Tag Archives: cormorant

Very Windy

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  20-30 NE throughout the day
  • Sky: cloudy all day
  • Water: very wavy at least a metre waves

Boats/Visitors

  • Saw one ecotour boat braving the elements today

Ecological

The Sea Lions are Leaving

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  15-30 NE throughout the day
  • Sky: cloudy all day bit of sunshine came through in the afternoon
  • Water: choppy today

Boats/Visitors

  • Some ecotours skipping across the waves today

Ecological

  • less sea lions today than last week

Notes

  • DnD was blasting again today

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions – 105
  • California Sea Lions – 286
  • Elephant Seals – 2
  • Cormorants- 634
  • Gulls – 308
  • Geese – 14
  • Oyster Catchers 8
  • Black Turnstones – 8
  • Eagles – 2

Census October 26th

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-15 SE
  • Sky: clear most of the day
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Had plenty of ecotours cruising by

Ecological

  • Not as many sea lions today, they might have peaked by now but last year they didn’t start leaving until mid november
  • there were a couple injured sea lions plus a dead one
  • only saw one elephant seal today but I’m sure the others are around
  • So many stellars, mostly on the outer rocks
  • there was also an eagle
  • haven’t seen the otter or any oyster catchers
  • also saw a few humpbacks out there (not included in census)

Notes

  • plenty of solar input today

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions – 235
  • California Sea Lions – 421
  • Harbour Seals – 18
  • Elephant Seals – 1(seen) I’m sure there are at least 3 or 4 more around
  • Gulls (unspecified) – 456
  • Cormorants – 713
  • Black Turnstones – 22
  • Geese – 8
  • Eagle – 1

Census Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-10 NE
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: calm, sort of, there was a bit of a swell out there

Boats/Visitors

  • Kyle dropped off a food order and helped with some facility work other than that there were the usual ecotours

Ecological

  • More sea lions than last week
  • Same 5 elephant seals
  • a lot of birds, gulls, turnstones, oystercatchers, geese, cormorants and an eagle
  • Still not sure if the sea otter is out there, he is very hard to see from here

Notes

  • DnD was blasting today
  • The new generator is working great, just need more fuel

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 512
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 141
  • Unspecified Gulls – 620
  • Cormorants – 228
  • Black Turnstones – 26
  • Oystercatchers – 22
  • Geese – 16
  • Eagle – 1
  • Harbour Seals – 30
  • Elephant Seals – 5

Census Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  20-15 NW
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours today

Ecological

  • 11 elephant seals scattered around today, mostly around the jetty to cool off in the water

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions: 33
  • California Sea Lions: 23
  • Elephant Seals: 11
  • Harbour Seals: 161
  • Unspecified Gulls: 212
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 53
  • Cormorants: 12
  • Canada Geese: 19
  • Oystercatchers: 8
  • Harlequinn Ducks: 0
  • Crows: 1

Notes

  • The harbour seal numbers have significantly increased but all of the other numbers seem to have gone down
  • The little elephant seal is back, I haven’t seen her for a few days

Census Day, Thursday, May 25th

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-5 NW
  • Sky: clear and sunny
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Many different boats around today

Ecological

  • 14 elephant seals scattered around today, mostly around the jetty to cool off in the water

Other

  • DND blasting continues

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions: 42
  • California Sea Lions: 44
  • Elephant Seals: 14
  • Harbour Seals: 36
  • Unspecified Gulls: 321
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 120
  • Cormorants: 23
  • Canada Geese: 16
  • Oystercatchers: 8
  • Harlequinn Ducks: 5 males (that I could see)

Notes

  • I have not seen any eagles today but I saw them yesterday and they have been hanging around so I am guessing they are around here somewhere
  • There is another Elephant seal
  • An increase in sea lions as well as gulls

 

 

Census day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles, a bit foggy this morning but burned off by noon to partly cloudy
  • Wind: 10-15 NW got continuously more calm through the day
  • Sky: partly cloudy throughout the day
  • Water: stayed consistently calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A lot of ecotours came through today
  • Had a couple visitors, come by with Kyle this morning and then had Kyle and Guy come back this afternoon to help me out with a couple things

Ecological

  • Census day!
    1. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 35
    2. Harbour Seals: 44
    3. California Sea Lions: 23
    4. Elephant Seals: 13
    5. Seagulls unspecified: 291
    6. Pigeon Guillemots: 152
    7. Cormorants unspecified: 29
    8. Canada Geese: 14
    9. Savannah Sparrows: 0
    10. Harlequin Ducks: 8 (2 female, 6 male)
    11. Black Oystercatchers: 8
    12. Bald Eagles: 2 (2 adults, 1 immature)
  • There are 2 more elephant seals than usual! so thats exciting, they stayed scattered today on the path from the lighthouse to the jetty
  • As you can see there have been a decrease in sea lions, they are no longer on the southern rocks and have moved to the main island one group on the north side and another group on the southside
  • There have been an increase in gulls, pigeon guillemots and cormorants, also the harlequins are back, I did not see them last week
  • There has also been an increase in harbour seals, when I counted them they were mostly all on the Middle Rocks but have since scattered about the South Islands as well

Cenusus Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles
  • Wind: Morning 0-5 NW picked up in the afternoon, varied between 10-20 knots NW
  • Sky: Overcast, bit of rain throughout the day
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  1. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 45
  2. Harbour Seals: 30
  3. California Sea Lions: 37
  4. Elephant Seals: 11
  5. Seagulls unspecified: 278
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 125
  7. Cormorants unspecified: 16
  8. Canada Geese: 19
  9. Savannah Sparrows: 12
  10. Harlequin Ducks: 0
  11. Black Oystercatchers: 8
  12. Bald Eagles: 2 (2 adults, 1 immature)

Boats

  • had a few eco tours come through morning and late afternoon

Maintenance

  • Scrubbed some of the solar panels

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Census of Birds and Mammals

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles, later 15 until…
  • 19:35 onwards foggy, 100 yards.
  • Fog horn sounded for over 3 hours.
  • Wind: 0-5 knots South East.
  • In the evening 15-25 West.
  • Sky: overcast, then sunny, then foggy.
  • Water: calm

Mount Baker near sunrise.

Strangely disturbed water.

Ecological

  • Census day! Counting stuff!
  • Found what to me is a solo mystery bird.
  • Surprised to see no Black Turnstones around today.
  1. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 53
  2. Harbour Seals: 35
  3. California Sea Lions: 29
  4. Elephant Seals: 13 (11 on Great Race, 2 on Middle Rock)
  5. Seagulls unspecified: 304
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 225
  7. Cormorants unspecified: 21
  8. Canada Geese: 18
  9. Savannah Sparrows: 10
  10. Harlequin Ducks: 9 (6 males and 3 females)
  11. Black Oystercatchers: 7
  12. Bald Eagles: 2 (2 adults, 1 immature)
  13. Mystery bird: 1
  14. Black Turnstones: ZERO!

Maintenance

  • Ran the desalinator.

Boats

  • Lots of eco-tours cameth by today. Over 10!
  • Some of them were perhaps a bit too close to the mammals at times?
  • Kyle brought me my final food order; milk, red and green bell peppers, sour cream, and onions.
  • Eerily reminiscent of the Thin White Duke’s diet..

Visitors

  • Kyle with food stuff.

A Windy Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-30 knots West all day
  • Sky: mostly clear.
  • Water: 1′ chop

Ecological

  • Census day!
  • Saw a Steller sea lion branded 365Y.
  • Saw a California sea lion branded U949
  • I’m pretty sure the high winds were responsible for some of the lower bird counts.
  1. Harbour Seals: 114
  2. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 65
  3. California Sea Lions: 63
  4. Elephant Seals: 11 (8 on Great Race, 3 on Middle Rock)
  5. Seagulls unspecified: 251
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 68
  7. Cormorants unspecified: 22
  8. Canada Geese: 17
  9. Black Turnstones: 16
  10. Surfbirds: 5
  11. Harlequin Ducks: 5 (2 males and 3 females)
  12. Black Oystercatchers: 4
  13. Savannah Sparrows: 4
  14. Bald Eagles: 2 (2 adults, 0 immature)
  15. Crows: 2

Other

  • I spent a good portion of the day ill in bed.