Tag Archives: DND blasting

Short-billed Dowitchers?

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-25 knots East, later 5-10 NW
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: 1′ chop

Ecological

  • The same three elephant seals on Great Race.
  • Around 19:00 I came across two unfamiliar looking birds.
  • While they could be Dunlins, they don’t have the appropriate black belly, and so my guess is that they are Short-billed Dowitchers.

Boats

  • A few eco-tours came by today.

Other

  • There were six DND blast today.
  • Two large ones at 11:33 and 11:35.
  • Two medium ones at 12:40 and 12:42.
  • Two small ones at 14:35 and 14:37.

Amazing Sunset

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots North
  • Sky: clear
  • Water: rippled
  • Amazing pink/red sunset!

Ecological

  • Just one elephant seal on Great Race today.
  • Three elephant seals on Middle Rock though.

Maintenance

  • Some goose work.
  • Set up and took away barrels for diesel transfer.

Boats

  • A couple of eco-tours came by.
  • Second Nature came out with diesel.

Visitors

  • Kyle and two English volunteers came out with diesel.
  • I gave the two lads a tour while Kyle transferred the diesel.

Other

  • Some DND blasting today.
  • Medium blasts at 11:30, 11:32, and 12:13.
  • Bigger blasts at 14:47 and 14:49.

Crows and Moon

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind at 7:00: 10-15 knots West
  • Wind at 10:00: 10-15 knots North East
  • Wind at 15:00: 5-10 knots South West
  • Wind at 20:00: 20-25 knots West
  • Sky: mostly clear, rain at 15:00
  • Water: 1′ chop
  • A rather large moon appeared in the early evening.

Ecological

  • One adult elephant seal departed, leaving just the one.
  • The weaner returned by the slightly unconventional route: north side of the jetty.
  • A murder of crows.

Maintenance

  • Some goose work.

Boats

  • A few eco-tours came by today.

Other

  • Some DND blasting today.
  • Blasts at 13:37, 13:39, and 14:15.

New Male Elephant Seal

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Weather

  • Visibility: 5 miles, later 15
  • Wind: 10-15 knots NW, later 5-10 NW
  • Sky: raining/overcast
  • Water: 1′ chop

Ecological

  • This morning two elephant seals arrived on the middle of the island.
  • One was the weaner, and at first I thought the other was the female.
  • But then I realized it was a new young adult male. A yearling or so.
  • They both slept all day, and had no interaction.

Maintenance

  • Some goose work.

Other

  • One DND blast at 15:06.

 

The First Aggressive Geese

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles in the morning, later 15.
  • Wind: 5-10 knots North
  • Sky: overcast and some rain
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • Just the weaner on Great Race today.
  • He has a bit of a snotty nose. I suppose he has a cold?
  • I encountered my first pair of aggressive Canada Geese today.
  • Perhaps the nesting has begun?

Boats

  • The Pacific Scout Pilot boat passed through Race Passage today.
  • No eco-tours that I saw.

Other

  • Lots of DND blasting today.
  • There were blasts at the following times:
  • 10:38, 11:05, 13:18, 13:20, 15:19, 15:21, and 15:49.
  • The first few blasts really startled the birds, especially the Pigeon Guillemots.
  • There was one final blast at 21:05. That is very unusual..

Some Work

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 0-5 knots North, later 15-20 West
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: calm in the morning, later a 1′ chop

Ecological

  • Two elephant seals on Great Race today.
  • Adult male and the weaner.
  • They both went down to the water by evenfall.

Maintenance

  • Hand pumped more diesel into the day tank.
  • Cleaned the solar panels.
  • Topped up more of the battery bank. Over half finished now!

Boats

  • Only saw one eco-tour.
  • A few fishing boats just outside the reserve.
  • DND zodiac out and about during blasting.

Other

  • Lots of loud DND blasting today.
  • There were blasts at the following times:
  • 10:48, 10:50, 11:10, 11:25, 13:36, 13:38, 13:56, 14:19, 14:34, and 14:51.

The Weaner Returns

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 10-15 knots North, later NW
  • Sky: mostly clear
  • Water: 1′ chop

Ecological

  • The weaner was back on Great Race today, over by the base of the tower.
  • The other male is still here too.
  • I saw some rock sandpipers today. Perhaps I failed to pick them out from the surfbirds yesterday.

Maintenance

  • Hand pumped more diesel into the day tank.

Boats

  • A few eco-tours.

Other

  • Lots of DND blasting today.
  • Big blasts at the following times:
  • 9:48, 9:50, 10:06, 10:22, 12:00, and 12:02.
  • Bigger bangs at the following times:
  • 14:09 and 14:12.

 

A No Weaner Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots North
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: rippled

Ecological

  • Census day!
  • The weaner was gone this morning. Hopefully he is ok.
  • Normally I only ever see killdeer at night, but today I saw a pair off and on all day!
  1. California Sea Lions: 85
  2. Harbour Seals: 44
  3. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 39
  4. Elephant Seals: 1 male
  5. Seagulls unspecified: 269 (same total two weeks in a row!)
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 241
  7. Cormorants unspecified: 57
  8. Surfbirds: 49
  9. Harlequin Ducks: 32 (16 males and 16 females)
  10. Black Turnstones: 22
  11. Canada Geese: 13
  12. Black Oystercatchers: 9
  13. Bald Eagles: 6 (2 adults, 4 immature)
  14. Killdeer: 2

Boats

  • Kyle stopped by for 1 minute to exchange the extra security camera for a new Wifi access point.
  • There were several fishing boats literally yards outside the Rockfish Conservation Area.
  • A few eco-tours came by.

Maintenance

  • Installed the new Wifi access point in the Students’ House.

Other

  • Lots of DND blasting today.
  • Small blasts at the following times:
  • 10:25, 10:27, 10:45, and 12:34.
  • Larger blasts at the following times:
  • 12:32, 12:53, 14:52, 14:54, and 15:11.

Film Crew Island Visit

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots West in the morning
  • Around 15:30 the wind picked up to 25+ knots West. 18:00 peak at 42 knots.
  • Sky: overcast, then some blue sky, then some rain
  • Water: no visible wave crests, but lots of surge

Ecological

  • One of the larger male e-seals returned in the morning.
  • The weaner is still around.
  • Lots of bald eagles in the reserve.

Maintenance

  • Kyle and I took a look at the diesel hand pump and the desalinator.

Boats

  • Kyle came out in Second Nature with the 2 person film crew to take some footage.
  • Several eco-tours came by later on.
  • A few boats out fishing halibut just beyond the reserve.

Visitors

  • Kyle and the film crew were on the island for about 2 hours.

Other

  • Lots of DND blasting today.
  • There were blasts at the following times:
  • 10:00~, 12:50, 12:52, 13:12, 13:20, 13:23.

 

No more adult females elephant seals on the rock

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Weather

At 8:00 AM North East light wind,calm ,forecast,grey sky . heavy rain between 9:30 and Noon.temperature :3.3 ,very high tide (actually the highest since the beginning of our stay). At 1:30 PM the wind totally stopped and the flag was down like a stick.Southwest early in the afternoon:30 knots at 4:40PM and 27 to 37 full South around 6PM. Early in the evening it steady picked up with a gust at 51 knots! At 9:15 PM we still had 40 knots .The air temperature was pretty high too at 9.1 degrees celsius

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Ecological

The last adult female elephant seal left in the night so 2 lonely pup now but the male stayed around the whole day and Chunk came back and went on its own,With the melting snow and the rain we got a large pool on the lawn so it was a cleaning and washing time for everyone:geese and elephants and birds…it was not dark at 7:50

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Maintenance 

We kept the fresh water tank full ,filing up every two days . The generator is working everyday  for around 6 hours.

Other

DND blasts :12 blasts in a few hours and 2 pretty strong ones. We counted 7 seconds between the time you see some smoke and the bang.