Tag Archives: ecotour

Black Oystercatcher

Posted on by
Ecological Notes: Today, a Black Oystercatcher is walking the main island and looking to make a nest. Two breeds of gull on the island including the Glaucous Gull and Western Gull. Pigeon Guillemot are making their nest on the edge of the helicopter pad and north wall below the camera.Spring is here!
Animal Tracking and Injuries: California Sea Lion injured shoulder.
Elephant seal pups: 4
Elephant seal female: 3
Visitors: 1
Facility Work. More cleaning inside and out.
Vessel Traffic:  2 Eco tour boats
 
Weather– Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather–Past:  http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?id=72
 

Low tides

Posted on by
Ecological Notes: Very low tides today which was awesome for checking out invertebrate.
.
 Elephant seal pups: 4
Visitor: 1
Facility Work. Cleaning buildings today. Back stairs on the main house have been taken down. Ready for new build.
Vessel Traffic. 3 Eco-tour boats
Weather– Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather–Past:  http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?id=72
 

DND blasting

Posted on by

Ecological Notes: There are lots of Daffodils flowering all over the island.

Visitors: The fresh water tank is topped up and ready for visitors.

Facility Work: The PC students arrive next week.  We have been busy cleaning the buildings and preparing for their arrival.

Vessel Traffic: Eco tour boats, three DND ribs and marine mammal observer boat

 

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

Weather–Past:  http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?id=72

 


 

Elephant seal active after 4 day nap

Posted on by

 

Ecological Notes:

Lots of eagles today. Elephant seal still very active and moving around the island.

Vessel Traffic: One Eco Tour boat one private boat in the reserve.

Facility Work: Fuel and supplies brought to island today.

Weather Events: Warm in the sun with a light west wind.

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

Weather–Past: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?id=72

 

 

Census: March 14 2021

Posted on by

Ecological Notes:

  • Birds
  • Harlequin Duck 16
  • Snowy Plover 1
  • Bald eagle adult 6
  • Bald eagle juvenile 8
  • Turnstones 14
  • Killdeer 1
  • Gulls 92
  • Cormorants 473
  • Pigeon guillemots 47
  • Oyster catcher 13
  • Canadian geese 16

Mammals

    • Stelller sea lion 35
    • Harbour seal 41
    • California 21
    • Elephant seal male 1
    • Elephant seal female 1
    • Elephant seal pup 4
    • Sea otter 1

Vessel traffic: 1 Eco tour boat

 

Weather Events: Wind went from 5 knots west to 40 knots in 1 hour.
Weather– Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather–Past: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?id=72

Posted on by
 
Animal Tracking and Injuries: California sea lion with ring around neck.
Elephant seal pups:4
Visitors:3
Pearson College topped up water tank today.
Facility Work replace stairs on keepers house spray off green from house.
Vessel Traffic 5 pleasure boats Second Nature crew boat water transport 4 Eco tour boats.
Weather Events:Flat water light wind
Weather– Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather–Past:  http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?id=72
 

Orca

Posted on by

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.

 

 

 

January 10th Census

Posted on by

Weather: Overcast, but mostly sunny over the last few days. winds 15-20knots.

This feels like we got more sun in January 2021 all of 2020.

Visitors/Traffic: Pretty quiet week, a few fishing boats driving by.

Ecological Notes: Newest Elephant Seal pup was born today. This makes 3 pups total, with the oldest nearing the end of his nursing period. His mom is looking VERY depleted, with 3 more days estimated until the end of her nursing period. His mom has also had a large behavioural change: previously she would ‘fight’ with the Beachmaster when we attempted mating, but over the last 24 hours she’s now much more receptive to his advances. 13-14 times a day receptive.

Cheermeister at 19 days. Looking fat and healthy as his mom gets more and more depleted. In 2020 we saw the pups nurse for 23 days, so he’s getting close to the end of ‘free food’.

Census:

Gulls: 259

Cormorants: 719

Eagles: 6

Turnstones: 22

Elephant Seals: 8 [2 bulls, 3 females, 3 pups]

Steller Sea Lions: 160

California Sea Lions: 121

Harbour Seals: 10

Proof that I take photos of other animals than Elephant Seals. SE Steller Rookery going strong.

Mothers seem to have lots of aggression shortly after a pup is born. Every pup we’ve seen get born here coincides with a bought of mom-on-mom aggression. Although Courtney has pointed out that this is my interpretation of their behaviour, and this could just be a ‘welcome to the fraternity of motherhood’ moment.

Mating looks rough. In larger rookeries this often results in pups getting squished. Here, Cheermeister just needs to avoid getting pinned and he should be good. He’s repetitively gotten in the middle of that mating between his mom and the Beachmaster and hasn’t died…. yet.

Peace descends. As with all things Elephant Seal: the chaos doesn’t last long. After 30 min of excitement everyone rolls over and falls asleep until tomorrows moment of activity,