Tag Archives: elephant seal

Viewing from the Tower

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Ecological Notes:

  • I gave it a couple days to be sure, but it does appear that the last 2 elephant seals have left the island. Checked the outer rocks from the top of the tower as well. It was time for them to head to open water and regain the weight they lost during their molt.

(Photo from a previous day!)

  • Only 11 sealions left as well, 8 California sealions and 3 Stellers. One remaining Steller is relatively young.

DND events:

  • Several loud blasts, but no boat sentinels or flags, so it looked like it was further inland.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 2 Ecotourism vessels, following all guidelines properly.

 Feature Event:

  •  Weekly Wildlife Census is an all day event. Counting occurs early morning through to late evening, as activity changes throughout the day.
  • Low tide is a good time to count Oystercatchers and surf birds foraging in the inter-tidal zone. Right now, I’m limiting walking around the island edge due to all the various bird nesting locations.
  • The view from the top of the tower gives the best overview of the seal haulouts, surrounding rocks, and bird counts on the main island.
  • Other than Oystercatchers and Pigeon Guillemots , it’s best to count birds from the tower
  • Although not in the reserve, Biggs Orca (also known as Transient Orca) were  also observed from the tower today. Identified by a friend as the T46Bs

Weather Events:

  • Other than a short early morning fluctuation, winds were consistently from the west at 10 – 15knots all day. Cloudy with a few sunny breaks and good visibility all day.

 

** 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?

New and Old

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Ecological Notes:

  • 1 Juvenile Male and 1 female Elephant Seal still on the island
  • Fewer Sealions over the last couple stormy days

Visitors:

  • Yesterday, the waterfront coordinator brought over some packages, drinking water, and a tank of water for the large tank. Hopefully this will be the last large tank, as we’re finishing the maintenance on the desalinator and cistern this month!

Facility Work:

  • Learned how to sharpen and service the chainsaw blade properly today (thank you YouTube). Probably not perfect, but it cuts way better now.

New files really helped

  • Although done on a regular basis it was a nice day to clean the solar panels, albeit windy. This picture shows a nice juxtaposition of the new and the old, realizing that the builders of the lighthouse never envisioned what the future would hold …… yet the installation of the panels wouldn’t be needed in the absence of the lighthouse and facilities.

Daylight, converted to power, for the Night Light

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 4 Private vessels

Weather Events:

  • Last night’s wind and rain storm, with gusts up to 45 knots gave way to more westerly winds, rising from 15 knots in the morning to 35 knots by late afternoon. Wind with tide most of the day led to 2 meter swells. Cloudy with sunny patches throughout the day.

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Gull Activity

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Ecological Notes:

  • Only 2 Elephant Seals left. The largest of the Females, and the Juvenile Male, who is slightly large than the female. Glad(?) to see the last male pup move to the ocean, as he was getting very thin, and looked to be loosing energy. Hopefully He’s off to regain weight and start growing again!

Not too hungry yet, we like it here!

  • The Gulls have nests everywhere, and for the most part are pretty mellow, until an eagle or tern flies over. Every now and then they fly up behind me, but drop quietly if I turn and face them.

Gull Display

Visitors:

  • Shorefront coordinator delivered groceries and supplies yesterday.

Facility Work:

  • Oil and filter changes on the Generator. Service of batteries.

Generator, used only for short periods when there hasn’t been enough Solar power to keep the batteries up.

 

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 3 private vessels, short sightseeing visits.

Weather Events:

  • Westerly winds all day, 20 – 30 knots, rising to 35 – 30 knots late afternoon. Light fog in the morning, sunny and clear all day. Heavy haze in the evening, not quite dense enough to be called fog. Swells up to 2 meters, with 1 meter chop on top of that.

 

** 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?

Nest Building

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Ecological Notes:

  • 4 Elephant Seals still in the grass area, including 2 adult females, 1 juvenile male, and the last male pup from this season.
  • This one was napping at the junction of 4 pathways. Normally not a big deal, but right now there are gull nests everywhere!

You can leave the cart and wheelbarrow alone for now.

  • While there are too many Gull nests to count, other pairs are still courting and nest building.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 6 Ecotourism Vessels
  • 4 Private vessels sight seeing

 Noted Infractions:

  • As usual, private vessels coming up to speed while still well within the reserve.

Weather Events:

  • Westerly winds 10-15 knots most of the day, with a shift to southerly winds for 2 hours mid day. Overcast and warm, basically calm seas.

 

** 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?

Enjoying the sun

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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?

Time moves on

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Ecological Notes:

  • 4  Elephant Seals still in the grass area today, 2 adult females, 1 Juvenile Male, and 1 Male “pup” from this season. 1 more Adult female has left.
  • The Juvenile Male has gotten very aggressive, and especially protective of any Female he is near.

  • A couple of Great Blue Herons, and a couple Juvenile Eagles, have made several passes today, really upsetting the nesting gulls.

Great Blue Heron

Juvenile Bald Eagle

  • Even though the goslings are different sizes, the 3 “families” of Canada Geese were grouped up today, perhaps for better protection.

Facility Work:

  • Took advantage of the rain showers to clean windows and the solar panels
  • Shut down the composting toilet system in the student building for the season.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 1 Ecotourism Vessel

Weather Events:

  • Morning WSW winds, 10-15 knots shifting to WNW in the afternoon. Winds rose to 25-30 knots early evening. Cloudy with showers during the day, a few sunny breaks late afternoon.

 

** 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?

Gull Nests

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Ecological Notes:

  • 6 Elephant Seals in the main grass area and boat ramp, including a juvenile male (slightly larger than the largest female), and 1 male “pup” from this season. The tagged female”pup” that was in the east bay yesterday, appears to have left the island.
  • The Juvenile male was rather feisty today and bluff charged, even from quite a distance.
  • Glaucous Wing Gull nests are popping up all over! All but 1 that I observed had 1 egg in them, suggesting they were all laid today. Considering there are about 180 Gulls on the island, mostly in clear pairs, there should be a lot of nests soon!
  • This nest is right outside my door, and the birds barely pay attention as I walk by.

Facility Work:

  • “Out with the new, in with the old” …… Wait …….. what?
  • For various reasons, the existing composting toilet system was not performing as expected for the main house. It needed to be removed, and plans are in the works for a new system. In the mean time, a previous Natures Head compact composting toilet has been re-installed in the main house.
  • One advantage of being out here by yourself is that skipping a shower gives you water to clean your favorite viewing windows while you wait for more rain!

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 2 private vessels, viewing wildlife

 Noted Infractions:

  • none

Weather Events:

  • Westerly 5 – 10 knot morning winds, shifting to Southerly 5 knot winds mid day. Continued to shift to Northeasterly winds at 5 – 10 knots in the afternoon. Calm seas, sunny with cloudy periods all day, overcast in the evening, hinting at possible showers.

 

** 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?

Elephant Seal “Pup”

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Ecological Notes:

  • 6 Elephant Seals in the main grass area and at the boat ramp
  • The female “pup” was found in the bay at the east side of the island. This was where the last departing female spent a few days before departing the area. There’s a deep area there with less current, and probably a good place to feed up before departing. She did have a few scrapes and cuts that I could see, but I didn’t want to get too close and inspect any further, as it is a rock area and a lot of work if I disturbed her and she decided to move.
  • One very large Steller Sea Lion on the rock by the pier, really showing his size and dominance!

Steller Sea Lions can be 2 to 3 times the weight of California Sea Lions! (up to just over 1000 kilos or 2400 lbs.)

Being an “Eared” Seal, he can use his rotatable rear hips, to scratch the aforementioned external ear.

 

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 2 Ecotourism boats and 2 private boats, all with good behavior and departures.

Weather Events:

  • 15 – 20 knot westerly winds all day, increasing to 30 – 35 knots in the evening. Some haze with sunny skies. Slight swell and chop, again, increasing in the evening.

 

** 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?

Cleaning and Maintenance

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Ecological Notes:

  • 7 Elephant Seals, including 2 “pups” still using the grass areas
  • Monday saw a dramatic reduction of animals and birds in the reserve (almost no guillemots or Sealions, and about half the number of gulls) but they are gradually returning.
  • An anecdotal possibility is that Sunday night had a 50+ knot storm, lining up with a high tide and lots of big ocean swells, making the reserve a very nasty place to be!
  • Noticing more Black Oyster Catcher nests. These are more just an indentation in the gravel, and the birds rely a lot on the camouflage of the eggs. Due to high egg loss rates (here, primarily gulls snatching them), Oyster catchers can lay up to 3 or 4 replacement clutches in a season.

Very distant photo

Visitors:

  • Guests left Sunday
  • 4 Pearson College students on Monday, for an informal visit, with some discussions on marine mammal adaptations life in the ocean.
  • Was also nice to re-instate the visitor log in the newly painted and repaired Visitor Welcome Box

Facility Work:

  • Trouble shooting power interruptions originating from the Student Building
  • Cleaning and minor repair to the housing on the Camera 5 unit.
  • There’s an old prairie saying “Make hay while the sun shines” …… out here, the addendum could be “Clean stuff while the rain falls!” Rain makes it much easier to clean paths and windows, and through the rain collection, provides water for the pressure cleaner.

DND events:

  • 6 or 7 loud blasts today, all sealions left the rocks again

 

Weather Events:

  • Westerly winds, 15-20 knots brought rain showers in the morning. Mostly sunny with cloudy periods in the afternoon. Calm seas. Clear skies and 20 knot westerly winds in the evening

 

** 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?

Wildlife Returns

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Ecological Notes:

  • The Elephant Seal that left the grassy area 2 days ago, is now in the little bay at the east side of the main island. Spending a lot of time diving. Really tough to spot!

That’s her, the little grey spot left of center! Photo taken from the top of the tower!

  • The other seven Elephant Seals (including the 2 “pups”) still mostly lounging in the sun, but most took at least one dip in the water by the pier.

  • Greater White-fronted Goose returned, and spending time with the Canada Geese.

 

Facility Work:

  • More Painting, minor parts repairs

 

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 2 Private boats, stayed centered in the channel, sealions took note, but not overly disturbed

Weather Events:

  • Light westerly winds, building over the day to 25 – 30 knots by evening. Threatened fog in the morning from the west, but burnt off by the time it got close. Cloudy with sunny breaks throughout the day.

** 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?