Tag Archives: chuckles

Chunk vs. Chuckles

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 0 knots most of the day, until the evening when it hit 40 knots West
  • Sky: clear and sunny
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • 14 elephant seals on Great Race; 2 on Middle Rock.
  • Chunk and Chuckles engaged in friendly water battles for over an hour.
  • The tagged female elephant seal from California is still around.
  • The single odd looking seagull egg from May 29th has turned into 2 normal gull eggs.

Maintenance

  • Topped up the tidy tank with diesel.
  • Cleaned the solar panels.
  • General cleaning up.
  • Wrote the month end report.
  • Sent off the May seawater data.

Boats

  • At 12:30 there were 5 large eco-tours in the reserve at once. This might be too many at once?
  • What is quite probably the largest eco-tour I have ever seen came through Middle Channel today.

Other

  • At least 7 DND blasts today.
  • They came at 9:46, 9:47, 9:48, 10:29, 10:29, 10:30, and at 11:03.
  • The first 6 were medium blasts; the last one was huge.
  • Usually we are notified ahead of time of blasting, but the most recent email only indicated blasting from June 1-3.
  • Today is the last full day of my shift. Guy and Christine will be taking over tomorrow.

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Spontaneous Whale Watching!

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Mt. Baker visible at times today.
  • Wind: 10-15 knots West
  • Sky: clear and sunny!
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • We spied three eagles on Turbine Rock this morning.
  • 14 elephant seals on Great Race today, including both Chunk and Chuckles.
  • As Second Nature was departing Race Rocks sometime after 9:00, Kyle spied several whale watching boats following a pod of orcas outside the reserve.
  • I hopped aboard (sans camera) and we went off to join the fleet.
  • Over the next half hour or so, we watched 5 or 6 orcas as they repeatedly surfaced on their southerly course.
  • Christine (Guy’s wife) took several photographs; perhaps she will share them with us soon.
  • Pam Birley discovered a Black Oystercatcher nest today via webcam. That makes 3 known nests.
  • As Pam noted, it is “not a good spot to nest because the Otter likes to sunbathe in that spot on the rocks.”

Maintenance

  • I did some yellow paint touch up on the jetty.
  • Sprayed more algicide on the students’ house.
  • Shut-down the students’ house.

Boats

  • Second Nature arrived around 9:00, and properly departed around 10:00 after our unexpected whale watching trip!
  • Many eco-tours came by today.
  • A few of them appeared to be too close to the sea lions.

Visitors

  • Kyle, Guy, Christine, and their daughter arrived at 9:00.
  • Guy and Christine were dropping off some gear for their upcoming shift.
  • Maya, Tazi, and Ali departed on Second Nature.

Tazi, Maya, Ali

Ali, Maya, Tazi, Mt. Baker

A Windy Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-25 knots West in the morning, picking up to 30-35 by noon.
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: 3′ chop

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Ecological

  • I oversaw an enthusiastic day long census with Maya, Tazi, and Ali.
  • Discovered a new Black Oystercatcher nest with 3 eggs!
  • Maya and Tazi discovered a new Canada Goose nest.
  • I begin to suspect that our new elephant seal male is actually Chuckles.
  • If he did nothing but eat for 3 months straight, that would explain his girth.
  • Saw a Steller Sea Lion branded 9628.
  • We found a blood star, and Maya showed us various chitons.
  • Maya and Tazi did a transect.
  1. Harbour Seals: 190
  2. California Sea Lions: 42
  3. Steller/Northern Sea Lions: 39
  4. Elephant Seals: 15 (13 on Great Race, 2 in the Southern waters)
  5. Seagulls: 225 (Glaucous-winged)
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 82
  7. Canada Geese: 36 (14 on Great Race, 22 flyovers)
  8. Black Oystercatchers: 8 (plus 2 nests with a total 5 eggs)
  9. Harlequin Ducks: 3 (2 male, 1 female)
  10. Cormorants: 3
  11. Barn Swallows: 2

Maintenance

  • We cleaned the solar panels.
  • Finished cleaning the boathouse floor with T.S.P.
  • Repainted some rusty propane tanks.
  • Sanded the westward facing bench by the Students’ house.

Boats

  • Several eco-tours came by in the morning, but as wind picked up they disappeared.

The Return of Chunk!

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 15 knots West most of the day, 30-40 in the evening.
  • Sky: clear
  • Water: 2′ chop

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Ecological

  • This morning there was a new large male elephant seal on Great Race.
  • He is far larger than any of the other ones here.
  • Then in the evening Chunk arrived on the Western part of the island, equalling the new male in size.
  • Chunk was last reported as being on Great Race on March 4th of this year.
  • Chuckles was last sighted on Great Race on February 29th of this year.
  • I don’t think the other one is Chuckles, as I remember Chuckles being smaller.
  • 15 in total on Great Race.
  • Lots of entertaining e-seal sparring and interactions, much to the delight of the students.

Maintenance

  • In the morning, the 4 of us finished uncovering the brick feature under the flywheel.
  • We also cleaned the algae off of the flywheel and cleaned the solar panels.
  • In the afternoon we scraped paint chips off the white railings near the derrick.
  • Did the old water sampling method, as the YSI wasn’t turning on.

Boats

  • Lots of eco-tours today.
  • Most of them appeared to go too close to the sea lions.
  • Several sailboats out on the water; beautiful!

Other

  • Approximately 10 DND blasts today at the more easterly detonation station on Bentinck.
  • This included blasts at 9:30, 9:40, 10:00, 12:48, 12:49, & 12:51.
  • The initial blast scared several sea lions into the water.
  • By my personalized scale, the first five were medium blasts, the final five were huge.
  • For those of you wondering, my scale goes something like this: small, medium, big, huge, massive.

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Shift Change Delayed by Gale

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-40 knots E, later S, W, and N.
  • Water: 3′ chop
  • Sky: overcast and rain

Ecological

  • Chuckles was gone all day.
  • Chunk was hanging out under the water beside the jetty at 18:00.
The only sign of Chuckles

The only sign of Chuckles.

Maintenance

  • Cleared logs off the ramp.
  • Final bit of tidying and packing in the main house.
  • Typed out and sent off sea water data report for February.

Boats

  • Conditions were unsuitable for a shift change today, as no boats were able to traverse between Race Rocks and the college.
  • The HMCS Ottawa was out near Esquimalt today.
  • Watched the Coho chug across the straight headed for Port Angeles in the afternoon.
The Coho Ferry

The Coho Ferry

Last Full Day of the Shift

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots East
  • Water: 1′ chop
  • Sky: mix of sun and cloud

Ecological

  • Chunk and Chuckles still in their respective positions on Great Race.
  • Noticed over 50 harbour seals today.
  • In general much more wildlife than yesterday.

Maintenance

  • Ran the fire pump for 40 minutes. This added about 1′ of water to the cistern.
  • Filled up the tidy tank using the equivalent of one barrel of diesel (55 gallons).
  • Stacked more firewood.
  • Emptied the ash from the wood stove in the main house.
  • General tidying up in the house to make it ready for the next Eco-guardian.
  • Wrote my shift end report.

Boats

  • One pleasure craft was hanging out near West Rock in the morning.
  • In the afternoon one eco-tour came through Middle Channel. It was a strange looking boat that I had never seen before with the words “Luna BC” on it.
  • The HMCS Ottawa was out in the straight. According to the Marine Traffic website it made it all the way out to the open ocean today.

Other

  • I couldn’t get the camera to take any photographs today. I think I bumped one of its many buttons (most of which I don’t know what they do) as it appears to be on a different setting than I am used to.

Fire Extinguisher Return

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots NE
  • Water: rippled
  • Sky: clear

Ecological

  • Chunk and Chuckles still on Great Race.
  • Chuckles had some fresh wounds on his back that were weeping fluids.
  • Saw a California sea lion branded with 8240.
  • Saw a Sea Slater (Ligia Pallasii) crawling in the muck near the jetty today.

Maintenance

  • Found all the “loaner” fire extinguishers and collected them up.
  • Loaded said fire extinguishers and a box of recycling into the maintenance boat when Jeff and his assistant came by.
  • Checked the water level in the cistern; things are good.

Boats

  • Jeff came by to pick up some items. He did not disembark.

Other

  • Heard six DND blasts today. They came in pairs, each pair progressively bigger, from loud, to house shaking. 10:03, 10:05, 10:55, 10:57, 11:41, and 11:43.

Scratches on Chuckles

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 0-10 knots N
  • Water: rippled
  • Sky: sunny

Sunset in the West

Ecological

  • Chunk and Chuckles were both on Great Race today.
  • Chuckles had several fresh cuts and scrapes on his back. My guess is he has been fighting with Chunk at night, although all the females are gone now, so mating seems to be irrelevant to the fighting?
  • As far as I can tell, the weaner is still on Middle Rock. If the males leave it alone that will raise the odds of survival.

Maintenance

  • Hauled some massive logs off the ramp.
  • Removed half the old firewood in the west shed on the Energy Building and re-stacked closer to the main house. Replaced with newer firewood for curing.

Boats

  • One fishing boat floated out by the jetty for a good while as the occupants admired the lighthouse tower. They left at a good slow speed.

Weaner’s Derrick Ride

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 0-10 knots North
  • Water: rippled
  • Sky: mix of sun and cloud

Ecological

  • After analysing the elephant seal pup on Great Race, I am fairly certain that it is a male pup.
  • Mum and pups on Great Race and Middle Rock were alone most of the day.
  • For the first time, I saw a bald eagle eating from the dead elephant seal pup out on the rocks.

Maintenance

  • Stacked firewood.
  • Cleared the ramp three times.
  • Started replacing dead light bulbs in the Student’s House.
  • Moved the weaner’s body away from the main house with ropes and the derrick, helped by Chris, Jeff, and 3 volunteers from the college.

Boats

  • Second Nature came by for a couple of hours in the afternoon, crewed by Chris, Jeff, the IT guy, and 3 volunteers. They helped move the weaner and checked up on various electronic systems.
  • One eco-tour came by in the late afternoon.

Other

  • There were 6 more DND blasts today.
  • Two massive blasts that shook the house at 10:15 and 10:17. Birds and mammals quite disturbed, but they settled back down.
  • Two small blasts at 11:31 and 11:34.
  • Two medium blasts at 14:40 and 14:45.
Massive DND blast.

Massive DND blast.

Rain and Foghorn

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Weather

  • Visibility: 1 mile
  • Wind: 5-10 knots NE
  • Water: 1′ chop
  • Sky: fog, rain most of the day

Ecological

  • Chuckles attempted to mate with the grieving mother on Great Race.
  • Chunk appeared to be mating with the mother on Middle Rock.
  • Lady, mum and pup still on Great Race.

Maintenance

  • Continued cleaning in the Student’s House.
  • Discovered a leak in the main house; positioned a bucket to catch the water.
  • Did the old method of water sampling along with the regular one.

Boats

  • One fishing boat passed through the reserve today. It appeared to be going too fast, but conditions were worsening rapidly, so it appeared they were just trying to get into harbour.
Fishing boat speeding?

Going too fast?

Other

  • The foghorn went off today from 12:37 until about 13:00.
  • Discovered quite a bit of water on the floor in the entrance ways to the Energy Building. I checked for leaks in the ceiling but found none; I presume the water seeped in under the door. With near constant rain all day, the entire island is turning into one big puddle.

Some of the water in the energy building