Tag Archives: electric fence

Mature Male Elephant Seal

Posted on by

Ecological Notes:

  • A new Adult Male Elephant Seal has been visiting the main ramp area for periods of time. While not quite as large as the Alpha and Beta males here last winter, this guy is pretty big!

  • The Sub-adult Male Elephant Seal, that was hauled out for a week or so last month, has been hauling out on middle rock.

Facility Work:

  • We got the Desalinator up and running! After changing the control panel, we re-checked and adjusted some settings and it’s working fine now.
  • Finished the new layout on the pier electric fence. As we had added a new, more powerful, fence energizer, many of the old wires and connectors were failing. Each Ecoguardian comes to Race Rocks with their own skillsets and ideas. This new idea will hopefully be more  sturdy, and easier to repair and maintain. ……. (but we’ll see!)

  • Received and assembled a new cart for the portable diesel tidytank. As the last one failed, will be adding an additional safety strap to this one for when someone has to move it by themself..

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Ecotourism vessels and private vessels have been visiting to enjoy the sights and sounds of Race Rocks.
  • A single paddler in an outrigger canoe also ventured out and through the main channel.

Weather Events:

  • Heavy rains over the weekend gave way to light fog on Monday. Westerly winds of 5 – 10 knots prevailed.

 

** 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?

Maintenance and Repairs

Posted on by

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?

Time for fencing

Posted on by

 

Personal Note:

  • On my last day here at the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve, I’m very thankful for the opportunity and experience provided to me. My normal employment calls me back, but I hope to return to continue experiencing the reserve in a different season!

Ecological Notes:

  • 1 Male Elephant Seal and one Female Elephant seal in the grass area up by the power building

    Enjoying the sun

  • Although I’m sure there are more, I caught a quick glimpse of some Pigeon Guillemot chicks as they scurried back into their rock den.

Facility Work:

  • Existing electrical fence routes redone and repaired. The north field had all the fencing replaced, and a couple new gates added. A new section will be added to the south (lighthouse side) when supplies are available. As the sealions start to return, fencing plays an important roll in protecting the plant life, and structures and equipment on the island. There is also a huge safety factor for the Ecoguardians when moving around accomplishing their daily tasks.
  • Although not a pleasant topic, removed 2 old Sealion carcasses  from high above the waterline. The warmer weather really increased the smell, but the wind and heat (and bugs)  really help them to break down to an almost manageable weight for dragging. Respectably returned to the ocean.

DND events:

  • 6 to 10 detonations over Monday and Tuesday, all sealions moved from the middle rocks to the southern rocks.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Several Ecotourism vessels and at least 6 private vessels sightseeing in the reserve.

 Feature Event:

  •  Lots of  cleaning and organizing in preparation for the new Ecoguardian arriving Thursday! A warm welcome to Sierra!

 

** 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?

Enjoying the sun

Posted on by

Ecological Notes:

  • 4 Elephant Seals still in the grassy area
  • I’ve been watching an interesting behavior of one of the female Elephant Seals but can only speculate on the reason…. She has spent 3 days in the very thick Pineapple Weed. This plant produces as very sweet smell when crushed. Every time she wakes up, she moves forward, then thrashes about and slams her head into the fresh patch. She breaths deeply for a while, and falls back asleep!

Crushed trails

nestled in for a sleep

Facility Work:

  • After confirming the need last week, and insuring the system was working properly, it was time to do some minor repairs and modifications to the pier electric fence. Sunlight, salt water, waves and animals can be hard on electricals!

Weather Events:

  • Westerly winds of 20-30 knots all day. Large swell and chop until midday when the tide turned to a flood, which smoothed thing out a lot. Sunny with  light haze at water level, but still pretty good visibility.

 

** All 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?

Oyster Catcher Nest Sites

Posted on by

Ecological Notes:

  • 7 Elephant seals between the grass and the boat ramp. It appears another female may have left the reserve. Still 2 “pups” here. (included in the 7 total)
  • The pups are definitely using up their baby fat, and showing lots of wrinkles. The male is still molting though.

    When he finishes molting, he can head off to feed.

  • Have now verified 4 Black Oyster Catcher nests (able to view the nest from good vantage points in the distance). Quite confident in at least 2 more from the bird behavior, but no good distant vantage point to confirm, and don’t want to disturb the birds.

Visitors:

  • EagleWing Tours provided  Pearson College Students with 1 hour tour of the reserve and surrounding area (water based only). Total of 34 Students.
  • Between student tours, 2 employees of EagleWing Tours were brought to the main island by the waterfront coordinator for a visit.
  • The Waterfront Coordinator also delivered groceries, drinking water and electric fence supplies

 Facility Work:

  • Repairs and alterations to the electric fence on the main pier. This is important not only for the safety of the facility and the heritage sites, but also for the safety of the Sealions themselves. If they come up the top of the pier and are startled from their sleep (by land, or boats in the water), they run the risk of jumping over the side from a high height, into shallow water. Generally, on a natural rock face, steeper slopes continue into deeper water.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  •  2 Ecotourism vessels, 1 commercial Dive Tour operator. All with proper viewing and usage procedures.

Good behavior in the reserve! (some compression from the distance and my lens, NOT as close to the rock as it may appear!

  • 3 Private vessels, all with good approach and viewing.

 Noted Infractions:

  • The most common error, generally speaking, is that private vessels tend to power up too early on departure from the reserve.

Again, some compression effect from my lens, but this private boat had come up to speed even earlier than this, well within the reserve.

Weather Events:

  • Mostly clear with westerly winds at 15 knots most of the day. Westerly winds increased to 25 – 30 knots in the evening, bringing in some haze and clouds.

 

** All 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?

April 1 and 2

Posted on by

Wind: yesterday variable 1-21 knots, today W 2-31 knots
Sea State: both days rippled
Visibility: both days 10-15 NM
Sky: both days partly cloudy then clearing in the mid morning
Temperature: yesterday 4-10 °C, today 5-6 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 415.81 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Yesterday morning, a new elephant seal arrived on the island. He has green tags on each tail flipper, D018 and D019. The green tags signify it was tagged at Año Nuevo Reserve, similar to the female juvenile seal here right now. Due to the website being down for a few days, I didn’t realize at the time the seal was the same one here for the last two weeks of December. The seal was also seen here for two weeks in April 2019. I reported the sighting to Dr. Patrick Robinson, the Director of Año Nuevo Reserve, near San Francisco in California. He reported back that the seal was born at the beginning of 2017, meaning he is now a three year old sub adult. Based on the photos I sent Dr. Robinson and included in the gallery below, he determined the seal is in great body condition but fur/skin is in poor condition.

In the past few days, the sea lions have been taking over the jetty, something they haven’t done in critical mass since the beginning of the winter. This afternoon, I finished setting up and testing the electric fence on the jetty to deter sea lions from congregating and damaging the railings and boat cleats. When I need to use the jetty to test the seawater or for boats, the sea lions need to be cleared off. No matter how slowly I approach the them, they only have one speed of getting off the jetty, which is stampede. It will take some time each day to maintain the fence from sea lions bumping it, as well as wind and waves.

Only one boat was seen in the ecological reserve, a Coast Guard rigid hull inflatable went through Middle Channel yesterday afternoon and stopped to take photos of sea lions on the rocks.

  • Sunrise from the top of the tower
  • Morning mountain view
  • The newly arrived sub adult male elephant seal
  • He has a green tag on each tail flipper D018 and D019
  • D018
  • The beginnings of the electric fence to protect the jetty from sea lions
  • Colourful sunset

rain water tank

Posted on by

Ecological 

  • wind NE 10-15 knots increasing to 20 later in the day
  • 3 elephant seals remain on main island, both males and the moulting female.

Vessels

  • 2 pleasure craft
  • 3 eco-tour including a US vessel From San Juan Island, Washington.  One eco tour vessel appeared to be within 100 meters of sealions hauled out on the South Islands.DSC_9474

Maintenance

  • talked we Chris re Race Rocks maintenance issues
  • worked on re-installing rainwater storage tank.  Installed two new cleanout caps on downspouts and added lanyards so that they can be opened but not removed. Added a 1 1/2 ” pvc ball valve at base of tank for a cleanout so that it is easier to cleanout the tank in place without having to cut pipes.
  • Removed electric fence insulators from jetty to avoid snagging on boat lines and damage from storms.

I Dream of Electric Fences

Posted on by

Weather

Foggy morning, building throughout the day with poor visibility in parts (the fog horn sounded). Winds from the NNE to 15kts. The barometer climbed to 101.8 kPa. Forecast for light winds overnight and into the morning.

Boat activity

  • Fishing vessel spotted with lines in the water within the reserve.
  • Four tour boats, after the fog faded.

Ecological happenings

  • There appeared to be more Sea Lions today, or they are just more rowdy.
  • Continued looking for tangled Sea Lions in preparation for DFO visit on Oct 28th.
  • Spotted a flock of fifteen Black Turnstones.

Maintenance

  • Once again, Sea Lions continue to make their way onto the jetty by knocking the electric fence over. This time they have actually broken it, too. A daily battle