Tag Archives: deceased

Deceased Sea Lion + Chilly Nights

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Weather Today: 

  • Visibility 15 NM
  • Sky partially overcast
  • Wind 5-10 knots NE
  • Water mostly calm

Visitors and traffic: 

  • Not much traffic with the strong winds this week and last (55 knots!) only a handful of whale watching boats when conditions allow

Notes: 

  • Just above the intertidal east of the jetty we found the carcass of a deceased male Stellar sea lion. It’s the early stages of decomposition and we think it died at least 4 days ago since we accidentally captured it in the background of one of our photos. We are not sure how it died and it has no obvious injuries. We are hopeful that we might be able to learn more! We’re not sure if it died here or was washed ashore by the strong swells last weekend.
  • Last week we forgot to mention that we were joined by a sweet young elephant seal who had hidden among the sea lions near the jetty. It was not tagged so unfortunately we don’t have any more information and it was gone by the next day.
  • There have been an incredible number of eagles in the reserve eating both fish and seagulls. It’s amazing to watch them hunt and even more incredible to watch them carefully pluck a bird before digging in (albeit a bit gory).
  • We have still been seeing whales every day, primarily humpbacks but we have also been thrilled to see the occasional pod of orcas passing by. Today we spotted one young whale tail slapping continuously for about 5 minutes before moving along past Pedder Bay. It’s comforting to see the whales exhibiting their regular feeding patterns now that there are fewer vessels on the water. Now that we have become more tuned observers of whales, the behavioral contrast between vessels present and absent can be very stark.

Census: 

  • 195 Stellar sea lions
  • 330 California sea lions
  • 1 Ruddy turnstones
  • 22 Black turnstones
  • 2 Sanderlings
  • 17 Harbour seals
  • 6 Bald eagles
  • About 600 Pelagic cormorants and Brandt’s cormorants
  • About 300 California gulls

Beautiful Fall Sunset, Minke Whales!

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Weather Today: 

  • Visibility 15+ NM
  • Sky overcast, some sunshine in the afternoon
  • Wind 0-5 knots NE
  • Sea state calm, some interesting wave patterns due to currents in the mid day

Visitors: 

  • Greg visited with a contractor yesterday along with some island supplies
  • Not too many visitors in the reserve this time of year. A steady trickle of eco-tourism boats on the less windy days, maybe 5-10.
  • Yesterday we watched the HMCS Brandon leave from its home port, Esquimalt. An impressive vessel in capabilities and design, you can learn more about it Here if you are interested!

Ecological Notes: 

  • On Tuesday we were lucky to be present for a spectacular display of orcas in the strait, roughly 2 NM to the S of Great Race Rock. The pod seemed to be hunting something, perhaps a sea lion. It was an incredible sight to observe, with the whales flying out of the water and slapping the surface with their tales.
  • We continue to see humpback whales daily, surrounding the rocks here and a bit further into the strait. Most of the time we first notice the cloud of water that forms when they surface, exhale, inhale, and dive.
  • Today we were joined by a small group of whales, smaller than humpbacks and not orcas (small dorsal fins). We are thinking that these could have been minke whales since they seemed larger than porpoises.
  • Yesterday evening we found an adult glaucous-winged gull sitting in the intertidal near our jetty. It wasn’t moving and seemed to be positioned in an uncharacteristic way, with wings splayed. We weren’t able to identify any physical injuries, although noted that it wasn’t able to make any normal seagull noises, and seemed to be attempting to regurgitate something. We were hopeful that we might be able to transport it to the nearby wild arc rescue center nearby, but unfortunately it was deceased by this morning. We are wondering if it could have swallowed a piece of human trash that may have become lodged, although we were not able to see anything when we examined it.
  • The sea lions are noisier than ever but seem to have found their places among the rocky intertidal. It is amazing to watch them fish in the early mornings, often surfacing with large salmon with a flock of seagulls close behind! I (Mara) noticed two young tagged sea lions this week that seem to be staying close to each other throughout their time here. It’s hard to say if this happens more often since it’s tough to identify individual animals among the over 1000 currently here!

Additional Notes: 

  • There has been quite a bit of blasting on the DND land over the past week to two weeks. Most of the time it is not unreasonably disruptive, but when there is a particularly large blast all of the animals on the island rush in the opposite direction.

Pigeon Guillemot

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-15 SE
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Calm for the most part

Boats/Visitors

  • Guy and Alex came by today along with a couple visitors to collect the body of the deceased pup

Maintenance

  • I have barely scratched the surface with pressure washing, so much still needs to be done

Ecological

  • The third did not make it, it just never figured out how to nurse
  • the other two pups are doing great and are getting quite large
  • the pigeon guillemots are back, some of them even still have a bit of their winter plumage
  • still plenty of eagles around
  • will update census tomorrow and hopefully, the pigeons will still be around, sometimes they are here one day and gone the next and back the day after that, I would like to get some better close up photos of them