Nice weather, almost no wind and very sunny We were expected more wind and it came but late in the evening and raised to around 30 knots. Like usual it was a west wind.
Floyd and Chunk have not been in sight for a while now I would say that Floyd disappeared 7 days ago and Chunk 5 days ago. The little one left 3 days ago. The 2 big one were at that time really slim and it would be not surprising if they would be gone for good. Just the new young female is still around and yesterday we had the surprise to find this little elephant seal (in the rocks) closed to female Californian seal taking a nap on the railway. She was very curious of us and it was really a pleasure to spend time looking at this so gracious animal. She stayed there for at least 5 hours because she was just at the same spot when we came back for the water sampling. We really had to go on the jetty and she couldn’t handle to have us just above so she softly glided in the water.
At the same time closed to the jetty we were the witnesses of the first bath of a gull chicken. Nice! And on the other side you could see 2 beautiful shorebirds called Ruddy Turnstone easy to identify. Lot of life is going on around.
From the eco guardians house windows in the morning I could count 87 chickens. Now they are big enough and are not anymore closed to their birth spot. Actually they are really everywhere and on the high rocky spot too. At date we found 3 dead bodies of young gulls. The last one was on the stairs of the house.
Those days we had a lot of whale watchers around, closed to 20 each day.
Tag Archives: elephant seal
July 24th to 26th:Calm weekend
On Friday we had our first rainy day. When we came back from town the rocks were not so white. Everything around looked cleaner but the smell at around 50m from shore was the same unique strong mixture of crab shrimp and fish. On Saturday a nice and cool day many boats around 50 were fishing in the strait along the Canadian coast.
Those days the number of elephant seals on Race Rocks is not stable. The 2 big ones have been away since the 23rd and the 2 young females come and go. Maybe they will be all gone pretty soon. lately the 4 of them didn’t go far on the island and used to rest closed to the boat shed going often back and forth to the water.
No visitors.
July 20th : A new resident
Just around 9 in the morning we saw a new female elephant seal. She was bigger than the small one already there. We were just pleased. It is so interesting to watch them. The sea lions are now closer. A dozen of them were on the south side of the Rock and some Californian one are on the middle Rocks. Many newborn harbor seals spend their energy playing in the water.
The wind never stopped rising from 33 knots around noon to almost 40 knots around 2PM. This situation kept us inside for the rest of the day.
Early in the morning we saw the big rescue boat going slowly. A few maybe 3 or 4 whale watchers came. It was a beautiful sunny day and the sea a gorgeous sight.
We were expecting visitors from the college but no way it was really too windy to tie to the dock.
Nursery Island
Nursery island
It was still 20 knots when we awake but the rest of the day was pretty calm from 15 knots to 22 at the most. What a change! We could see very far that day…
After so much wind we were not alone outside enjoying a normal summer day. ..We could call the rock “Nursing Island “because chicks are really everywhere and the gulls are pretty nervous never stopping between feeding the young one and watching out for danger. No way to go around without your yellow helmet like a big bill on the top of the head! Those birds hit you once but not two times and it hurts! You remember!
We had another show from Chunk and the young female in the water. She really wanted to please him! Even after weeks we are still amazed by those attaching animals. They have lost a lot of weight and are now pretty active spending a lot of time in shallow water and each time going back and forth from water to a grassy spot.
Desalinator and generator have been on for a few hours. Everything is working perfectly.
ANIMAL CENSUS
July 9th Thursday: Animal census
The fog was still there pretty thick but around 11:30 it cleared up and we could go up the tower to do the census. We had a west wind and the forecast was a gale warning for the end of the afternoon.The wind at noon was from West at 24 knots and could go to 35 in the late afternoon. We saw a few Whale watchers boats around noon and we had no visitors. Water is getting colder under 12 degrees Celsius. Guy put a new VHF on the whaler.
The estimation of the population is:
Elephant seals: 3
Sea Lions: 180
Pigeon–guillemots: 80
Gulls: 450 (yesterday we could see a group of gulls with black winged maybe some west gulls)
Pelagic cormorants: 3
Geese: 11 (Today the smallest one of the family of 5 was not in the water swimming but looked lost alone in the island hanging around). They spend more and more time in the water.
Black oystercatchers :0
Bald eagle: 1 (they attack the colony almost every day once in the morning)
July 1st to 3rd : Summer time
July 1ST to 3rd: Summer time is here
If on the last day of June the wind was blowing up to 38.9 around 7:00 the 1st of July and the following days we had some light westerly wind increasing to 25 knots at the most in late afternoon. Water temperature has been steady above 12 Celsius and in Race Rocks no heavy hot days just the best …a light breeze above the houses.
The first of the month (Our Canada flag prouder than ever) has been a very busy day around Race Rocks. Fishing boats and whales watchers were attracted by a pod of orcas heading from ocean to Victoria and we could see them a mere half mile away from the rock on the South West side. All the boats were around and quickly disappeared following the whales.
At 5h00 in the morning, one after the other Floyd and Chunk, the 2 belching and dripping water Elephants Seals, came back from sea ready for a long sleepy day…but we were surprised, in the middle afternoon they gave us a real show. The 3 of them spent more than an hour playing like crazy in the shallow waters by the the jetty for the pleasure of a big whale watchers boat a little too close …but it was such a nice show! Some friends of us at the camera took pictures of the whole thing!
Divers came too and this time very closed to the shore maybe 15 meters! Some were snorkeling and 2 had bottles. They stayed not for long I would say 30mn.
Chicks are now everywhere to be seen…and the island get very noisy .
It ‘s just amazing to see how well protected those new ones are by the whole community. Even the eagles fly away.
Today for the first time in a week the generator has been on for a few hours
Guy had to look at the quantity of oil on the island, that is to say in the 2 houses (175 and 154 liters) the 3 drums (208 liters each), the 2 tanks –the big one (1120 liters) and the new smaller one (200 liters).
Yesterday, July 3rd. It was time for some groceries to buy. We have been surprised to see how hot it was in town and even at the college only a few miles away…We were really happy to come back a few hours later. We had a calm weather condition for the whole day, west winds from 0.11 knots to 23 knots in the end afternoon, very good visibility 10 miles at least.
June 29th mainly by the window
5.30 beginning of the day …and at the angle of the water sampling shed the 2 big elephant seals appeared looking tired…and at the same moment the guest family was still sleeping exactly at the same spot and in the same order as usual. It has been a very windy day but beautiful, bright and sunny. Chores were in the schedule like solar panels for sure and the batteries needed to be dried one after the other but we have been busy inside the house for the rest of the day because of the so strong wind. You could not stand it for long.
At noon 26 knots and at 2PM a few gust at 29…
Animal census
Link
Northern Elephant seals: 3
Harbour seals: 75
Pelagic cormorants: 3
Pigeons –guillemots: 75
Black oystercatchers: 2 couples
Canada geese: 4 adults and 7 goslings
Bold eagle: 1 adult
Glaucous -Winged gulls: 400 (a few young ones)
No whales
No shorebirds
Waiting on the railway!
We went ashore.
In the morning South wind for a while turning westerly later.
No story for the day except that when we came back from civilization the young Elephant seal female was on our way on the railway so Guy had to wait at least one hour before hauling the boat to the shed! Nature first…
Shift Switch
The almost constant wind of Race Rocks did not disappoint today. Although is started slowly, once it warmed up there was a steady blow from the west of 25 to 30 knots. The sky was mostly clear with a little fog coming and going late morning and high clouds spreading out from the mountains. The barometer peaked at close to 1019 hPA. and then started to fall in the afternoon. There is a strong wind warning in effect again for tomorrow with the prediction following the pattern of light winds in the morning and building in the afternoon. The last few evenings have been quite windy and rough and the forecast tomorrow has a 40% chance of rain in the late afternoon and evening, on top of the wind.
Two whale-watching boats came through the Ecological Reserve today. A Pedder Bay rental boat was observed fishing for rockfish in Rockfish Conservation Area which is closed to fishing. When I went out to take their photos they tried to move out of sight and ended up fishing about 50 feet off of Middle Rock. When I continued to document their activity they moved out close to the boundary and that is when the Pedder Bay folks showed up to encourage them to move out of the Reserve. That kind of support and community encouragement to follow the rules is really amazing. A big shout out to Pedder Bay Marina, thank you for making the effort for conservation. That kind of response will help keep your business sustainable.
Things continued as expected today with the usual ecological happenings described in the the last few days’ Logs. Chunk and Floyd avoided each other a bit more today which is definitely a good thing for the gulls which don’t stand a chance when the big guys get out of control. Floyd is almost finished his moult with just a few vibrissae and wee scraps of old skin on his back to go. He has lost a tremendous amount of the bulk he brought ashore when he first arrived.
Floyd has lost not only his skin and fur but also ~30% of his weight, since he came ashore to moult.
Killer Whales were in the vicinity in the early evening. A small pod of Biggs’ Killer Whales swam slowly westward through Race Passage and the whale watching boats were talking about the Southern Resident Killer Whales’ L-pod being a little further west.
There were no visitors and work was focused mainly on preparing and cleaning things for the next crew, Guy and Christine, who will start tomorrow. It has been a real privilege to be out in this special, bio-diverse and productive place and I look forward to returning and meeting the next wave of marine science students in September.