Wind has been fairly steadily N-NE 10-15 knots for past days with overcast sky and intermittent light rain.
The “Orca Spirit”, large and loud.
Jan 9: 2 ecotour vessels including the very large Orca Spirit which passed through the reserve twice, I dont usually see this vessel this time of year here. It is quite a loud boat when it puts its engine(s) in gear.
Jan 9,leg-banded cormorant, red KJ8
Census, Jan 9:
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I went to Race Rocks today with Val George for the Christmas bird Count. ( See other reports from today.) The highlight of course was the discovery of the first record for the Boreal Owl in Southern Vancouver Island . Some other observations from my visit are included here:
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| Several 1 metre exclosures for goose grazing have been installed on the grass areas on Race Rocks. | Winter grazing by the Canada geese (introduced to Vancouver Island in the 1980s) has resulted in erosion in some areas of the island, and grass turf cover is prevented. |
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| Drift Macrocystis at the jetty. This Giant Kelp can grow anchored at great depths but winter storms will lift it up and the main contribution to energy-flow in the ecosystem comes from decomposition on the shoreline. | Macrocystis grows in areas of high salinity, so not in he brackish estuarine conditions of the Strait of Juan de Fuca , but not at Race Rocks where it ends up only as drift in the strand line. |
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| A dead cormorant, (probably Brandt’s ). | Interesting webbed foot structure. |
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| A 1st year juvenile Thayer’s Gull | The breast had a hole and internal organs were eaten. It was probably from an eagle attack. |
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| This year, the college has finished tilting the solar panels. Increased energy efficiency has been noted. They were originally installed flat since we were concerned that the strength of the wind may damage them. This hasn’t happened. | View of the energy building roof from the top of the tower. |
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| This fall a plaque has been installed to honour Johan Ashuvud, who as a student at Pearson College, was instrumental in having Race Rocks designated as an ecological reserve in 1980 | .. |
Other Ecological reserves wardens reports are available here:
One whale watching boat and one dive boat in reserve today.
Thursday the weather/visibility was pretty bad for a census and on Friday I went off island so I did a makeup census on Saturday.
Notably: there was a high count of cormorants, 520, compared to last week as well a yellow banded individual (KCO)- details documented on next post. There was a high number of bald eagles (20) in reserve, and a lone kingfisher and pelican again in the reserve. While there have been over 40 black oyster catchers here this week there were none observed today.
Harvested driftwood including a good size fir log I tied up at high tide and bucked and chopped once the tide had fallen. Worked on toilet install and hammer drilling for plaque install.
Census:
California Sea lions: 38
Northern Sea Lions: 222
Harbour Seals: 5
Elephant Seals: 6
Cormorants: 520
Canada Geese: 2
Gulls: 680 mostly Thayer’s)
Bald Eagle: 20
Harlequin Ducks: 5
Black Turnstone: 2
Dunlin: 3
Sparrow: 0
Kingfisher: 1
Pelican:1
The wind blew from the northeast at 13-26 knots. A small swell with whitecaps blew in from the northeast. The barometer dropped from 1024 hPa to 1015 hPa. The temperature reached a high of 5oC at 15:00.
There were no boats seen within the reserve today.
Everyday there appears to be fewer gulls and sea lions in the reserve. An official count will happen on Thursday with the census. There are still a lot of cormorants congregating on the shores of Great Race, as well as Turbine Rock and North Rocks. The harbour seals are hauling out at low tides on various rocky ledges close to the shoreline.
Today was filled with cleaning and wrapping up some tasks that I’ve been doing while here for the past five weeks: construction in the basement of the Marine Science Centre, sorting out photos, and cutting up firewood that was collected at the shore and piled up by the tank house to get the salt rinsed off by the rain. Tomorrow is a shift change that will see Alex arrive for the winter shift. I’ve had a great time as the Ecoguardian, learning lots from the species and history of this beautiful piece of land and sea.
The wind blew from the north between 13-15 knots, until 10:00 this morning. Then the wind shifted towards to northeast and calmed down to between 2-9 knots. The sea was very calm, with no swells or whitecaps. The barometer rose from 1020 hPa to 1024 hPa. The temperature increased slowly throughout the day from 1-4oC.
There were no boats seen in the reserve today.
If solar panels could be happy, they would have been happy today. The sun shone brightly, juicing up the photovoltaic cells. It wasn’t enough to melt all of the snow and ice, which remains in patches around the islands. Some of the plants have begun to wilt from the prolonged cold weather.
I made a trip into Pedder Bay this afternoon. Having been solo for the past two weeks at Race Rocks, it was great to catch up with some students and staff at Pearson. I also dropped off garbage and picked up gas. The northern half of Pedder Bay was frozen over with ice that was 2-3cm thick. It made boat travel tricky. Luckily there was a lane of broken ice just wide enough for the Boston Whaler to travel from the Pearson dock to the Pedder Bay Marina, where the gas was filled. Unlike driving a car on ice, a boat stops when you hit ice, so it’s much easier to handle. On the return trip to Race Rocks, I saw a large group of surf scoters between the mouth of the Pedder Bay and Race Rocks.
The wind blew about 10 knots from the north. The barometer rose overnight from 1009 hPa to 1013 hPa as the sun set at 16:29, beginning to drop in the evening. The sea was rippled. The sky was mostly overcast with some breaks of sun and occasional light rain showers. It hasn’t rained here during the day (possibly at all) in about two weeks.
There was one whale watching boat seen in the reserve today. It spent a lot of time near the southern side Race Rocks, where the whale watching boats don’t usually go. Three small grey inflatable military boats sped around the edge of the reserve at 15:00, coming within less than a hundred meters of the islands. After their circuit, they headed back towards the navy base.
Here are the results of the weekly census:
Steller Sea Lion: 263
California Sea Lion: 208
Harbour Seal: 7
Northern Elephant Seal: 5
Bald Eagle: 4 (2 adults, 2 juveniles)
Canada Goose: 9
Harlequin Duck: 3
Double Crested Cormorant: 44
Pelagic Cormorant: 147
Black Oystercatcher: 10
Gull: 396
Black Turnstone: 20
Rock Sandpiper: 3
Surfbird: 17
Fox Sparrow: 1
As always, there were variations in the numbers seen since last week. There were fewer harbour seals. I checked them throughout the day, the most I was able to see at one time were seven, scattered around the many small islands. The tide was fairly high during the daylight hours, which tends to not be good hauling out conditions for the seals. There were more smaller birds seen this week. It was easier to spot smaller birds this week because of the lower wind speed. I had a tough time distinguishing the rock sandpipers amongst the surfbirds. While they look very similar, the surfbirds are a bit larger and have shorter bills. See if you can tell the difference in the photos below.
The wind was blowing northeast this morning 20 – 25 knots, it dropped mid-afternoon for about an hour and then swung to the west. The west came on strong in the late afternoon and blew over 25 before settling down to 15 -20 knots. The barometer, which has been falling all day, started climbing at 19:00 and the forecast for tomorrow is looking better with light winds forecast.
There were only two whale watching vessels spotted in the Ecological Reserve today. There were no other vessels other than Second Nature dropping off Nick Townley the new eco-guardian and Pearson College student Riikka who is here to finish her project week.
The results of the census are as follows:
Steller Sealion 447
California Sealion 433
Northern Elephant Seal 16
Harbour Seal 17
Canada Goose 24
Greater White-fronted Goose 1
Double-crested Cormorant 324
Pelagic Cormorant 29
Brown Pelican 2
Black Turnstone 12
Sanderling 3
Dunlin 4
Black Oystercatcher 24
Killdeer 4
Glaucous-winged Gull 700
Thayer’s Gull 2400
California Gull 3
Western Gull 45
Heerman’s Gull 76
Fox Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 11
Most of the work today was packing, cleaning, and training Nick in preparation for departure tomorrow.
It was a wild and wet day at Race Rocks with waves breaking over the jetty and the feeling of the first storm of the season. Even though it rained fairly hard in the morning, there were only sprinkles in the afternoon, as the wind switched from northeast to southeast and then back to north. The barometer kept on its downward slide, started yesterday afternoon until mid-afternoon when it started to climb again. The climb may be short-lived though as the forecast is for more of the same.
There were no vessels noted in the Ecological Reserve today, but at least one came fairly close.
Race Rocks Ecological Reserve is on the edge of a busy shipping lane.
Great Race and the other islets that are not awash in the heavy seas, are almost completely covered with birds and mammals right now. It really is a natural haven.
Mixed species flocks of gull dominated by Thayer’s rest and preen on the east end of Great Race.
With close to 900 seals and sea lions, thousands of gulls, and hundreds of other seabirds, it is surprising that there are still some unoccupied bits of terra firma around the house.
Double-crested Cormorants have significantly increased in number over the last two months.
The tagged Northern Elephant Seal 5850_6967 which I am going to call Gat (the noise he makes and Tag backwards) and his little buddy Flake spent the whole day asleep, pressed up against each other and the back of the boat house.
The animal on the right, Gat will be three years old in January. How old do you think Flake is?
Something that most, but not all of the Elephant Seals have here, is extremely white mucous coming out of their noses. They are such amazing divers and spend so much of their life diving, that the default position for their nostrils is closed. Many truly marine birds and even marine iguanas have ways of conserving water and secreting salt through nasal glands and I am curious if Northern Elephant Seals can secrete salt that way? Will report back on my findings about the mystery of the white snot.
White mucus can be seen on the noses of many of the hauled out Elephant Seals.
I had no visitors today and could not go anywhere due to sea conditions but thanks to conference calling, I was able to attend a wonderful meeting at Government House in Victoria. The meeting was about a new initiative to empower youth stewardship in British Columbia, a legacy project of the Lieutenant Governor. Very exciting news will be shared in November. Yes, you will have to wait.
For outdoor adventure I swept walkways and cleared the marine railway of woody debris and seaweed, adding to the woodpile and enhancing the compost pile with some lovely bull kelp. Otherwise I did the regular maintenance to keep things going.
It was another northeast day, with really not much happening weather wise. It blew NE about ten knots, was mostly overcast in the morning, with some sun in the afternoon. The barometer rose gradually all morning and then started to slowly slide after noon. It is expected that tomorrow’s southeast will bring rain, starting late tonight.
The whale watching boats were busy in the afternoon with Humpback Whales to the southeast of Race Rocks and more activity out to the west. A total of eight tour boats were seen in the Ecological Reserve.
Today was mega-fauna census day and these are the results:
Steller Sealion 298
California Sealion 508
Harbour Seal 79
Northern Elephant Seal 9
River Otter 2
Canada Goose 22
Greater White-fronted Goose 1
Harlequin Duck 5
Double-crested Cormorant 61
Pelagic Cormorant 15
Black Turnstone 9
Surfbird 5
Black Oystercatcher 38
Glaucous-winged Gull 145
Thayer’s Gull 1482
California Gull 3
Western Gull 7
Heermann’s Gull 35
Gull sp. 52
Common Murre 1
Common Raven 2
Fox Sparrow 2
Savannah Sparrow 15
Here are a couple of shots of Surfbirds, alone and with Black Turnstones.
Surfbirds resting in the Jetty Bay.
The census was challenging due to the numbers and species of gulls and the fact that both Steller Sealion and Harbour Seal numbers were lower than expected during the morning count, so they were re-counted in the early evening. I generally like to count Harbour Seals on the morning low tide but the tide wasn’t really doing much today. The evening counts were higher for both the Steller and the Harbour Seals. Two new Elephant Seals arrived today. They are both moulting, the smaller one hung out with the dual tagged three year-old, which appears to be staying on. The bigger animals may have gone back to Middle Rock as there were still six animals visible there.
Ring-necked animals as well as tagged and branded animals were also re-surveyed today. I am still working on the branding data from a month ago. Two of the ring-necked Steller Sealions that have been observed since August are still here and languishing as the plastic straps cut into the backs of their necks. I am putting out an appeal to the disentanglement crew again.
The second ring-necked animal ‘highlighted’ here is also branded on its’ left side 946R. I believe that it was branded at its’ natal colony which from the R should be Rogue Reef in southern Oregon. From the number it was branded after 2009 but I will find out more.
If it is not lying on its’ left side this ring-necked Steller’s Sealion is easy to tell apart from the others.
Like the other Steller it has plastic strapping, which is visible on the ventral surface.
This is a bit gory but I hope it will inspire the disentanglement team to come to Race Rocks.
The Atlin Post passed by Race Rocks today but did not slow. Must have been in a hurry.
Did not do much maintenance today other than the basic cleaning, making water with the desalinator and electricity with the generator.
There were definite autumn overtones to the weather today in spite of the westerly winds, which shifted over to the southwest a few times. First thing this morning a heavy fog came in and soaked everything. At dark there were ominous looking rainclouds to the west but the forecast actually looks like it is improving. After a week of sliding downhill, the barometric pressure actually rose today and that is a really good indicator of an improving trend.
There were only six whale watching boats noted in the reserve today and I couldn’t see any whales (for a change). The few recreational boaters left on the water stayed out of the reserve. The Oriole sailed past through Race Passage today, flying with the wind and tide.
A series of large military explosions rocked the island mid-day.
Two Steller’s Sea Lions with Ring-necks were photographed today as was a Steller’s with a green flasher hanging out of its mouth. One of the ring-necked Steller’s is not yet badly wounded by the plastic strap, the other (see photos) has the strap cutting into the back of its neck but not yet the front. This animal likes to sleep about ten meters from my house and would be a good candidate for disentanglement.
This plastic packing strap is digging into the back of this animals neck.
Today was animal census day and these are the counts.
Harbour Seal 179
Elephant Seal 8
Steller’s Sea Lion 184
California Sea Lion 287
Canada Goose 4
Brown Pelican 1
Double-crested Cormorant 22
Pelagic Cormorant 3
Cormorant sp. 2
Black Turnstone 7
Black Oystercatcher 4
Glaucous-winged Gull 76
Thayer’s Gull 75
Heerman’s Gull 21
California Gull 16
Mew Gull 21
Gull sp. 152
Common Murre 1
Common Raven 2
Savannah Sparrow 6
There were no visitors today. Maintenance chores, other than making fresh water and electricity included cleaning in the boat shed, mending both houses’ fences, and keeping the weed-eater going. The weed-eater makes really good compost mulch.