The sea lions were surprisingly calm today considering how many boats seemed to be too close.
The injured California sea lion was near the derrick again.
Boats
9 eco-tours came by today. I guess there was a big backlog of tourists after several days of high winds.
I think 8/9 of the boats today looked to be too close. Certainly the boats that viewed the sea lions near the derrick were the closest I have ever seen.
The viewing distance for boats near marine mammal haul-outs has been accepted by the Ecotour community to be 100 metres.
One of them appears to have some sort of plastic box/device attached to its back. I didn’t have the camera with me when I saw it, and when I left to grab the camera it fled into the water.
Several more bald eagles in the reserve than in previous days.
Discovered that one of the goose nests had been abandoned sometime between 20:20 and 22:00. Saw 6 shattered eggs laying strewn about the grass with no sign of the geese.
Maintenance
Cleaned the solar panels.
Cleaned the camera lens. Not perfect, but better.
Ventured down to the jetty to run the fire pump, but there were too many elephant seals playing in the water or on the ramp.
Boats
Didn’t see any in the reserve today, which is odd for a weekend, but I guess the weather was a factor.
A few sailboats were out and about taking advantage of the wind.
Elephant Seals: 17 (12 on Great Race, 5 on Middle Rock)
River Otter: 1
Seagulls: 563
Pigeon Guillemots: 54
Black Turnstones: 51
Canada Geese: 21
Black Oystercatchers: 14
Savannah Sparrows: 6
Bald Eagles: 5 (4 immature, 1 adult)
Rock Sandpipers: 4
Cormorant: 2
Surfbird: 1
Maintenance
Canada Goose themed work.
Boats
One eco-tour came by today.
Had a phone call from Kyle this morning to let me know that he would be picking me up around 13:00 for a First Nations cultural sensitivity workshop at Pearson College.
This was a surprise to me, but nice to get off the island for a few hours.
Always good to be reminded and educated on past and present issues.
Visitors
When Kyle arrived to pick me up he came ashore to take a look at a few things, and then admire the elephant seals.
Wind: 0-5 knots E; in the afternoon 15 knots W; early evening 28 knots W.
Sky: clear
Water: calm
Today’s high temperature of 17.1 c was a new observed record, beating last year’s mark of 14.7 C.
Ecological
Still unable to find any black oystercatcher nests. I think it’s probably too early for them to be laying any eggs though.
Discovered a new nesting pair of Canada Geese today.
11 elephant seals on Great Race.
5 on Middle Rock.
One elephant seal ventured out to the end of the jetty to look around.
Later an elephant seal went up to a Canada Goose nest and inspected the area. I think it was the same seal from the jetty.
Found a broken up Canada Goose egg not far from a different nest. Wonder who did that?
Found some cool bones on the rocks today, including a fin and some teeth.
A fleet of about 19 kayaks passed by the South Rocks this morning, and this spooked the sea lions who all ended up in the water.
While I suspect there was a stampede, I didn’t actually see it.
As the kayaks assembled in the SW portion of the reserve, a large group of sea lions swam towards the kayaks to investigate. Not something I have seen before!
Maintenance
Cleaned the solar panels.
Performed a distilled water volume estimate: 50-55 litres.
More goose work.
Boats
Two eco-tours came by today.
A couple of small fishing boats passed by.
One of the fishing boats looked like it was going too fast.
A sailboat passed by. One of the occupants gave the buoys a good long look.
Speaking of which, the “lost buoys” from yesterday reappeared this morning around the same time. Are they perhaps anchored there, and only appear at low tide?
Other
While lying in bed at 22:30 I heard two loud DND blasts.
