Tag Archives: fog

Morning Fog

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Ecological Notes:

  • 1 female Northern Elephant Seal.
  • 1 male Northern Elephant Seal. 
  • The female Elephant Seal spent the early morning in the shallows. By late afternoon, she made her way back onto the island.
  • The male Elephant Seal has been spending most of his time nestled against the student house.

Facility Work:

  • Power washing continues. I sprayed down the west side of the main house (as high as I could safely reach).

DND events:

  • none

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 5 Ecotourism vessels and 2 pleasure vessels.

Weather Events:

  • Fog in the early morning; cleared by early afternoon. 
  • Westerly wind, averaging 20 knots 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?

 

Visitor Sign In Station

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Ecological Notes:

  • 7  Elephant Seals still using the grass area and ramps. 4 Adult females, 1 Juvenile male ….. 1 male, and 1 female “pup”

Guess I’m not checking the Water Tank today!

Visitors:

  • Jeff brought out 7 Pearson College students for a quick tour and discussions on pinnipeds, and cultural significance of the main island.

Facility Work:

  • more painting, and sorting random wood piles

DND events:

  • 5 major blasts, noted animal disturbance, All Steller sea lions moved off the island

 Feature:

  •  expanding on a tool made from found items by a previous ecoguardian, we obtained proper pyrex tubes, to use as a pipette to accurately measure the electrolyte levels in the storage batteries

Weather Events:

  • Early morning fog, giving way to mainly sunny day, returning to fog later in the evening. Low lying fog belt on the south side of the strait all day. Wind westerly 10 – 15 knots, rising to 25 knots 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?

Smoke And Fog Through The Week

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Weather:

  • Sky overcast, heavy fog and some smoke
  • Visibility 1 NM down to 100m
  • Wind 5-15 knots SW
  • Sea state: calm

Visitors/Boats:

  • A contractor came out to do a little work yesterday, and some supplies were brought over as well.
  • We have not had much other activity. Tour vessels are becoming less frequent, and the same for pleasure craft.

Observations: 

  • The fog and smoke cover has been extreme over the past four days or so – it is hard to discern the fog to smoke ratio. The fog horn has been sounding for the better part of those days. Probably an average of 16-18 hours per day and typically going through the night.
  • The sea lions are gradually taking over the shores of Race Rocks! Their numbers increase by the day – the areas around the ‘fuel shed’ and the crane are beginning to see a couple of curious creatures poking around. We’re planning on redesigning the fencing on the jetty for this season and for the rest of the island it looks to be high time for a parameter fence. We do need to keep the buildings protected and significant areas undisturbed, but it has been nice to see the sea lions lounge on the jetty.
  • There seems to be a bit of an increase in some birds. There have been shorebirds and others, perching all around the rock and often resting at night. If we need to move around outside at night we keep an eye out as they sleep in the grass and in the plants around the paths.
  • A census will come hopefully tomorrow – the visibility makes it into a game of opportunity.

Here are some pictures from around the rock over the past couple of days:

August 27

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Wind: W 5-25 knots
Sea State: calm in morning, rippled in afternoon
Visibility: 0-15 NM
Sky: fog until evening, then clear
Temperature: 11-15 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 411.99 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

August 26 – Ring-Necked California Sea Lions

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Wind: W 5-28 knots
Sea State: calm in morning, rippled in afternoon
Visibility: 0-10 NM
Sky: clear, fog in morning and evening
Temperature: 10-15 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 412.47 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Two california sea lions were spotted today with ring-neck wounds. One appears to have fishing line wrapped around and cutting into its skin. The Vancouver Aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Centre has been notified. Rescue Centre staff mentioned they were up in Powell River today successfully disentangling a young steller sea lion.

Here are a few photos from today:

August 19 – Fog

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Wind: W 4-23 knots
Sea State: rippled
Visibility: 0-15 NM
Sky: fog in morning, clear in late morning, partly cloudy in afternoon, then light rain in evening
Temperature: 12-17 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 412.58 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The fog began to roll in after sunset yesterday. In the early hours of the morning just before 3:00, the fog got thick enough for the sensor part way up the tower to trigger the fog signal. Three high pitch blasts sounded every minute until 11:20, then the fog gave way to a clear sky.

The steller sea lion with the flasher from yesterday still has it hooked to its mouth and is still on Middle Rock, hanging out with a bunch of other sea lions. I spotted it through the partial fog this morning, but wasn’t able to get a good photo. This afternoon, it was facing away from the main island.

Greg came out in the late afternoon to deliver diesel. We are filling the various storage tanks around the island for the furnaces and generator, in anticipation for the cooler and darker months ahead. There will be more fuel delivered over the coming days, taking advantage of the calm seas.

Other maintenance tasks included trimming the plants growing over parts of the paths, cleaning the solar panels and using the chainsaw to buck up more firewood. I finally cut up a 15 metre log that I saw wash up in a winter storm. It was propped up on rocks in the East Bay.

See the photos below for sights from today:

Foggy Days and Sea Lions

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Weather:

  • Sky overcast, heavy to medium fog
  • Visibility 1 NM (less than 1 during heavy fog)
  • Wind 5-15 knots W
  • Sea state: rippled to small waves less than 0.2m

Marine Traffic/Visitors:

  • A small handful of eco-tourism boats came thought the fog today.
  • Over the weekend, Sunday especially, there were many small pleasure crafts and a few eco-tourism vessels

Ecological Observations: 

  • A pod of four orcas was in the reserve on August 6th! They stayed in the area for about 10-15 minutes before heading towards Pedder Bay!
  • The sea lions are returning. Over the last few days there has been at least a dozen hauled out on the north side of the island near the crane, with more on the outcropping rocks.
  • The seagull chicks seem to be growing faster every day – we’ve spotted a few that are beginning to fly short distances.
  • When we do our water sample from the jetty we see pigeon guillemots perching up on the nearby rock, always in pairs, and sometimes with fish. They are very tricky about waiting until nothing is watching to take food back to the nest!
  • The fog and the nesting birds keep us inside most days without a good view of animals. More pictures and a census to come as soon as we can see!

Census:

  • 40 California sea lions
  • 51 Stellar sea lions
  • 111 Harbour seals
  • 1 Elephant seal (male moulting)
  • 552 Glaucous-winged gulls (nesting, some chicks that are big enough to see included)
  • 388 California gulls
  • 12 Oystercatchers
  • 112 Black turnstones
  • 2 Ruddy turnstones
  • 1 Surfbird
  • Pigeon guillemots were not visible at the time of this census (very windy), but the numbers have been consistent from last week as they continue to care for their young.

The Last Two Days of January

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Wind: yesterday 5-20 knots from W to N, today 0-40 knots from N to W
Sea State: yesterday rippled, today calm in the morning and up to 1 m chop in the afternoon
Visibility: yesterday 0-15 NM, today 1-10 NM
Sky: yesterday fog then sun, today overcast and rain
Temperature: yesterday 7-9 °C, today 8-15 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 413.95 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

It’s been a mix of weather over the past two days. Yesterday began with the fog signal beeping. Later in the morning, it got sunny. It was overcast this morning and afternoon. This evening, it got quite warm up to 15 °C and wet as a storm came in from the west.

There were six ecotour boats in the reserve over the past two days.

Three visitors were on the island today to work on the generator. For at least the next few days, the island is still on backup power. The web cameras and several other non essential systems on the island will remain off to conserve energy.

See the photos below for some views from the past two days:

More Snow and Elephant Seals

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Wind: yesterday 10-29 knots N, today 16-63 knots N switching to E in the afternoon
Sea State: yesterday rippled, today up to 3 m waves from E
Visibility: yesterday and today 1-10 NM
Sky: both days fog, blowing snow, cloudy and patches of sun
Temperature: yesterday -1 to -4 °C, today -4 to 3 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 412.38 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The snow has continued to fall, creating large snowdrifts against buildings, paths and rocks. I have enjoyed watching the elephant seals move through the snow and appear to play in it. The snowdrifts have changed my routes around the island, finding the path of least resistance that doesn’t disturb the ground or engulf me into a metre of snow or a hidden puddle. It’s not all fun and games here, there have also been some fights amongst the elephant seals. The beta males have been chasing each other around the island and sinking their teeth into each other. There are once again four adult males on the island. The alpha male continues to be with the pups and females. A new pregnant female elephant seal arrived yesterday morning as I was waiting for Greg to arrive in the boat with a food delivery. She made her way up the boat ramp to the centre of the island with the others. That brings the current elephant seal count to ten. Perhaps two more pups will arrive soon.

Since the snow and strong winds came, the sea lions are still mostly in the water, floating in large groups. Today, a few california sea lions huddled on the jetty. A smaller number of birds have been seen in the ecological reserve. Stay tuned for the post in two days with the results of the weekly census.

See the photos below for some recent snowy, windy and wavy views.

Video clips of a few elephant seals interacting with the snow:

Big Seals, Many Seagulls

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Weather:

  • Visibility: 50m, very heavy fog
  • Wind: 20-25kn
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Choppy

Boats/Visitors:

We have had no visitors over the last few days.

Ecological:

A large male elephant seal has been resting on land for the last day and a half. This morning we noticed another, larger in size, has joined him.

The two moulting females are still here. We’ve been noticing a few harbour seals every day. Yesterday afternoon, we were able to get a picture of a sea lion with an interesting color.

The seagull activity has increased. They remain protective of their nests, and as they continue to lay eggs and establish nests it’s becoming harder to freely move around the island.