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Weather
Visibility: 15 miles
Wind: 25-30 knots West
As I write this at 20:00 the wind has picked up to 35 knots
Sky: cloudy, now raining
Water: 4′ chop and whitecaps
Gale warning in effect until tomorrow.
Ecological
15 elephant seals on Great Race today.
Maintenance
Some goose work this morning.
Boats
Saw the HMCS Winnipeg out in the straight.
Other
Got a phone call today from Pearson College indicating that CBC All Points West was interested in interviewing me about my experience following Leicester’s Premier League win at a lighthouse on an island.
They found out about me from a comment I had on The Guardian’s live blog.
Anticipating a possible phone call from CBC Radio, I spent all afternoon near the phone, but nothing happened.
Weather
Visibility: 15+ miles
Wind: 10-15 knots NE, later West
Sky: mostly clear, sunny, warm!
Water: calm
Ecological
15 elephant seals on Great Race today.
They spent much of the afternoon playing in the water near the jetty.
Maintenance
Goose work.
Added one entire 55 gallon barrel into the Tidy Tank.
Cleaned the solar panels.
Boats
One small pleasure craft came through the reserve today.
It looked like it might have been too close to the harbour seals on Turbine.
Kyle and Guy brought me two boxes of food today. Much appreciated and needed!
Other
I know this isn’t really related to the reserve, but I hope that Pam Birley, our honorary eco-guardian, is enjoying the celebrations of Leicester City’s first ever English Premier League win! Cheers to all you do for the reserve, and your city!
Weather
Visibility: 15+ miles
Wind: 0-5 knots NE, then S
Sky: clear and sunny!
Water: calm
Welcome springtime!
Ecological
The usual 15 elephant seals on Great Race today.
Thought I saw whales out West at sunset. I definitely saw something coming up for air and blowing jets of water.
Maintenance
Wrote the April month end report today amongst the usual chores.
Boats
5 eco-tours came by today.
Some of them appeared to be too close to the harbour seals on Turbine Rock.
The viewing distance for boats near marine mammal haul-outs has been accepted by the Ecotour community to be 100 metres.
Other
DND blasts at 10:14, 10:16, and 10:20.
Weather
Visibility: 15+ miles
Wind 0-5 knots most of the day, 15-20 West in the evening
Sky: sunny
Water: calm
Ecological
15 elephant seals on Great Race today.
10 of them were in the water playing at 6 AM.
Maintenance
Cleaned the windows of the eco-guardians house.
Entered the sea water data and sent it off to Peter Chandler.
More goose work.
Ran the desal.
Had to restart the communications in the tower after shutting off the generator.
Boats
3 eco-tours came by today.
One black boat that looked like an eco-tour came by, but it only had one occupant,
Other
The mystery buoys are still appearing from time to time in Middle Channel.
However they don’t exclusively appear at low tides, so I am baffled.
Will have to get out there to remove them sometime.
Weather
Visibility: 15 miles
Wind: 20-30 knots West
Sky: overcast in the morning, cleared up later
Water: 1′ chop
Ecological
15 elephant seals on Great Race
Maintenance
Cleaned the solar panels
Started applying algicide to the building walls during a brief lull in the wind.
Didn’t go so well when the wind picked up again.
Scrubbed the walls after. Moderate improvement.
Boats
No boats in the reserve today.
A group of students were supposed to come out here, but Second Nature isn’t back from overhauls yet, and it was too windy for the smaller boats.
Weather
Visibility: 15+ miles
Wind: 15-20 knots West in the morning, 25-30 after noon.
Sky: Sunny with clouds.
Water: 1′ chop
Expect the wind to keep it up for a while.
Ecological
Conducted a census today.
I suspect that the high winds have kept away certain species of birds, making today’s list less impressive.
Harbour Seals: 91
Northern Sea Lions: 47
California Sea Lions: 27
Elephant Seals: 19 (15 on Great Race, 4 on Middle Rock)
Seagulls: 314
Pigeon Guillemots: 108
Surfbirds: 39
Canada Geese: 18
Black Turnstones: 14
Black Oystercatchers: 10
Rock Sandpipers: 3
Bald Eagles: 3 (2 adult, 1 immature)
Savannah Sparrows: 2
Harlequin Ducks: 2 (1 male, 1 female)
Cormorant: 1 (one seen on Turbine Rock)
Maintenance
Intended to spray algicide on various building walls, but too windy to ensure accuracy. Perhaps tomorrow if the wind dies down.
Started investigating the paint stock.
Some goose work.
Boats
No boats in the reserve today.
Het Nieuw Amsterdam
Posted in Animal census , Bird Notes , Ecoguardians Log , Mammal Notes
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Tagged bald eagle , Black Oystercatcher , black-turnstone , california sea lion , Canada goose , cormorant , elephant seal , goose-neck barnacle , harbour seal , harlequin duck , Northern sea lion , pigeon guillemot , rock sandpiper , savannah sparrow , seagull , surfbird , Thrift
Weather
Visibility: 15 miles
Wind: 10-20 knots West
Sky: overcast in the morning, rather cleared up later
Water: rippled
Ecological
14 elephant seals on Great Race
Maintenance
Kyle, Guy, and I topped up the water in the battery bank.
Cleaned the solar panels.
Lots of goose related work today.
Boats
Kyle and Guy came to the island at about 8:30.
They departed just before 10:00.
One fishing boat passed through the south channel, which is too narrow for boats to safely pass through when animals are present.
The boat also seemed to be going too fast.
Weather
Visibility: 15 miles
Wind: 5-10 W, in the evening up to 20 W
Sky: clear, later cloudy
Water: 1′ chop
Ecological
14 elephant seals on Great Race
2 that I could see on Middle Rock
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.
Other
One DND blast at 10:02.
Another one at 11:12.
Weather
Visibility:Â 15 miles
Wind:Â 15-35 knots West
Water: 2′ chop
Sky:Â Partly cloudy
Ecological
13 elephant seals on Great Race today.
In the morning there was a lone California Sea Lion on Great Race fairly far from shore.
Maintenance
More goose work.
Cleaned the solar panels.
My coat now needs to be cleaned for the same reasons as the solar panels.
Boats
One pleasure craft passed through Middle Channel today.
Spied an attractive blue and white fishing boat to the north of the reserve.
Other
6 loud DND blasts today.
10:40, 10:42, 11:50, 11:52, 13:57, 13:59
Weather
Visibility:Â 15 miles
Wind:Â 15-35 knots West
Water: 2′ chop
Sky:Â Overcast with showers, cleared up in the late evening
Ecological
The broken Canada Goose eggs from last night were still on the grass.
13 elephant seals on Great Race.
5 on Middle Rock.
The elephant seals just outside the house were in a frenzy all morning.
Some of them play fought for hours, whilst others tried to mate.
Inevitably they all ended up in a big pile of flailing bodies.
Saw an injured California sea lion on the derrick rocks.
It appears as though it had part of a flipper torn off.
Boat motor or predator?
There was a tiny harbour seal on the east part of Great Race.
It was farther from water then I had ever seen one.
Maintenance
Ran the desalinator.
Again unfavourable conditions to run the fire pump.
Boats
No boats in the reserve.
A couple sail boats farther out.
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