I’ve been lucky to come to Race Rocks on and off for just over twenty years – and there is still nothing quite like the magic of pulling out of Pedder Bay and first catching a glimpse of the lighthouse on the horizon.
I arrived yesterday afternoon to glorious sunshine and a warm welcome and handover from Kendra, and quickly felt at home once more amongst the island’s sights, sounds, (and smells!)
The weather had turned to grey and windy this morning – but who can worry about inclement conditions when there are boisterous sea lions going about their morning stomp down to the jetty for a quick dip?
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the island, re-familiarising myself with facilities and SOPs, and frequently just stopping for a moment to marvel. It’s great to be back!
Ecological Notes:
Several orcas entered the reserve south of Great Race Rock, but didn’t stay for long or come in to feed.
The lone juvenile male is now consistently joined by two females, with Petal continuing to enjoy demolishing any flowers she can find around the island.
Spotted one of three currently resident sea otters.
Visitors:
Greg and Cedric came on Second Nature to pick up Kendra and dropped off some fresh drinking water.
Facility Work:
Handover inspection of facilities, fuel, water &c
Checked Battery Acid levels and topped up as appropriate
Setting up in the Keeper’s cottage
Checked safety equipment (first aid kit, fire detectors & extinguishers, &c
1 small Elephant Seal out on Helicopter rock (reported to me by an ecotourism vessel)
1 Female Elephant Seal (looked like it was in season to pup), only made it to the boat ramp. When the sea lions above her were startled and stampeded down, she was very vocal and left.
Up to 20 eagles here each morning, preying on gulls for the most part
Over 300 Steller Sea Lions here….. quite a few very small one, only found 2 actually nursing pups (last year was the first time I had ever personally seen pups nursing here, and have been observing from the water for 20 years)
Turnstones and other small birds nave returned now that the Barred Owl has left
Visitors:
contractors
Cedric brought a few faculty staff out for a quick visit
Facility Work:
Continued work by contractors in the main house, some window trim and painting
Started cleaning the gutters on the student house, a job that should only be done when there is someone here to hold the ladder!
More storm logs are now starting to come in, collecting them when able
Now able to start bucking up for firewood
Other note: exchanges the ocean temp/salinity device, and obtaining more reasonable numbers now
DND events:
Ongoing blasting ….. My opinion! … is the Steller sea lions are far more reactive to the blasts, and after heavy blasts, they seem to move to the southern rocks
Noted Vessel Traffic:
Ecotourism vessel, and an educational vessel
Some private vessels, no noted infractions or fishing
Weather Events:
A full mix of typical fall weather. more and more days of N and NE winds
2 full on storms, accentuating the seasonal high tides
** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
Race Rocks is a wealth of biodiversity, and an amazing place to get to spend any amount of time. Despite the huge amount of wildlife that spend time on Race Rocks over the winter, it can feel a little quiet. Not last week!
We were super lucky getting some of the Pearson College students out despite COVID lockdowns on Campus, this is always one of the highlights of our time at Race Rocks! The kids always have the best questions and remind me why I pursued the life I live now. Any opportunity to share the joy and smells of Race Rocks.
Pearson Students getting Elephant Seal 101. Photo by Laura Verhegge
After the final group of students left, we got a surprise visit from DFO via their helicopter coming by for a socially-distanced visit. We had a helicopter buzzing us throughout the week, and it wasn’t until it landed at the end of the week we realized that was most likely the crew checking out the island, seals, and heli-pad. The elephant seals clearly weren’t fans of the helicopter. Interesting-ly the idling helicopter covers the same sound frequencies the Beachmaster uses to drum his dominance. Our Beachmaster tried drumming at the intruder, but he couldn’t overpower the sound and decided that abandoning his harem and a trip into the ocean was preferable to hanging out with a helicopter.
The next day we woke up to a new female Elephant Seal! We suspect this seal was Tyra from last year, going off her scar patterns and BEAUTIFUL eyes. At this point in the season we have expectations for these seals: they come ashore, hang out for 5 days, give birth, nurse for 21 days, mate and leave. Tyra was a reminder that we don’t really know that much about these mysterious animals. She came ashore, mated, and left. She looked great, very plump. I am really quite surprised. Maybe not all pregnancies come to term, and in that light her behaviour actually makes a lot of sense. She needs to come ashore when a Beachmaster is ready to mate, and if she doesn’t have a pup to birth then there really isn’t a reason to stick around and wait until it’s time to moult.
Tyra returning to Race Rocks to visit the Beachmaster. All hail the Beachmaster!
And we had a new pup born! I told you lots happened. Rhi-Rhi has been ashore since January 25th and slipped out a new pup this morning. The new pup is super chirpy, and very mobile; it had a very ‘rolled up’ vibe directly after being born, with curled fingernails and it’s giant flippers wrapped around itself. We expect her to nurse until the 22nd of February, but clearly I need to stop trying to predict what these animals are going to do.
Rhi-Rhi inspecting her newborn pup.
Facility Work:
Race Rocks has a Boston Whaler from it’s Coast Guard era that can be used in case of an emergency. During a very low tide we figured this was the ideal time to re-spool the twisted up cable used to launch the boat. While it’s easy to think that emergencies never happen, it’s great to know that in that hypothetical situation the boat will be able to be launched on any tide without any problems. Big thanks to the previous Eco-Guardians who did some great boat maintenance!
DND events:
Lots of blasting over the last week, some of the Pearson College students were definitely surprised.
Elephant Seals seem happiest when all smushed up against each other.
Feature Event:
We had someone report a wayward Elephant Seals wandering around Sturdees Beach & the Gorge vale Golf Club. This fits very well with the theme of ‘we don’t really know much about Elephant Seals’ and thought it would be worth mentioning. As the Northern Elephant Seal population continues to recover, hopefully we’ll all get to experience more Elephant Seals in British Colombia, and sometimes that might be a returning pup who hasn’t really figured out the timing of things yet. They’re really remarkable animals, who spend a very small proportion of their time (<10%) above the water Over the last 2 years there have been wayward pups reported crawling around in areas where they were not wanted, these little seals are just looking for some place safe to moult and head back into the ocean. This is one of the parts that makes Race Rocks such an important place for these animals: a place on land where the seals can hang out and sleep without being disturbed: their time on land relies on them fasting for weeks on end losing up to 40% of their body weight during these stints. Every time they get woken up or stressed that is another drain on their limited energy available, leading to the first couple of years where mortality can be up to 75%.
A wayward elephant seal pup at Christie Point, photos by Dorothy Chambers
The silver colouration shows this wayward pup has already moulted, so probably from last years birthing season. While we would expect pups to return to Race Rocks to moult, we don’t really know how they return to the same areas, and they may just try out new areas at different times; or just get lost.
We have a new female Elephant Seal on Race Rocks! While she looks suspiciously like one of the returning mothers, without a tag it is hard to tell. She was thoroughly investigated by our local Beachmaster, and sassed Mikey for getting too close. Mikey seems to have learned his lesson to stay out the Beachmasters way, after a few small bites Mikey is now quite mobile and has learned the paths on the island to avoid further conflict.
Lil Blasty in one of the few moments not blasting squawks.
As for the other Elephant Seal Pup: named Nereo by it’s mothers namesake, but I have been referring to it as ‘Lil Blasty’ due to his extreme volume while ‘chirping’. The current theory is that Elephant Seal moms and pups learn each others vocalizations to identify each other, and regardless of the background noise present, they seem to always vocalize at the same volume.
Jocelyn’s vocalizations come in around 50-70db, where Lil Blasty is clocking in at 100-110db with his vocalizations. For reference: WCB recommends not being exposed to over 85db for prolonged times due to hearing damage. It definitely hurts to be outside when he’s shrieking.
The Beachmaster being grumpy that no one wants to mate with him.
Facility Work:
We bucked up the logs that were snagged over the last week, and got them off the boat/seal ramp. Heavy algae growth over the last 2 weeks so we’re started pressure washing the algae to keep things from getting too slipper.
DND events:
Canada’s Navy has started doing tester laps outside of Esquimalt.
Feature Event:
Mikey has learned to avoid the Beachmaster when he’s on the prowl, and decided to explore off the beaten path to avoid any conflict. We suspected he would fall off the ‘mountain’ climbed today, but displayed some remarkable manoeuvrability for a chubby little seal.
Mikey mountain-climbing.
A hallmark of the maturing pup is the wear-pattern on their chins. The chin is a key instrument for Elephant Seal locomotion: where they re-arrange their belly by lifting it up with their chin. The chin can also work to level the seals bulk up onto rocks, steps, and rough terrain.
Mikey starting to show his all-important chin patch.
Weather Events:
January means the start of some epic sunsets.
The last couple of days the temperature has dropped down to 4°C with light N winds around 10-15knots. This is log weather.
Typically the newborn Elephant Seals don’t move their heads around much after birth, but this new pup seems to have something to prove.
Jocelyn decided to give birth this morning, after spending 5 days sussing out the island. This is the same time spent on land as the other mom this breeding season, and the same timeline this seal had last year. These seals having remarkably consistent timing!
The new pup seems incredibly well developed and mobile, and immediately after getting born started squawk-chirping this our resident wean-ling Mikey. While some Elephant Seal mom’s can be very protective of their young, Jocelyn seems very chill about having another pup hanging out around her.
Our current Elephant Seal family, not shown here the grumpy Beachmaster who only wants to mate. Shows the difference between a newborn pup and a 28 day old weanling.
Mikey is all on his own, exploring the island mouth-first and trying to avoid running into the angry Beachmaster.
Ecological Notes:
Beverly wrapped up her time nursing her pup, mated a couple of times, and headed back to the open ocean to recover her lost weight. She spent 27 days on land, nursing her pup for 21 days, the exact same number of days as last year. She has remarkably consistent timing.
Beverly and Micheal Day 1. Starting around 500kg she’ll end up losing around 200kg throughout nursing.
Beverly and Micheal Day 21. Beverly has lost around 40% of her weight throughout nursing.
The next working we woke up to the bellowing of a new pregnant elephant seal, timing and characteristics point to this seal being Jocelyn (another return from last year), but she is not tagged, so we’re guessing that it’s her by comparing photos of identifying scars. This is a day later than she showed up last year, and we’re excited at the prospect of another elephant seal pup! After 5 pups last year the thought of only having one pup born here was pretty disappointing.
The seal we suspect is Jocelyn, she is soooo big I’m surprised she could make it up the ramp.
For those interested, the Beachmaster mated with Beverly 27 times 4 days (that were noticed/documented). It’s an impressive feat for sure, but seems to depend on the exhaustion that sets in towards the end of nursing. On bigger beaches a Bachmaster can have a harmem of 30-100 females, so only having 1 or 2 females to mate with could be related to our males ‘vigour’.
Elephant Seal mating can be pretty unpleasant to watch sometimes, but it’s clearly a method that works for them or the population wouldn’t have recovered from near-extinction.
Facility Work:
After last weeks 50 knot blasting, we spent this week repairing the electric fence and picking up the pieces that blew off the buildings. We’ve had some massive high tides, as well as some logs piling up on the jetty. I’m still unsure what the actualy conditions are that contribute to the log pileup, but we made sure to snag some good looking firewood logs for next winters Eco-Guardians.
Beverly navigating the log-jam on the boat ramp.
DND events:
2 days with blasting since the last update, but it’s been very quiet. We did see Coast Guard heading offshore during the big blows, practice makes perfect!
Flat calm weather and winds under 3 knots have been delightful the last couple of nights. We’re still trying to figure out how you can get a crystal clear sky, and enough fog to set off the fog horn…
Last weeks wind scouring led to this weeks flat calm, perfect time to pick up the pieces and get ready for whenever the next storm rolls through.
Weaning for Elephant Seals consists of abandoning their pups on the beach. Mikey didn’t enjoy that much, and screamed for the whole first night before accepting his independence.
Coming into 2022, the snow is melting and the elephant seal pup is getting faaaaat.
Mikey has ballooned from his starting weight (around 50lbs) to his current blubbery size around 200lbs, quadrupling his size in 10 days. It’s pretty remarkable to see the massive increase in size for this little seal pup, and you can see the calories flowing from his mom into the pup.
Day 1 for Mikey the Elephant Seal pup
Day 10 of Mikey the Elephant Seal Pup
As Beverly gets closer to weaning her pup (typically they nurse for 20 days), the Beachmaster is getting increasingly interested in mating. Last year Bev didn’t start mating until the last 2 days of nursing, which means we are expecting anther week until the mating starts.
The Race Rocks Beachmaster checking to see if Beverly is ready to mate yet. We are expecting another week until she’s interested.
One of the more ‘stressful’ events during this time is the Beachmaster checking on the pup. This involves mouthing the pup, which looks like the pup is going to get bit, but I think it’s more of a full contact smell than an actual bite. Last year this was alarming when this 4000lb seal would roll up on a little 200lb pup, but as we saw Bev mating with this same Beachmaster, odds are that the pup is his, and to date none of the mouthing has resulted in any damage to the pup.
We’ve found it incredibly interesting to watch Beverly raise her pups on Race Rocks, and the way she used to geography of the island to protect her pup. Bev uses the steps and walkway right outside of the eco-guardian house as a kind of fortification around her pup. When the Beachmaster comes up to check on Bev and her pup he can’t climb up the steps , and also can’t really get at the pup when he’s wedged on the ledge. This buys her time to get the pup nice and big before starting to adventure around the island with him, which started on day 9.
It’s that magical time of year where the Northern Elephant Seals come ashore and give birth! Our first mom is the same female who showed up first last year, Pink Tag 2 (who we affectionately call Bev), who came ashore on December 15th. After several days of being sassy and pregnant she gave birth to a new male pup on December 21st.
Bev seems to have a purposeful strategy showing up and birthing before the other females. Last season Bev showed up almost a month before the other moms, and left before the other moms were even getting ready to birth. By this time her pup was pretty huge and mobile. She gave birth last year on December 22 2020, so pretty much on schedule with what she did last year.
One of the first big hurdles for newborn pups is just figuring out just how to nurse, some pups take days to figure this out, but not this first pup: he was nursing within hours of being born is already looking plumper than when he was born.
Every time I think there can’t be more Gull nests, there is!
They’re everywhere!
Visitors:
Yesterday the Waterfront Coordinator delivered some fresh groceries, parts, and tools I had ordered.
Facility Work:
2 of the things my father taught me – “If something in a system has failed, you’d better check the rest” and “Do you want it done now?, or do you want it done right?” ….. what looked like a couple leaks, turned into a full strip down!
Spigot end broken off
Mismatched threads
Rip it all down!
Back together, many parts serviced or replaced
Tank reversed on Dolly, making it more stable on hills
Completed the install and venting of the NaturesHead Composting Toilet. Although temporary, it might as well work properly.
Interesting note: when worked and turned properly, there is no smell! The vent and fan is just to increase airflow for the compost to work better.
Base
Everything old is new again
When part is not available, make your own!
Add wiring
Modify to fit
Installed and running!
Noted Vessel Traffic:
Several EcoTourism boats visited the reserve today, all showing proper viewing and speed protocols.
Weather Events:
Daily winds of 5 -13 knots ran the full circle of the compass today, but the weather stayed stable with high overcast. Very light rain briefly late in the evening. Calm seas throughout.
** All nature photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
Looking like just 5 Elephant Seals left in the main area. (although I like to give it a couple days to confirm)
This group is now 3 Adult Females, 1 Juvenile Male, and 1 male “pup”. Both males are really gaining strength and I give them an extra wide margin when moving around.
9 Oyster Catcher nests mapped. Lots of Pigeon Guillemots darting in and out of the rock crevices, assuming they are nesting now as well. So many Glaucous Wing Gull nests it’s hard to keep count. Many of them now have 3 eggs, so they are starting to incubate now.
Hard to not take all the Black Oyster Catcher pictures I can!
Variations in Gull egg colouring
Large group of yearling Glaucous Wing Gulls on one of the rocks, looking very much like a different species until their mature plumage comes in.
Facility Work:
As mentioned, everything takes longer when the paths and doorways are blocked!
Take the long way round ….
Nope! Maybe later?
Noted Vessel Traffic:
1 large Government vessel through the main channel, with a small vessel in tow.
Noted Infractions:
The above mentioned vessel went through very close to the pier, at very high speed! Documented and reported to superiors at Pearson College, and they are following up with those involved.
Weather Events:
Westerly 10 knot winds most of the day, easing to 3 knots in the evening. Mostly cloudy skies and calm seas.
** All photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
