Tag Archives: elephant seal

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

A little busy lately

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-25 NE
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Choppy under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Not a lot of visitors lately, the ecotours are still going by but not as frequently
  • I did have to leave for a few nights so that is why the posts have been lacking a bit lately, I had to go into town to do my final exams

Maintenance

  • Running the generator more lately as is there is less sunlight

Ecological

  • Fewer sea lions than last week
  • Chunk, as he was identified by the scars on his back, is the current alpha and there is one more male who is much smaller
  • No female elephant seals yet
  • 34 Geese, I have never seen that many here before
  • in one of the photos, you will see a pretty young steller too
  • haven’t seen any neckbanded sea lions lately, too bad we weren’t able to help them before they left

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 273
  • Steller Sea Lions – 291
  • Harbour Seal – 25
  • Elephant Seal – 2 male
  • Cormorants – 140
  • Gulls – 233
  • Fox Sparrows – 12
  • Canada Geese – 34
  • Black Turnstones – 41
  • Eagle – 6
  • Raven – 1
  • Snow Bunting – 1
  • Oyster Catchers – 12
  • Harlequin Ducks – 10

Elephant seals

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-15 NE
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Some swells this morning, under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Guy will be coming in to help me fuel up the generator, also want to run the desalinator today and as soon as I get a new handle for the pressure washer it would be nice to continue getting the algae off some of the buildings

Maintenance

  • Ran the desalinator a bit but its still not operating very well, makes less water in a longer amount of time
  • would like to do more pressure washing but need to be able to replace the water being used

Ecological

  • 2 elephant seals on island, 1 very large that could possibly be bernard and 1 small female
  • there have a been a few eagles hanging around lately as well and some harlequin ducks

Finally, an Elephant Seal

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-15 SW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Choppy under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Not much visitors lately and not as many ecotours either, there are still a few out there though

Maintenance

  • A lot fo running the desalinator and pressure washing lately, trying to get some of the algae and lichen off the buildings and walkways

Ecological

  • Slightly less sea lions than last week
  • One little female elephant seal and possibly a bug guy out on one of the rocks but I can’t get a good enough look at him
  • A couple ravens flying around this morning
  • two entangles sea lions, I am in contact with marine rescue to see if its possible to get out here to help them before the sea lions leave

Marine Mammals of Race Rocks

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A slide show by Ron Bellamy of Sooke August 2018

Bye-bye Race Rocks

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This is my last post as Ecoguardian for summer 2018 – I’m headed back later this afternoon and Laas will be returning to take over.

Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles
  • Wind: 15-25 knts W
  • Sky: slightly hazy/partly cloudy
  • Water: Calm
  • Strong winds last night cleared part of the haze, and we have blue skies after a long period of grey.

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Guy arrived yesterday to take away all the garbage and recycling from the island, so there would be less to take back today.
  • The increasing number of sea lions on the jetty have caused more and more boats to approach close to the dock – just a reminder that DFO guidelines set a 100m minimum for observing distance!
  • On Tuesday, a group of Pearson students from the SPELL group came for a short tour on the island.

Island maintenance

  • I raised a new Canadian flag yesterday after the old one was beginning to wear out.
  • The Ecoguardian house has been completely cleaned for the next Ecoguardian
  • Guy and I washed some of the pathways outside the science shed

Bird notes

  • The first of the juvenile seagulls have now taken full flight – they soar as high as the adults now and even fly above the ocean.
  • Saw one adult seagull with an injured leg and a juvenile with an injured leg as well. Not sure if this is just a coincidence or an attack tactic by other adult seagulls, but it immobilizes the injured bird almost completely.

Marine mammals

  • A tagged female elephant seal has arrived at the island. The tag number is C887. Apart from a few scratches on the back, the seal is in very good health.
  • The harbour seal pups seem to have grown quite a bit, gaining some weight and coming close to adult size
  • The sea lions have started settling around the helipad and the back of the guest house (near the tidal radar) – an electric fence will be needed soon to allow for movement space.

Census and haze

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles
  • Wind: 0-5 knts W
  • Sky: Hazy
  • Water: Ripply

Mammal Notes

  • More sea lions continue to arrive on the island – spotted a few branded ones, but could only make out one number (steller with brand 348R).

Bird Notes

  • The first of the juvenile seagulls have started to fly short distances (5-6 feet at a time). Most are still grounded though.

Census

  • Elephant Seals
    • Male = 1
    • Female = 0
  • Sea Lions
    • California = 32
    • Steller = 38
  • Seagulls = 305 adults + 128 juvenile
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 67
  • Eagles = 0
  • Oystercatchers = 4 adults
  • Harbour Seals = 16 adults, 2 (maybe more) babies
  • Geese = 9
  • Black turnstone = 85

Census, more stellers and fog continues

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles
  • Wind: 20-25 knts W
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Ripply
  • Heavy fog in the morning and evening

Mammal Notes

  • More and more stellers have started arriving on the surrounding rocks. I saw stellers on the southeastern rocks for the first time today.
  • No sign of the malnourished/injured california sea lion for the last 2 days, which leads me to believe that he may have finally passed away
  • Spotted both the seal pups today, and looks like they’re getting pretty big. They’re about half the size of the adults now.

Bird Notes

  • Geese continue to remain on the island after their return from their long absence. Counted 6 today.

Census

Species counts may not be fully accurate – the fog hindered visibility significantly.

  • Elephant Seals
    • Male = 2
    • Female = 1
  • Sea Lions
    • California = 6
    • Steller = 41
  • Seagulls = 382 adults + 150 juvenile
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 88
  • Eagles = 2
  • Oystercatchers = 6 adults
  • Harbour Seals = 18 adults, 2 (maybe more) babies
  • Geese = 6
  • Black turnstone = 81

Census, end of the fog and more stellers

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Today was the first day in over a week where the island wasn’t covered in dense fog for most of the day. I was finally able to get a good look at what was happening on and around the island.

Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles
  • Wind: 20-25 knts W
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Ripply
  • Heavy fog this morning, lifted by mid-afternoon

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • A few ecotour boats and a couple of private boats as well

Technical

  • I installed bird deterrent strips on all the solar panels this morning. It took a couple of hours of drilling and screwing in strips of wire, but all the panels are now protected from seagulls. This should drastically reduce the frequency with which the panels will have to be cleaned.

Mammal Notes

  • Once the fog lifted, I got a good look at the western rocks and looks like the steller population has doubled! There seem to be several more large bulls. Pictures below.
  • The injured seal that was resting their the jetty for the last week or so, seems to be more mobile now. I saw it playing in the water by itself this evening.
  • The injured california sea lion doesn’t seem in any better condition. It’s getting skinnier every day.
  • I found the spot where the two seal pups like to sleep! I found them dozing on the southeast corner of the island, in a small and shallow inlet.

Bird Notes

  • The seagulls have been gradually getting less and less aggressive. I spent almost 6 hours outdoors today without getting hit on the head – I’ll take it as a good sign!
  • Most of the seagull chicks are now at least 1/2 the size of the adults – some appear almost as big as the adults! However, there are still a few really small ones, especially near the water, that are about a week old. I witnessed an adult seagull trying to kill another’s week-old baby this afternoon.
  • I spotted two geese on the island after a long time

Census

  • Elephant Seals
    • Male = 2
    • Female = 0
  • Sea Lions
    • California = 3
    • Steller = 30
  • Seagulls = 450 adults (a big part of them remain on the smaller rock islands during low tide), ~100 babies (hard to estimate)
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 90
  • Eagles = 0
  • Oystercatchers = 12 adults
  • Harbour Seals = 50 adults, 2 (maybe more) babies
  • Geese = 2
  • Black turnstone = 72

Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 25-30 knts W
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: small white caps

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • A few ecotour boats in the area

Marine Mammals

  • All the Elephant seals seemed to be huddled up on the north side of the student residence, possibly to stay out of the wind

Census

  • Elephant Seals
    • Male = 4
    • Female = 0
  • Sea Lions
    • California = 1
    • Steller = 0
  • Seagulls = 200
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 90
  • Eagles = 5
  • Oystercatchers = 9
  • Harbour Seals = 65
  • Geese = 2