Tag Archives: divers

Orca

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Ecological Notes:Yesterday was special day!  I was lucky to see the southern resident J17 orca pod swim west through Race Pass. Around 16:00, the pod traveled into the pass heading west. A black bear was sighted by an Eco-tour boat on Vancouver Island side walking the shoreline. The bears are waking up from hibernation and searching for food. Four elephant seal pups remain on the main island as well as one adult female and male. Lots of eagles, gulls and Canadian geese. The Canadian geese are very noisy and roam the island like they own the place!  Lol.

Vessel Traffic : For most of the morning,a dive boat had divers doing drift dives in the main channel. Two Eco-tour boats and one private boat were sighted during the day.

 

 

 

Branded Sea Lions

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Weather: 

  • Sky: Overcast
  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 5-15 knots NE
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors: 

    • A few boats cruising by today, mostly pleasure crafts and a couple tour boats and even a couple sailboats
    • No visitors today but yesterday Greg came by with a couple guests and also help with some decluttering moving fuel around and firewood, now that its getting a bit colder out I will be using the fireplace a lot more
    • There is a particular dive boat that has been coming around almost daily with divers who are getting pretty close to the animals

Ecological

  • there are quite a few of branded sea lions around, I have photos of a few of them but I could not clearly make out a couple of them but managed to get some clear shots
  • the young elephant seal is still here which is unusual but I expect her to be on her way soon
  • we also have a stellar who appears to have something around his neck
  • and a few adorable young stellers on the rock in front of the crane

Beautiful Day

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Weather: 

  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Sky: Sunny
  • Wind: 5-10 kn NW
  • Water: Flat

Visitors/Boats: 

  • More boat traffic on the nice days and there was also a dive boat with a couple divers on the east side of the island, it looked recreational

Ecological

  • The little steller is still around and adorable
  • seems like even more sea lions today but that might be  because they are so concentrated around the helipad and the jetty but at least they are away from the burial cairns and the generator room/lighthouse

Maintenance

  • Fuel and water have been delivered recently and hopefully in the next week we get more decluttering done around the island and start bucking up some more firewood so we have enough to last the year since driftwood does take months to dry out enough to be usable

3 Elephants now

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-25 NE
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: waves 0-1 metre, n

Boats/Visitors

  • Not a lot of visitors lately, the ecotours are still going by but not as frequently
  • The divers have been around a lot the past couple days
  • Guy and Greg came by, got those logs away from the jetty, the east wind was bringing them right in here

Maintenance

  • Running the generator probably more than I should be, but the power has been going out pretty much daily, no matter how much I run the generator the power will shut off around 6 am
  • I have another final exam on Friday, so posts might be a little infrequent for the next few days

Ecological

  • Fewer sea lions than last week
  • Chunk, is nowhere to be seen but there is another alpha on the island which might be Bernard, might be Boss from the previous year
  • There is also a much smaller male on the island and one very tiny female
  • I am glad the larger alpha showed up, Chunk was not very nice to the pups the year before, I was worried he might attack any new pups this year but with a bigger alpha on the island, the pups might have some protection

Saturday

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-15 SW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • a few ecotours went by today alone with a bunch of sailboats and fishing boats in this beautiful weather
  • also a few divers around the island

Ecological

  • about 9 female elephants and one young male, they were all in and out of the water today

 

Talkative Elephant Seal Pup

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles throughout the day
  • Wind: ranging from 10-20 knots
  • Sky: sunny with cloudy periods
  • Water: choppy with the wind, 1-3 foot swells

Boats/Visitors

  • Didn’t notice much boat traffic today, one diving boat
  • No visitors today

Ecological

  • I counted 4 male elephant seals on and around the island today
  • large group of 30-40 cormorants on the south rocks in the early evening
  • same elephant seal pup has been hanging close to the house and has been very vocal for the past few days, calling out sporadically throughout the day and night.
  • Saw 4 adult bald eagles around today as well as two large juveniles.

Other

  • This will be my last week out at Race Rocks until February, when I return for another month stay. Laas will be back for the remainder of January so you can expect much better quality photography then I’ve supplied! (:

Sleepy Seals and Hungry Geese

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles throughout the day, clearest day I’ve seen here since Dec 1
  • Wind: Light breezes throughout the day
  • Sky: very sunny
  • Water: mostly calm

Boats/Visitors

  • No visitors today
  • Had the usual divers and whale watching boats go by

Ecological

  • Still a lot of Sea Lions around. South Rock is almost always covered with Stellar and Californias.
  • Consistent small groups of Canada Geese munching on the grass
  • Two male Elephant Seals are still hanging around, sleeping mostly

Another Elephant Seal & Gale Force Winds

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: Light breezes throughout the day then very high, Gale force winds came in around 9 or 10 pm of up to 39 knots for an hour or two then died down to a steady 20-25 knots with rain.
  • Sky: cloudy with some sun
  • Water: mostly calm, a bit choppy during the day then very rough throughout the night.

Boats/Visitors

  • Saw 6 or 7 sail boats out together and 1 diving boat
  • No visitors today

Ecological

  • Had a group of 12-14 Black Turnstones munching grass together in front of the house.
  • Our resident elephant seal Bernard has been joined by another large male elephant seal. They seem to be keeping their distance from each other for now.

Other

  • The view of the Olympic Mountains has been beautiful and clear these last few days. A nice change from the cloak of fog and clouds that often cover them from sight.

 

Snorkelling and Jet Skis

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-10 SE
  • Sky: cloudy for the most part, bit of sun came through
  • Water: very calm today

Boats/Visitors

  • Had a few boats cruise by, alone with some free divers and a pair on jet skis, that I went said hi to when they were by the jetty

Ecological

  • same amount of sea lions, no elephant seals yet