Tag Archives: Chunk

Nice Weather

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Weather: 

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

Boats/Visitors: 

  • A few tour boats and fishing boats cruising around today
  • We have had visitors coming and going recently as we declutter the island along with maintenance

Ecological

  • With the beautiful weather in the past couple days there seems to be a few more sea lions around than I last counted but they’ll probably continue leaving as it gets colder
  • I saw a large male a few days ago that I believe is chunk but he was only hear briefly and I haven’t noticed any elephants since but I’m sure he didn’t wander too far I would expect the male elephants to be returning in bigger numbers soon

A little busy lately

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-25 NE
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Choppy under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Not a lot of visitors lately, the ecotours are still going by but not as frequently
  • I did have to leave for a few nights so that is why the posts have been lacking a bit lately, I had to go into town to do my final exams

Maintenance

  • Running the generator more lately as is there is less sunlight

Ecological

  • Fewer sea lions than last week
  • Chunk, as he was identified by the scars on his back, is the current alpha and there is one more male who is much smaller
  • No female elephant seals yet
  • 34 Geese, I have never seen that many here before
  • in one of the photos, you will see a pretty young steller too
  • haven’t seen any neckbanded sea lions lately, too bad we weren’t able to help them before they left

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 273
  • Steller Sea Lions – 291
  • Harbour Seal – 25
  • Elephant Seal – 2 male
  • Cormorants – 140
  • Gulls – 233
  • Fox Sparrows – 12
  • Canada Geese – 34
  • Black Turnstones – 41
  • Eagle – 6
  • Raven – 1
  • Snow Bunting – 1
  • Oyster Catchers – 12
  • Harlequin Ducks – 10

A permanent show for delighted tourists

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Weather

Tuesday the 20th  was a very windy day with a West wind already at 24knots early in the morning. A gale warning was in effect and for sure it was strong  around the rocks and that for the whole day to late in the evening:38knots at 11:00AM,41 at 11:45,42 at 1:50PM,43 at 15:00 . Even around 10:00PM we were still around 35knots .Very tiring day for the light keepers!. The following day was not so bad the wind coming from West like the day before stayed around 25knots for the whole day.The rest of the week was beautiful ,sunny and almost hot on Race Rocks.Winds coming from North or North East but light very light 5knots,6knots at the most

Ecological

We have 8 elephants seals right now :2 big and older one (Chunk one of them ) and 4 beautiful and playful younger males ,a female and  a very young one . they spend the whole afternoon in water or in the railway for the pleasure of the ecotourist- boats .so many of them …impossible to count..Really that never stopped even coming from the states!. With the solstice and the very low tides it was very interesting to observe the pools and their inhabitants in the inter tidal zones …beautiful and colorful colonies of Sea urchins ,huge mussels,molluscs and many different species  we don’t see so often  ,huge and different sea weeds and kelp… Race Rocks is still a rich world.

Vessels

27 boats to 50 fishing boats have been seen in the morning of the week – end,!mainly on East –  Sooke Point. We saw a submarine going outside,a few planes above or closed and the usual traffic in the strait. The van Isle International race boats were very beautiful to look at with their spinnakers in a steady 20 knots wind. We noticed some pretty big fishing boats leaving towards the ocean.I already spoke about the high traffic of whale watchers vessels

Maintenance

The desalinator has been on a few times but not the generator . It has not been in use for 20 days :a record! the solar panels need attention because of so many busy gulls around. The door of the desalinator shed has been repaired.and I cleaned the railway with the high pressure water to get the boat easily in the water . It was getting pretty hard lately. The level of the liquid /fuel has been checked and sent

Wood stocking for Winter

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Weather

If Monday and Tuesday were a little bit windy around 20 knots Wednesday has been a calm and almost no wind day at all. the air temperature was pretty chilly for June (10 Celsius) the barometric pressure :101.3 and 101.5 K Pa. Good visibility and calm sea. Sky:overcast most of the day

Ecological

We can notice an increase of the Pigeons guillemots population . They are also very active. Between 6 and 9 elephant seals on the rocks and Chunk the famous one, came back bloody with an injure on one of his Finn and bites all over his body.

Maintenance

I did an extensive cutting and stoking wood work for next Winter . The basement is full now. The solar pannels are a lot more efficient

Vessels activity

So many whale watchers those days around the dock.Summer is definitively there !

 

 

Chunk attacked a pup

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Weather

Beautiful day calm,13 knots at 8:00, Overcast to sunny,Visibility at 8:00 13 miles and air temperature :6 degrees.

Ecological

It has been pretty dramatic when in the morning Chunk decided to attacked one of the puppy,the biggest one .For the first time this one was active and moving and shouting on the lawn down the main house. So pictures speak better than words . Here they are:DSC_0574Chunk was trying to suffocate  the pup putting his weight on himDSC_0575DSC_0586after he bit him and had the whole head in his mouthDSC_0585DSC_0603The other adult male arrived and made chunk go DSC_0613DSC_0620DSC_0633DSC_0647half an hour later Boss went to see the pup  but this one was afraid so he left him alone. After for the rest of the day Chunk went closed to the student house,Boss stayed closed to the main house looking towards where chunk was  and the pup was closed to the crank. He can move so nothing looked broken but the injury is pretty deep.  For a lighter note look at the other pup . He found a spot where the big ones cannot go closed to the compost in the grassDSC_0246

I could take all those pictures because when all this happened I was already outside and I had my camera with me.

Chunk here to stay

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Weather

West light wind,Calm,clear,stronger wind expected that day,around 25knots,Visibility:15 miles,Cold :1degree celsius in the morning

Ecological

Very active birds especially gulls fishing all around,some eagles (4)and geese (12) and Chunk. We discovered that he spent the night  far from the other one but on shore closed to the batteries rooms. He managed to go the day before” incognito” through the rocks and not by the central alleys. I would say “par la porte des artistes”.Comfort is an important matter!I saw a tagged Sea Lion :C105.

Vessels

2 eco – tour boats and a long US military boat very high on the water heading to the ocean.

Maintenance

End of the month reports : sea water datas and ‘liquids” on the Rocks. Guy put 200 litters of gazoil into the yellow tank.Some wood chopping.Desalinator and generator on

 

Visitors again

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Weather

No wind at all early in the morning but North East tendency,4 knots,calm,overcast,4degrees,Visibility over 15miles ,Sea water stable around 7 degrees

Ecological

9 geese,a lot of gulls,and many eagles.Chunk came when Boss was gone . he spent part of the day in the waters closed to the jetty and met our visitors

Visitors

Guy went to town for some admin that day so I welcomed our visitors :the same divers than Yesterday. They could’t get in touch with the college on Sunday so they came back to the best spot around. We made a tour of the place together and got the chance to see the pups . We went to the Sea lions spot on South too.They were happy but I try to let them understand that this place was protected and not open to public and they phoned right away to the VP of operation :Mr Pile and let him a message and references.They could observe closely Chunk and even offered him an apple!

DND Divers from Edmonton’s Visit

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Weather

At 8:00 East light wind:5knots, overcast with sunshine around noon. In the afternoon the wing changed to West and got pretty strong in the afternoon. It has not been announced by Weather Canada but evident if you looked on Windyty. We got some gust of 33 to 40 knots. The change between the 2 types of Weather condition was very quick.

Ecological

Chunk keeps coming every day never farthest than the boat shed.He spent a part of the day in the water closed to the jetty, the other one watching! The pups are really bigger and they are just 15 days old!

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Chunk

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Visit

2 military zodiacs came in the beginning of the afternoon. Some divers went in water and  spend an hour closed to the underwater camera spot. We were watching but when they decided to land Guy went to speak with them and explained what was the purpose of the place . They actually knew almost nothing about RaceRocks excepted that it was a great diving spot. They came from Edmonton locating the area for a bigger group coming latter  so we asked them to get in touch with the college as soon as possible.They were not used to dive in ocean waters only in lacks so we informed then about the strong currents around the Rocks and the potential danger. The wind coming we advised them to leave the place before it got too strong and they did.

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       Vessels  

A few watchers

Census day and find “6 Spots” the harbour Seal!

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Weather

Another calm day with 9 knots,North East wind at 8:00AM ,Calm sea,Cloudy to some sunny periods,Visibility over 13 miles. Sea water :7.1 degrees Celsius

Ecological

I thought to have seen the famous seal on Turbine Rock this morning. there was a beautiful spotted Seal and actually the first one like that I ever saw…but when I went to do the census I discovered 7 or 8 spotted ones all together on South Island so…I am not sure anymore …Is “6 spots “around or not?…I let Pam to be the expert and the judge . Again Chunk :he spend the afternoon closed to Guy working at the cleaning of the railway (drifting wood again).A lot of activity for the gulls on the fish banks. In the night I have been awaken by the Sea Lions for the first time in those Winter months

Vessels

3 Watchers  and a police boats going towards Esquilmalt..some small fishing boats closed to Pedder Bay.

Census

Gulls:520

Cormorants :90

Harbour Seals :17

Elephants Seals:6 (2 pups,2 females ,2 males)

Eagles:8

Harlequin Ducks :8 seen this week

Geese:6 seen this week

Black Turnstones: a few

Sea lions : 200

 

Chunk around

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Weather

Chilly day ,no more than 6 degrees in the morning,North East wind :12 knots,Calm sea and 13 miles of visibility. Cloudy.

Ecological

Chunk was back on the railway he had fresh bloody scares on his back. This one is a really a stubborn fighter: he keeps coming back even if he knows pretty well that the other one is up and alert. he stayed to 2:00 PM and  we saw him later sleeping on Middle Island

Vessels 

3 watching vessels