Tag Archives: cormorant

Ryan to the reserve for relief

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Saturday, July 27, 2002

A beautiful day here on the rocks today. 5 orcas passed north of the reserve at 17:30, two whale watchers through the reserve after around 18:00. The Canadian Geese are back, didn’t see them fly in though. 1 mature bald eagle made a number of passes of the island today, but was unsuccessful. The cormorant was joined this afternoon by another one, and several more may be near the water on the southwest corner of the island.
posted by Ryan Murphy at 7:06 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Clear  Vis. 16 Miles Wind West 7 Knots  Sea Rippled  Temp. 10 degrees
posted by Ryan Murphy at 5:54 AM

A solitary cormorant

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Friday, July 26, 2002
July 26- This is Ryan back on Race for a quick sojourn. The wind was brisk today, and there was little activity in the reserve. Carol saw 1 mature bald eagle being harassed away from Great Race at dawn this morning by gulls and 2 Black Oyster Catchers. A nest near the assistant keeper’s house of Glaucous-winged gulls still has two eggs in it, and one gull sits on them from time to time. A solitary cormorant (perhaps a Brandt’s) was sitting on the south-west tip of the island during the evening.
The station boat was to Pedder Bay and back at 8 this morning, and Garry brought Second Nature out to drop Joanna Brown and me off on the island while we were all treated to a presentation by Fabien of ALEC electronics. Some pretty amazing gadgets if anyone would like to save money long term on various environmental tests. Mike and Carol left around 11 for two days.
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Cloudy Vis. 15 Miles Wind West 15 Knots  Sea 2 – 3 Foot Chop
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:07 AM
Thursday, July 25, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 15.0 C  Min. 10.3 C  Reset 13.0 C
posted by Carol or Mike S at 8:27 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Overcast  Vis. 10 Miles  Wind West 27 Knots  Sea 4 Foot Moderate With Low South West Swell
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:59 AM

Harlequins

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Monday, February 11, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 8.1C  Min. 2.0C Reset 5.1C  Rain 3.0 mm
MARINE LIFE: 13 mature, 4 immature Bald Eagles today. The 6 Canada Geese spent the day in the area around the Learning Centre. They kept an eye on Mike as he power washed the sidewalks but did not seem bothered by the activity.The Elephant Seal was hauled out on the rocks just below the tower in the morning and then spent most of the afternoon floating about in the East Bay.There were 7 Harlequin Ducks (4 male) also in the east bay area all morning, then saw them later much farther off shore towards the east.Counted 123 Cormorants today.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 1 pleasure craft through the reserve today.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:22 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Part Cloudy  Vis 15 Miles  Wind West 7 Knots Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:10 AM

Blasting disturbs birds and sealions

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Thursday, January 17, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 6.1C  Min. 2.7C Reset 4.7C
MARINE LIFE:At 8:30 there were 150-170 Sealions, 2 large bull and 1 smaller Elephant Seals on Middle rock. With the first blast at 11:10 the gulls and cormorants took flight, most of the sealions were alerted and some went into the water. When the second blast went off 2 minutes after the first, the sealions scrambled over each other in a rush to get to the water.The elephant seals although alerted (raised their heads and looked around ) did not move off their spots. With each blast the eagles,gulls and cormorants all took flight but within 1 or 2 minutes settled back down. During the hour between blast series 10 to 15 sealions hauled out again but appeared to be somewhat ‘edgy’ and were much quicker to move into the water when the blasting occured again.There were 14-7 mature Bald Eagles in the M.P.A. today.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:11 PM
The smoke, some of it coloured that can be seen at times in camera one is coming from the D.N.D. property,there may at times be blasting sounds. These exercises will continue until friday afternoon.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 9:53 AM

Christmas Bird Count 2001

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2001-12-24′, ’16:00:20′, ‘Yesterday Angus Matthews took Alan MacLeod, Andrew Harcombe, and Ron Satterfield out in the Pearson College boat, 2nd Nature for the annual Sooke Christmas bird count. The trip was postponed from the 22nd because of the 40knt. north winds. Following is a list of the birds seen between the Pearson College dock and Race Rocks- most of the sightings were in the area around Race Rocks. The highlight was the lone Iceland Gull, a very rare bird in this area! The first sighting of this bird for the trio of bird counters! Pacific Loon 14 Common Loon 1 Horned Grebe 1 Double Crested Cormorant 80 Brandt”s Cormorant 60 Pelagic Cormorant 12 Harlequin Duck 2 Surf Scoter 30 Bufflehead 60 Hooded Merganser 5 Bald Eagle 4 adult,2 immature Black Oyster Catcher 16 Black Turnstone 6 Surfbird 6 Rock Sandpiper 9 Mew Gull 15 Herring Gull 8 Thayers Gull 530 Western Gull 1 Glaucous Winged Gull 720 Common Murre 40 Pigeon Guillemot 8 Marbled Murrelet 6 Belted Kingfisher 1 Eurasian Starling 8 Common Flicker 1 You may check out the file on the Christmas Count with pictures at: http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/seabirds/xmascount/xmascount2001.htm Thank you Angus,Alan,Ron and Andrew, maybe it wasn”t blowing 40knots from the north but it was still a cold bumpy trip with 20 knots from the north east!’, ‘Carol or Mike S’, ’16:00:54 ,

Orca Feeding

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Thursday, December 20, 2001
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 5.7C — Min. 3.9C — Reset 4.2C — Rain 0.4 mm
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:05 PM
 MARINE LIFE: With the relatively calm sea today the hauled out Sea Lions slept the time away.The most action came from a few Northern Sealions on Southeast Rks. that went into the water to investigate the Orcas that came in from the West at 1:20pm.There was one bull,3 that could be females or juveniles and one fairly small one.It was really hard to get a good look as they didn’t stay on the surface very long.The whales made their way along the south shore of Gr. Race then veered out towards the Rosedale light buoy where they spent until 3:40 swimming back and forth with frequent tail slapping,breaching and slapping of flippers. 200+ gulls and 30 or so Cormorants stayed with whales I would guess feeding on any scraps floating about on the surface.Since the Orcas stayed well off shore,were quite ‘noisy’ and did not seem interested in the seals and sealions my guess is that they were residents. The last we saw of them they were headed SW.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 4:58
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Overcast — Vis. 15 Miles — Wind North North East 21 Knots — Sea 3′ Moderate — Low North East Swell — Occasional light Rain showers
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:33 AM

Seabird feeding frenzy

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Thursday, November 01, 2001
WEATHER: We had calm seas for most of the day although the wind has increased to over 24knts in the past 1/2 hour.
MARINE LIFE: Fishing was good for the birds and sea lions today! Just after 10a.m. the sky was filled with hundreds and hundreds of sea birds,gulls,cormorants and common murres streaming across the islands southward to a tideline about 1/2 km. away.Looking with the telescope I estimated 3500-4000 sea birds feeding—-by 13:30 most had dispersed. In a space of three hours we saw 5 Steller(northern)sea lions catch salmon (-that looked to be 5-8lbs) in the kelp bed between North Rocks and Gr. Race. The birds,especially gulls rush over to get any bits of fish that break away as the sea lion thrashes the fish back and forth at the surface.The two juvenile elephant seals that were hauled out in the little bay with a group of about 20 harbour seals, swam out into the large kelp bed along the east side of Gr. Race just before 14:00 and had not returned before dark.Have not seen the large bull elephant seal that spends a good portion of the year stretched out atop West Rock.Did a boat tour around all the islands today and counted 97 California and 27 Steller sea lions. Also counted over 800 Cormorants.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 10:03 PM
Good evening
Max. 10.0ºC — Min. 8.1ºC — Reset 9.7ºC — Rain 1.6 mm
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:04 PM
Good morning
Sky overcast — Vis. 13 miles — Rain showers — Wind north east 5 knots Sea rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:12 AM

Herring Balls in Race Passage.

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Thursday, September 27, 2001

We enjoyed a fairly typical fall day weather-wise here at Race Rocks today.
Temperatures max 12.0 C — min 9.1 C — reset 11.3 C — Total rain fall for the day 0.4 mm.
Returning from a noon meeting on campus we did a boat tour around all the islets – we counted
280 Northern or Steller sea lions – 295 Californian sea lions and 220 Harbour seals hauled out on the rocks. We also counted approx. 80 Cormorants. Earlier in the day we saw 2 ‘ fish balls’ with several hundred sea birds feeding just east of Great Race.

 

 

 

 

 

tide line feeding

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Chris out with Second Nature and seven divers. Students tested second nature emergency motor. Approximately 2500 gulls and cormorants were feeding in the tide lines. 21bald eagles   including nine immature,  in reserve.  The bald eagles were also feeding in tide lines. One elephant seal was hauled out on the South side of great race. Approximately 250 goals are wintering on the East Ridge. These birds stay very close together and are very quiet.