Light NE wind. Partly cloudy. Calm seas.
The cackling goose is gone.
The white fronted goose is still here.
A juvenile male elephant seal arrived yesterday.
My Mom is visiting for the night.
-washed solar panels
-ran desalinator
-put away scaffolding
-derrick practice in the morning
Overcast with intermittent showers. Calm seas with a low westerly swell building in the evening.
tour boats: 5
Elephant seal 6360 has returned after being gone for a couple weeks.
#6360
#6360
-Installed shut off from student house to solar panels
-Fixed leak in hose valve at SW corner of energy building
-Fixed leaky hose nozzle and valve on solar panel roof
-Fixed and reaplced all broken and missing hose attachments that could be found
-Worked on the RR operating manual
A single, juvenile Greater White Fronted goose (Anser albifrons) arrived a few days ago and has been rustling around the middle of Greater Race Rock. This species was also documented at Race Rocks on May 2012, May 2007 and September 2007. Thanks Ann for verifying the species.
At the end of September a juvenile elephant seal was on the jetty for roughly a week. It had the classic signs of a scabby molt. Scabby molt is a skin disease that attacks elephant seals between the ages of eight months and two years old. Two-year-old elephant seals often suffer from a skin disease known as the northern elephant seal skin disease or NESSD for short. This form of dermatitis is also often referred to as scabby molt. This ulcerative skin disease can either infect a small portion of the fur and underlying skin or spread to cover up to 60% or more of this outer protective layer. Although, in most cases, the elephant seals heal up without any further problems, sometimes, secondary bacterial infections and/or sepsis can lead to death.
Check out this link to a paper by Beckamn et al, 1997 that describes this disease.
-Ran desalinator
-Washed solar panels
-Washed exterior windows on Student house
-Tidied Student house basement and bathroom
-Hung pictures in student house
-Fixed underwater camera issue with help from Jonathan
Wardens’s report by Garry Fletcher: Chris drove me out this morning to Race Rocks to relieve Courtney our Ecoguardian for the weekend –a foggy start but it cleared off by noon with a shower in the afternoon. Up the tower at 11:30 for census and the daily boat survey for DFO. Census from tower at 1150hrs. Harbour seals : 22 SE onshore, 39 SW : total 61 Elephant Seals: 10 in a cluster behind boathouse: total 10. California Sea Lions 77 south side, 80 on East shore , 40 on NE , viewed from Docks and helipad to get ones not visible from tower: from docks w side 40, East 72, west shore tidepools: 53 : total 362. Northern Sea lions: middle rock 170, E side docks 30, N rock 50 : total 250
2-3 year old ??- male and female elephant seals by the boathouse
Northern Sealions near the winch house, note small juvenile to the right.
The distribution in the late afternoon changed, with more sealions of both species moving up onto the main island covering the yard to the North west which is now completely devoid of vegetation.
In order to curb damage to the grounds, (and pipes and conduits,) from the sealions this year, we are restricting the movement up onto the center of the island. A network of electrical tape has been installed and it appears to be effective so far.
Several branded sealions were on the island today, this one 8586 was easiest to identify.
For other branding records see: https://www.racerocks.ca/race-rocks-animals-plants/marine-mammal-tracking/
I was surprised by the number of dead juvenile seagull carcases around the island. many were young that were probably attacked by other adults when out of nesting territories , the highest count was on the ledge below Camera5 . Most deaths occurred during the late summer. Approx count 20.
Who me?
Twice today a pod of Orca, ( about 6 ?) traveled through the reserve. whale watchers numbered up to 10 boats averaging 15-20 people per boat. They were observant about remaining outside the reserve when the whales were inside reserve boundaries, but with a ring of whale-watching boats around the group when they were out in Race Passage, it did not look like the whales were getting much freedom. I believe the Orca pod was feeding on fish because there were many seals and sea lions in the water and none were attacked. At least 20 whale-watching boats were through the reserve today.
Whale-watching boats waiting for the whales at the east side of the reserve.
Below the cliff from camera 5 is a space behind some rocks with a failed nest of a pigeon guillemot
At the northeast corner of the helipad I noticed a large amount of chevrons from chiton shells, washed out from guano deposits from over the summer. It seemed to be a very dense concentration??
Environment Canada has over the summer installed new weather sensors on top of the tower at Race Rocks. Now in addition to wind speed and direction, humidity, temperature, dew point and barometric pressure are recorded. This provides an interesting comparison with the data from the ground level recorded by our Davis weather instrument: They may be accessed here: Env Canada Weather
A bit of History:
One can often encounter human-made artifacts on the islands which don’t have an obvious explanation: On the east side of the tower for instance is this “sidewalk to nowhere”. Trev Anderson told me about the wooden blacksmith shop that was located in that spot until it was demolished in the late 1960’s.
25-30 kt West wind since 1400 hrs
-6 elephant seals came ashore and napped behind the boat shed
-9 pelicans flew over, north to south. It seems like they pause over the islands and rest in the updrafts before crossing towards Port Angeles
-The sealions have occupied the whole area between the jetty and boat shed, the derrick shed, and the North-East flats
Off island from 1300 to 1500 hrs
New voltmeter courtesy of Erik
-ran desalinator
-washed solar panels
-found a couple small hose leaks
Elephant seal snoozing, #6375 in the background
Another female elephant seal, significantly larger than the tagged #6375, has visited twice this week. It is not tagged. The tagged female has also stayed around. Yesterday, she was resting in the shallow water and blocking the boat ramp as I was returning from the mainland in the Whaler. I left the boat tied up so not to disturb the seal and returned in an hour. The seal had moved to a very crowded area that many of the sea lions use as their water entrance/exit and was snapping and chasing the sea lions. I assume this was playful behaviour although the elephant seal was quite aggressive.
This first image shows the seal waiting at the surface.
Then the seal approaches the sea lions on its back, provoking them.
And with a splash, the chase ensues!
A new project on-the-go is a daily count of the number of fishing boats. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans are wanting to monitor the impact of sport fishing in the area. We survey an area from Beechey Head to Albert Head. On some days, there more than 100 sport fishermen in the area.
The tagged female has returned, but on the opposite side of the island. Her number is 6375, which means she’s been returning to the island since 2011 or earlier. Pictured below, she is dosing on the south side of the island.
Female seal, August 15
We have had very low winds in the last few days. Even though summer months typically have less wind, it is very rare to see 0.00 knots as the wind metre read yesterday. We also had our first rain of the summer.
The group from Discover Channel and Ogden Point Dive Centre
On Thursday we had a visit from Discovery Channel who were working with the Ogden Point Dive Centre (based out of Victoria) to film and document sea lions and seals on the reserve. They asked questions about the sea lions’ migration patterns and the role of Race Rocks as a reserve among others. The footage will be used as part of The Blue Realm series, by Danny Mauro.
Stellar and California sea lions
The California sea lions moved onto the main Rock last week, and the Stellars have joined in the last few days. Currently, approximately 30 are resting on the rock and in the water. Misery, our largest resident male, left last week and has not returned or been spotted on the other rocks. The female in the last post has also left. However, on Saturday, a different young female was resting on the jetty. Unfortunately, I did not notice she had a tag on her back fin until she was swimming away and it was too late to mark down.
Female elephant seal on the jetty
Saturday evening when collecting the water sample, I noticed the familiar glow of Noctiluca scintillans, a type of dinoflagellate that when agitated by movement in the water, lights up; a process known as bioluminescence. A curious mammal approached me on the jetty when I realized it was a female elephant seal, which haven’t frequented the island for a number of weeks now. The female didn’t come onto the main island until the following afternoon, and I suspect she is the same one that came most recently about a month ago in early July. She has returned to her usual hangout spot next to the hose box.
Juvenile female elephant seal
Illegal fishing on the reserve is hard to moderate although remains an important role of the reserve. Today I came across two Glaucous-winged gull chicks picking at what seemed to be a worm, but turned out to be fishing tackle some adult gull had probably returned with from the kelp beds.
Fisher in a kelp bed near West Race Rocks
These unexpected fisherman, above, claimed ignorance when I approached them about fishing poles in the water.
Sea lions at sunset
California sea lions have joined the Stellars on the southern rock.
We’ve had the most fog of the summer yesterday and this morning, so thick the shoreline isn’t visible from the tower at points. The fog yesterday didn’t clear until late evening.
The lighthouse tower
The gull chicks are just starting to fly, although there have been some later hatchings this year too. The parent gulls have been very protective and aggressive. When young chicks wander close to another nest, mothers attack the chick or its parent gull. There have been at least four chick casualties this season because of this. These two chicks, pictured below, discovered the protected corner of the boathouse just before I was about to paint the floor. Luckily their squawking parents were close by and I was able to help them on their way.
Glaucous-winged gull chicks in the boathouse
A group of five stellar sea lions arrived on West Race Rocks and the southern rocks this past weekend. Only one California is here now that has been here for a few weeks now. Chunk, however, left the island last week and has not returned, leaving Misery as our only elephant seal at the moment.
Rear view of Chunk, the day before his departure