find this one healthy patch of Romanzoffia tracyi behind the boathouse. Protected because of its location among the rocks. I checked some of the other known locations of this rare plant but didn’t see any.
Black oystercatcher midden
One feature that was very evident with the lack of vegetation was the extensive beds of chiton shells which are evidence of black oystercatcher middens from last season.
Two immature or juvenile female elephant seals were on the island, one tagged ..green C887
The five males:
I have been watching the vegetation cover made up of the introduced species of Sedum or stonecrop which was on the top of the reservoir.. In my September photo the bed was quite dried and cracked. Now it has partially recovered.. This is one place the sealions seem to avoid.
Because Pearson College could not provide boat transportation this year, and because I was determined to continue the 20 year tradition of this valuable baseline collection of bird population data, we rented a boat from Pedder Bay marina for the trip to Race Rocks. A list of the birds observed by Kim Beardmore is attached here.
Birds:
Pinnipeds:
We had lined up several people to go out today for the annual Christmas Bird Count, unfortunately the gale warning and the increasing wind from the North East made it impossible to get anyone out . With an impending storm the birds often disappear and such seems to be the case today. The following general pictures showing the few groupings of birds were taken from the tower camera 1 at mid-day. Alex will provide on the ground details later.
Cormorant grouping on the south west corner of Great Race Rock.
This year on Dec 27, the North East swell was too significant to allow the Ecoguardian to launch the station boat to pick us up for the Christmas Bird Count, so Alex Fletcher completed it on his own. Due to the high winds, there were very few birds remaining on the island but he did get a good count of those there by walking around the island. From remote camera 1 I was able to see the two concentration of gulls and the one group of Cormorants on the main island.
This picture is included to help in identification.
Alex got some good pictures of the gulls and it seems that most if not all are Thayer’s Gulls.
Thayer’s gulls on the north-east corner of the island
Thayer’s Gulls photo by Alex Fletcher
See the Christmas Bird Counts at Race Rocks back to 2001:
Christmas Bird Count 2015
bald eagle: 3 A, 2 J
Cormorants: 174
black oyster catchers: 40
Thayer’s gulls 192
Buffleheads 2 (1 pair)
Black turnstones: 29
Dunlin: 2
Harlequin Duck 1
Marine mammals:
Northern sea lion: 76
Cali sea lion: 40
We want to thank Lester Pearson College for providing transportation to the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve for the 2014 Christmas Bird Count. Ecoguardian Alex Fletcher picked up Garry Fletcher and Val George with the Race Rocks boat from the Pearson College docks at 9:30 AM. We were able to do a Pedder Bay count as well.
The following is the spreadsheet for the 2014 Christmas Bird Count prepared by Val and Garry. Link to the Index for the past Race Rocks records for the Christmas Bird Counts
2014 Christmas Bird Count –
Summary for Race Rocks and Race Passage
Details
several large groupings on known refuge for this species- exact count