Tag Archives: driftwood

Maintenance and Repairs

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Ecological Notes:

  • The younger Elephant Seals left after just a short visit. The adult female stayed and rested for about 4 days.

  • The sub-adult male is still onsite, nestling in the bushes in the center of the island. At one point, the contractors left the basement door open on the main house, and we caught the male bee-lining for the door! Luckily, he stopped once someone called out to him.

    As he slowly turned back towards his favorite spot by the tall bush.

  • Sealion numbers are down to about 1/3 since the big storms left (will do a count on Monday)

  • Many Black Turnstones present at this time.

    Many nestled in the rocks

Visitors:

  • Window Contractors, and deliveries by both Greg and Jeff.

Facility Work:

  • Almost continuous repairs and upgrades to electric fencing.

Sometimes it’s lucky and they just knock down the posts without damaging anything.

  • Collecting wood brought in by the storms.

Pulled up by hand and pipe pole!

  • I keep an eye on the Web Cams by checking them daily. A little water got in, and this happened!

 DND events:

  • Detonations most of the week, some very heavy ones. Marine Mammal Observers were on the water, keeping an eye out for cetaceans. Noted sealion disturbance, they have seemed to be very edgy since the storms subsided.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Mostly just daily visits from Ecotourism operators, and a couple private vessels, also primarily looking at the birds and wildlife.

Weather Events:

  • Variable weather, medium winds and rain showers.

 

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Festivus

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Wind: 5-19 knots NE
Sea State: up to 1 m chop
Visibility: 15+ NM
Sky: 50% cloud cover with sunny patches throughout the days
Temperature: between 6 and 8 C
Atmospheric CO2: 411.99 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

It has been mostly quiet on the rock for the past two days, with the exception of the sea lions barking nonstop. It’s a mystery to me what they carry on about all night. Although, I will take that any night over the fog horn or the urban noises that are too far away for me to hear. The only visitors to the reserve were a few eco tour boats that lingered offshore in the late afternoons.

I had to quickly jump into action this morning, when I realized power had gone out just before I got out of bed. I ran the generator for several hours to make sure the batteries were fully charged. The solar panels helped a bit today, soaking up 3.7kWh of energy, which is a couple hours worth of the energy used on the island. There is lots of learning about off grid living.

Yesterday one of the juvenile males elephant seals left, bringing the population of elephant seals on the island from six to five.

A parcel of about 20 oystercatchers have been hanging out on the south side of the island. They mostly huddle on one leg with their beaks tucked into a wing.

The northeast winds have delivered presents in the form of free firewood to heat the ecoguardian’s house. Through some clumsy use of a pike pole and the tolerance of a nearby resting elephant seal, I managed to land a 6.5 metre log and drag it up the jetty ramp. I also gathered lots of smaller pieces. The wood will be left out in the rain for a while to wash off the salt, then chopped up into manageable pieces, and eventually put away to dry for next winter.

Hard Headway

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Brandt's Cormorants making a break for more sheltered area

Brandt’s Cormorants making a break for more sheltered area

Ecological Happenings

  • Gusting gale-force winds from the North East and high seas with 2m swells rolling through.
  • Birds hunkered down on the rocks while the sea lions mainly spent the day in the ocean away from the breakers on the rocks.
  • The male Elephant seals spent the day on the main island with two female seals on Middle rocks.

Marine Vessels

  • None

Maintenance

  • Logs cleared from jetty.
Thayer's gulls sitting it out

Thayer’s gulls sitting it out

 

Census Count

Sea Lion 169
Harbour Seal 18
Elephant Seal 4
Cormorant 187
Gull 323
Oyster Catcher 24
Bald Eagle (Adult/Immature) 1/6
Harlequin Duck 4
Dunlin 8
Bufflehead 1
Black Turnstone 12
Spotted during the week
Humpbacks 3
Orca 6
Marbled Godwit 1
Black Legged Kittiwake 1
Surf Scoter 3
Pidgeon Guillemots 15
Surfbirds 25
Oyster Catcher 63
Bald Eagle (Adult/Immature) 2/8
Harlequin Duck 18
Raven 3
Black Turnstone 48
Brandt's Cormorant trying to make headway in the galefore winds

Brandt’s Cormorant trying to make headway in the gale fore winds

Gift from the storm

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Black Turnstone

Black Turnstone

Ecological Happenings

  • A generally bright day with gentle winds and calm seas.
  • Significant quantities of driftwood have been washed up including large sections of telegraph poles and tree roots.
  • The elephant seals seem to be here for the duration. Though their route off the island (boat ramp) has only just been cleared of driftwood.

Marine Vessels

  • One whale watching tour in looking at the sea lions and birds. Good speed through the reserve, though at times strayed too close to animals.

Maintenance

  • Solar panels cleaned.
  • Maintenance routes of the energy centre roof scrubbed clean of slimy algal build up.
  • Boat ramp and jetty cleared of driftwood washed up in the last few days of strong winds and rough seas. Derik used to lift larger logs up for drying and cutting into firewood.
  • Windows cleaned on the main house.
    Black Oystercatchers

    Black Oystercatchers

    Sealions on South Islands

    Sealions on South Islands

    Harlequin duck

    Harlequin duck

    Hello

    Hello

    Fox Sparrow

    Fox Sparrow

    Black Oystercatcher

    Black Oystercatcher

    Whale watchers

    Whale watchers

March 9 – Pearson Project Week Visitors

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Fog overnight, sunny begining at 9:00
Wind: 6 – 27 knots W to SW
Air Temperature: High °C, Low °C
Ocean Temperature: 9°C

Five second year Pearson students came to Race Rocks this morning to spend part or all of Project Week. Yam, Sean, Martin, Neel and Bader will be exploring Race Rocks, helping out with tasks, studying and diving. Chunk came back onto the island just in time to welcome the visitors as they toured around the ecological reserve.

Yam helped shrink the firewood pile by the tank house by stacking it underneath the stairs of the Marine Science Centre. It will dry out over the summer and be ready to heat the Ecoguardian’s house next winter.

One eco tour boat visited the reserve today.

A Good Day for the Birds

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As the sun rose, the wind and sea were calm. The wind picked up throughout the morning to become a moderate breeze with light rain and choppy seas during the afternoon. The barometer rose during the morning and dropped slightly in the afternoon, levelling out at 1014 hPa in the evening.

Eight boats were seen visiting the ecological reserve: 4 whale watching boats, 1 pleasure craft, 2 visits from SCUBA divers at Ogden Point Dive Centre and one boat from Pearson College to pick up Rikka, a student who was visiting for the last four days.

Maintenance tasks were performed today: chopping driftwood for the fire, daily seawater salinity test, running the generator and cleaning the houses.

Two crows were making their rounds on the reserve throughout the day. A juvenile bald eagle flew around Great Race at 0800, landing on Turbine Rock. An adult bald eagle landed on the high point of the South Islands at 1345 and took watch for an hour.

A bald eagle and sea lions on South Islands

A bald eagle and sea lions on South Islands