Tag Archives: elephant seal

Windy Day

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It was a windy day – blew the door off the Derrick Shed and the hair off the elephant seal’s head. The electric fence suffered from the winds over the past few days and needed replacement strands in two sections.

Wildlife notes:

The pigeon guillemots were around in the morning and mostly left again by 7pm. I found what I assume to be a pigeon guillemot nest in the rocks at the west end of the helipad.  Judging by the egg orientation, the little bone and other items which get moved around, it seems to be an active nest. Two least sandpipers were spotted on the northeast shore.

Least sandpiper

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • replaced 2 sections of electric fence
  • thistles – new record, an 11″ root.
  • topped up battery fluid

Vessels:

10 Ecotourism boats, 1 private

Weather:

WNW 13 and clouds in the morning, clearing early afternoon with winds building to WNW 33 by late afternoon.

White stuff

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The male elephant seal is an unsightly mess. His hair is falling out, he is covered in flies, foaming from the nose and has a poo smear running the length of his belly from dragging himself through his excrement. He probably can’t see well, is slow moving, uncoordinated, and can’t grab a hovering gull <1 foot away from his open mouth.

To be fair, we are seeing him at his worst. In the sea, this creatures is an extremely manoeuvrable master diver and hunter! He can easily hold his breath for 20 minutes and dive to 800 m (maximums of up to 100 min long and 2 km deep have been recorded). His eyes have adaptations for low light, his vibrissae (whiskers) can detect vibrations, he can reduce blood flow to his extremities, has a large blood volume with a high red cell count and can store extra blood in his abdomen and spleen to release slowly during his dive. And that white stuff oozing from his nostril?  It is a pulmonary surfactant that reduces the surface tension of the fluid in the lungs but it also acts an anti-adhesive. When he dives to great depths the pressure is so high his lungs collapse and this surfactant stops the lung tissue from sticking together allowing the lungs to later expand again.

References:

The Remarkable Non-Stick Lungs of Elephant Seals, The Common Naturalist – read more

The Northern Elephant Seal, by Veronica Pagowski, Northwest Wildlife Preservation Society – read more

Wildlife notes:

The gulls were very testy today. I got nailed with a wet, warm, smelly bomb right in the head and across my glasses, and it was first time I had raise my broom to intercept a diving gull. The first chicks should hatching any day now.

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • thistles
  • survey and brush the electric fence line
  • vacuum and clean main basement room

Vessels:

5 Ecotourism boats, 4 private

Weather:

Sunny day, calm seas, winds light and variable 4-7 knots.

DND activity:

Three blasts heard and seen from Bentinck Island. No obvious signs of distress.

 

Digital Dexterity

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An elephant seal moving on land is anything but graceful. Their rear flippers are not useful for locomotion on land. They use their front flippers to propel themselves forward on their bellies. Their forelimbs or front flippers however, are capable of precise, controlled movements, perfect for getting that itchy spot or wiping away the flies.

Wildlife notes:

Single eagles visited today. The gulls would really have an easier time if they just worked together in both scaring off the eagles and dealing with the steamroller elephant seal. While all the gulls are flying about and screaming bloody murder, only one brave gull chased the eagle on two trips around the Great Race and the surrounding islands.  The male elephant seal has lost more hair on his nose, around his eyes and the hair on his body is coming off in patches.

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • thistles

Vessels:

7 Ecotourism boats, 2 private

Weather:

Foggy morning, temperature 10 degrees, winds WSW 10. Daytime high of 12 degrees, winds steady 8-15 knots from WSW or W.

Race Rocks Ecological Reserve Warden’s Report June 14 2024

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Garry Fletcher, ER Warden for Race Rocks visited the reserve on June 14, 2024

Greg Dickinson from Pearson College provided transport in Second Nature for the following group: 

  • Lisette and Mads – Mads is a  former student and both are volunteering at Pearson College
  • Garry Fletcher – Park Warden
  • James Tuohy – future Ecoguardian
  • Ann Nightingale and Andrew Jacobs – Rocky Point Bird Observatory

Upon docking I was struck by the number of Pigeon Guillemots on the rocks . Although I haven’t checked back in our records, there certainly seems to have been an increase in numbers 

We were greeted by the new ecoguardian  Christine  Chourmouzis .  In addition to having a general survey of the reserve, I was able to direct Christine and James through the process of entering them as editors on racerocks.ca and creating a log and posting it on the Race Rocks website. 

Supplies for the Ecoguardian are off-loaded

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pigeon Guillemots also nest on the island

 

When I was teaching at Pearson College, we often monitored a set of tidepools out on the island’s West side. I checked out those pools again and took photos which show the state of algae growth. Some observations in the tidepool files provide a baseline for comparative studies in the future.  These files are on the tidepools

Today’s observations are in the set of photos below

I checked pool #4 which has a white quartz intrusion through it to see if the white periwinkle snails were still there. 

 

A review of some of the installations on the Island

 

Due to recent notices on social media about the problems that pet owners are having when their dogs get exposed to foxtail , I was concerned about whether there was a similar problem with marine mammals. This guy certainly seems to be enjoying the location however. 

I tried to find the small patch of the rare plant  seaside  plant Romanzoffia on the rocks on the East side of the house.  Unfortunately the area was covered with knotweed now. We will have to check again in the winter. 

The Turkish marsh gladiolus is now in bloom. This is a good example of a garden escape, planted by lighthouse keepers probably as much as 80 years ago, they still come up every summer .

 

 

All in the day of a gull

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The elephant seal typically spends his mornings sleeping the grass near the east-west walkway leading from the Jetty to the Energy house. In the afternoon he moves to the east side of the house perhaps seeking the shade. He often moves in quick short bursts and with no regard to the gull nests in his path.  Today I watched him place himself on top of a nest near the house.

The gulls go to have a look for their nest which is mostly beneath him.

His first warning

The gulls try to persuade him to move

and try

and try

 

 

The seal reaches but can’t manage to grab the gull out of the air.

 

Eventually the seal moves a bit and the gull can take a look

One broken egg, one undamaged

They remove the shell pieces…..

and they eat the rest!  A few minutes later, she back on the nest as though nothing happened.

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels: from 12-1 pm generated 7.1kW !
  • thistles
  • chopped kindling

Wildlife notes:

Several eagles visited throughout the day causing great commotion. The oyster catchers seem to be the first to raise the alarm.  The California sea lions were notable absent from their regular spot near the Jetty. The four Canada geese are still here.

Vessels:

7 Ecotourism boats

Weather:

Another sunny day, winds WNW 10 in the morning building to W 30 midday.

Farewell! (For Now)

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Well, just like that it’s been 6 weeks and it’s time for me to return to the mainland. The wind is gusting 65km/hour right now, giving me one final storm before my departure. The animals are all hidden away, protecting themselves from the weather. All except the male elephant seal who is still harassing the gulls.

I thought I’d wrap up my final blog post with my favourite photos and moments from this trip. I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

Pinnipeds:

Cetaceans:

Ollie the Sea Otter: 

Birds:

Northern Lights:

Sunsets:

That’s all from me for now, but I’ll be back! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

Gulls Gone Wild

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The gulls are showing no mercy. Not to the elephant seal, not to the eagles, and certainly not to me. I will say that they haven’t been as bad as what I was expecting but it does amaze me that nothing seems to scare them, even animals much larger than them.

Through no fault of his own, the elephant seal has been romping through the grass and squashing nests as he goes. The gulls, as you might imagine, absolutely despise him. He seems rather confused as to why they are dive bombing his head and I was impressed as he nearly bit one out of the air. Last night he managed to lay on top of a nest all night without cracking the eggs and I’m still trying to figure out how. He moved onto a different nest this morning and the nest of 3 eggs is now down to 2. Currently he is back on the original nest except this time he is fully on top of it and I would be shocked if any remain unbroken when he leaves.

I ended my evening by watching a humpback breach in the distance, causing big splashes with its tail slaps. Unfortunately it was too far away for any decent photographs!

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 30 vessels – most so far this season!
  • Private: 8 vessels, lots of boats on the water this morning

Weather:

  • Sky: Mix of sun and cloud
  • Wind: Low of 1 knots, High of 18 knots – picked up in the afternoon
  • Sea: Glassy, small whitecaps late afternoon
  • Temperature: Low 13•C, High 24•C

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

Adventures of an Elephant Seal

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This morning the male elephant seal woke up and decided he would cause chaos. Maybe it’s because he’s lonely now that the females have left, or maybe it’s because he gets a kick out of hearing me yell at him from the window.

He started by galumphing straight over a gull nest then stopping to snooze on top of it, which resulted in 2 very upset gulls.

Unimpressed

He then made his way over to the fresh water shed where he proceeded to break into it by knocking down the sawhorse. If it were any other animal my first instinct would be to run outside and chase him off. Since he is a large male elephant seal…I opted for shouting from the kitchen window which did the trick! I could also tell that he was more interested in the sawhorse than anything else so I wasn’t too concerned about any immediate damage to the water tank. 

From the shed he made his way along the side of the house and started to boop his nose towards the propane tanks. Usually I always leave the elephant seals to do as they please, letting nature be nature, but I swear it’s like this seal wants to take down all of the supplies that keep me alive over here! Thankfully he moved on, but stopped shortly after to chew on a pipe that sticks out of the ground. This time I yelled at him from the balcony, as if I was scolding my dog and it worked surprisingly well. He made his way up to the lighthouse and fell asleep next to the stairs where he has remained for the rest of the day.

I hope tomorrow he behaves himself, or goes into the ocean like a normal seal would. Today I felt as though I was babysitting a toddler on a sugar high.

Trouble with a capital T!!!

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 3

Weather:

  • Sky: Sun and clouds
  • Wind: Low of 5 knots, High of 21 knots
  • Sea: Whitecaps
  • Temperature: Low 9•C, High 15•C

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

Saturday Update

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Nothing too wild to report today! I find myself tripping over more and more gull nests as each day passes but thankfully none have shown any aggression so far.

Our YSI unit that measures the salinity and temperature for sea water data has decided to stop working so today I learned how to use the old sampling method. I ended up with the same numbers as I’ve been getting all month so I think I managed to do it somewhat successfully! While I was collecting the water sample at the end of the jetty I had a curious little helper who was very intrigued by my bucket. She gave it an inspection and a boop with her nose before disappearing under the water and leaving me to my work.

No other creatures paid me a visit today but I did come across the unfortunate demise of a gumboot chiton that a gull dropped on the jetty. Very neat to see up close!

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

Sunday Update

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There were about 50 sea lions on the rocks out front when I went to sleep last night, and I think all 50 of them decided to be particularly chatty from 4am onward. Needless to say, today ended up being an early morning start for me be but I’m glad it was! I opened my bedroom curtains to find about 15 brown pelicans resting on the rocks outside my window. I crept outside with my camera being careful not to disturb them and then sat on the back porch in the mist and watched them preen and dry their wings. I think I could stare at pelicans forever, they’re such funny looking creatures.

 

The Swiftsure International Yacht Race continued throughout the day with all boats on their way back to Victoria. Unfortunately the wind was at 0 knots and the ebb was strong so some of them appeared to be going backwards. Slowly I watched boat by boat as they admitted defeat, bringing their sails down and starting their engines. A few persevered but the same boat I saw at 7am was still bobbing outside the reserve at 1pm, trying its best to get past the currents.

Back to the animals —we are down to two elephant seals now, just one big and one small female. The gulls have officially started laying eggs which I know because one was dropped outside my front door this morning. They haven’t shown any aggressive behaviour towards me yet but I imagine I’ll be ducking for cover any day now. Ollie is still doing his best to blend in with the harbour seals, his bed of kelp and seaweed looking especially cozy today.

The weather today stayed windless with dark clouds and on/off rain. Quite a few ecotourism vessels passed by today, this time they did not bring the whales with them. Also noted a couple private vessels and one kayaker, all respecting the rules.

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **