July 9 and 10

Posted on Sunday,July 10, 2022 by Nick Townley

Ecological Notes:

On Saturday afternoon, a southern resident orca pod went through Race Passage, just north of the ecological reserve. Someone was warning boats over the VHF radio to reduce their speed, as they were “in the path of endangered southern resident killer whales.” All boats appeared to oblige. For a while, the very large pod was spread out from the Bentinck Island, at the west side of the mouth of Pedder Bay to well past William Head to the east, at least 4km or 2NM. I watched the pod for a while through binoculars and saw an orca fully breach out of the water. I did not get a photo of the breach, but it was spectacular. Then the pod travelled south to the east of Race Rocks, based on the group of ecotour boats I could see watching the pod from a safe distance.
The gull chicks are still popping out, with many nests having one to three chicks. There are still some gulls tending to eggs.
See the photo gallery below for more ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weather:

Yesterday (July 9):
- Sky: Overcast, then cloudy throughout rest of day
- Wind: W 15-30 kts
- Sea: rippled, 1′ chop in evening
- Temperature Low 13^oC, High 16^oC
Today (July 10):
- Sky: Part cloudy
- Wind: W 3-24 kts
- Sea: rippled, 1′ chop in afternoon
- Temperature Low 14^oC, High 17^oC

Visitors:

No visitors.

Facility Work:

Scrubbed and squeegeed solar panels, topped up water in battery bank, routine tidying and checking infrastructure around the island.

Vessel Traffic:

Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve.

Here are photo highlights from the past two days. Click on the photos for larger views and captions.

: A few orcas from a pod of southern resident orcas between North Rocks and William Head.

: Southern resident orcas northeast of the ecological reserve.

: Three gull chicks venturing out of their nest.

: A fluffy gull chick blends in well on the rocks and dry grass.

: The five year old male elephant seal floated in the jetty bay for much of the day yesterday. He was nowhere to be seen today.

: Pigeon guillemots take flight near East Bay.

: I rarely see oystercatchers interact with water. This oystercatcher splashes in the shallow water by the jetty, perhaps to cool off on the hot afternoon.

: The goose family. One of the four goslings didn’t make the photo, but does still exist.

: A glaucous-winged gull with a well protected nest under the front porch of the Ecoguardian’s house. The gull has two chicks and one egg in the nest.

: Three gull chicks take shelter from the sun.

: A closer look at the three gull chicks nestled in a rocky ledge with English stonecrop and grass.

: The oystercatcher chick near the jetty seems to be growing fast.

: The sea lion population is growing. Now, there are six steller/northern sea lions hauled out on Middle Rock.

: Three kayakers paddling in Middle Channel. As they approached the ecological reserve, they hailed me on VHF channel 16 to warn they were doing rescue practices around Race Rocks. I appreciated the heads up.

: A black turnstone near the jetty.

: Harbour seals on South Seal Rocks.

: Sea otter napping in the bull kelp near the South Rocks.

Gull Chicks Everywhere

Posted on Monday,July 4, 2022 by Nick Townley

It is great to be back as the Ecoguardian at Race Rocks. I have been lucky enough to spend a total of almost seven months here between 2014 and my last shift which ended on September 1, 2020. I have been spending the past three and a bit days reacquainting myself with the island and infastructure. I have not stayed here before in July, so it is taking some adjustment to live in harmony and not disturb hundreds of nesting gulls. It drastically limits where I can go on the island.

Ecological Notes:

The glaucous-winged gull population is increasing everyday with lots of chicks hatching. I do my best to avoid getting close to the nests. I move quickly by the ones near doors and pathways on which I need to travel to get to the energy building, jetty and lighthouse.
A pod of orcas swam westward through the ecological reserve on Saturday, July 2, then went eastward in Race Channel. The orcas continued to head eastward, with at one point 14 ecotour boats viewing them from a safe distance.
A juvenile male elephant seal, tagged D018/D019, has been hanging around here for a while this spring and early summer. I noticed the tags this weekend, so I could confirm it was the same seal that Ecoguardian Joan spotted on the seal’s arrival on the island on May 19. Here is a link to the tagged resight histories, when I spotted this seal in April 2020 and reported the details to the Director of the Año Nuevo Reserve, in California. The brief version is he was tagged in February 2017 as a pup in Año Nuevo. He was first observed at Race Rocks in April 2018. He was again spotted here in April 2019, December 2019, and April 2020. His proboscis (nose) and body has grown a lot in the past couple years. I wonder what adventures he has gone on in that time.
I know of two black oystercatcher chicks that I have seen through the binoculars and long lens of the camera. One is hanging out near the jetty with its parents. The other is hanging out near east bay with its parents. The dark grey fluff ball chicks are hard to spot, as they blend in well with rocks.
See the photos below for these and more ecological sights.

Weather:

The wind has been consistently coming from the west over the past four days that I have been here.
Friday and Saturday were part cloudly with lots of sun to fully charge the solar panels by 17:00 both days.
Sunday and Monday were overcast with periods of rain and fog.
The temperature in the past four days has ranged between 11 to 14 ^oC.

Visitors:

Greg drove the boat on the afternoon of Friday, July 1 to do the shift changeover between Jillian and I. Thanks, Jillian, for leaving the place in such great shape.

Vessel Traffic:

Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby throughout this long weekend.

Here are photo highlights from the past few days. Click on the photos for a larger view.

: Black oystercatcher parent and chick.

: A pod of orcas swimming eastward at the north end of the ecological reserve. William Head is in the background.

: Orca between Race Rocks and downtown Victoria.

: These poppys are in the centre of the island near the flagpole. Perhaps they were planted by a long ago lightkeeper.

: A black oystercatcher chick in the intertidal zone.

: A black oystercatcher chick near the jetty.

: Pigeon guillemots communicating with their whistling sounds at the end of the jetty.

: A Canada geese family with four goslings goes for a swim off the boat ramp.

: The juvenile male elephant seal on the derrick deck.

: The juvenile male elephant seal trying a different position on the derrick deck.

: The juvenile elephant seal tag D018 on the left tail flipper.

: Elephant seal tag D019 on the right tail flipper.

: A colourful sunset above the Sooke Hills, on July 2.

: Two gull chicks near their mother and nest on the centre of the island.

: A freshly born glaucous-winged gull with its egg beside it. The nest is right below the path outside the house. I snapped a photo as I moved quickly along the path :)

: Three Steller/northern sea lions hauled out on middle rocks.

: A great blue heron standing on top of bull kelp to the east of the island. It was low light in the evening and far away, so I had trouble focusing the camera.

: A young harbour seal hauled out on top of bull kelp to the east of the island. The evening low light tricked me at first into thinking the seal was a sea otter.

April 1 and 2

Posted on Thursday,April 2, 2020 by Nick Townley

Wind: yesterday variable 1-21 knots, today W 2-31 knots
Sea State: both days rippled
Visibility: both days 10-15 NM
Sky: both days partly cloudy then clearing in the mid morning
Temperature: yesterday 4-10 °C, today 5-6 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 415.81 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Yesterday morning, a new elephant seal arrived on the island. He has green tags on each tail flipper, D018 and D019. The green tags signify it was tagged at Año Nuevo Reserve, similar to the female juvenile seal here right now. Due to the website being down for a few days, I didn’t realize at the time the seal was the same one here for the last two weeks of December. The seal was also seen here for two weeks in April 2019. I reported the sighting to Dr. Patrick Robinson, the Director of Año Nuevo Reserve, near San Francisco in California. He reported back that the seal was born at the beginning of 2017, meaning he is now a three year old sub adult. Based on the photos I sent Dr. Robinson and included in the gallery below, he determined the seal is in great body condition but fur/skin is in poor condition.

In the past few days, the sea lions have been taking over the jetty, something they haven’t done in critical mass since the beginning of the winter. This afternoon, I finished setting up and testing the electric fence on the jetty to deter sea lions from congregating and damaging the railings and boat cleats. When I need to use the jetty to test the seawater or for boats, the sea lions need to be cleared off. No matter how slowly I approach the them, they only have one speed of getting off the jetty, which is stampede. It will take some time each day to maintain the fence from sea lions bumping it, as well as wind and waves.

Only one boat was seen in the ecological reserve, a Coast Guard rigid hull inflatable went through Middle Channel yesterday afternoon and stopped to take photos of sea lions on the rocks.